Why Florida AG Pam Bondi Supports Trump…

Thanks to Sunlight Foundation who does remarkable work.

Donald Trump’s history of paying to sway attorneys general

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Donald Trump speaking at a rally
Donald Trump in Reno, Nevada. (Photo credit: Darron Birgenheier/Flickr)

Donald Trump defends his past political donations as a means to further his business endeavors. He frames his contributions as good business. What better way to close such loopholes than to elect someone who knew how to exploit them best?

“I was a businessman, I give to everybody,” Trump said at the first Republican debate. “When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me.”

Questions about Trump University

In March of this year, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the IRS against the Donald Trump Foundation, alleging it violated its tax status. The foundation, a 501(c)(3) that is barred from political activities, donated $25,000 to “And Justice for All,” a 527 political organization associated with supporting Florida GOP Attorney General Pam Bondi’s re-election.

In 2013, the Florida Attorney General’s Office — led by Bondi — reportedly contemplated suing Trump University alongside New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a multi-state lawsuit over complaints by former students. Three days after the Orlando Sentinel wrote about the Floridians who felt scammed by Trump University, the Trump Foundation contributed money to And Justice for All. And just days after that, Bondi rescinded the investigation, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

Trump University now connotes a Ponzi scheme more than an educational institution. Due to the inflated tuition, former employees labeling the school as a “scheme” or a “lie” and a lack of return on investment for the students, the university is now mired in controversy. Some former students say the system was a con and many claim the classes they enrolled in were either worthless or nonexistent. The Better Business Bureau gave Trump University a D-minus in 2010.

Take the state of Texas as an example: According to the Dallas Morning News, “267 Texans paid more than $425,000 to attend Trump University’s three-day seminar, 39 purchased Trump’s “Gold Elite” package of additional classes and other perks costing $35,000 each, and 150 others spent more than $826,000 on other goods and services.”

The Orlando Sentinel obtained 8,491 documents from Bondi’s office which detailed her staff urging those affected by Trump University to hire their own attorneys if they wanted their money back – deflecting any need for her office to take action.

“Visit an Internet search engine such as http://www.yahoo.com or http://www.google.com to search for information on any class action lawsuits you may benefit from,” according to page 5,449 of Bondi’s document dump. Several discrepancies were made by Bondi’s staff, including the number of complaints received (her office originally said they only received one complaint) and a lack of effort to investigate the claims.

While Trump never detailed his motivations for the political donations, he called Bondi “a fabulous representative of the people” and Schneiderman, who didn’t back down from the suit, “a political hack.” While Schneiderman recently decried Trump University as an example of “straight-up fraud,” he still received $12,500 from Trump six years ago.

Bondi now says she personally solicited the money from Trump after complaints to her office had been filed. If this is the case, then it seems plausible to view Florida’s decision not to investigate Trump University as a possible quid pro quo exchange.

CREW recently issued a statement doubling down. “Attorney General Bondi’s admission that she personally solicited a donation from Donald Trump directly contradicts the Trump camp’s version of events. … This reaffirms the need for an immediate and thorough investigation.”

Spitzer, Cuomo, Pirro took Trump cash

Map of state contributions
Trump’s political donations to state candidates top $800,000 in nearly 15 states. Graphic credit: National Institute on Money in State Politics)

Bondi’s not the only attorney general who’s received Trump’s money. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Trump collectively gave to attorneys general nine times in Florida, California and New York for a total of $134,015.

  • 1998
    • Dennis Vacco, R-N.Y., $27,965
  • 2002
    • Eliot Spitzer, D-N.Y., $11,000 Spitzer resigned one year after serving as governor of New York in 2008
  • 2006
    • Walter Campbell Jr., D-Calif., $1,000
    • Edmund Brown Jr., D-Calif., $1,000 Brown now serves as the governor of California
    • Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., $20,000 Cuomo now serves as the governor of New York
    • Jeanine Pirro, R-N.Y., $10,000 Pirro is currently a television personality on Fox News
  • 2010
    • Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., $19,050 Rice now serves as Representative to New York’s 4th district
    • Eric Schneiderman, D-N.Y., $12,500
    • Daniel Donovan, R-N.Y., $5,000 Donovan now serves as Representative to New York’s 11th district
  • 2014
    • Pamela Bondi, R-Fla., $500
    • Kamala Harris, D-Calif., $6,000
    • John Cahill, R-N.Y., $20,000

Current Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, investigated Trump University when Abbott served as Texas attorney general. After Abbott dropped the investigation, Trump donated $35,000 to his gubernatorial campaign.

