Who's Afraid of Donald Trump? Good Question - TIME

Who's Afraid of Donald Trump? Good Question.

Alex Altman,Zeke J Miller

Jul 29, 2017

Donald Trump doesn’t scare Washington anymore.

That was the lesson from a week of stinging defeats for the President, from the halls of Congress to the homepage of Breitbart. Not long ago, Trump could tank a company’s stock price with a Twitter blast and cow Republican allies into silence when he trampled political norms.

But these days, Trump doesn’t have much juice in the capital.

The President was disengaged throughout much of the Senate’s dramatic fight over healthcare reform, even though his administration made the repeal of the Affordable Care Act its first big legislative priority. When Trump finally waded into the fray late in the game—after Republican leaders had failed to rally the votes for the plan they crafted and Trump blessed—his tweeted threats failed to sway GOP Senate holdouts.

Lisa Murkowski was the primary target of Trump’s ire. On Wednesday, the President took aim at the Republican senator from Alaska, tweeting that Murkowski, a moderate in her fourth term, “really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!” Then Trump tapped his Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, to ramp up the pressure. Murkowski received a phone call warning that a vote against the bill could jeopardize her state’s chances of getting approval from the administration on energy projects.

Senators Debate Health Care Bill On Capitol Hill

OBAMACARE

Healthcare Repeal Failed. Here's What's Next for the Senate

How did Murkowski respond? By standing her ground. First, she went public with the threat, which embarrassed the administration and led Democrats to threaten an investigation. Then she went to the Senate floor early Friday morning and cast one of the three votes required to tank the Republican repeal plan.

Sen. John McCain, whom Trump targeted for derision during the 2016 campaign, joined Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins in voting against the bill. His decisive vote followed impassioned pleas from Vice President Mike Pence and a call from Trump himself, Republican officials say.

When the President went to war on his own attorney general this week, conservative media outlets normally friendly to Trump leapt to Jeff Sessions’ defense instead. Breitbart News, one of Trump’s top cheerleaders, called Sessions “a man who embodies the movement that elected Donald Trump President.” Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh criticized Trump’s handling of the spat. Outside groups rallied Tea Party leaders and lawmakers to Sessions’ defense, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley publicly warned his committee would not consider another nominee for the post this year. The battles lines had been drawn, and conservatives stood on Sessions’ side.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans were making life difficult for Trump on another sensitive front. Both houses of Congress voted nearly unanimously to impose new sanctions on Russia, sending a bill to Trump’s desk that the White House has criticized. The move put the President in a bind: veto the bill—which Congress can override anyway—and risk looking as though he was taking a soft line on Moscow in the midst of deepening investigations into whether members of his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Or sign it and risk retaliation from President Vladimir Putin.

White House officials expect Trump to sign the legislation, but to issue a signing statement outlining his reservations on the bill. What’s clear from the vote tally is that House and Senate Republicans didn’t much care about putting the President in a predicament. After all, they’d watched Trump twist arms to help get the healthcare repeal bill over the line in the House, only to turn around and call the legislation “mean.”

Even the military pushed pause on their commander in chief’s orders this week. In a series of tweets this week, Trump announced that transgender men and women would no longer be able to serve in the U.S. armed forces. The decree caught the Pentagon by surprise, with even the Joint Chiefs left unaware beforehand of Trump’s order. The Pentagon swiftly put the burden of clarifying the policy on the White House, and informed commanders that Trump’s tweets had no practical effect until that happened.

Trump remains a formidable foe. He has the bully pulpit of the presidency at his disposal and a loyal base that has largely stuck with him through the fumbles and controversies that marred his opening months in office.

But the series of sharp rebukes this week highlighted how quickly Trump’s political capital has eroded. Presidents are typically near the apex of their influence in the months after an election, riding high off their inauguration and enjoying a honeymoon in the polls. But Trump is shattering convention there as well. His approval rating hasn’t been north of 40% in more than a month, setting new records for unpopularity so soon into an administration. Maybe it’s no wonder few people in town seem afraid of him.

Quartet says Qatar talks possible but no concessions - CNN News

Quartet says Qatar talks possible but no concessions

By Sarah El Sirgany and Jay Croft, CNN

Updated 0325 GMT (1125 HKT) July 31, 2017

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN)The four Arab countries leading an embargo against Qatar are ready to talk but not to back down from their demands, the quartet's foreign ministers said in a joint press conference Sunday in Manama, Bahrain.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir

"Dialogue doesn't mean there are concessions," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have been enforcing an economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar since June 5, saying the Gulf country supports terrorism.

