poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201704/979/1155968404_5415374946001_5415365531001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump basks in electoral win before NRA crowd

ATLANTA — President Donald Trump, on the eve of the 100th day of his administration, reveled in his improbable November victory, telling an adoring crowd at the NRA’s leadership forum on Friday that he was sorely underestimated while also jabbing Sen. Elizabeth Warren for a possible run in 2020.

“It's truly wonderful to be back in Atlanta and back with my friends at the NRA. You're my friends,” Trump said, recalling his address at the same event last year. “It was in the middle of a historic year and in the middle of a truly historic election. What fun that was? November 8th. Wasn't that a great evening? Do you remember that evening?”

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Prompting applause from the crowd, Trump ran through his surprise victories in states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, claiming that “we ran up the East Coast,” even though he lost multiple states along the Atlantic.

He also recalled that polls and conventional wisdom leading up to the election predicted that he would struggle to get 270 electoral votes.

“Hundreds of times I heard, there is no — you know, there's no route. There is no route to 270 and we ended with 306,” he said. “So they were right. Not 270. 306. That was some evening.”

He also declared the election a victory for the gun rights movement, telling the crowd: “The eight year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.”

The most tangible gain of that victory for Second Amendment absolutists has been the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, an accomplishment Trump touted during the speech to cheers from the crowd.

Trump’s remarks were in the vein of speeches he delivered on the campaign trail, complete with a raucous crowd that had been warmed up by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, who blamed the media, academic and political “elites” for America’s woes, and singer Lee Greenwood.

Much of the crowd in the darkened room remained on their feet throughout the president’s speech, phones held aloft.

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Trump predicted that Democrats running against him in 2020 would seek to court the NRA and gun voters. One such candidate might be Warren (D-Mass.), Trump said, referring to her by "Pocahontas," the nickname he used during the campaign to mock her for claiming Native American heritage.

“I have a feeling that in the next election you're going to be swamped with candidates but you're not going to be wasting your time," Trump said. "You'll have plenty of those Democrats coming over and you're going to say, no, sir, no thank you. No, ma'am. Perhaps ma’am. It may be Pocahontas. Remember that. And she is not big for the NRA, that I can tell you.”

And, true to his free-wheeling style, Trump took a moment to shout-out his former primary opponent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who joined Trump for the trip down. He described his relationship with Cruz as “like, dislike, like,” apparently referencing Cruz’s initial unwillingness to attack Trump, followed by his refusal to endorse and completed by his endorsement late in the campaign.

After the speech Trump stayed in Atlanta to attend a fundraiser for Karen Handel, the former Georgia Secretary of State who is running in a special election to fill Tom Price’s House seat against a young Democrat in a rapidly changing suburban district. Trump touted Handel in his NRA speech, and derided the Democrat, Jon Ossoff.

Trump is scheduled to return to Washington on Friday night before hitting the road again Saturday for a speech in Harrisburg, Penn., to mark his 100th day in office. The speech will coincide with the White House Correspondents Dinner which Trump, unlike his predecessors, will not be attending.</s>The only truly predictable aspect of Donald Trump’s presidency is his total lack of predictability.

He’s up, he’s down. He’s here, he’s there.

After his first face-to-face in Washington with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, supposedly bolstered by the warmth of his daughter Ivanka’s feminist affinity with our leader, Trump said NAFTA just needed to be “tweaked” when it came to his northern friends.

He seemed to be in a good mood.

Then, before days turned into weeks, Trump said he was going to grab his already well-worn executive-order pen and blow up the three-way trade agreement — rip it to shreds.

“It’s the worst trade deal in the history of the world,” he recently said, all of which adds another layer to the invective already hurled.

Like … “NAFTA is a total disaster. It was signed by Bill Clinton who never suffered the ravages because he signed it, then got out, and let other people suffer with it.”

And (during the campaign) … “Word is that Crooked Hillary has very small and unenthusiastic crowds in Pennsylvania. Perhaps it is because her husband signed NAFTA.”

NAFTA has Trump obsessed, and perhaps confused.

While milking the crowd in Wisconsin dairy country, Trump tore into Canada’s supply-management system when it came to dairy, forgetting, but perhaps not knowing, that America is the benefactor of a considerable trade surplus in that sector, and would be getting the cream of the deal until the proverbial cows came home.