According to The Huffington Post, former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens, who worked closely with the Trump University investigation, called the probe “an extremely strong case” — only to have the case dropped.

Abbott’s successor, Ken Paxton (who remains in the spotlight for a number of other fraudulent charges), issued a cease-and-desist letter to Owens after he made copies of a 14-page internal summary detailing Trump University scamming millions of dollars from Texas students. “The decision not to sue was political,” Owens later told the Dallas Morning News. The scheduled meeting between Texas officials and Trump representatives for the $5.4 million settlement never even occurred.

Larger legal issues

501(c)(3) charitable organizations, such as the Donald Trump Foundation, are barred from any and all political activities. In exchange, they are tax exempt from the IRS. 527 organizations, such as Bondi’s And Justice for All group, are vehicles specifically for political activities.

A larger problem, aside from the illegal donations, is linking attorneys general (which are elected officials in 43 states) to lobbyists, gifts and other forms of non-quid pro quo arrangements, more or less, blatant bribes. Attorneys general are essentially the main legal advisor to the government, issuing formal opinions to state agencies, proposing legislation, instituting civil suits on behalf of the state and representing the public’s interests in charitable trust and solicitations.

Whether or not the two cases of Bondi and Abbott are illegal, the dubious timing of the donations and their actions to halt their investigations give off the appearance of a quid pro quo arrangement. These officials are voted by their constituents and are responsible for representing the public. Their interests should never be questioned.

Both Bondi and Abbott have endorsed Donald Trump for president.

The Failed Coup in Turkey Still Matters

 

Turkey has been an important member of NATO since 1952. The United States maintains an estimated 60 nuclear weapons there. The big question is whether relations between Turkey and Russia will be fully restored and there are facts telling us that per a weekend telephone call, both Russian and Turkey are blaming the United States for the coup with different motivations.

At the NATO summit just two weeks ago, President Obama and other NATO leaders reiterated that “deterrence and defense, based on an appropriate mix of nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities, remains a core element of our overall strategy.”

Only U.S. nuclear forces are shared within the alliance, and they remain under U.S. control but are matched with allied air crews from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. Weapons are stationed in those countries to maximize the demonstration of alliance solidarity. If the weapons are in the U.S. and we have to choose to send them, enemies might think they could give us second thoughts (like Obama had about the Syria red line). That’s destabilizing. Even the perception that the United States would not honor its NATO pledge would dangerously erode Europe’s security.

The most effective nonproliferation policy has actually been security guarantees by the United States to its allies. Several countries — including Germany, Japan and South Korea — have the ability to build nuclear weapons but have chosen not to because they trust in our commitment to defend them. If the U.S. were to withdraw weapons from Turkey, it would be a further signal to already worried allies that the United States can no longer be relied on as a security partner. And that could easily lead countries like Turkey to develop nuclear weapons of their own. More here from NYT’s.

The airbase named Incirlik in Turkey was built by the United States and it is a coalition airbase. So far as reported by the Department of Defense, Erdogan turned off the power source to Incirlik in defiance of the failed coup and closed the airspace stopping all sorties by coalition nations. John Kerry worked the phone diligently to restore airspace permission but Incirlik now is operating under generated power until Erdogan has completed his purge of the military and restores confidence in his loyal forces.

Meanwhile, there are some interesting facts still emerging regarding the coup. The government of Turkey provided electronically upon request by John Kerry the evidence that Fethullah Gulen was behind the coup.

MEE/ ISTANBUL, Turkey A list reportedly found in the pocket of a colonel suggests highly detailed planning was involved in the failed coup attempt launched in Turkey on Friday night.