The quartet issued 13 demands that included shutting down Qatar's al Jazeera TV network and severing ties with Iran.

Qatar denies the charges and calls the demands a breach of its sovereignty.

Emergency air corridors

As part of their restrictions, the quartet countries severed transport links to Qatar, closing their airspace to Qatari-owned or registered flights. The airspace closures cost Qatar Airlines about 50 flights a day, according to CNNMoney.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said Sunday that Qatar Airways can now use nine designated air corridors for emergencies under an agreement with the countries' aviation authorities.

One of the nine aviation corridors will be over the Mediterranean Sea and will be managed by Egypt's National Air Navigation Services Company, according to the SPA.

The Saudi aviation authority said in a statement that "this procedure affirms our commitment to safety of the International air navigation. And as it is customary in such circumstances to agree on alternative air corridors for emergencies overseas under our supervision to ease navigation and support air safety."

However, Qatar's Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation Authority denied that the four countries had dedicated emergency air routes for Qatari aircraft.

"The Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Civil Aviation Authority confirm that those countries have issued no navigation announcements as followed at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and call upon the blockade countries to not leak such incorrect news before the ICAO Coincil's extraordinary session, scheduled for tomorrow Monday in Montreal, Canada," the ministry said in a statement.

'Real intention'

The quartet Sunday said negotiations are possible if Qatar shows "real intention" to stop supporting terrorism and interfering in neighboring countries.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, said none of the demands were dropped.

"It has to be black or white," Al-Jubeir said, saying Qatar either funds terrorism or it doesn't.

The four countries also rejected charges about Saudi Arabia's handling of Qatari travel for Hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is scheduled to start August 30 this year.

Qatar alleges travel restrictions

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee said Saturday that Saudi Arabia is restricting Qatari access into the country for the rituals of Hajj and Umrah.

Foreign Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani

Foreign Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani

Qataris may enter Saudi Arabia through only two airports; and those living outside of Qatar must first return to Doha before entering Saudi territory, the committee said.

The Qatari committee also said similar "violations" occurred during Umrah in the month of Ramadan.

In defending Saudi Arabia, the quartet called the criticism "unacceptable." The joint statement said Qatar was obstructing its own citizens from attending the pilgrimage.

"We reject what Qatar is doing in politicizing (the pilgrimage)," Al-Jubeir said. "The Qatari pilgrims are welcome."

The Observer view on Donald Trump’s unfitness for office - Guardian

The Observer view on Donald Trump’s unfitness for office

Observer editorial

The incompetence and infighting at the White House dismay America’s allies and encourage its enemies

‘Like some kind of Shakespearean villain-clown, Trump plays not to the gallery but to the pit.’

Sunday 30 July 2017 09.10 AEST

The sense of things falling apart in Washington is palpable – and a matter of growing, serious international concern. Donald Trump’s latest asinine act of gesture politics, the forced resignation of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has shone a spotlight on the extraordinary chaos inside the White House. Even normally sober, experienced Washington observers now refer to the West Wing as a viper’s nest of seething rivalry, bitter feuds, gross incompetence and an unparalleled leadership vacuum.

Like some kind of Shakespearean villain-clown, Trump plays not to the gallery but to the pit. He is a Falstaff without the humour or the self-awareness, a cowardly, bullying Richard III without a clue. Late-night US satirists find in this an unending source of high comedy. If they did not laugh, they would cry. The world is witnessing the dramatic unfolding of a tragedy whose main victims are a seemingly helpless American audience, America’s system of balanced governance and its global reputation as a leading democratic light.

As his partisan, demeaning and self-admiring speech to the Boy Scouts of America illustrated, Trump endlessly reruns last year’s presidential election campaign, rails against the “fake news” media and appeals to the lowest common denominator in public debate. Not a word about duty, service, shared purpose or high ideals was to be found in his gutter-level discourse before a youthful gathering of 30,000 in West Virginia. Instead, he served up a sad cocktail of paranoia and narcissism. It was all about him and what he has supposedly achieved against the odds.