While still on a roll, however, Trump then began taking his axe to our softwood lumber industry — threatening a 24% tariff — without realizing that the joy in these cheap joists from Canada has resulted directly in cheaper costs to build the homes in America.

Somehow along the line, did Trump begin thinking that Canadian milk and Canadian lumber are both a part of NAFTA?

They’re not, of course.

But what the hell? If it sells in Peoria, et cetera.

Then, as the predictably unpredictable will do, Trump said Thursday that overnight telephone conversations with Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto now has him convinced to “renegotiate” NAFTA rather than terminate it.

“It would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system” to simply toss NAFTA in the dustbin, said Trump.

“Now, if I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA,” he said. “But we are going to give renegotiations a really good shot.”

This, of course, was music to Trudeau’s ears, since he admitted it was a close call.

“He expressed that, yes, he was very much thinking about cancelling,” said Trudeau. “I highlighted (that) a disruption like cancelling NAFTA, even if it theoretically might lead to better outcomes, would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain for an awful lot of families.”

Who’s to say? But perhaps Trudeau also reminded Trump — as inoffensively and as diplomatically as possible, of course — that no president has to authority to kill a trade deal like NAFTA.

Oh, Trump can ask for it, but only Congress can kill it.

And no U.S. legislator wanting re-election would kill the golden goose that sees upwards of $2 billion a day in trade between Canada and the United States, especially the 30-plus states who would be economically crippled without this two-way street.

Saturday will mark Donald J. Trump’s 100th day in the Oval Office as the 45th President of the United States.

That represents only 7% of his first term over.</s>Nearly a quarter of Donald Trump’s tweets have contained unproven or disputed claims since the businessman became president, an analysis by the Press Association has found.

The study looked at whether statements made in tweets from the president’s @realDonaldTrump account could either be backed up by publicly-available evidence, or had been disputed by other news outlets.

It found that, of 447 tweets sent from the account since he took office, 108 contained claims that were either unproven or disputed – a total of 24.2%.

The president’s penchant for questionable claims appeared to peak around the middle of February, a month in which a series of damaging reports emerged relating to his team’s alleged communications with Russia during the election campaign.

In that month, President Trump tweeted 37 disputable claims, according to the PA analysis – including 12 in the week of security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation over suggestions he covered up talks with Kremlin officials.

Of those, six appeared to directly defend his team’s conduct in the Russia scandal, while five specifically contained the phrase “fake news”.

“This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign,” he tweeted on February 15, just hours after Mr Flynn’s departure.

He added two days later:

At the start of April, amid further pressure over the Russia allegations, the Press Association noted 13 questionable claims in Mr Trump’s tweets – the highest week of his presidency.

All but two of these related either to Russia or to unproven allegations of surveillance against the president and his team.

Another peak came as President Trump tweeted unfounded claims that he had his “wires tapped” by predecessor Barack Obama in the run-up to the election.

In a string of four tweets sent in the early hours of March 4, Mr Trump made the claims which he later disowned – telling a press conference two weeks later that he was merely quoting a “very talented” Fox News reporter, Andrew Napolitano.

Mr Napolitano had cited three unnamed sources claiming that the surveillance had been carried about by British intelligence agency GCHQ, at the request of President Obama.

Fox later said it had “no evidence of any kind” that President Trump had been subject to such surveillance.

The only week during which the PA analysis found no questionable claims was between April 8 and 14 – the seven days following his decision to launch air strikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical gas attack that had been launched there by the country’s government.</s>He took barely three months to reveal the truth. Donald Trump is the true Manchurian Candidate, only a tool of Neoconservatives rather than Communists. A new movie is sure to come and undoubtedly will be a smash, the biggest ever with the most Academy Awards ever, at least if President Trump has his way.

Donald Trump ran as a populist. Some conservative critics imagined that he was a plant pushed into the presidential race by the Clintons to ensure Hillary’s election. If true, that plan sure backfired.

