Inside 12 Days Of Turmoil That Shook Homeland Security

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen talks outside her home in Alexandria, Va., on Monday, April 8, 2019. Nielsen says she continues to support the president’s goal of securing the border in her first public remarks since her surprise resignation. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

BY JILL COLVIN, COLLEEN LONG

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had had it.

The flow of migrants at the southern border was surging. Another caravan appeared to be forming. And his government had run out of holding space, forcing the release of tens of thousands of families apprehended at the border.

During a meeting with senior aides on the last Thursday in March, Trump demanded drastic action to make good on the threat he’d tweeted that morning: Shut the southern border. Curbing illegal immigration was his signature issue, he railed. Why couldn’t he deliver?

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen urged the president to reconsider. Her agency had already diverted hundreds of border agents away from certain crossings to process migrant families elsewhere, creating what would soon become considerable bottlenecks. Closing ports completely, she reasoned, would only encourage migrants to cross elsewhere — illegally.

Trump wasn’t having it. Shut the ports at El Paso, Texas, at noon tomorrow, he ordered. End of meeting.

The directive set off a frantic behind-the scenes push to get Trump to change his mind, and he ultimately relented. But the episode launched a turbulent 12-day stretch that would lead to the eventual resignation of Nielsen , the potential dismissal of much of her agency’s top leadership and the beginning of a new phase in which immigration hard-liners at the White House are determined to wield considerably more influence over Homeland Security.

ON BORROWED TIME

Trump and Nielsen’s relationship was never especially close. Nielsen had been picked for the top Homeland Security job at the urging of her predecessor, John Kelly , who left to become Trump’s White House chief of staff . Trump had always been suspicious of her, in part because she’d worked for former President George W. Bush. She had been widely expected to leave the department last fall after Kelly’s departure from the White House, but she appeared to get back on Trump’s good side during the government shutdown, when she served as one of the top defenders of his push to build a southern border wall.

But Nielsen took the brunt of Trump’s fury over rising border crossing numbers, and the situation was only getting worse. Aides spent months desperately trying to come up with new solutions, and some tried to steer Trump away from more drastic measures, including his talk of reinstating the family separation policy that prompted international outrage.

While Nielsen had doubts at times, she had dutifully carried out Trump’s orders, taking ownership of his most divisive policies, including the family separations, and spending months trying to broker arrangements with Central American countries, including Mexico. But it also fell to Nielsen to explain to Trump the legal limits of things he wanted to do. And he didn’t like it.

It didn’t help that Kelly had been critical of Trump in appearances since he left the White House — something Trump held against Nielsen. Or that John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, had been pushing for Nielsen’s ouster since last fall, telling Trump he didn’t think her leadership or policies were effective.

A TRIP CUT SHORT

Nielsen had just landed in Europe last week for her first time as secretary when she decided to rush back to Washington, landing early Tuesday morning.

Though aides had succeeded in talking Trump down from his border closure threat the week before, he had continued to crank up his rhetoric, warning by tweet that if Mexico didn’t “immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border,” he would be “CLOSING” the border, or large sections of it within a week.

By Wednesday, Nielsen was at the border, overseeing efforts to keep asylum seekers in Mexico and preparing for the president’s Friday visit to Calexico, California.

But the night before Trump’s visit, a puzzling notice arrived on Capitol Hill: Trump was withdrawing his nomination of Ron Vitiello to permanently lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It had to be a mistake, staffers reasoned. Why would Trump be spiking his own nominee, a well-respected and longtime border official who appeared to be cruising to confirmation?

Vitiello got a call that night from senior Trump aide Stephen Miller informing him that he wouldn’t be joining the president on his trip to the border the next morning. There was no explanation.

Nielsen had received no heads-up.

But word began to spread that his nomination was being yanked.

“We want to go in a tougher direction” was all Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday morning.

It was Step One of the plot to purge DHS leadership.

Nielsen joined Trump at the border, echoing his words at a roundtable with border officers and local law enforcement and standing by Trump’s side as they toured a section of newly rebuilt border fencing, introducing him to local officials.

But inside she was fuming.

DUSTING OFF A LETTER

Nielsen returned to Washington on a Coast Guard Gulfstream as Trump continued onto California and Nevada to do some fundraising. By that night, murmurs were swirling that Vitiello’s removal wasn’t a one-off and that Miller was orchestrating a wholesale leadership overhaul of her department.

Already frustrated by what she saw as insufficient help from departments like Justice and Health and Human Services, with clear signs that White House hard-liners were on the ascent, Nielsen pulled up the resignation letter she’d written months before — just in case.

She went into a Sunday White House meeting with Trump that she’d requested not sure if she’d be fired, resign or stay to fight another day.

It was, by all accounts, a cordial conversation in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House residence, with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in attendance. Nielsen had come prepared with a list of ideas to share with the president. But the two quickly agreed the arrangement was no longer working. Trump wanted to go in a different direction.

Nielsen resigned on the spot. Trump tweeted the news before she could get her letter out.

THE PURGE

Standing outside her home in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday, Nielsen sounded just as loyal to Trump as she had at the border.

“I will continue to support all efforts to address the humanitarian and security crisis,” she said, thanking the president “for the tremendous opportunity to serve this country.”

By the end of the day, the department she had led appeared to be on the cusp of being dismantled, with the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the department’s general counsel among those expected to be pushed out.