Which, for the record, is almost precisely nothing. After more than six months in office, and despite full Republican control of Congress, Trump cannot point to a single substantial legislative achievement. The bid to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, which finally went down in flames in the Senate last week, was the most spectacular and telling of Trump’s failures. His executive orders, such as the racist ban on Muslim travellers and last week’s bigoted attack on transgender people in the military, have mostly run foul of the courts or been pre-emptively ignored by those charged with implementing them.

Trump has instead squandered the political goodwill that traditionally accompanies a presidential honeymoon, shocked and outraged many middle-of-the-road voters who initially gave him the benefit of the doubt, thoroughly alienated Republican party traditionalists, who had tried in vain to swallow their doubts, and undermined the authority of the office of the president. Trump, a supposedly ace chief executive, has now lost a chief of staff, a deputy chief of staff, a national security adviser, a communications director and a press secretary in short order. To lose one or even two of his most senior people might be excused as unfortunate. To lose all five suggests the fault is his.

Perhaps John Kelly, the retired general hired to replace Priebus, can restore some semblance of order to the White House. It looks like a tall order. Kelly has no political experience beyond his brief tenure at the department of homeland security. Perhaps he will find an ally in HR McMaster, another army veteran, who is Trump’s national security adviser. But there is no good reason to believe the internal feuding, and Trump’s inability or disinclination to halt it, will end.

Anthony Scaramucci, the recently appointed, foul-mouthed communications director, has unfinished business with Steve Bannon, Trump’s top strategist. Trump seems determined to undermine his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Then there is the self-interested leverage exerted by Trump family lightweights Ivanka Trump, Donald Jr and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. On top of all that, Kelly must work out how to handle the ever-expanding investigations of special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia. A good start would be to halt scurrilous White House efforts to dig up dirt on Mueller and his team.

Yet even if Kelly succeeds in cracking the whip, curbing the in-fighting and containing the Russia scandal, he still has to deal with Trump himself. He has proved far more interested in settling scores, berating adversaries and showing off than in advancing a coherent domestic policy agenda. The next prospective car crash, following the Obamacare pile-up, is a September deadline for a federal budget and linked tax reforms and increased military spending promised by Trump. A budget deal proved impossible last spring and may do so again. If there is no agreement, a government shut-down looms, an outcome in line with current Washington trends. Lazy, feckless Trump has no interest in the onerous business of lobbying Congress or working the phones. He wants quick, easy wins or else he walks away.

This latter is one of several disturbing truths about Trump absorbed, to varying degrees, by Washington’s friends and allies in the past six months. Naive, misguided Theresa May and Liam Fox, the Brexit trade secretary, still seem to think Trump’s word can be trusted and that he will deliver a favourable trade deal. It is one of many delusions explaining why Britain’s government is so disrespected. In sharp contrast, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, heads the realist, pragmatic group of leaders who are learning to deal with a post-Obama world where the word of the American president cannot be trusted. In this new world, longstanding US commitments and treaties may not be honoured and future collaboration on key policies, such as climate change, Russia and Chinese military expansionism, is held hostage to presidential whim and the blinkered perspectives of the Ohio bar-room.

Merkel suggested earlier this year that the US (and Britain) could no longer be wholly relied upon. While not entirely true, for instance in the case of Anglo-American security guarantees for Germany and its sheltered exporters, it was plain what she meant. And this lesson has been understood by America’s enemies, too. In provocatively firing off another long-range, possibly nuclear-capable missile last week, North Korea seems to be testing how far it can go, geographically and politically. It is counting on Trump proving to be the blowhard that, until now, he has appeared to be.

Recent months have produced a litany of Trump threats and boasts over North Korea. There was no way, he said, that Pyongyang would deploy an ICBM capable of hitting the mainland US. “It’s not going to happen,” he tweeted. Wrong again, Donald. It did. By conducting its own satellite launch last week, ignoring western concerns, Iran has similarly thumbed its nose at Washington. Iran’s leaders should understand there would be “very serious” consequences if they pursued their ballistic missile programme, Trump had warned. Additional hints from Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, and Jim Mattis, Pentagon chief, about regime change in Iran further darkened the strategic horizon. But guess what? Tehran took no notice at all. It went ahead anyway.

