Donald Trump Jr's girlfriend coronavirus positive

WASHINGTON — The girlfriend of President Donald Trump's eldest son has tested positive for coronavirus, US media reported Friday.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News television personality who is dating Donald Trump Jr, had traveled to South Dakota to see the US president’s Fourth of July speech and celebration fireworks at Mount Rushmore.

Guilfoyle, 51, was immediately isolated after discovering she had the virus in a routine test conducted on anyone expected to come in close contact with the president, the New York Times reported.

In a statement to the newspaper, Sergio Gor, chief of staff to the Trump campaign's finance committee, said: "She's doing well, and will be retested to ensure the diagnosis is correct since she's asymptomatic."

He added: "As a precaution (she) will cancel all upcoming events. Donald Trump Jr was tested negative, but as a precaution is also self-isolating and is canceling all public events."

Guilfoyle is the third person close to the US president to return a positive COVID-19 test, US media reported.

Others include Trump's personal valet and the US vice president's press secretary.

The pandemic has claimed nearly 130,000 American lives and a recent resurgence "puts the entire country at risk," top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said.

Agence France-Presse

Trump admits son met with Russian to get information on opponent

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that his son met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 "to get information on an opponent" but defended it as "totally legal."

It was Trump's most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival for the presidency.

As he has in the past, Trump insisted in a tweet that he did not know at the time about the meeting between his son Donald Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.

"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!"

The meeting has come under intense scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with a Russian effort to sway the 2016 election in the Republican's favor.

The president's tweet about the meeting was one in a thread in which he reiterated criticism of Mueller, calling his probe "the most one sided Witch Hunt in the history of our country" peppered with "lies and corruption."

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has been brooding in private about whether his son unintentionally put himself in legal jeopardy by meeting with Veselnitskaya.

Trump called the Post report "a complete fabrication."

ILLEGAL MEETING?

The Trump Tower meeting was arranged by British music promoter, Rob Goldstone, who told Donald Jr that he had "information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."

Young Trump responded "I love it" when first offered the "dirt" on Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

News of the meeting, which Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and top campaign official Paul Manafort also attended, broke in July 2017.

Donald Jr initially said in a statement to The New York Times that the meeting was "primarily" about American adoptions of Russian children.

He later admitted he accepted the meeting with Veselnitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Clinton, but said nothing came of it.

The Post had reported that the statement to The Times was dictated by the president, though at the time Trump's lawyers denied his involvement.

They later reversed course in a memo to Mueller and said Trump was indeed behind the statement that omitted the prospect of collecting dirt on Clinton.

Lawyers described the statement as "short but accurate," according to The Post.

Asked on Sunday why he had denied the president's involvement, one of Trump's lawyers Jay Sekulow told ABC that "I had bad information at that point."

"I made a mistake in my statement," he said. "That happens when you have cases like this."

The president's lawyers argue that the meeting, in and of itself, violated no laws.

"The question is how will it be illegal?" Sekulow said Sunday.

"What law, statute, rule or regulation has been violated?"

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Donald Trump Jr.'s wife files for divorce in New York

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - The wife of Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of U.S. President Donald Trump, has filed for divorce in New York, according to court records.

Vanessa Trump, a former model and actress, and Trump Jr. said in a joint statement on Thursday: "After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways."


The statement was provided by the Trump Organization, the president's business empire, which his son helps manage.

Further details were not immediately available on the uncontested divorce filing by Vanessa Trump in a New York state court. She and Trump Jr. have "enormous respect" for each other, according to the joint statement, which also asked for privacy.

The couple were married in 2005 and have five children.

In recent months, Trump Jr., 40, has become enmeshed in an investigation of possible collusion between his father's presidential campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election. The president has denied any such collusion.

Trump Jr. arranged a 2016 meeting between a group of Russians and members of his father's campaign after an intermediary said the Russians offered damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "I love it," Trump Jr. responded to the intermediary in an email.

He has played a key role in the Trump Organization since his father entered the White House in January 2017. The president said he would maintain ownership in his hotels, golf courses and hundreds of other businesses but hand off control to his two oldest sons.

The Trump Organization's website describes Trump Jr. as an executive vice president, like his brother Eric Trump.