“It’s time to do things a little differently,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Fox News Channel. “And so the president’s looking around to reshape his team so he can have the people in place to carry out his agenda.”

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

Mar-a-Lago arrest spotlights security risks at Trump estate

This Nov. 23, 2018 file photo shows President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate behind mangrove trees in Palm Beach, Fla. On Saturday, March 30, 2019, a woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to the club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors allege in court documents. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

BY JONATHAN LEMIRE, COLLEEN LONG & TERRY SPENCER

PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) — As palm trees swayed in the ocean breeze, Yujing Zhang approached Secret Service agents in the Mar-a-Lago parking lot.

She said she was going to the swimming pool at the Palm Beach presidential estate and presented agents with two Chinese passports in her name. That raised suspicions with her screeners, but a call to the front desk at Mar-a-Lago revealed a club member with a similar last name and with that, and a possible language barrier, reception waved her through.

Not long after, Zhang was arrested carrying four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing computer malware in an incident that is shining a spotlight on the unique difficulty of fortifying the oceanside Florida estate of President Donald Trump — who was staying at the club that weekend but golfing elsewhere at the time.

Zhang’s arrest has revived concerns about security — particularly cyber security — at a presidential refuge that mixes social functions, world diplomacy and extraordinary access to the president. Hundreds of members frequent Mar-a-Lago and the president’s other private clubs, which function as working resorts even when Trump himself visits, creating a series of challenges that test the Secret Service.

Federal officials were looking into whether Zhang was part of a larger effort to gain access to the president and do potential harm, and were combing through her devices and treating the case as a “credible threat,” according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak about the ongoing probe and discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.

Democratic lawmakers were inquiring about a possible connection to Li Yang, the Republican donor and spa owner who promised Chinese business leaders that her consulting firm could get them access to the president at Mar-a-Lago.

Democrats on Wednesday called for an investigation into security at Mar-a-Lago, and whether classified information stored there is at risk from hostile foreign governments. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said he would get a briefing Thursday from the Secret Service.

“We want to make sure that the Secret Service is being the very best that they can be, and we want to find out more about exactly what kind of security they had down there in Florida,” Cummings said. “I think it’s very, very, very, very important that the president be protected. And I feel very strongly about that.”

Trump on Wednesday dismissed the incident, saying it was “just a fluke situation.”

“We have very good control,” he told reporters.

With the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway to the west, Mar-a-Lago sits on the Palm Beach barrier island, a 128-room, 62,500-square foot symbol of opulence and power. Long a Trump favorite since he purchased it from the foundation of the late socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1985, the president travels to the estate every few weekends during its winter high season, abandoning Washington’s chill for Florida sunshine.

“For the president, I think Mar-a-Lago is not so much a club, but his Xanadu,” said Chris Ruddy, publisher of Newsmax and a longtime club member and Trump friend. “My feeling is he also sees it as place of destiny and fate because Mrs. Post wanted it as the winter White House.”

While there, Trump has been known to crash weddings, pop in on charity events and, one time, order air strikes.

He has not been shy about conducting government business there. It was while hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping that Trump, over a chocolate cake dessert, authorized a missile launch at Syrian airfields after a chemical attack. On another occasion, he and Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe sat on an outdoor patio, as guests dined nearby, and reviewed options for responding to a North Korean ballistic test.

Such interactions could make Mar-a-Lago a tempting target, particularly for cyberattacks.

“Mar-a-Lago has not been sufficiently well-defended against not just physical attacks, but against counterintelligence exploits, including digital attacks,” said David Kris, an authority on foreign intelligence at Culper Partners consulting company in Seattle.

Federal agencies spent about $3.4 million per Trump visit, much of it on security, according to an analysis done by the U.S. Government Accountability Office of four 2017 trips. The Secret Service doesn’t decide who is invited or welcome at the resort; that responsibility belongs to the club. Agents do screen guests outside the perimeter before they’re screened again inside.

The agency said in a statement that, with the exception of certain facilities that are protected permanently, like the White House, “the practice used at Mar-a-Lago is no different than that long used at any other site temporarily visited by the president.”

But Mar-a-Lago is different from other presidential retreats.

Unlike Ronald Reagan’s and George W. Bush’s ranches or George H.W. Bush’s seaside vacation home in Maine, Mar-a-Lago is open to members who pay $14,000 annual dues after a $100,000 or $200,000 initiation fee. They expect access to the facility and want to host their equally affluent guests — and they are used to getting their way.

Nabil Erian, a former Marine and government counterintelligence officer, said guarding Mar-a-Lago is a “nightmare.”

“If this venue was uniquely for the president, it is easier to manage the perimeter,” said Erian, an executive at the security firm CTC International Group in West Palm Beach. Because Mar-a-Lago is a club and not just a home, “Frankly, it increases the risk of something like this happening.”

Last Saturday, Zhang changed her story at the indoor reception desk, saying she was there a little early to take photos, but had come to attend a “United Nations Friendship Event” between China and the U.S., which didn’t exist.

Zhang also told agents she was at the club because her Chinese friend “Charles” told her to travel from Shanghai, China to Palm Beach that if she attended the event she could speak with a member of the president’s family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations, according to the complaint.

A man named Charles Lee ran the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association, and was photographed at least twice with Yang, the spa owner whose website advertised access to Trump.

