https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/810288321880555520

Source: The Guardian

David Friedman is fervent critic of two-state solution, backs an undivided Jerusalem as Israels capital and once represented Trumps failing hotels

snip

David Friedman, who had more recently served on the president-elects advisory team on the Middle East, said that he looked forward to delivering Trumps pledge to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and moving the US embassy there. The move would be a highly controversial, symbolic and potentially explosive gesture in the Middle East, as the status of Jerusalem is one of the issues in long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Friedman serves as president of the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, which funds settlements in the West Bank. He disagrees with the general international consensus that the settlements are illegal and he opposes a ban on settlement construction on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. And he has long supported an undivided Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

snip

Friedman, like Trump, is an admirer of Vladimir Putin. Also like the president-elect he has portrayed the Russian leader as fighting the Islamic State in Syria, although very little of the Russian war effort has actually been focused on Isis.

Vladimir Putin gets it. He may be a thug, as he was recently described by Senator Rubio, but he knows how to identify a national objective, execute a military plan, and ultimately prevail, Friedman wrote in November last year.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/15/trump-israel-ambassador-david-friedman?CMP=share_btn_tw

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Further right than Netanyahu and, no surprise, another Putin admirer.

If Berlusconi is like Trump, what can America learn from Italy?




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/21/if-berlusconi-is-like-trump-what-can-italy-teach-america?CMP=share_btn_tw

Source: Politico

Early Trump campaign operatives angst about their future as the Republican establishment muscles its way in.

They’ve been with him from the beginning – when no one believed he could win, and when the Republican Party establishment wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

But now, as President-elect Donald Trump builds out his administration, the group of loyalists who helped launch his campaign and powered its stunning early victories are growing worried they won’t be getting plum jobs.

snip

Several say they feel alienated from the transition effort -- especially from Priebus, an establishment figure who will be White House chief of staff. Priebus collided bitterly earlier this year with Lewandowski, who as Trump’s first campaign manager hired many of the originals, and played a major role in his June firing.

“None of us are exactly Cabinet-level,” said one staffer who is among those pining for a job, but so far hasn’t been given any promises. “Most of us just want to do a good job and help the country, but apparently we don't play the game very well.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-original-operatives-frozen-out-232383

Source: aol

Donald Trump's inaugural committee is scrambling to lock in A-list Hollywood performers for the parties celebrating him — and having a rough time booking big names, two insiders tell TheWrap.

Both said that Trump inaugural committee members have contacted them in recent days offering cash or even a government appointment if they could deliver marquee names.

"They are willing to pay anything," one of the insiders told TheWrap. "They told me, 'We'll pay their fees.' Most of these artists' fees are in the six to seven figures." The insider said the Trump negotiator also offered to pay him for delivering top talent, saying, "Name your price."

"I couldn't do it," the insider said. "Not even for a billion dollars."

Trump's team issued a denial to TheWrap.

Read more: http://www.aol.com/article/2016/12/07/trump-team-scrambles-for-a-list-inaugural-performers-they-are/21622912/

The president-elect’s tweets notwithstanding, the plan was likely to happen no matter who won the election









http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-art-behind-trump-softbank-50-billion-deal-1481102030?mod=e2tw

Source: Reuters

The White House said on Tuesday it does not know where President-elect Donald Trump got his figure of more than $4 billion to replace the Air Force One plane that transports presidents, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Trump urged the federal government on Tuesday to cancel an order with Boeing Co to develop a new Air Force One, saying costs were more than $4 billion and "out of control."

"Some of the statistics that have been cited, shall we say, don't appear to reflect the nature of the financial arrangement between Boeing and the Department of Defense," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-airplane-white-house-idUSKBN13V2DB?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=584704d604d3016c00ed4fd5&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

The city getting rich from fake news












http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38168281

Source: Washington Post

Then, on Monday, the Trump transition's communications team had an unexpected update for reporters.

"One of the first meetings that's coming up here shortly," Jason Miller said on a conference call, "Ivanka Trump will be meeting with Al Gore at Trump Tower to discuss climate issues." (Gore wasn't expected to meet with the president-elect, but subsequent reports indicate that he did after his meeting with Ivanka.)

Last week, Politico reported that the president-elect's oldest daughter wanted to act as something of a "climate czar" for his administration, championing climate issues as the first daughter of the United States. The Times suggested that Ivanka Trump might end up being "the most powerful first daughter in history," which is a lower bar than it might seem at first. (The competition is limited.) But the broader point is the same: Trump may see herself as a "strong inside force" within the Trump administration, as former Hillary Clinton aide Anne-Marie Slaughter put it to the Times.

The problem, of course, is that Ivanka Trump is supposed to be running the family business, acting as an outside control ensuring that there's at least something of a firewall between the actions of the president-elect and the effects on his pocketbook.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/05/ivanka-trumps-meeting-with-al-gore-highlights-the-questionable-role-shell-play-in-washington/?postshare=2161480978818036&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.3b02a36434b9

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-taiwan-phone-call-was-weeks-in-the-planning-say-people-who-were-involved/2016/12/04/f8be4b0c-ba4e-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.e4897ae60dc5