The lengthy list, seen by Middle East Eye, designates military officers who were set to take over the running of critical posts once the coup was successful.

Positions mentioned on the list include those of treasury undersecretary, Turkish Airlines general manager, managers for Istanbul’s two airports, managers for the state-run broadcaster TRT and news agency Anadolu, the Ankara mayor’s post, head of police and interior minister among many others.

The majority of the names chosen for appointments are drawn from the country’s air force and the gendarmerie. Factions from within these two forces were the ones most heavily involved in the coup attempt.

The list also included changes to positions within the military establishment.

Government officials say that followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in self-imposed exile in the United States, are behind this attempted coup.

Gulen, a former ally turned foe of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), became the government’s public enemy number one they tried to implicate Erdogan and his close circle in corruption allegations.

One of the names on the list, Mikail Gullu, a military attache at the Turkish embassy in Kuwait, was arrested at Damman airport in Saudi Arabia on Sunday following a request from Ankara and is expected to be deported shortly.

Gullu appears on the list as the designated general manager of the state-owned armament development and production factory.

Among other high-profile names on the list is Sercan Gurcan, and colonel and commander of the gendarmerie in Istanbul province. More here from MiddleEastEye.

More details on how the Turkish military operated and the planned actions during the coup.

The Coup: An Air Force Led Assault with a Limited Ground Component

(Inpart): The planning for the coup appears to have begun months ago, but was implemented hastily, after MIT learned of the plot at 4:00 PM on Friday. Despite this, the putschists were able to marshal air and armor units to carry out a near synchronized attack on pre-designated points in Istanbul, Ankara, and the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris, where Erdogan was on holiday. The leader, according to Sabah, was Muharrem Kose, a retired colonel. General Mehmet Disli, a retired two star general in the land forces and the brother of an AKP member of parliament reportedly ordered the start of the military operation, setting in motion a complicated operation that involved air and ground units and a number of current and retired senior officers. To date, 103 admirals and generals have been arrested (out of a total of 358), which corresponds to 28 percent of the total in the Turkish Armed Forces.

The military aspect of the coup began around 10:00 PM, first with the closing of the two Istanbul bridges connecting the European continent with Asia. Simultaneously, up to six  F-16s from Akinci, an airbase some 12 miles north of Ankara, began a series of supersonic passes over Turkey’s capital city, refueling from four tankers flown from Incirlik Air Base, near the city of Adana. There are reports that F-16s from Diyarbakir air base also joined, perhaps providing two of the six F-16s. Incirlik has been a home to U.S. Air Force units since the 1950s. Lately, it has served as the hub for the U.S.-led air war against the ISIL. The base, since 1980, is under the command of a Turkish officer.

The F16s were soon joined by at least two Cobra attack helicopters and an additional Sikorsky SU-70 tasked — it appears — with strafing TURKSAT, Turkey’s main satellite television provider, as well as Golbasi, the headquarters for Turkey’s elite, special police forces. The putschists also sent eight cargo aircraft from Kayseri to Malatya airbase with weapons for the plotters, according to the military blog, The Aviationist — a detail since confirmed in  Murat Yetkin’s column in Hurriyet Daily News.

The F-16s also attacked the Turkish parliament and Erdogan’s palace while ground forces advanced on the prime minister’s residence. All three buildings sustained some damage, but the Parliament building was the most heavily damaged. Meanwhile, in Istanbul, land forces, most probably based somewhere nearby, did fire on protesters on one of the two bridges spanning the Bosphorus in the opening hours of the coup. Some of those who had come out to demonstrate against the unfolding operation were killed.

These events moved in parallel to three commando teams in three additional helicopters, based at Cigli air base near Izmir, flying to the hotel where Erdogan was presumed to be staying. The soldiers in one helicopter either fast roped into the building or landed nearby (depending on the source), but Erdogan’s security team had moved him to hotel nearby, missing the assault teams, according to Karim Shaheen, by some 25 minutes to an hour. Many more details here from WotR.

Looking Ahead to the Democrat Convention

Want to know how to hunt #DonkeysAroundTown? << — No Joke, go here for the rules of the contest.