Yang’s attorney said she did not know Zhang, and merely attended two of the same events as Lee. But the Miami Herald reported that Lee recruited people for Yang’s events. The criminal complaint made no mention of a possible connection.

Zhang was charged with making false statements to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area. She remains in custody pending a hearing next week. Her public defender, Robert Adler, declined to comment.

But general club access doesn’t mean access to Trump or his guests. When Trump is at Mar-a-Lago, more screening and security measures are required.

“I really think it’s overblown. There is a lot of security and the staff is wonderful,” said Toni Holt Kramer, a nine-year member of the club and founder of the group “The Trumpettes.” ″Mr. Trump wants us all to feel right at home there.”

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Lemire reported from New York while Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Mary Clare Jalonick and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire, Long at http://twitter.com/@ctlong1 and Spencer at http://twitter.com/@terryspen

AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Relentless Drive To BHe Given Credit

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Thursday, March 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

BY CALVIN WOODWARD, HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s relentless drive to be given credit for all manner of things suffused his speech to Michigan supporters this past week.

These efforts are largely familiar by now: He counts job gains from the Obama era as his own, rebrands his predecessor’s veterans health care initiative as a Trump achievement, attributes auto factory expansion long in the making to his leadership, and hails a Republican rescue of health care that has not materialized.

But there was a new one on Thursday night. “We have some breaking news!” he said. “Can you handle it? I don’t think you can handle it.”

He then declared that after decades of failure by lawmakers to get money to clean up the Great Lakes, he was coming ahead with $300 million for that effort. The crowd roared.

But the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was getting that money already . Trump had proposed slashing it.

A look at his recent rhetoric:

MIGRANT CHILDREN

TRUMP, on the care of migrant children apprehended at the border and the Dec. 8 death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, of Guatemala: “I think that it’s been very well stated that we’ve done a fantastic job. ... The father gave the child no water for a long period of time - he actually admitted blame.” — to reporters Friday.

THE FACTS: That’s a misrepresentation of the circumstances behind the girl’s death as Trump seeks to steer any potential blame for it away from his administration.

An autopsy report released Friday found she died of a bacterial infection just more than a day after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol. The El Paso County Medical Examiner’s office said Jakelin experienced a “rapidly progressive infection” that led to the failure of multiple organs.

Neither the autopsy report, nor accounts at the time by Customs and Border Protection , spoke of dehydration. The Border Protection timeline on her case said she was checked for medical problems upon her apprehension and: “The initial screening revealed no evidence of health issues.” And through family lawyers, Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz said after his daughter’s death that he had made sure she had food and water as they traveled through Mexico. He did not say her death was his fault.

GREAT LAKES

TRUMP: “I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They are beautiful. They are big, very deep, record deepness, right? And I’m going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you have been trying to get for over 30 years. So we will get it done.” — Grand Rapids rally.

THE FACTS: Trump’s recent budget proposal sought to cut federal financing of that program by 90 percent. His comment actually meant that his administration would — presumably — give up its efforts over the last few years to cut the program, which has been receiving about $300 million a year since 2010.

His assertion that this money has eluded supporters of the lakes for three decades is wrong.

The program is popular with lawmakers from both parties and it was unlikely that the Trump cut would prevail.

Also, the Great Lakes are not the world’s deepest, or even among the 20 deepest .

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SPECIAL OLYMPICS

TRUMP: “I have overridden my people. We’re funding the Special Olympics.” — remarks to reporters Thursday.

THE FACTS: In this instance, unlike in the Great Lakes matter, Trump is acknowledging that it was his administration that had proposed to cut the money, though by blaming “my people” he did not take direct responsibility.

In any event, spending is up to Congress, not him. What he means is that the White House is dropping its budget proposal to deny federal money for the games.

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HEALTH CARE

TRUMP: “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions, always.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: He’s not protecting health coverage for patients with pre-existing medical conditions. In fact, the Trump administration is pressing in court for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act — including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance discrimination.

Trump and other Republicans say they’ll have a plan to preserve those safeguards, but the White House has provided no details. And it’s a stretch to think they could get a Republicans-only plan passed through Congress with the House under Democratic control.

President Barack Obama’s health care law requires insurers to take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and patients with health problems pay the same standard premiums as healthy ones. Bills supported in 2017 by Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law could have pushed up costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

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TRUMP: “The Republican Party will become the party of great health care. ... Republicans want you to have an affordable plan that’s just right for you.” — Michigan rally.

TRUMP: “If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we will have a plan that’s far better than Obamacare.” — remarks Wednesday to reporters.

THE FACTS: Republicans may aspire to great health care but they don’t have a comprehensive plan for it. And there’s no indication that the White House, executive branch agencies like Health and Human Services, and Republicans in Congress are working on one.

Trump’s recent budget called for repealing “Obamacare” and setting hard limits on federal spending for Medicaid, which covers low-income people. Some Republicans argue that would be better, because the federal government would create a new program of health care grants to states. But when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analyzed similar proposals a couple of years ago, it estimated such changes would result in deep coverage losses, not to mention weaker insurance protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Trump’s budget also called for hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare cuts to hospitals and other service providers, a nonstarter with lawmakers in Congress worried about re-election next year.

The Supreme Court has upheld the health care law twice in previous challenges. The five justices who first upheld it in 2012 are still on the court.

Congressional Republicans are generally trying to steer away from Obamacare spats. Some are trying to focus on areas where they might find common ground with Democrats and the president, such as reducing prescription drug costs.

RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

TRUMP: “You look at all of the different things, Russia would’ve much rather had Hillary than Donald Trump. I can tell you that right now.” — Fox News interview Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Not according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Asked at a news conference with Trump in July whether he wanted Trump to win the 2016 election, Putin responded, “Yes, I did.” Putin said he favored Trump “because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.”

The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee last year said it agreed with the U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to hurt the candidacy of Democrat Hillary Clinton and help Trump.

TRUMP: “After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over. The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. ...Total exoneration, complete vindication.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: Special counsel Robert Mueller did not vindicate Trump in “total” in the Russia probe.

Mueller’s exact words in the report, as quoted by Attorney General William Barr, say: “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

The four-page summary by Barr notes Mueller did not “draw a conclusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction,” but rather set out evidence for both sides, leaving the question unanswered of whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr wrote in the summary that ultimately he decided as attorney general that the evidence developed by Mueller was “not sufficient” to establish, for the purposes of prosecution, that Trump committed obstruction.

Barr’s summary also notes that Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. To establish a crime, Mueller must generally meet a standard of proving an offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The summary did not clear the president of improper behavior regarding Russia but did not establish that “he was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,” Mueller said in a passage from the report quoted by Barr.

The summary signed by Barr gave the bottom line only as he and his deputy saw it. Democrats are pushing for release of Mueller’s full report, which is more than 300 pages. Barr is expected to release a public version of the document in the coming weeks.

TRUMP, speaking about allegations in a so-called dossier about contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election: “It came out after the election and everybody had a big fat yawn. ...All of the sudden I hear, ’Were you involved with Russia? I say, ‘Russia? What the hell does Russia have to do with my campaign?’” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: Russia actually had plenty to do with Trump’s campaign.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies and lengthy indictments brought by Mueller’s team, Putin ordered a multipart influence campaign aimed at hurting Clinton’s candidacy, undermining American democracy and helping Trump get elected.

That effort included the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, Clinton’s campaign and other Democratic groups. Russian intelligence officers then coordinated the release of stolen emails and internal documents.

There were also plenty of people around Trump receptive to Russia’s help, though Mueller’s report ultimately did not find that those contacts amounted to a criminal conspiracy, according to Barr’s summary.

In the middle of the campaign, Donald Trump Jr. met at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer thinking he would be getting “dirt” on Clinton. Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting, which included Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, despite it being described to him as part of a Russian government effort to help his father.

AUTOS

TRUMP: “We are bringing a lot of those car companies back. ... They are pouring back in.” —Michigan rally.

TRUMP: “We’re opening up car plants in Michigan again for the first time in decades. They’re coming in, really pouring in. ... And this has been happening pretty much since I’ve been president. It’s really amazing what’s going on ... We’ve brought back so much industry, so many car companies to Michigan, so we’re very happy.” — remarks Thursday while departing for Michigan.

THE FACTS: There is very little truth in those remarks.

The only automaker announcing plans to reopen a plant in Michigan is Fiat Chrysler, which is restarting an old engine plant to build three-row SUVs. It’s been planning to do so since before Trump was elected. GM is even closing two Detroit-area factories: one that builds cars and another that builds transmissions.

Automakers have made announcements about new models being built in the state, but no other factories have been reopened. Ford stopped building the Focus compact car in the Detroit suburb of Wayne last year, but it’s being replaced by the manufacture of a small pickup and a new SUV. That announcement was made in December 2016, before Trump took office.

GM, meantime, is closing factories in Ohio and Maryland.

Trump can plausibly claim that his policies have encouraged some activity in the domestic auto industry. Corporate tax cuts freed more money for investment, and potential tariff increases on imported vehicles are an incentive to build in the U.S.

But automakers have not been “pouring in” at all, as he persistently claims, and when expansion does happen, it’s not all because of him.

Fiat Chrysler has been planning the SUVs for several years and has been looking at expansion in the Detroit area, where it has unused building space and an abundant, trainable automotive labor force.

Normally it takes at least three years for an automaker to plan a new vehicle, which is the case with the three-row Jeep Grand Cherokee and the larger Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs that will fill the restarting Detroit-area plant and an existing one. Several years ago then-CEO Sergio Marchionne said the Wagoneer would be built in the Detroit area.

Detroit automakers usually build larger vehicles in the U.S. because the profit margins are high enough to cover the higher wages paid there versus Mexico or another lower-cost country.

IMMIGRATION

TRUMP, on diversity visas: “They are giving us their worst people.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: That’s false.

The diversity visa lottery program is run by the U.S. government, not foreign governments. Other countries do not get to sort through their populations looking for bad apples to put in for export to the U.S. Citizens of qualifying countries are the ones who decide to bid for visas under the program. Trump routinely blames foreign states.

The program requires applicants to have completed a high school education or have at least two years of experience in the last five years in a selection of fields. Out of that pool of people from certain countries who meet those conditions, the State Department randomly selects a much smaller pool of winners. Not all winners will have visas ultimately approved, because they still must compete for a smaller number of slots by getting their applications in quickly. Those who are ultimately offered visas still need to go through background checks, like other immigrants.

The lottery is extended to citizens of most countries, except about 20. The primary goal is to diversify the immigrant population by creating slots for underrepresented parts of the world.

