INTERVIEW — SARAH WESTWOOD – White House reporter for the Washington Examiner
BUSY FRIDAY NIGHT/WEEKEND AT THE WHITE HOUSE:
– Trump under fire over epic Friday news dump. Both GOP senators from Arizona criticized his Joe Arpaio pardon, and Chuck Schumer accused Trump of using Hurricane Harvey as a shield. (Politico) — It was a Friday night news dump like rarely seen before: President Donald Trump’s administration announced a series of polarizing decisions that had been under discussions for weeks, just as a hurricane bore down on the Texas coast.
– President Trump has granted a Presidential pardon to ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt after he disobeyed a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling individuals suspected of illegally entering the U.S.
– Ordered military to revert to pre-June 2016 transgender policy. Trump signs directive banning transgender military recruits. (CNN) President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving. The presidential memorandum also bans the Department of Defense from using its resources to provide medical treatment regimens for transgender individuals currently serving in the military. Trump also directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,” the White House official said. The White House official who briefed reporters on the memo on Friday evening declined to say whether current transgender troops would be allowed to remain in the military under those policy guidelines.
– Gorka gone. Sebastian Gorka rejects White House statement saying he didn’t resign: “Someone wished to spin this” Gorka to return to Breitbart News. Sebastian Gorka says he is joining former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon by returning to Breitbart News, Politico reported Saturday. The news comes just one day after Gorka left President Trump’s administration. Gorka will be returning to the publication where he was once national security editor, reuniting him with Bannon, who also left the White House earlier this month. “I will be working with you, with Steve, with the Breitbart crew,” Gorka said on an interview on SiriusXM with Breitbart editor Matthew Boyle. Gorka announced that he was resigning from his position as special assistant to the president Friday night, although White House officials disputed the report and said he did not resign.
— Sarah Westwood @sarahcwestwood Aug 25: “How disapponting,” Sebastian Gorka tells me of latest WH statement saying that he was fired. “I resigned.”
– Scoop: Trump frustration with Tillerson rising fast (By Jonathan Swan / Axios) — There’s a ticking problem with Rex Tillerson, and it’s growing louder by the day, according to officials inside and close to the White House. President Trump has been growing increasingly frustrated with his Secretary of State. One time recently, after Trump had returned from a meeting on Afghanistan, a source recalled Trump saying, “Rex just doesn’t get it, he’s totally establishment in his thinking.” Tillerson’s jaw-dropping comments on TV today will likely only worsen their relationship.