It’s looking more likely that he was a Neoconservative plant instead. The Neocons, whose objective is a war on every continent, multiple permanent military commitments persisting until the end of time, and massive armed services ready to bomb, invade, and occupy every square foot of the earth, realized that they were chiefs without Indians. Most Americans were more interested in defending the U.S. than the rest of the globe. Average folks didn’t see much reason to bankrupt the nation attempting to remake other societies, irrespective of history, religion, ethnicity, geography, and culture. People didn’t like having their relatives in uniform treated as gambit pawns in a global chess game by Washington’s ivory tower warriors.

The Iraq debacle left a particularly bad odor. The “cakewalk” generated thousands of dead and tens of thousands of wounded Americans, sectarian civil war, hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of displaced Iraqis, mass religious persecution and “cleansing,” al-Qaeda in Iraq turned Islamic State, and enhanced Iranian influence. Heck’uva job, Georgie Bush!

Donald Trump turned out to be the perfect answer for the Neocons. He'd supported the Iraq war but claimed to be against it. And he became almost the only Republican presidential contender to criticize the invasion ordered by the last Republican president. He also urged withdrawing from Afghanistan, which no one else even mentioned. These stands offered perfect camouflage for his Neocon inner self.

Then he made a populist pitch to win the votes of Americans who were tired of being stuck with GOP candidates who wanted the U.S. to be the global 911 number. During the campaign he criticized nation-building and aggressive war. He advocated staying out of Syria’s civil war, focusing instead on ISIS. He opposed President Barack Obama’s proposed attack over Syria’s apparent use of chemical weapons and said congressional authority was necessary for such a strike.

Candidate Trump called NATO obsolete and criticized the Europeans for relying on America for their defense. He urged better relations with Russia rather than courting war over the countries of Georgia and Ukraine, which were irrelevant for U.S. security. Trump suggested talking to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and said the U.S. didn’t get its money’s worth from the alliance with the Republic of Korea. The GOP candidate even questioned Washington’s defense of the oil-rich Saudi royals.</s>Photographers who cover the White House reflect on their most memorable images from Trump’s first 100 days in office By Benazir Wehelie and Kyle Almond, CNN

Ever since President Donald Trump raised his right hand, vowing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, the world has watched his efforts to “Make America Great Again.”

Among those observing have been photographers who cover the White House. Day after day — and often shoulder to shoulder — they document the happenings of the Trump administration.

We asked some of them to share what they feel is their most memorable photograph from Trump’s first 100 days, and why.

“Covering Trump has been challenging, daunting and frustrating. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a transition run like this before, and this is my third time! (Clinton-to-Bush, Bush-to-Obama, Obama-to-Trump.)

“In the first couple of days and weeks, the photographers assigned to the White House took the motto ‘expect the unexpected’ because we didn’t know what was going to happen or, for that matter, when. All we knew is that whatever President Trump was planning on doing, it was going to make a lot of news.

“The photo I’ve attached was taken halfway through President Trump’s first solo news conference at the White House. Normally at an event like this, members of the White House press are given a couple of hours ‘heads-up’ to prepare. But this was not the case: I only knew because my co-worker Evan Vucci sent me a text while he was covering Trump’s scheduled meeting in the Roosevelt Room where Trump made the last-minute announcement.

“The text went like this: ‘Trump is going to do a news Conference in 60mins in the East Room,’ followed by ‘I’m not joking this is real.’ What happened next was a mad scramble by all the members of the media to set up in the East Room — not a small task.

“The news conference itself was what I can only best describe as surreal. The President’s remarks covered a far range of topics and took questions from a wider range of journalists than normally expected. In the photo above, the President is pausing while he glances to see who he will pick next.”

“In the early days of the Trump presidency, photographers were invited to make images of the President as he made phone calls to leaders around the world. Because the administration wanted to offer this opportunity but did not want members of the media to be able to hear his conversation, we were allowed to make images by shooting through the windows into the Oval Office.

“Trump had been making phone calls throughout the day, and we had been taken out earlier to make images of him on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo opportunities at the White House are usually very fast (they’re often called “sprays”) and with the earlier phone call I had made pretty tight images focusing on Trump at his desk for a variety of reasons, one of them being to help cut down on the amount of glare from shooting through a window.