Or take Russia. Having played Trump to its advantage, Moscow’s open hand is turning into a clenched fist as it threatens reprisals over a new Congressional sanctions package. It was not hard to see this tactical switch coming, once it was clear Trump could not deliver the sort of concessions on Ukraine Putin craves. Except, in his fecklessness and blind vanity and courting Putin to the end, Trump didn’t see it coming at all. You can almost see Putin’s lip curl.

The common factor in all these situations is Trump’s self-induced powerlessness and ignorance, his chronic lack of credibility and presidential authority and consequent perceptions of US and western weakness. And in the case of all three actual or potential adversaries – North Korea, Iran and Russia – these perceptions are highly dangerous. Precisely because US responses, actions and reactions can no longer be relied upon or predicted, by friends and enemies alike, the potential for calamitous miscalculation is growing. This uncertainty, like the chaos in the White House and the extraordinary disarray of the American body politic, stems from Trump’s glaring unfitness for the highest office. As is now becoming ever plainer, this threatens us all.

Amid Show of Military Might in China, Xi Jinping Puts Rivals on Notice - New York Times

BEIJING — China’s president, Xi Jinping, has opened a public campaign to deepen his grip on power in a coming leadership shake-up, using a huge military parade on Sunday, speeches and propaganda, along with a purge in the past week, to warn officials to back him as the nation’s most powerful leader in two decades.

Wearing his mottled green uniform as commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army, Mr. Xi watched as 12,000 troops marched and tanks, long-range missile launchers, jet fighters and other new weapons drove or flew past in impeccable arrays.

Mao famously said political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and Mr. Xi signaled that he, too, was counting on the military to stay ramrod loyal while he chooses a new leading lineup to be unveiled at a Communist Party congress in the autumn.

“Troops across the entire military, you must be unwavering in upholding the bedrock principle of absolute party leadership of the military,” Mr. Xi said at the parade, held on a dusty training base in Inner Mongolia region, 270 miles northwest of Beijing. “Always obey and follow the party. Go and fight wherever the party points.”

The ceremony was broadcast across the country.

Officially, the display was to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the creation of the People’s Liberation Army. But it was also the highlight of a week of political theater promoting Mr. Xi as a uniquely qualified politician whose elevated status as China’s “core” leader, endorsed by officials last year, should be entrenched at the party congress.

“These military parades could become a regular, institutionalized thing, but this one also has a special meaning this year,” said Deng Yuwen, a former editor at a party newspaper in Beijing who writes current affairs commentaries. “It’s meant to show that Xi Jinping firmly has the military in his grip, and nobody should have any illusions of challenging him.”

The congress will almost certainly give Mr. Xi, 64, a second, five-year term as the party general secretary and chairman of the commission that controls the military, and it will appoint a new team to work under him.

No exact date has been fixed for the congress. An annual legislative meeting early next year will also almost certainly give Mr. Xi five more years as state president.

Some experts have speculated that Mr. Xi may want to retain power after those terms end, although the constitution says he cannot stay on as president. There are no firm rules for maximum terms as party general secretary.

Mr. Xi has accompanied the demands for unity with a vivid warning to officials who step out of line. In the past week, he oversaw the abrupt purge of Sun Zhengcai, a one-time contender for promotion at the congress. Mr. Sun, 53, had been the party secretary of Chongqing, a city in southwest China, until his dismissal in mid-July.

The party announced last Monday that he was under investigation for violations of “discipline” — usually a euphemism for corruption — and Mr. Sun has since been pilloried in official media. Provincial leaders, including many with a shot at promotion, have called meetings to denounce Mr. Sun as a “tiger,” or corrupt senior official.

“At this point, we can’t say for sure he will be the last big tiger to be brought down before the opening of the party congress,” said Prof. Ding Xueliang, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who studies the Chinese Communist Party. “We don’t know, other leaders don’t know either.”

For now, Mr. Xi appears to be seeking to ensure that his second-term lineup includes younger loyalists who will defend him and his policies for years to come. Several are poised to join the Politburo, a council of 25 senior central, provincial and military leaders. Up to 11 members of the Politburo are likely to retire at the congress, including five members of the Politburo Standing Committee, a more powerful body with seven members.

The negotiations over the new lineup happen in secret. But the burst of propaganda and warnings appears designed to pressure officials and retired leaders to go along with Mr. Xi’s wishes over who goes up and who steps down.

