#TheUSBlogZone

Donald and Melania Trump walk to the White House on Saturday night after returning from a nine-day trip abroad.by usblogzone

Amidst scandal over Jared Kushner’s alleged links to the Russian ambassador, homeland security secretary plays defense while president complains on Twitter 

The Trump White House is reportedly considering a major personnel shakeup, in response to the latest in a string of Russia-related scandals that have kept the administration on the defensive for weeks.

Donald Trump returned to the US from a relatively successful nine-day international tour on Saturday – a day after the Washington Post reported that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior aide, sought to set up secret “back channel” communications between Russia and the Trump presidential transition team in December 2016.

A substantial majority of the judges who sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond delivered a rather remarkable judgment last week: The president of the United States is not to be believed.

Will the Supreme Court conclude the same thing? And by “Supreme Court,” we mean “Justice Anthony M. Kennedy,” whose name was invoked 23 times in the 205 pages of majority opinions, concurrences and dissents in the appeals court’s 10-to-3 rejection of President Trump’s revised travel ban.

Russian Ambassador Reveals Kushner Sought Communications Backchannel with Kremlin

The FBI investigation into top Trump advisor Jared Kushner just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who met with several senior members of the Trump White House and cabinet — like Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — apparently told the Putin regime that President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, wanted to set up a secret communications backchannel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team.

A Trump Golf Club In New York Seeks More Foreign Workers

Trump National Golf Club told the Department of Labor there weren’t enough American servers to hire. The jobs, located just 35 miles from Manhattan, pay $14.08 an hour.

As President Donald Trump continues to promote his agenda of restoring American jobs, the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, is seeking permission to bring foreign workers to serve as waiters and waitresses, according to a petition posted by the Department of Labor on Wednesday.

The workers are being sought under the federal H-2 visa program, which permits American employers to hire foreign laborers under temporary work visas as long as no qualified US workers want the jobs. The tony, private club, currently controlled by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, is located just 35 miles from New York City and its vast labor market. The petition to the Labor department effectively attests that there are no qualified American workers who want the jobs. The jobs pay $14.08 an hour. That’s a few dollars an hour higher than the average wage for waiters in the surrounding area. The posting also mentions the possibility of overtime, at $21.12, though it is not guaranteed.

No one from the golf course or the White House immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

Businesses owned by President Trump or bearing his name have been big users of the controversial H-2 program in the past, seeking to hire at least 294 foreign guest workers since he launched his presidential campaign. Many work as servers and house cleaners at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate that has recently been termed the winter White House. Despite his focus on restoring American jobs, Trump has also maintained that it is “almost impossible” to find qualified Americans who want temporary jobs in the service industry such as those available at many of his clubs and resorts that rely on the visa program.

The waitstaff jobs are seasonal, with work beginning May 22 and ending Oct. 31. Three months prior experience is required. Housing is optionally provided, at a cost of up to $15.55 a week.

Since 2003, more than 100,000 foreigners have been brought in under the H-2 program each year.

Last fall, a special envoy from the United Nations said the federal guest worker program puts workers at risk of exploitation and even trafficking. A BuzzFeed News investigation in 2015 found that H-2 workers were often exploited, and sometimes raped or beaten. BuzzFeed News also found that many Americans were denied jobs in favor of guest workers. Trump companies have not been accused of abusing H-2 workers.

The Westchester golf club also sought temporary workers last year. That application stated that club members “require excellence in the Club’s services and facilities. However, the demographic makeup of the Westchester, NY area shows that the temporary workforce required to staff the many private country clubs, restaurants and hotels is not sufficient.”

Afternoon summary

May and Tusk agree to 'lower tensions'

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has questioned whether George Osborne will be able to edit London’s Evening Standard newspaper while remaining an MP for his north-west constituency.
Ryanair has warned it will have to halt flights from the UK for “weeks or months” if Theresa May does not seal an early bilateral Brexit deal on international aviation.

Trump: Syria gas attack had ‘a big impact’ on me

Does Pres. Trump feel like he has to have an enemy?

Does President Trump feel like he has to have an enemy?

Brian Williams talks to Michael Steele and Rick Stengel about President Trump's need to have an antagonist and how that's affecting his world view.

Bloom: Trump defending Bill O'Reilly 'disgusting'

Attorney Lisa Bloom and The New York Times' Michael Schmidt join Kate Snow to discuss President Trump's defense of Bill O'Reilly, as the Fox News Channel host faces harassment allegations.

Bloom: Trump defending Bill O'Reilly 'disgusting'

House Democrats to Trump: We won’t consider tax reform until you release your tax returns

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

For the sixth week in a row, Democrats in Congress have attempted to force President Donald Trump to release his tax returns — this time by threatening to delay any tax reform legislation until he does so.

Trump has said tax reform is the next big agenda item the White House plans to tackle. This comes after the administration oversaw a disastrous attempt to negotiate the repeal of the Affordable Care Act with House Republicans. But New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries wants to make sure the president can’t restructure the nation’s tax code before first releasing his own tax returns.

On Monday, Jeffries introduced a resolution that, according to the Hill, “would direct the House to delay consideration of tax-reform legislation until after lawmakers review Trump’s tax returns and determine how the president could benefit from tax-code changes.”

Last month, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow disclosed two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax return. The documents revealed that Trump and his wife, Melania, paid $38 million in taxes on $153 million in income — most as an alternative minimum tax (AMT).

Yet in the public sphere, Trump has called for eliminating the AMT, which requires high-income taxpayers to pay a minimum amount in taxes if they claim certain itemized deductions.

Jeffries’ resolution also calls for the House Ways and Means Committee to obtain and review Trump’s returns in a closed session.

The chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee and Joint Committee on Taxation have the power to request individual tax information from the Treasury Department.

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