NYT’s: The Democratic convention, which begins in Philadelphia on July 25, will start with speeches from Michelle Obama, the first lady, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who competed against Hillary Clinton for the nomination and endorsed her last week. Also speaking on the first night will be Astrid Silva, a Mexican immigrant and young so-called “Dreamer” who benefited from President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, policy.

The focus of the convention will then shift to families and criminal justice overhaul on its second night, which will feature a speech by former President Bill Clinton. He will be joined by the mothers of police-related violence victims, including Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will make the case for why Mrs. Clinton should take the baton from their administration. Finally, Mrs. Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, will address the delegates on Thursday night. More here.

***** For a photo tour of the movements included in the platform meetings, go here….any familiar faces or causes?

BOSTON (AP) – A Kennedy is being added to the list of speakers at the Democratic National Convention.

Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III said Wednesday he was approached by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren about speaking before she’s expected to speak Monday, the first night of the convention in Philadelphia.

Warren has been vetted as a possible running mate for presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

As you read below…..what is missing?
Day 1 of the Orlando Sector meeting

***** Meanwhile the draft of the party platform is outlined below:

2016 Democratic Party Platform DRAFT July 1, 2016

***DRAFT – DELIBERATIVE AND PREDECISIONAL***

Version July 1, 2016 ii

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preamble ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1

Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class……………………………….. 3

Minimum Wage ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Labor …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Equal Pay, Paid Leave, and Caregiving ………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Housing ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Social Security ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5

Retirement Security……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Postal Service ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

Create Good-Paying Jobs ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Infrastructure ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Manufacturing …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

Clean Energy Jobs……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7

Research, Science, and Technology……………………………………………………………………………….. 7

Small Business ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Youth Jobs………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7

Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality ………………………………………………………. 8

Fixing our Financial System …………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Stopping Corporate Concentration ………………………………………………………………………………… 9

Taxes …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

Trade …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Create Ladders of Opportunity …….. 10

Racial Justice…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10

Racial Wealth Gap …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11

Criminal Justice…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11

Immigration………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12

Civil Rights ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13

LGBT Rights…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13

Disability Rights ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13

Faith and Service……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Agricultural Communities ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Poverty / Communities Left Behind …………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations ……………………………………………………………………………. 14

People of the Territories……………………………………………………………………………………………… 16

Puerto Rico……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16

***DRAFT – DELIBERATIVE AND PREDECISIONAL***

Version July 1, 2016 iii

 

Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy 17

Voting Rights ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17

Campaign Finance……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17

Judges………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17

D.C. Statehood ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18

Management of Federal Government …………………………………………………………………………… 18

Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 18

Clean Energy Economy ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 19

Environmental and Climate Justice ……………………………………………………………………………… 19

Public Lands and Waters…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 20

Provide Quality and Affordable Education…………………………………………………………………… 20

Higher Education ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20

Student Debt……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20

Minority-Serving Institutions………………………………………………………………………………………. 21

For-Profit Schools ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21

Early Childhood, Pre-K, and K-12 ………………………………………………………………………………. 21

Ensure the Health and Safety of All Americans ……………………………………………………………. 22

Universal Health Care ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 22

Community Health Centers…………………………………………………………………………………………. 23

Prescription Drug Costs ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 23

Medical Research ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 24

Drug and Alcohol Addiction……………………………………………………………………………………….. 24

Mental Health……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 24

Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice ……………………………………………………………………… 24

Public Health…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25

Violence Against Women and Sexual Assault ………………………………………………………………. 25

Gun Violence Prevention ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 25

Principled Leadership …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 25

Support Our Troops and Keep Faith with Our Veterans ………………………………………………. 26

Confront Global Threats ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 27

Terrorism………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 28

Iran ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29

North Korea………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 29

Russia ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 29

Cybersecurity ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 29

Non-proliferation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

Climate Change…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

***DRAFT – DELIBERATIVE AND PREDECISIONAL***

Version July 1, 2016 iv

 

