Stephen Dinan

Donald Trump notches worst monthly deficit in U.S. history

February was the worst month in the history of the U.S. government, deficit-wise, setting an all-time record at $234 billion in the red, according to new figures released Friday.

March 22, 2019

Jerrold Nadler: Health official misled Congress over tracking illegal immigrant girls’ pregnancies

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Friday that a top health official appears to have misled his panel over his role in dealing with illegal immigrant girls, suggesting that the official was in fact tracking pregnancies and menstrual cycles.

March 22, 2019

Democrats’ demand for access to Russian translator denied

The White House on Thursday rejected congressional Democrats' demand for access to the translator present for President Trump's meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving top committee chairmen fuming.

March 21, 2019

Robert Neller says Trump’s border focus hurting military’s combat readiness

The Marine Corps's commandant says President Trump's decision to deploy active-duty troops to the border and plans to siphon funds from military construction toward his border wall are sapping the corps' "combat readiness and solvency."

March 21, 2019

ICE releasing 1,000 illegal immigrant family members a day

Deportation officers are cutting loose more than 1,000 illegal immigrant family members a day, setting them free into border states as the surge of migrations overwhelms the government's ability to handle them, officials revealed Thursday.

March 21, 2019

Kushner, Ivanka Trump using secret texts, emails to do government business: House investigation

Trump son-in-law and top White House adviser Jared Kushner uses WhatsApp to conduct official government business, and his wife Ivanka Trump still does official work on her personal email account, running afoul of the law, House Democrats said Thursday.

March 21, 2019

Donald Trump-John McCain feud embarrassing, Republicans say

President Trump complained Wednesday that he was never thanked for allowing Sen. John McCain's funeral celebration, escalating a feud with the McCain family and drawing the ire of senators on Capitol Hill who told the president he was embarrassing himself.

March 20, 2019

James Clyburn, other Democrats ramp up anti-Trump rhetoric

Democratic leaders stepped up their criticism of President Trump this week, with the top-ranking black House lawmaker calling him and his family "the greatest threats to democracy of my lifetime" — but still said impeachment isn't their priority.

March 20, 2019

Donald Trump says nobody thanked him for John McCain’s funeral

President Trump said Wednesday that he never got a "thank you" for allowing the late Sen. John McCain to have the lavish funeral he wanted, as the president continued his feud with the McCain family.

March 20, 2019

John Kasich fundraises off Trump-McCain feud

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday latched onto the ongoing feud between President Trump and the McCain family, firing off a fundraising email to supporters to blast Mr. Trump.

March 20, 2019

Feds’ cellphone search blocked Palestinian with possible terrorist ties from entering U.S.

A Palestinian man who was part of a 2015 riot, clashing with Israeli soldiers, was charged Wednesday with fraudulently procuring a visa and trying to enter the U.S. on false pretenses.

March 20, 2019

Illegal immigrant deportations undercut by courts, recalcitrant countries

The inspector general's audit, released last week, showed that while arresting illegal immigrants may be a challenge these days, actually getting them to leave the U.S. can be even tougher, as officers confront balky countries overseas, legal appeals at home and the migrants' own shenanigans.

March 19, 2019

The Bipartisan Index shows that Capitol Hill lawmakers more cooperative than rhetoric suggests

There were three government shutdowns, a completely partisan tax cut and a failed partisan effort to repeal Obamacare, and historic levels of obstruction of judicial nominees.

March 19, 2019

Border Patrol catches 400 illegal immigrants in five minutes

The Border Patrol said that it caught more than 400 illegal immigrants trying to break into the U.S. in El Paso, Texas, during one five-minute span Tuesday morning.

March 19, 2019

Mexican migrant dies after being caught at border; had renal, liver failure

A 40-year-old illegal immigrant Mexican man caught by the U.S. border on Sunday died at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, the Border Patrol announced Tuesday.

March 19, 2019

Supreme Court upholds ICE detention without bail for serious criminals

Immigrants living in the U.S. with serious criminal records can be held without bail while awaiting deportation even if ICE didn't immediately pick them up when they were released from prison or jail, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

March 19, 2019

Bernie Sanders most partisan senator: Study

Sen. Bernard Sanders had the worst bipartisan record of any senator over the last two years, according to a new study released Tuesday that said Republicans are more eager to work across the aisle, even as Democrats become more reluctant.

March 19, 2019

Trump federal workforce larger than Obama era despite vows to cut

President Trump took office with a vision of slashing the federal workforce. Instead, he's about to send it to levels never seen before.

March 18, 2019

Pentagon lays out $6.8B of projects to cut for Trump border wall

The Pentagon has a list of $6.8 billion worth of construction projects it could choose to take money from in order to build President Trump's border wall, according to a list belatedly provided to Congress on Monday.

March 18, 2019

Democrats demand FBI probe into Trump’s ties to Chinese massage parlor operator

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded Monday that the FBI open a counterintelligence probe into President Trump's relationship with Li "Cindy" Yang, saying the owner of a chain of Florida massage parlors appears to have had undue access to the president.

March 18, 2019