JOBS

TRUMP: “We have created, since my election, 5.5 million new jobs. Nobody would have believed that was possible.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: His number is about right, but he’s counting jobs created before he became president. And the progress does not defy belief. The economy created about 6 million jobs in the roughly two years before the election, then again in the roughly two years after.

VETERANS

TRUMP: “They’ve been trying to get VA Choice for over 40 years. Couldn’t do it. I got it. We signed it six months ago.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: Not true. He’s not the first president in 40 years to get Congress to pass a private-sector health program for veterans; he expanded it. Congress first approved the program in 2014 during the Obama administration. The program currently allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) to a VA facility.

Now, starting in June, they are to have that option for a private doctor if their VA wait is only 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes.

TRUMP: “Instead of waiting online for one day, one week, two months ...now they go outside, they see a private doctor, we pay the bill, they get better quickly.” — Michigan rally.

THE FACTS: Also not right. Veterans still must wait for weeks before they can get private care outside the VA system.

And the expanded Choice eligibility may do little to provide immediate help. That’s because veterans often must wait even longer for an appointment in the private sector. Last year, then-Secretary David Shulkin said VA care is “often 40 percent better in terms of wait times” compared with the private sector. In 2018, 34 percent of all VA appointments were with outside physicians, down from 36 percent in 2017.

At a hearing Tuesday, the top health official at VA, Dr. Richard Stone, described the start of the expanded Choice program to “almost be a non-event,” in part because wait times in the private sector are typically longer than at VA.

The VA also must resolve long-term financing because of congressional budget caps after the White House opposed new money to pay for the program. As a result, lawmakers could be forced later this year to limit the program or slash core VA or other domestic programs.

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Chad Day in Washington and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

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Trump's Vow To End Military Drills With Seoul Stuns A Region

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions about the summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un during a press conference at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island Tuesday, June 12, 2018 in Singapore.

SINGAPORE (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday rocked a region and suggested the upending of decades of U.S. defense posture on the Korean Peninsula when he announced that he was stopping annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and wants to remove the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the South as a deterrent against North Korean attack.

The stunning, almost offhand comments, made during a news conference hours after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, contradicted countless previous declarations by U.S. political and military officials over the years that the drills are routine, defensive and absolutely crucial.

Trump has now essentially adopted the standard North Korean line, calling the military exercises a "provocative" drain of money and announcing they would stop while he continues talks with Kim, whom he repeatedly praised as a solid negotiating partner.

His statement was quickly portrayed by critics as a major, unreciprocated concession to a country that only last year was threatening Seoul and Washington with nuclear war. It also seemed to leave officials completely off guard in South Korea, where the presence of U.S. troops has long been described as necessary to maintaining peace on the peninsula.

Seoul's presidential office told The Associated Press that it was trying to parse Trump's comments. The South Korean military seemed similarly surprised. "At this current point, there is a need to discern the exact meaning and intent of President Trump's comments," Seoul's Defense Ministry said, adding that there have been no discussions yet with Washington on modifying drills set for August.

U.S. forces in South Korea said it has "received no updated guidance on the execution or cessation of training exercises" and will continue to coordinate with South Korean partners and maintain the current posture until it receives an updated guidance from the Department of Defense or the Indo-Pacific Command.

Trump's comments will be questioned by many in South Korea and beyond, with some seeing in them an effort by North Korea to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. North Korea regularly calls the military exercises provocative preparations for a northward invasion, and many of the scariest standoffs in recent years on the Korean Peninsula have happened when the drills were being staged. Outside analysts believe the North objects to the drills because it must spend precious resources on its own war games and troop movements. North Korea also insists that the U.S. troop presence in the South, as well as its nuclear "umbrella" over allies Seoul and Tokyo, are part of America's "hostile" policy toward the North.

"I want to bring our soldiers back home," Trump said, although he added that it's "not part of the equation right now." Then he said: "We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. But we'll be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, I think it's very provocative."

The comments could fundamentally change the way the United States, whose alliance with Seoul was forged after a 1950 surprise attack by the North started the Korean War, operates in South Korea. Trump's announcement that the U.S. would stop military exercises, his description of those drills as "provocative" and his suggestion that he wants to pull U.S. troops out at some point are "all things that Trump is putting on the table as concessions, all in exchange for some vague promises by the North Koreans," said Paul Haenle, a former China director at the White House National Security Council in the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations.

Annual military drills between Washington and Seoul have been a major source of contention between the Koreas for years, and analysts have wondered whether their continuation would hurt the inter-Korean detente that, since an outreach by Kim in January, has replaced last year's insults and threats of war. North Korea last month broke off a high-level meeting with Seoul over South Korea's participation in a two-week military exercise with the United States.

North Korea's state media, referring to the drills, recently demanded that Washington "stop the acts of threatening its dialogue partner by force." Since the 1970s, the United States and South Korea have held a major summertime exercise called Ulchi Freedom Guardian that involves tens of thousands of troops. There are also annual springtime drills. Drills called Team Spirit, one of the largest annual military maneuvers in the world at the time, were held from 1976 until 1993, when, after North Korea agreed to dismantle its existing nuclear facilities, the exercises were canceled and have not been held since.

Moon Seong Mook, a former South Korean military official, said Trump's comments on the drills confirmed what many in South Korea had feared all along — that North Korea would attempt to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul and gain substantial concessions from an unconventional U.S. president who thinks much less of the traditional alliance than his predecessors.

