Trump’s Tuesday highlights from the White House. The rundown on what the Trump Administration was up to today!
SUPREME COURT
Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch for a lifetime job on the U.S. Supreme Court, picking the 49-year-old federal appeals court judge to restore the court’s conservative majority and help shape rulings on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, the death penalty and religious rights.
TRAVEL BAN AND IMMIGRATION
Nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries temporarily blocked from entering the United States by Trump’s executive order may be blocked indefinitely, and others might be added to the list, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says.
The United States will apply “extreme vetting” to up to 1,250 asylum seekers it has agreed to resettle as part of an agreement with Australia, a Trump spokesman says.
Legal challenges to Trump’s first moves on immigration spread as three states sue over his order on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries and San Francisco sues over his order on sanctuary cities.
Americans are sharply divided over the executive order on immigration, with slightly more approving it than disapproving, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
Ronald Vitiello has been appointed chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, replacing Mark Morgan, who had been asked to step down.
IRAN
The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations warns Iran its testing two days ago of a long-range ballistic missile is unacceptable and an act the United States believes violates its nuclear accord with world powers.
PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Trump calls on the pharmaceutical industry to boost U.S. production and lower prices, and vows to speed approval for new medicines.
CABINET
U.S. Senate Democrats postpone votes on several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees – including attorney general and Treasury secretary – citing their responsibility to do a “thorough vetting,” while Republicans accuse them of unreasonable delays in considering the picks.
STATE DEPARTMENT
About 900 State Department officials sign an internal dissent memo criticizing Trump’s order on refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, a source says.
TRADE
Trump and a top economics adviser unleash a barrage of criticism against Germany, Japan and China, saying the three key U.S. trading partners were engaged in devaluing their currencies to the detriment of American companies and consumers.
U.S. food producers and shippers are trying to rush exports to Mexico and line up alternative markets as concerns rise that their business will be hurt by trade and immigration clashes between Trump and the Mexican government.
(Compiled by Bill Trott and Jonathan Oatis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and James Dalgleish)