Protect Our Values………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

Women and Girls ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30

Trafficking and Modern Slavery………………………………………………………………………………….. 31

Young People ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 31

Religious Minorities…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31

Refugees…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31

Civil Society……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31

Anti-Corruption…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 31

Torture……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32

Closing Guantánamo Bay …………………………………………………………………………………………… 32

Development Assistance …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32

Global Health ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32

HIV and AIDS ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32

International Labor…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 32

A Leader in the World…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33

Asia-Pacific ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33

Middle East ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33

Europe ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 34

Americas ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 34

Africa ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Global Economy and Institutions…………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Soros and Black Lives Matters

Soros is a dual citizen of Hungary and the United States and the term sedition comes to mind. But then too there is Barack and Hillary as a protector.

  Related reading: Soros, Gore among W.H. visitors

“George Soros going to bat for Hillary Clinton”.

Politico Jump up ^ “Priorities USA Action Contributors, 2016 cycle – OpenSecrets”.

Rush Limbaugh Exposes Who’s Funding Black Lives Matter Anti-Cop Protests

Who the heck is funding Black Lives Matter’s protests?

That’s a question many of us have often wondered. Who has time to protest for days on end in the streets, blocking off highways, among other activities? I’d resort to my default explanation, that they’re all unemployed with nothing better to do, but there are so many of them. Someone must be paying them to protest.

 

A caller into Rush Limbaugh’s show the other day posed that question, and he had an answer that probably won’t surprise you. To quote:

RUSH: The largest benefactor of Black Lives Matter is George Soros.

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: You know what that is?

CALLER: I do.

RUSH: Well, he’s a very extreme, angry and mean-spirited liberal who is doing his best to destroy capitalism wherever it is in the world. And, of course, since we are the greatest, largest capitalist outpost —

CALLER: He wants to collapse this country.

RUSH: Wants to collapse the country, exactly right.  Don’t ask me why.  My ability to understand these people in that sense, I’ve never understood why people want to tear down the greatest economic engine that has ever been, that enables everything they believe. It enables all their welfare benefits. It enables all of their whatever.  I’ve never understood why they want to tear it down, but they do, and George Soros, the amount of money, I was stunned last week, I’ve learned George Soros has given these people $33 million in the last three or four years, $33 million.

CALLER: That’s a drop in the bucket to what’s coming in for Hillary’s campaign.

And he’s right. The Daily Mail reported back in 2015 on Soros’ $33 million in funding of BLM, noting that “Liberal billionaire George Soros donated $33 million to social justice organizations which helped turn events in Ferguson from a local protest into a national flashpoint. The handouts, revealed in tax filings from Soros’s private foundation, were given to dozens of different groups which weighed in on the crisis.”

Snopes rated the claim as “half-true,” acknowledging that Soros funded a network of groups, some of which engaged in Ferguson-related protest activities. They rated “false” the half of the statement about funds going exclusively to fund Ferguson-related protests, but that seems like a minor quibble.

…. And for some bonus entertainment, Donald Trump had a few brief comments about Soros funding BLM back in March.

Related reading: George Soros, Godfather of the Left Gives $550 Million to Liberal Causes

Trump’s 1st Day to Day 100 as President

Some of this is impossible to disagree with considering there is so much to repair and restore. The question becomes just what are the priorities to this possible new administration and has the full mission been fully explained and published? There is argument that many Obama Executive Orders should in fact be terminated or amended immediately yet, there is no indication of this occurring as noted below.

So let’s begin with this former Goldman Sachs fella shall we?

A must read: Drudge and Breitbart Wont Tell You this on Trump

Report: Trump wants ex-Goldman Sachs partner to head Treasury

TheHill: Donald Trump is reportedly planning to nominate Steve Mnuchin, his campaign’s finance chairman, for Treasury secretary if he wins the White House in November. Anthony Scaramucci, a major fundraiser for the Trump campaign, told Fortune on Tuesday that the presumptive GOP nominee announced his intentions to a group of prospective donors. Trump tapped Mnuchin in early May to lead the campaign’s fundraising operation. The move raised eyebrows among Republican donors and fundraising operatives, many of whom had never heard of him.