"The core of the U.S.-South Korea alliance is the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, but the American military presence in South Korea wouldn't mean much if the militaries don't practice through joint drills," said Moon, now a senior analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. "I am concerned that the summit between Trump and Kim will prove to be a setback in the global efforts to denuclearize North Korea and also introduce instability in the alliance between Seoul and Washington."

Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul and Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

Foster Klug is AP's bureau chief in South Korea and has covered the Koreas since 2005. Follow him at www.twitter.com/apklug

Follow AP's summit coverage here: http://apne.ws/MPbJ5Tv

Haters, Admirers And My Biro

Wake up everybody
No more sleeping in bed
No more backward thinking
Time for thinking ahead
The world’s change so very much
For what it use to be
There is so much hatred
War and poverty

----Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes


"I thought you said it's happening."

"What's happening?"

"Here we go again. You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"What you said earlier."

"What did I say earlier?"

"That your biro is mightier>"

"You should know better; and, of course, it is the biggest weapon. The people are talking; and they are, on a serious note, and by all means, pulling the bull by the horn. It is happening in Tunis. It is happening in Cairo. It's about to be happening in Jordan and Algeria. It's the real deal. It is the voice of the people. The network is fantastic. Some call it a political reform. Some have called it a revolution through the powerful means of the biro. President Barack Obama has been watching as all the events unfold. And, eventually, Hosni Mubarak threw in the towel. You see how it goes?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess it's about time, huh?"

"Of course, it's about time but not with the chairman of the house."

"Which chairman of the house are you talking about?"

"Oh, you mean you don't know? The house chairman who runs the affairs of state and would gather the fat cats and his colleagues within his uncivilized enclave to boycott all boycotables."

"How did Mazi Mbonu Ojike pop up in this discourse?"

"You tell me!"

"Tell you what?"

"Boycott the biro!"

"You see, that is not possible. The biro is mightier than you could ever imagine, which is why it is now getting down. But tell it not on the streets of Abuja, Owerri and Awka. The fat cats don't want to hear it because they will make no meaning out of it."

"Who are the fat cats you keep talking about? Am I missing somethin?"

"Nope! The fat cats are the Omemgbojis of Emekuku and the Oshimiris whose flowing gowns and haul of titles speaks volumes when they meet in their respective huts of who is king and who is not king in their uncivilized world of erecting edifices on dusty alleys without street numberings and disturnbingly an avalanche of power outages."

"What the hell is that?"

"What the hell is what?"

"The jargon, fat cats?"

"Well, the fat cats and house chairman are 'just' full of it, wondering what school of thought one came from for the fact they are limited in training."

"What are you talking about, man?!"

"Obviously, the people are talking and sooner than later you will be seeing it the world over."

"You mean the fat cats and the house chairman?"

"Not at all. The fat cats and house chairman are midgets in what I'm talking about. I'm talking about something of a greater capacity."

"Would it be boycott all boycottables as in Mbonu Ojike's own word, to negate a colonial mandate during the constitutional conferences?"

"Naaaaaaaa, it has some kind of similarities, though."

"Look, man, I'm done with you. I have no idea what you have been talking about."

"Ok, now, I have exhausted all my options of a research project.

"What research project?"

"I am conducting interviews on our war veterans, victims of the numerous pogroms and elite Igbo Diaspora to enable our history not to vanish from the face of the earth."

"Maybe you should consult the house chairman and fat cats to fund your research projects."

"Are you doublespeaking now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about a research project for Igbo common good and you are refering to the boycottables. I don't get it!"

"Well, you have a great idea but I'm afraid and I must warn you that the people you are talking about will tell you to move on and forget about the pogrom. And If you don't cease and desist, they will start insulting your mother, your father, your brothers (if you have any), your sisters, your family members and your entire kindred."

"Holy Moses! What kind of people would insult your entire clan just for your freedom to express your views on paper?"

"Because you keep creating an outrage."

"What outrage o?"

"The stuff that you write. The thought-provoking stuff."

"But I'm telling the truth, now?"

"You are right. The truth hurts!"

"How about the reptiles?"

"Which reptiles?"

"The dangerous reptiles that crawl out when they smell my biro."

"I'm out, man!"

"Good! Gotcha!"

Since I have been reading all kinds of literatures and various kinds of journals from growing up, I must admit, I have tossed quite a number of thought provoking issues, and quite a great sum had been polarized in responses, chiefly, the ones not too long ago: "Lagos Cafe's Arrogance and Horrible Services is a Culinary Disaster," "Donald Duke Launches his Presidential Campaign in Los Angeles," "Death of an Igbo Club in Greater Los Angeles," "Blind Followers of Donald Duke," and the list goes on and on.

What the responses, the haters, to be precise, incited, was for yours truly, this writer, to go bonkers into mudslinging with them from what I had written and looking forward to a coherently, intellectual rebuttal based on the subject matter rather than the rantings typical of a clueless bunch who had fallen from the standard and had fallen apart. From that shred of lack of substance in responses, I moved beyond ridicule.

The painful truth is, taking a closer look at what I had penned, the haters did what they were good at in their attempt to be relevant regarding their thoughts on a topic that pops up. For instance, a response from one of Lagos Cafe's admirers when I criticized the eatery:

"Mr Ambrose, How much did Veronica's kitchen give you for the free advertisement. I am sure you eat free food any time you're there, bcos from the tone of your write-up, Veronica must have given you a lot of dollars."