“Because of the reports of Russian interference that had surrounded the 2016 campaign and the questions of Russian contacts that had dogged Trump’s inner circle of advisers, I knew that this phone call was a big moment that could possibly have significant historical significance. I wanted to emphasize the fact that this was now President Donald Trump making a call to Vladimir Putin, the man who might have had a significant impact on the election.

“While other photographers went to a farther window for a tighter image of the President and his advisers, I took a position toward the center of the room and photographed with a wide lens to emphasize the significance of the room.

“During the call, one of his biggest advisers Steve Bannon, who held a lot of power and influence during the election and into the administration, began to slowly and contemplatively pace around the room as he listened to the call. I made an image of him in the center of the room, framed by a door as the rest of Trump’s advisers were focused on the President, sitting behind a desk on the phone. I think Bannon’s body language makes the image work, and I think after Bannon draws you into the center of the image, the wide angle lets the viewer move around the room to look at each person’s expression.”

“As world leaders began making their visits to President Donald Trump, perhaps none garnered more star power than the visit of Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Trudeau and Trump are contrasting figures on many levels, and this photo, for some, provided an effective illustration on that theme.”

“I traveled with President Trump on his first visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The press was taken into the lobby of the hospital to wait for his entrance. Sgt. 1st Class Alvaro Barrientos came in with his wife, Tammy, followed by President Trump and the first lady a couple minutes later.

“Trump was presenting Barrientos with the Purple Heart, an honor given to service members killed or wounded in action. The ceremony lasted only a couple minutes, with very brief remarks by the President. When it ended, Trump and Barrientos went their separate ways and we were ushered back into the motorcade while Trump toured the rest of the facility. That was the first time I had witnessed a president give a Purple Heart, as President Obama would always do so in private.

“To me, this photograph represents the disconnect between the administration and its citizens, as well as the disconnect between America and its service members, particularly the community of veterans. ‘We are much easier not seen,’ a friend and veteran told me, a belief he says many in the community feel. It’s only been 100 days. There are plenty more days ahead for President Trump to change this sentiment.”

“When Donald Trump was elected 45th President of the United States, I stood on a riser at the back of a ballroom thinking that it was the end of a yearlong-plus journey that had taken me all over the country. I never thought of myself as a political photographer. A photographer who covered campaigns yes, but full-time politics? Not really a thought in my mind. I guess I just figured that a whole wildly talented crop of people already does that in DC with way more experience than I have. But I moved here, and there have been a lot of firsts and I’ve loved every minute of every one of them.

“Turns out DC is kind of a spectacular place to photograph politics, especially in the midst of an administration that makes a lot of news. There has been a fair amount of controversy surrounding the media, but when we are all working, there are no personal politics involved — myself and my colleagues are there to document history.

“The day I made this picture was my first day in the Oval Office. I just remember standing nervously 2 feet from the Resolute Desk, waiting for the President to arrive and wondering how in the hell I got myself into this spot. The President entered the room and spoke and it was a blur, and I just kept shooting, hoping something came of it.

“It’s certainly not the best picture I’ve made of President Trump since I first started photographing his campaign at the Iowa State Fair in 2015, but sometimes the pictures you hold closest aren’t the best. Sometimes they just mean something to you.”

“This photograph of Trump stuck out to me because it was one of the first times I saw a candid moment with him. It seems these days we, the White House Press Corps and Tight Travel Pool, are ushered into a room to see the President at a table or a podium, reading from notes or a prepared statement — which to me is a scripted event where you don’t expect anything other than what the administration wants you to see to deliver their message to the press.

“This, of course, was their event, highlighting health insurance and the trucker industry, but there was a moment in it that just stood out where the President appeared to be screaming while pretending to drive an 18-wheeler semi truck. I had no idea I even had the frame at the time because it all happened so fast, but once I got back to my desk and began editing I noticed there truly was a moment where we finally see some of the President’s demeanor and personality. The image quickly went viral on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, with memes coming from all over the country and world. BuzzFeed.com even jokingly took many of my images from that day and made it into a children’s book, ‘The President and the Big Boy Truck.’ ”

“This photo was taken the day the White House was reopened to tours. There was a large group of visitors that had no idea President Trump was going to drop by and greet them. As we were setting up, I noticed the painting of Hillary Clinton hanging on the wall. I couldn’t believe my luck. As Trump arrived the crowd cheered and I got my favorite photo of the first 100 days.”