Gingrich pushing Trump to issue hundreds of executive orders on first day

TheHill: CLEVELAND — Newt Gingrich, who is expected to serve as a senior policy adviser in Donald Trump’s administration if the GOP presidential nominee is elected, says he would urge a newly elected President Trump to sign as many as 300 executive orders on his first day in office.
Gingrich, who, while serving as Speaker of the House in the 1990s, struck deals with former President Bill Clinton to reform welfare and balance the budget, says Trump will have to build excitement in Congress to break the legislative gridlock that has defined most of President Obama’s administration.
“You’ve got an extraordinary opening day, where you sign [200] or 300 executive orders,” Gingrich told a gathering at The Union Club Tuesday evening.

Gingrich said one thing Trump might do right off the bat is move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something Trump pledged to do earlier this year. The move would please many pro-Israeli Jewish voters and Christians, who want Jerusalem to serve as the country’s undivided capital.

Gingrich also highlighted an executive order authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline as another item on the first-day agenda.

“You have a whole bunch of stuff you can do on day one that gives you a sense of excitement,” he said at the event in downtown Cleveland hosted by the law firm Dentons.

Executive orders from Trump could do much to undo actions taken by President Obama, who has relied on executive orders extensively to move forward with his agenda.

Gingrich said Trump should start preparing for his first hundred days as soon as September by meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to pick five or six legislative items to pass in the first four months of 2017.
“In September, early October, you try to find with McConnell and Paul Ryan five or 10 big things,” he said.

Gingrich thinks Trump should unveil a list of policy proposals similar to the Contract with America, which Gingrich famously designed in 1994, to give voters a rationale for giving Republicans control of the House after 40 years of Democratic rule.

“Sometime in the next 60 days, they need to outline just a handful of big things, and they need to accomplish them by April 30th, which is the hundred days, and that will build a momentum of achievement,” he said.

But Gingrich acknowledged it will be important to bring Democrats on board. Otherwise, Trump’s legislative agenda is likely to get hung up by filibusters in the Senate and other obstructionist tactics.

“They ought to get as many Democrats as they can,” he said.

Gingrich and Trump sat down for a two-and-a-half-hour meeting recently in Indianapolis, where they discussed the possibility of Gingrich serving as Trump’s running mate.

When it became apparent that Gingrich would likely not get the nod, Trump asked him what role he would like to serve in the administration. Gingrich asked to be given a special position akin to a tsar in charge of reviewing the federal bureaucracy.

“He said, ‘Look, if you don’t get the vice presidency, what do you want?’ ” Gingrich recounted. “I said I want to be the senior planner for the entire federal government, and I want a letter from you that says Newt Gingrich is authorized to go to any program in any department, examine it and report directly to the president.”

He said he wanted to serve in the job without pay to have “absolute ability to say what I think.”

But Gingrich, who was one of the most divisive figure in politics when he served as Speaker — played a central role in the 1995-96 government shutdown and oversaw impeachment proceedings against Clinton — acknowledged that soliciting Democratic cooperation will be essential.

He said Trump is well suited to strike bipartisan deals because of his professional experience working with Democratic politicians in New York and other cities on major real estate projects.

Gingrich said that, if elected, Trump should use his deal-making skills to put together a massive infrastructure bill that would be paid for with royalties from opening federal lands to oil and gas drilling, mining, and other development.
He said giving energy and mining companies access to federal lands could generate up to $1 trillion for infrastructure projects.

Haley Barbour, a longtime party strategist who served as Republican National Committee chairman in 1994, when Republicans took over the House, said it would be a good idea for Trump to come up with something similar to the Contract with America.
“I think it is very helpful to Trump politically to talk about serious, substantive policy,” he said. “One of the issues is a lot of Republicans and independents are not sure what he’s really for. So lay it out.

“It would give a lot of Republicans who are not certain some comfort,” he added. “Talk about economics, budget, debt, crime.”

Barbour, who voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the presidential primary, is attending his 11th Republican National Convention.

