Donald Trump’s constant bleating about banning Muslims during his campaign has haunted his presidency, making plain the discriminatory intent of his travel ban. Those words, which have been cited in court filings, remained on Trump’s campaign website even after he was sworn into office. Even after he signed the executive order effectively banning Muslims from traveling to […]

Donald Trump issued a signing statement last week that appeared to question the constitutionality of federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The signing statement, occasioned by the passage of HR 244, contained the following closing paragraph: My Administration shall treat provisions that allocate benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender (e.g., […]

Despite Donald Trump’s oft-repeated campaign promise that he would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, possibly on “day one” of his presidency, the law is still on the books, and the efforts to dismantle it have gone nowhere. To give Trump something substantive to point to as an accomplishment — so to speak — […]

At the White House daily briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer introduced a pair of opening acts — Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney — who were on hand to spin Donald Trump’s cave-in on the budget deal as a victory for Republicans. Guests at White House briefings […]

White House spokespeople frequently refer reporters to other sources for information, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes as a convenient way to avoid answering a question. But typically, they refer reporters to some other government agency, or to an elected official, or to some other accountable body. In fact, a review of White House briefings […]

The White House is fond of congratulating Donald Trump for supposedly historic actions and accomplishments that are in fact nothing of the sort. Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway wrote an op-ed praising her boss for his “historic” first 100 days in office because he signed 28 pieces of legislation. The problem with that claim is that […]