"What a difference a day made

 Twenty-four little hours

 Brought the sun and the flowers

 Where there used to be rain"

 — Lyrics from "What a Diff’rence a Day Made” by Maria Grever

“President Donald J. Trump mouthed the words ‘I did it my way’ as he danced with first lady Melania Trump during an inaugural ball in Washington.

“The next morning, tens of thousands, still smarting from their loss, gathered to participate in the Women's March on Washington to protest ‘the rhetoric of the past election cycle.’ ”

“Taking pictures of the President when he is walking in or out of a room can be good opportunities to try to get something different. People don't usually pay too much attention to the hands of a chief of state, but Trump's hands had gotten an unusual and disproportionate amount of talks and interests during the campaign, and through handshakes and bill signings, they remain in the public eye.

“It has been interesting to see the wide range of articles this photo ended up illustrating (and how it was re-captioned).”

“There was a lot of expectation and pressure on President Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress in late February. I wanted to show the President entering the House Chamber similar to an athlete taking the field.

“I was shooting from Statuary Hall with a 300mm lens, and it was the first chance to see the President that evening. I caught a flash from the House photographer right next to the President and it gave the photo a nice texture, complementing the flag backdrop and framing in the doorway. I was live transmitting from the back of my camera, and my editor Tanner Curtis received the photo before the President took the stage.”

“We know President Trump is always very proud of everything he does. So, announcing his pick for the Supreme Court was no exception. What I had captured was a very proud President standing behind the podium, as his not-so-at-ease nominee applauds.

“Filling up the seat that was left vacant by the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was one of Trump’s campaign promises. There is no doubt that putting Gorsuch in the Supreme Court is one of his greatest accomplishments, if not the only one, in his first 100 days.”

“Photojournalists at the White House cover a parade of managed events. In what can become routine, I always look for something different. I search for those unscripted moments where the subject is more candid and true. That is what this quiet image is for me. President Trump is standing tall and in motion at the same time.”

“Donald Trump is our first reality-television president. After being in the public eye for decades, the President knows that cameras are an important part of the mass communication landscape, and he doesn't shy away from them. Just the opposite: He is confident and comfortable in front of the lens. He seems to live the contemporary ethos that if it wasn't photographed, then it didn't happen.

“I selected this photo of President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe because of its sense of intimacy and tension. From between the trunks of trees that border the Rose Garden, you can see the two leaders standing face-to-face on the West Wing Colonnade, pausing while on their way to a joint news conference.

“I was too far away from the leaders to hear what was being discussed, but Trump was expressive and Abe — the political leader of a country of 127 million people that Trump was frequently critical of during the 2016 presidential election — stands close with fists clenched. Despite the body language, Trump and Abe said their meeting was good and they pledged close security and economic cooperation. ‘The bond between our two nations and the friendship between our two peoples runs very, very deep,’ Trump said during the news conference. ‘This administration is committed to bringing those ties even closer.’ ”

“Pundits spun President Trump’s first address to Congress as reassuring and presidential, a departure from the dark — and much criticized — speech he delivered at his inauguration. While the President did stick to his script, it perhaps made him appear more staid and reined-in than his normal self.”</s>The only truly predictable aspect of Donald Trump’s presidency is his total lack of predictability.

He’s up, he’s down. He’s here, he’s there.

After his first face-to-face in Washington with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, supposedly bolstered by the warmth of his daughter Ivanka’s feminist affinity with our leader, Trump said NAFTA just needed to be “tweaked” when it came to his northern friends.

He seemed to be in a good mood.

Then, before days turned into weeks, Trump said he was going to grab his already well-worn executive-order pen and blow up the three-way trade agreement — rip it to shreds.

“It’s the worst trade deal in the history of the world,” he recently said, all of which adds another layer to the invective already hurled.

Like … “NAFTA is a total disaster. It was signed by Bill Clinton who never suffered the ravages because he signed it, then got out, and let other people suffer with it.”

And (during the campaign) … “Word is that Crooked Hillary has very small and unenthusiastic crowds in Pennsylvania. Perhaps it is because her husband signed NAFTA.”

NAFTA has Trump obsessed, and perhaps confused.