Mr. Xi is by the estimate of many observers China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping, who died in 1997. While the military does not have much direct say in politics, its support is essential for Mr. Xi’s long-term authority, said Professor Ding.

“Xi Jinping has spent more time on the military than any other leader,” Professor Ding said by telephone. “He knows clearly that eventually, if he wants to keep in power, if he wants to concentrate power even more, he must make sure the army is with him.”

Mr. Xi’s recent predecessors as national leader, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, also prepared for leadership turnovers with crescendos of propaganda. But the adulation around Mr. Xi has been strikingly worshipful. More than them, Mr. Xi has made a personal case for power.

On Friday, Study Times, a party newspaper widely read by officials, devoted its front page to an adulatory profile of Mr. Xi that said he was blessed by his “red” upbringing with special leadership mettle. It recounted his tough maturation as the son of a veteran revolutionary who was persecuted by Mao, testing the family’s loyalty to the Communist cause, and his seven years working in the dirt-poor countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

The profile has been was widely promoted by party newspapers and websites, and its anonymous author was described as “special commentator,” a title usually used for articles with high-level endorsement.

“I never saw anything like this for Jiang Zemin or Hu Jintao,” said Mr. Deng, the former editor, who used to work for The Study Times. “They didn’t get this treatment.”

Mr. Xi, “grew up with an inheritance of red genes, was tempered by harsh setbacks and suffering, and has steeled himself in complicated international struggle,” said the profile, referring to his revolutionary background and career.

“The lion of the east has woken,” it said, referring to China. “But it faces tremendous risks of being surrounded by tigers and wolves and suffering even more intense strategic encirclement, clashes and meddling.”

The profile also said Mr. Xi personally pushed through difficult and contentious policy changes in his first five years in power, including building artificial islands fitted with military installations in the disputed South China Sea.

“In the South China Sea, he personally decided on building islands and consolidating reefs,” said the profile. Mr. Xi had, it said, “built a robust strategic base for ultimately prevailing in the struggle to defend the South China Sea, and has in effect constructed a Great Wall at sea.”

Mr. Xi’s power has already unsettled critics, including some inside the party, who worry that he has destabilized norms of collective leadership that can slow decision-making but also prevent dangerous overreach.

“This over-concentration of authority can really get you in trouble,” Susan L. Shirk, a former State Department deputy assistant secretary for China policy, said in an interview before the parade. “I especially think about foreign and security policy.”

As well as endorsing a new leadership, the congress will endorse a report laying out, in the dry jargon of party documents, Mr. Xi’s broad goals for his next five years. He told senior officials at the two-day meeting that ended on Thursday that the report should treat China’s next few years as a time of great risk.

“Look to the developments that are bring us risks,” he told the officials, according to a report in People’s Daily, the official party paper. “Be ready for the worst, and make the fullest preparations for that, while working toward a good outcome and striving for the best.”

Donald Trump appears to threaten members of Congress with 'BAILOUT' tweet - Independent

Donald Trump appears to threaten members of Congress with 'BAILOUT' tweet

Donald Trump appears to have threatened members of Congress after Republicans failed to deliver on one of his key campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare.

In one of his latest tweets, Mr Trump wrote, “If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!”

The Senate's Republican leadership suffered a colossal defeat earlier this week when a majority of senators, including members of their own party, rejected multiple proposals aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Democrats laud 'turning point' on healthcare

After the final failed vote in the early hours of Friday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper chamber would move on from healthcare to other matters, but the President appears to have other plans.

Observers have suggested that Mr Trump in the second part of his tweet asserted he will eliminate subsidised health insurance for members of Congress unless they pass a healthcare bill quickly.

Meanwhile, in the first part, he appears to have threatened to cancel payments that compensate insurance companies for reducing out-of-pocket costs for low-income people. Insurance companies have been demanding big rate increases or fleeing from individual insurance markets created by Obamacare, and making those cost-sharing reduction payments could be key to keeping insurers in the market and preventing spikes in premiums.

While the Trump administration has previously threatened to cancel those payments to destabilise markets and bring Democrats to the negotiating table on healthcare reform, some powerful Republican legislators have also called for guaranteeing the cost-sharing subsidies.