Last month, Vanessa Trump was taken to a New York hospital after she opened a piece of mail containing a threat and a white powder that was later determined to be non-hazardous.

Federal prosecutors in Boston earlier this month charged a Massachusetts man with sending the threatening letter. (Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump son compares Syrian refugees to poisoned candies

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's eldest son triggered an online storm with a tweet comparing Syrian refugees to a bowl containing an assortment of tainted and untainted candies.

"This image says it all," Donald Trump Jr, 38, wrote Monday, in a tweet showing a picture of a white bowl filled with the popular, rainbow-colored Skittles candies.

Written above the image is: "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syria refugee problem."

The Twitter post -- showing the familiar "Trump-Pence 2016" logo with the presidential campaign slogan "Make America Great Again!" -- was met with immediate scorn from users of the popular micro-blogging site.

"I'm not even big on Skittles but now I will buy up every single packet," wrote @SarahSahim.

"Is Donald Trump's new campaign slogan "Fear The Rainbow"? wrote Twitter user @AngrySalmond.

Donald Trump, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has sparked waves of criticism with comments on race, immigrants and refugees, including calling for a ban on Muslim travelers to the United States.

Equally controversial was his pronouncement last year that many Mexican immigrants were drug smugglers and rapists.

The brash businessman also is strongly opposed to plans by President Barack Obama to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States by the end of this month.

Syria is in the grip of the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, amid an exodus of more than 4.8 million fleeing the war-torn country.

The United States, which has a long tradition of taking in refugees, has been criticized for its slow response to the Syrian crisis.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Son says no Trump 'softening' before immigration speech

Is Donald Trump softening his hardline immigration stance to a "fair and humane" policy ahead of November's presidential election? Or is he still intent on deporting millions who entered the United States illegally?

The picture has been fuzzy for weeks, with the Republican flagbearer appearing to shift his positioning.

But it could become clearer in Arizona on Wednesday, when Trump unveils immigration policy prescriptions and perhaps clears up the confusion surrounding one of the pivotal issues of his White House campaign.

Trump's son offered a hint Tuesday at the message that the brash billionaire will deliver in Phoenix.

"He wasn't softening on anything," Donald Trump Jr told CNN when asked about how his father recently appeared to survey a Texas campaign crowd over what he should do about the nation's roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Challenged on whether the Republican nominee still wanted to deport them, Trump Jr said that was "correct," but suggested a more moderate tone on the controversial issue.

"You have to start with baby steps," he added. "You have to eliminate sanctuary cities. You have to get rid of the criminals certainly, first and foremost. And you have to secure the border."

Trump's signature campaign promise has been to build a wall on the US border with Mexico, and he repeated that pledge in a Tuesday tweet.

- Promises -

"From day one I said that I was going to build a great wall on the SOUTHERN BORDER, and much more. Stop illegal immigration. Watch Wednesday!" he posted on Twitter.

But recently, Trump has distanced himself from previous vows to mount a "deportation force" to remove millions.

The Republican presidential candidate's hardline stance on repatriating undocumented immigrants in the United States has been a central tenet of Trump's White House campaign -- and a hugely popular selling point to his most ardent supporters.

It now looms as an obstacle, however, as he seeks to expand his base in the general election contest with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has accused Trump of fueling xenophobia and racism.

Trump's new campaign director, Kellyanne Conway, said there has been little real change in the central tenets of Trump's immigration platform, including "no amnesty" for those in the country illegally.

But she stressed Trump was committed to a "fair and humane" approach to securing America's borders.

One year ago, he issued an immigration reform plan calling for an end to automatic citizenship for those born in the United States, a right which some say is abused by undocumented migrants seeking American birthright for their children.

This past week, however, the Republican presidential candidate -- once uncompromising in his vow to use a deportation force to repatriate illegal migrants -- seemed less resolute, even suggesting he could work with law-abiding immigrants who paid taxes.

"There certainly can be a 'softening,' because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump told a Fox News town hall last week.

Trump in recent days has signaled he will focus first on removing those undocumented immigrants with criminal records. He touched on his plan in a weekend speech.

"These international gangs of thugs and drug cartels will be -- I promise you, from the first day in office... we're going to get rid of these people," Trump said Saturday in Iowa.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com