While milking the crowd in Wisconsin dairy country, Trump tore into Canada’s supply-management system when it came to dairy, forgetting, but perhaps not knowing, that America is the benefactor of a considerable trade surplus in that sector, and would be getting the cream of the deal until the proverbial cows came home.

While still on a roll, however, Trump then began taking his axe to our softwood lumber industry — threatening a 24% tariff — without realizing that the joy in these cheap joists from Canada has resulted directly in cheaper costs to build the homes in America.

Somehow along the line, did Trump begin thinking that Canadian milk and Canadian lumber are both a part of NAFTA?

They’re not, of course.

But what the hell? If it sells in Peoria, et cetera.

Then, as the predictably unpredictable will do, Trump said Thursday that overnight telephone conversations with Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto now has him convinced to “renegotiate” NAFTA rather than terminate it.

“It would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system” to simply toss NAFTA in the dustbin, said Trump.

“Now, if I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA,” he said. “But we are going to give renegotiations a really good shot.”

This, of course, was music to Trudeau’s ears, since he admitted it was a close call.

“He expressed that, yes, he was very much thinking about cancelling,” said Trudeau. “I highlighted (that) a disruption like cancelling NAFTA, even if it theoretically might lead to better outcomes, would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain for an awful lot of families.”

Who’s to say? But perhaps Trudeau also reminded Trump — as inoffensively and as diplomatically as possible, of course — that no president has to authority to kill a trade deal like NAFTA.

Oh, Trump can ask for it, but only Congress can kill it.

And no U.S. legislator wanting re-election would kill the golden goose that sees upwards of $2 billion a day in trade between Canada and the United States, especially the 30-plus states who would be economically crippled without this two-way street.

Saturday will mark Donald J. Trump’s 100th day in the Oval Office as the 45th President of the United States.

That represents only 7% of his first term over.</s>The only truly predictable aspect of Donald Trump’s presidency is his total lack of predictability.

He’s up, he’s down. He’s here, he’s there.

After his first face-to-face in Washington with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, supposedly bolstered by the warmth of his daughter Ivanka’s feminist affinity with our leader, Trump said NAFTA just needed to be “tweaked” when it came to his northern friends.

He seemed to be in a good mood.

Then, before days turned into weeks, Trump said he was going to grab his already well-worn executive-order pen and blow up the three-way trade agreement — rip it to shreds.

“It’s the worst trade deal in the history of the world,” he recently said, all of which adds another layer to the invective already hurled.

Like … “NAFTA is a total disaster. It was signed by Bill Clinton who never suffered the ravages because he signed it, then got out, and let other people suffer with it.”

And (during the campaign) … “Word is that Crooked Hillary has very small and unenthusiastic crowds in Pennsylvania. Perhaps it is because her husband signed NAFTA.”

NAFTA has Trump obsessed, and perhaps confused.

While milking the crowd in Wisconsin dairy country, Trump tore into Canada’s supply-management system when it came to dairy, forgetting, but perhaps not knowing, that America is the benefactor of a considerable trade surplus in that sector, and would be getting the cream of the deal until the proverbial cows came home.

While still on a roll, however, Trump then began taking his axe to our softwood lumber industry — threatening a 24% tariff — without realizing that the joy in these cheap joists from Canada has resulted directly in cheaper costs to build the homes in America.

Somehow along the line, did Trump begin thinking that Canadian milk and Canadian lumber are both a part of NAFTA?

They’re not, of course.

But what the hell? If it sells in Peoria, et cetera.

Then, as the predictably unpredictable will do, Trump said Thursday that overnight telephone conversations with Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto now has him convinced to “renegotiate” NAFTA rather than terminate it.

“It would be a pretty big, you know, shock to the system” to simply toss NAFTA in the dustbin, said Trump.

“Now, if I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA,” he said. “But we are going to give renegotiations a really good shot.”

This, of course, was music to Trudeau’s ears, since he admitted it was a close call.

“He expressed that, yes, he was very much thinking about cancelling,” said Trudeau. “I highlighted (that) a disruption like cancelling NAFTA, even if it theoretically might lead to better outcomes, would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain for an awful lot of families.”