With such inflammatory remarks, wouldn't it be necessary to see my humble self not worried on a crop of issues that shouldn't have arose by all accounts putting into perspectice how it all began and if the ideology was valid? But the thing is, many accused me of sleeping with Veronica Ogbeide; their reasons why I spoke well of her eatery (Veronica's Kitchen); and spoke ill of Ronke Bernadette, who then ran Lagos Cafe on the 14000 block of Crenshaw Blvd. in Gardena, because of the former's love affair with me. Fact is, if Veronica wasn't becoming in her services the numerous times I stopped by to eat out, without question, I would have expressed my dissatisfaction of a service not worthy.

Don't get me wrong. There were admirers who read many of the pieces I had written over time, digesting the entire contents and seeing the topics by way of reporting, analysis, narratives, storytelling, satire and things like that coherently put together on the issues of the day, with sustained accuracy, thus applauding a well done work.

One other controversial affair was about the outraged Donald Duke followers who had "observed" my write-up on the presidential aspirant as a poisonous political stunt to stop Duke or have him throw in the towel for his presidential ambitions he had tailored to sell to a vulnerable and gullible Los Angeles-area-Nigeria populace, the ones I had thought were schooled in the elementary ABCD's of the basics in academia, but sadly unable and unwilling to read, comprehend and to think, critically. And it all began when Duke popped up on my list of literary works when I had expected a free-floating, acclaimed public intellectuals to engage said article that was based on facts to be challenged in that regard, rather than the rigidity one saw at the symposium.

Apparently, Duke's presidential campaign, his blind followers and a bunch that lacked societal vision, have died naturally. Where are Duke's coattails? Where are Duke's followers who knew everything about presidential politics? Where are my critics and all their rantings for my clear vision that Duke was going no where with his bid by starting his campaign from a clueless and politically impotent Diaspora? Where are the acclaimed activists and technocrats who had at any time in their lives played significant roles to show their work of activism by way of demonstrations to challenge corrupt regimes and things like that? Where are they; the ones of bigotry and hatred, who felt challenged from a simplistically, truthful pieces on the social ills of its people?

Enter the rantings of a confused bunch responding to the commentary "Death of an Igbo Club in Greater Los Angeles." In literary terms and disturbed by a Igbo Diaspora to get things done, things that depicts Diaspora as we have seen elsewhere; immigrant groups that established societies and even founded countries at the expense of indigenous populations, often in their stead by way of pragmatism and organizational effectiveness. I have caused commotion when the above-mentioned article was lambasted by a group when I wrote clearly of a bunch tainted with the stain of original sin, from which it can never be absolved:


"A mentally, impotent and unchallenging bunch could not come up with anything other than picnic in its engagement. Things like providing employment opportunities and having economic impact within its community, as in all communities in Diaspora who are doing stuff. From Pico Blvd. and Fairfax Ave. to Olympic Blvd. and Fairfax toward the Miracle Mile on the Wilshire Corridor, sits Little Ethiopia and all Ethiopian owned businesses. On the Westside, is the Armenian community whose history of genocide is, today, in the books, from mounted pressure groups. On the Eastside lies China Town, Little Tokyo, the Hispanics and series of communities dwelling together spreading all down the San Gabriel Valley. And, of course, there is Little Vietnam in Westminster and other Asian communities in and around the Long Beach areas."

I think I'm done with this and if anyone expects me to join a band of blind leaders like the Chief Priest would put it, "Big Blind Country," it will never happen, and they can have it!

No Nonsense!

Ekwuchaa nam!

Blind Followers of Donald Duke

I had thought of putting away Cross River state's former Governor Donald Duke's issue regarding his presidential campaign launch in Los Angeles, for good, but at the same time, I thought of setting the record straight.

In what I blogged the Sunday night, March 14, 2010, after attending "An Evening with Donald Duke", and had looked forward to a gathering of a beautiful Nigeria Diaspora minds whose capacity should be getting things done in a Nigeria that had been full of uncertainties nobody wants to tackle and talk about, but to use every avenue to spin around the collective facts, scramble and collect in the so-called "you chop I chop" nation where bribery and corruption has been a tradition.

I had also expected a profound symposium with regards to the subject matter. The rebuttal, most of them, if not all, were pointless which still puzzles me why the right of opinion should not be key to any sound democracy coupled with a bouyant press.

Nobody talks about upholding the rule of law and respecting democracy. They have changed the name of the game and one of the reasons my article got under their skin for the fact I was telling the simple truth. I had anticipated the piece "Donald Duke Launches His Presidential Campaign In Los Angeles" to have been engaged intellectually, besides a very few who made salient points - the rest joined the bandwagon of followers seeking relevance - and one wonders why the characterization of Nigeria as a failed state remains valid after its fourth trial of experimenting democracy.

Reading all the nonsense from folks I had thought could reason, I couldn't do anything but feel the pains and weep for a people that lost every sense of belonging, and unfortunately do not know it is a tragedy. Would that be ignorance or just a deliberate act of mischief?

Time will tell!

For Chuck Emenike, allegedly a "learned scholar" to have misconstrued the straightforward meaning of what I wrote, is indeed worrisome, which comes to mind questioning what happened to his fabricated Nigeria youth, in terms of food, and since food has become a big deal on the shores of America, I am totally disappointed. Not only that he did not surprise me for being incoherent with regards to the subject matter, he disappointed me by way of scholarship.