Anthony Scaramucci's wife 'files for divorce because of her dislike of President Trump' - Telegraph

Anthony Scaramucci's wife 'files for divorce because of her dislike of President Trump'

Harriet Alexander, washington

28 JULY 2017 • 11:06PM

Anthony Scaramucci’s wife has reportedly filed for divorce a week after he was named White House communications director, with friends claiming that her dislike of President Donald Trump and her husband’s “naked political ambition” has forced them apart.

Deidre Ball, who worked as a vice president in investor relations for SkyBridge Capital, the firm he founded in 2005 and sold to ascend to the White House, has filed for divorce after three years of marriage, according to The New York Post.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci walks down the steps of Air Force One after arriving at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci walks down the steps of Air Force One after arriving at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. CREDIT: AP

“She liked the nice Wall Street life and their home on Long Island, not the insane world of DC,” a source told the paper.

“She is tired of his naked ambition, which is so enormous that it left her at her wits’ end. She has left him even though they have two children together.”

Mr Scaramucci responded to the news by tweeting: “Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers and nothing more.”

Anthony Scaramucci ✔ @Scaramucci

Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.

Mr Scaramucci, 52, and Ball, 38, began dating in 2011 and are believed to have married in 2014.

Mr Scaramucci is yet to confirm the news, which comes at the end of a tumultuous first week in Washington, in which he attempted to schmooze the White House press corps and ended up in a wild expletive-laced rant about his colleagues, published in The New Yorker.

The source said that Mr Scaramucci had been “hell-bent” on claiming his position at the White House after he was originally positioned for a senior role, and sold SkyBridge Capital in preparation in January.

He was blocked by Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, who was fired on Friday.

Anthony Scaramucci, White House communications director

A second source told the Post: “Deidre is not a fan of Trump, and she hasn’t exactly been on board and supportive of Anthony and his push to get back into the White House.”

The friend added: “Anthony is focusing on his children, his work for the president and the American people. There is nothing more important to him.

“I don’t know who Deidre thought she was marrying but anyone who knows Anthony knows he’s an ambitious man.”

The divorce is the second “Trump divorce” in two days.

On Thursday a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader announced that she and her state attorney husband are to divorce, with the president to blame.

Lynn and David Aronberg married two years ago after Mr Aronberg, 46, proposed at the Eiffel Tower.

Now Mrs Aronberg's PR firm, TransMedia, has issued a remarkably personal press release announcing their separation, describing it as a “Trump divorce”.

Mr Aronberg is yet to comment.

Latest failure to repeal Obamacare in the Senate "the beginning of the unravelling" of Republican support for Donald Trump - Independent

US political analysts are calling the latest failure to repeal Obamacare in the Senate "the beginning of the unravelling" of Republican support for Donald Trump.

During a panel discussion on the President’s “skinny repeal bill”, which was voted down by a thin margin of 51-49 after three GOP rebellions led by Senator John McCain, CNN commentator Margaret Hoover warned that “Trump is clearly acting on his own; he’s not listening to anybody.”

Two other Republicans joined Senator McCain, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, on voting no on a bill that critics had warned would have led to the deaths of 20,000 additional people.

In a statement shortly after the results of the vote were announced, the senator for Arizona said: “From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people. The so-called ‘skinny repeal’ amendment the Senate voted on today would not accomplish those goals.

“While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens.”

Failure to pass the repeal act demonstrated a “haphazard policy-making process on behalf of the White House,” Ms Hoover added.

In response to the results, Democrat Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts on CNN encouraged the US president to put aside partisanship and work together with Democrats: “We do want to work with Republicans. The Affordable Care Act has to be improved…but we have to do it on a bipartisan basis and hopefully those millions of Americans can sleep easier tonight knowing their healthcare has not been ripped away from them can now look to democrats and republicans finally coming together to make this healthcare system work better.”

The US president’s approval rating has plummeted in the last week following the GOP’s disunited front on the topic of Obamacare, as well as the US president’s criticisms following Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself.

A Reuters poll conducted on the 24 July, less than a week before the vote on Obamacare found that just 35.1 per cent of GOP party members polled approved of the US president’s work. Over half (58.1 per cent) disapproved, and 4.1 per cent had “mixed feelings.”

Political scientist Matt Glassman echoed these sentiments, telling The New York Times: “The current congressional GOP seems less supportive and more constraining of the Potus than basically any in history.”

The US president has previously expressed exasperation at his party's lack of support, stating on Twitter that: “It’s very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President.”