Who’s to say? But perhaps Trudeau also reminded Trump — as inoffensively and as diplomatically as possible, of course — that no president has to authority to kill a trade deal like NAFTA.

Oh, Trump can ask for it, but only Congress can kill it.

And no U.S. legislator wanting re-election would kill the golden goose that sees upwards of $2 billion a day in trade between Canada and the United States, especially the 30-plus states who would be economically crippled without this two-way street.

Saturday will mark Donald J. Trump’s 100th day in the Oval Office as the 45th President of the United States.

That represents only 7% of his first term over.</s>In his recent interview, Donald Trump revealed that he misses his old life before he became the president of the United States of America. He also did mention that he reportedly thought that being the president would be an easy thing.

“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” President Trump said in an interview with Reuters. “I actually, this is more work than my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

Donald Trump later added that he does miss his old life before he became the president. Although, he added that he enjoys his current work but “this is actually more work.”

During his interview with Reuters, he also added that he misses his pre-presidency freedom because, during that time, he was a famous businessman and a reality TV personality but had very little privacy when it came to his own personal life.

Apart from this, President Trump said that he misses driving his own car as now due to security reasons, he has to sit in the back seat.

Furthermore, Trump talked about the complexities of the healthcare program. Back in February, he noted that the nation’s health care laws are indeed complex, which he has now pledged to reform and scrap former President Barack Obama’s healthcare program.

“Now, I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject,” he added. “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”

President Trump also revealed that he will “absolutely come” to next year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington. Donald Trump felt that he had been treated unfairly by the media in the past few months and decided not to attend the Correspondents’ Dinner.

Apart from this, President Donald Trump finally talked about his take on the ongoing issues with North Korea. According to Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un took the regime at a very young age and the job gave him a lot to take.

“You know you have plenty of generals in there and plenty of other people that would like to do what he’s doing. So I’ve said this before and I’ve, I’m just telling you, and I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit. I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do,” he added.

This is not the first time when Donald Trump candidly talked about his life as a president. Prior to this, during his conversation with the Wall Street Journal, he talked about the ongoing problems with North Korea and how it affects the security of America.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” Trump told the WSJ. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power (over) North Korea… But it’s not what you would think.”

That being said, in the first 100 days of him being the president, he had been criticized a lot by his haters. There are around a million people who have even signed an online petition asking the Congress to impeach him. But, this has not stopped Donald Trump to fulfill his promises, which he made during his 2016 presidential run. In the first 100 days, the president has worked extremely hard to bring jobs back to America and his actions against North Korea and Syria showed that he does not wish to jeopardize America’s safety.

Do you agree with President Donald Trump’s recent revelations regarding the work and the responsibilities? Share your views in the comments below and keep checking this space for latest news on Donald Trump’s presidency.</s>President Donald Trump reaffirmed his support for gun rights Friday, telling attendees of a National Rifle Association convention that “the eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.”

Trump, the first sitting president to address the group’s annual convention in more than 30 years, assured the audience that he would defend their right to bear arms in a campaign-like speech reminiscent of his election rallies.

“You have a true friend and champion in the White House,” he said.

The president’s trip to Atlanta also served as his first foray into a congressional race since taking office. After delivering his NRA remarks, the president headed to a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel, who is running in a special congressional race that has become a national referendum on his presidency.

During the speech, the president congratulated Handel and urged Republicans to support her.

“She’s totally for the NRA, and she’s totally for the Second Amendment, so get out and vote,” he said.

Trump has been a champion of gun rights and supportive of NRA efforts to loosen restrictions on gun ownership. During the campaign, he promised to do away with President Barack Obama’s efforts to strengthen background checks and to eliminate gun-free zones at schools and military bases.

The last president to address an NRA convention was Ronald Reagan, who spoke to the 1983 gathering, according to the powerful gun rights lobby.

Trump’s appearance in Atlanta sparked protests from people advocating for stricter gun control measures. They included Steve Hagen, who called the NRA’s push for federal legislation to make any state’s concealed-carry permits valid nationwide “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I guess the promoters are throwing states’ rights out the window,” Hagen, a 68-year-old from the Atlanta suburb of Tucker. “It’s just crazy.”