Going towards day 100:

IF DONALD TRUMP WAS PRESIDENT The world v the Donald
HIS presidency is only 100 days old, yet already some are wondering if Donald Trump will ever again match the approval ratings he enjoyed one week after inauguration day. His “Made in America” summit, held in a blizzard-lashed White House on January 27th, delighted the public, according to opinion polls, even as it reminded the president’s critics of an event more suited to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Mr Trump dressed down two dozen corporate chieftains on live television as “dishonest and greedy” and demanded that they promise, on the spot, to close or scrap named manufacturing plants in China within his first term and bring production back to America. The newspapers the next day carried images of Tim Cook, the head of Apple, and Dennis Muilenburg, the boss of Boeing, shivering in the North Portico as they waited, coatless, to be picked up by their drivers after declining to make such a promise, prompting their summary expulsion from the building.

Supporters also cheered Mr Trump’s appointment in his first week of Joe Arpaio, the hardline sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, to chair a presidential task force on building a fortified border with Mexico within three years, named “Make America Safe Again”. There was a more muted response to a third announcement: that the new president’s first overseas visit would be to Moscow, for a meeting with Mr Putin to explore common ground in the fight against Islamist terrorism.

True, Mr Trump promised he would strike “only the toughest deals, the smartest deals, or I walk from the table”. But his quick offer to meet the Russian president reminded many Americans, uncomfortably, of the murky espionage scandal that played so large a role in the defeat of Hillary Clinton. In October top-secret files had appeared on the internet, allegedly extracted by hackers from Mrs Clinton’s private e-mail server when she was secretary of state, identifying individuals as American intelligence assets in Russia and Ukraine; one, an Israeli-Russian businessman, was soon afterwards found dead at a Geneva hotel. Mrs Clinton continues to deny any knowledge of the leaked documents. Her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, sparked fresh headlines with an intemperate interview in March in which he charged that “Kremlin dirty tricks” helped to swing the 2016 election.

One hundred days into the Trump era, that Moscow trip remains on hold. Like much else it has been delayed by diplomatic, military and commercial moves by China, Mexico and Russia that a dissident Republican, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, has called a “pre-emptive strike by the rest of the world” against Mr Trump’s “America First” agenda.

No date has been set for Mr Trump’s emergency trip to Beijing, announced by him on Twitter several weeks ago but now deemed “just a suggestion” by the White House spokesman, Sean Hannity. There has been no suggestion of a summit with the leader who has most gleefully cast himself as the anti-Trump, President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico.

Relations with Russia trouble the Washington national-security establishment the most. The president faces growing questions about the mysterious disappearance of a helicopter carrying Estonian troops over the Baltic Sea on March 1st, amid claims that the aircraft may have been shot down by a Russian warship. Mr Trump is being pressed over reports that he told the Estonian president in a telephone call that his small Baltic republic, a member of NATO, needs to “get smart and shut up”, because America’s national interest lies in co-operating with Russia in Syria, not with defending European allies. Declining to address those reports, Mr Trump used a rambling White House press conference to complain about the media, about official leaks and about disloyalty at the Pentagon, where, he said, “there are a lot of generals who need firing, believe me.”

On the economic front moves by Chinese authorities against American companies have panicked investors. The first firm to be hit was Boeing, days after a speech by Mr Trump calling it “just disgusting” that the aerospace giant is planning to open a new facility in China. Chinese state media gave prominent coverage to a speech by an aviation regulator warning that planned sales of hundreds of aircraft to Chinese airlines might need to be reviewed if “certain entities are not the reliable long-term suppliers that they claim to be.”

Soon afterwards the China headquarters of Apple, a computer firm, and Pfizer, a drugs company, were raided by antitrust investigators from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce; both firms say they are in full compliance with competition laws. In early March the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced that the most popular models sold by General Motors and Ford in China will face new tests of their exhaust emissions. Brushing aside assurances from American car executives that their emissions comply with all Chinese laws, the ministry added that Chinese consumers might care to wait for tests to be completed before choosing an American vehicle. More poetically, a recent editorial in the state-run Global Times talked of China being willing to take “resolute actions” against “an arrogant foreign leader who prattles like a monk about honesty while hiding a stolen goose in his sleeve”. Read more here as Mexico is next up as summarized by The Economist.