And for all the Duke followers, one thing that should be borne in mind is, Duke is not a saint nor a messiah and, will never be a messiah in a 'Nigeria' that is in dire need of a radical reform - economic, political, cultural and social - based on the country's widespread scandals of bribery and corruption. Duke is not Efik nor Ibibio on the proper level. And the irony of all the brouhaha in Duke's Los Angeles visit was that no Efik and Ibibio was part of the organizing committee save a couple or so persons who will attest Duke did not do much in Cross River State as governor in his eight years of running the affairs of state except for some few areas in and around the city which was financed by the banks while Duke got his cuts from the inflated contracts.

Giving Duke credit for making Calabar a model of upscale cities from the assumption Calabar is clean, what about the rural areas? If Lekki Penninsula and Victoria Island is clean, what about Amukoko and Ajegunle? If Awka is clean, what about Nteje, Idemili, Ogbunike and Umuleri? If Port Harcourt is clean, what about Ikwerre, Omoku and Elele? If Owerri is clean, what about Nkume, Amucha and Otura? What about the infrastructures in the rural areas? And the list goes on and on. Based on that Duke did not do jack, period!

And why are these Igbo followers of Duke applauding him? A man whose clan sabotaged the Igbo nation just for who they (Igbo) are in a concretely established ventures for being hard working; and whose father as an administrator of Board of Customs and Excise in Olusegun Obasanjo's miltary regime stole from the coffers of federal funds sending Duke to elite schools.

It is only the kind of Duke's gathering in the Southland that you don't see a local press coverage. Where was African Connection, African Times, African Trumpet, etc., to have reported Duke's launching for the presidency if the organizers were not pursuing matters of their own interest? You will be damned if you spend your hard earned dime on Duke's campaign trail. We've seen it happen before and the story speaks for itself. Just don't do it! Blind followers waste time and money!

Next time I show up in such events, I will not be wearing a hoodie topped with a Brazilian national jersey (windbreaker), to provoke the blind followers. I will abide by the rules of wearing those Islamic Jihad-like flowing gowns, a model outfit that slaughtered my kith and kin and did not absolutely show any remorse.

Donald Duke Launches His Presidential Campaign In Los Angeles

I had ignored Yahoogroups' internet brigade's circulation of former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke's coming to Los Angeles to propose to Nigeria Diaspora his quest to run for president of "Federal Republic of Nigeria" on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party -- PDP -- until my colleague and good friend, Austen Oghuma, tried to persuade me it's time for change in a fabricated Nigerian national state.

As it happened, on Saturday evening, March 14, 2010, we drove to LAX Marriot Hotel, 5855 West Century Blvd., for "An Evening with Governor Donald Duke," and walking into the lobby of the hotel, we asked the doormen where Duke's event was unfolding and being a little bit late we were directed to the basement where Duke, at the podium, was selling his program for the presidency. We secured a seat in a packed forum of Nigerians in Greater Los Angeles and watched Duke speak of how to effect change in a troubled Nigeria, "convincing" a gullible and vulnerable Nigeria Diaspora audience that he's the right man to take the country -- based on its enormous human capital and abundant natural resources -- to where it should belong in the global scene.

Never-minding Duke's rhetoric and all that blah, blah, blah, I had to take pictures which to me was normal of such events. I took a lot of pictures of Duke at the podium, took more of a gullible Diaspora audience who had no clue how to influence decisions back home, and who had lost every sense of purpose in getting things done. And taking those pictures with the concept of a strong press and strong democracy, the organizers, Ebube Wadibia, Uzo Diribe, Acho Emeruwa and their cohorts confronted me and asked me to leave, that if I don't leave they will call security on me; that I cannot take pictures of the presidential candidate; that I was not invited to an event that was open to all 'Nigerians' in the Greater Los Angeles; that taking such pictures "is" not allowed; that I was not the right person to be taking pictures of a misleading Duke campaign for the presidency; that I have been warned; that it was a special event for the Nigeria Diaspora elite, and that I am not politically affiliated. That's my ordeal at Duke's presidential campaign.

Duke had arrived to the shores of this land in the company of his campaign manager, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi whose closing remarks had nothing to do with Duke's address to run an efficient and thorough democratic fabric. The question and answers to the governor was prearranged by the moderators and organizers of an event that lacked substance from the perspective of Duke having no business, in the first place, to launch his campaign in Diaspora. It is only in Nigeria that a presidential aspirant kick-starts his campaign from abroad. It is senseless in many ways and why would an opportunist, confused, Diaspora bunch welcome Duke to launch his campaign for the presidency when he is suppose to begin that ambition from his native-land of Calabar? And why would the Los Angeles-based organizers in the likes of Ebube Wadibia, Uzo Diribe and Acho Emeruwa be so concerned it would take Duke, a South Southerner to change the course of the nation's history when Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who also hails from the South-South is now presiding on the affairs of state? What message is Duke sending to the South-South whose history in Nigeria has been of violence and political impotence? What need is the double-cross in a situation the country now lives on a borrowed time?

I'm not sure how it really works, but with Duke's campaign staff urging every Nigerian Diaspora to commit $25 monthly contribution for the presidential candidate's war chests in order to raise $500,000 is indeed troubling.