Opponents of the bill say the move would effectively turn the weakest gun standards in the nation into the law of the land. The GOP-led Congress already passed a resolution to block a rule that would have kept guns out of the hands of certain people with mental disorders, and Trump quickly signed it.

Trump, who also attended last year’s NRA convention as a candidate, boasts of owning a pair of guns and mentioned again on Friday that his two adult sons are avid hunters. He stirred controversy during the campaign when he suggested that “Second Amendment people” could stop his opponent Hillary Clinton, which some interpreted to be a call for violence against the Democratic nominee. Trump disputed that charge.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on the plane trip from Washington that NRA members supported Trump during the election based on his strong commitment to gun rights. He also cited Trump’s appointment of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

“I know the NRA is glad to have a justice in that seat who is such a staunch defender of the Constitution,” he said.

Kevin Michalowski, executive editor of a magazine published by the United States Concealed Carry Association, said seeing that a president will be addressing the annual meeting “gives the gun industry a feeling of he’s on our side.”

The political landscape has changed dramatically with a president now in the White House friendly to the gun industry and gun rights. But Michalowski said it’s premature to get complacent with gun sales having tapered off since the election and “there’s always a group out there that opposes the Second Amendment and what it stands for.”

Trump attendance at the private fundraiser for Handel is his first such endeavour for a congressional hopeful since he took office and confirmation that the GOP sees Georgia’s 6th Congressional District runoff as a barometer of the 2018 midterm elections.

The affluent, well-educated district has been in Republican hands since 1979 — when voters put the future House Speaker Newt Gingrich to the seat — and it still covers the usually conservative northern suburbs of Atlanta. But an upstart Democrat, 30-year-old Jon Ossoff, used an anti-Trump wave to raise more than $8 million ahead of an April 18, multiparty primary and nearly won the seat outright, finishing almost 30 points ahead of Handel, the top Republican vote-getter.

Handel largely avoided mentioning Trump during the primary campaign, a nod to his struggles in November, when he barely won a district that usually gives GOP presidential nominees more than 60 per cent of the vote.

But Handel has openly embraced the president in the opening days of the runoff campaign. Trump called to congratulate her on qualifying for the runoff and praised her via his personal Twitter account. Both major parties and their aligned organizations have flooded the district with volunteers, paid staffers and promises of millions in additional television advertising ahead of the June 20 second round.

The winner will succeed Republican Tom Price, who resigned to joint Trump’s Cabinet as health secretary.

Associated Press writers Bill Barrow and Lisa Marie Pane in Atlanta contributed to this report.</s>ATLANTA (AP) - President Donald Trump took the stage at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting on Friday afternoon.

On the eve of his 100-day mark in office, Trump delivered a campaign-like speech to the gun lobby's annual convention in Atlanta.

The president rattled off a recap of his election night victory, vowed to protect the Second Amendment, and drew loud cheers for vowing to build a southern border wall.

He said "we'll build a wall" because it's needed to stop human trafficking and drugs. But the president made no mention Friday as to how he would pay for the wall, or when construction would start.

A number of Republicans have distanced themselves from Trump's signature campaign promise.

Trump revived what has been called a racist insult against Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, calling her "Pocahontas." That's a reference to claims she made about being part Native American.

The president talked about having the group's support if he decides to run for a second term. He said he has "a feeling that in the next election you're going to be swamped with candidates," adding: "It may be Pocahontas, remember that."

He also reassured members that he's fight for them, saying: "You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you."

Trump also urged fellow Republicans to turn out for a special congressional race that is being viewed as a referendum on his presidency.

He called for Karen Handel to take the seat vacated by Tom Price, who resigned to join Trump's Cabinet as health secretary. Handel emerged from a crowded Republican primary field to be the nominee.

Trump called such battles "too nerve shattering." Trump was scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for her later Friday. On June 20, she will face Democratic nominee Jon Ossoff, who used an anti-Trump wave and nearly won the seat outright, finishing almost 30 points ahead of Handel, the top Republican vote-getter.

The president's appearance marked a return to the nation's most powerful gun lobby, where he garnered significant support during last year's election.

"The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end," Trump declared, becoming the first sitting president since 1983 to address the NRA annual meeting.
In a meeting for the NRA, U.S. president Donald Trump criticizes Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff.