U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated Raytheon lobbyist Mark Esper as secretary of the Army.

Esper is the third person nominated to be the Army's top civilian leader and, if confirmed, would become the latest high-ranking addition to the Pentagon with a background as a major defense contractor. The first two nominees dropped out — one over financial vetting issues and the other amid a backlash over controversial comments on LGBT issues.

Esper is a defense lobbyist for Raytheon and has been head of the company's government relations arm since 2010.

The U.S. Army emblem. The U.S. Army emblem. The U.S. Army emblem.

He is a former Army lieutenant colonel who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1986. He served for more than a decade on active duty, including a combat tour in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Later, Esper served as deputy assistant secretary of defense under former President George W. Bush.

Esper also has experience on Capitol Hill, working for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the house armed services committee.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who would handle Esper's confirmation process, has urged the Trump administration to put forward Pentagon nominees, but he could be wary of Esper's industry ties.

During the confirmation hearing for the new Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, McCain raised concern over Shanahan's ties to Boeing.

McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer after surgery last week to remove a blood clot above his left eye, his office said Wednesday.

It's likely Esper's confirmation won't occur until after the congressional August recess.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman are the five largest defense contractors in the United States.</s>President Donald Trump is considering a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, Mark Esper, for the position of Secretary of the Army, a person familiar with the matter said.

Before Esper joined US missile-maker Raytheon in 2010, he held posts at Aerospace Industries Association and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Esper is Raytheon's vice president of government relations. A Raytheon representative declined to comment.

Esper will be Trump's third nomination for Army secretary.

Trump's first pick for Army secretary was business executive Vincent Viola. He withdrew his consideration in February because of his financial holdings.

His second pick was Mark Green, who also withdrew himself from consideration after making controversial statements about Islam, transgender rights, and gay marriage.</s>President Donald Trump accused fired FBI director James Comey of trying to create leverage with a dossier alleged to contain compromising information about the president. Comey’s apparent goal in a pre-inauguration encounter with Trump in which the veteran law enforcement official presented details of the dossier was to pressure the soon-to-be-president into letting him keep his job, Trump alleged an interview with the New York Times.

Trump said that about two weeks before his inauguration in January, Comey and other officials briefed him in New York on what US intelligence agencies say was Russian meddling in the election, with the goal of helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

According to the president, Comey later pulled him aside and told him about a dossier compiled by a former British spy and alleged to contain embarrassing details about the president, including unsubstantiated claims that Russians possess videos involving Trump and prostitutes.

Trump said he thinks Comey told him about the dossier –which Trump dismissed as “made-up junk” — to suggest he had something to hold over the president.

“In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,” Trump said.

Asked if he thought Comey was seeking leverage over him, Trump said, “Yeah, I think so.”

In testimony before lawmakers, Comey said he told Trump about the dossier so that the real estate mogul would not be blindsided when it was reported in the media.

Trump fired Comey in May and later said he had the FBI’s Russia investigation in mind when he did it. Trump critics point to the dismissal as evidence of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.

The Times said the interview with Trump was wide-ranging but dominated by talk of the Russia probe. Trump has denied any suggestion that he or anyone in his campaign colluded with the Russians.

Trump also told the New York Times that he did not believe he was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed to investigate the Russia affair.

“I don’t think we’re under investigation,” the Times quoted Trump as saying. “I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The Times said Trump warned that Mueller would be crossing “a red line” if he looked into Trump family finances not related to the Russia investigation.

“I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia,” Trump said. But he did not say what he would do if Mueller did end up looking into non-Russia-related Trump financial dealings.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Four months after she lost the presidency to Donald Trump in the weirdest election of all time, Hillary Clinton still hasn't forgiven or forgotten. And although she's mostly kept out of the public eye, choosing to let Trump's administration implode under the weight of countless scandals, she resurfaced today to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies: making fun of Trump on Twitter.

It started when Philippe Reines, who served as her senior advisor when she was secretary of state, tweeted this none-too-subtle bit of shade at the president.

Then HRC followed up for the one-two punch.

She may have lost the election to Donald Trump, but it's nice to see Hillary Clinton still has a sense of humor about the whole thing. It'll help her deal with watching the world burn.</s>It's always news when Donald Trump follows (or unfollows) an account on Twitter. The man is known for playing fast and loose with that unfollow button. But just today the president decided to follow an important account (and one he hopefully won't unfollow anytime soon)—the White House (@WhiteHouse). Well, that was nice of him.

Don't take it personally, White House. They're not the only account that Donald Trump should probably have started following earlier—it also took a little while for Trump to follow his other daughter, Tiffany, on Twitter.

Trump also followed and unfollowed Emergency Kittens (those kittens are lazy and should get jobs) and then the National Weather Service (Trump probably got bored when he realized he wasn't actually controlling the weather). And then there was the sting of the presidential unfollow when Donald Trump dumped Fox News' Joe Scarborough (Morning Joe) and his co-host, Mika Brzezinski earlier this month. Well, that's what happens when you criticize Donald Trump. White House, take note.</s>Since taking office on Jan 20, Trump has been on a roller coaster ride, and the gut-wrenching twists and turns looked set to continue after Jeff Sessions vowed to stay on at the Justice Department despite a stinging public rebuke from the commander-in-chief.

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump hit the six-month point of his turbulent presidency on Thursday (Jul 20) in combative style - lashing out at his own attorney general over the probe into Russia's alleged election meddling that has dogged him from day one.

Since taking office on Jan 20, Trump has been on a roller coaster ride, and the gut-wrenching twists and turns looked set to continue after Jeff Sessions vowed to stay on at the Justice Department despite a stinging public rebuke from the commander-in-chief.

Publicly abandoning an influential early supporter, the 71-year-old Trump suggested Sessions had betrayed him in stepping back from investigations into alleged Kremlin-Trump collusion - and said he wished he had never hired him.

"How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, 'Thanks, Jeff, but I'm not going to take you,'" Trump told The New York Times.

"I think is very unfair to the president," Trump said. "It's extremely unfair, and that's a mild word, to the president."

On Thursday, Sessions said he had no plans to resign in the wake of the blistering criticism.

"I have the honour of serving as attorney general. It is something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself," the Republican former senator said. "I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate," he added.

When asked how he could continue to work without the confidence of Trump, Sessions replied: "We are serving right now. The work we are doing today is the kind of work we intend to continue."

Trump's expansive remarks to The New York Times painted a picture of a president preoccupied by allegations against him - chief among them that his team may have colluded with Moscow to help tilt the election in his favor.

In the interview, he warned special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller that some Trump family finances should be off-limits to his wide-ranging investigation.

Asked if Mueller looking at finances unrelated to Russia would be a red line, Trump responded, "I would say yes."

"I have no income from Russia. I don't do business with Russia," he added.

Trump's first six months in the White House have been as chaotic and contentious as any for a new president in living memory.

Making good on a promise to shake up Washington, the Republican billionaire-turned-world leader has shattered norms at every turn, abandoning the usual presidential decorum and caution.

But his bold and unambiguous campaign promises remain unrealised, as he has struggled to turn word into legislative deed, most notably in enacting healthcare reform.

"It is tough. It's a very narrow path, winding this way. You think you have it, and then you lose four on the other side because you gave. It is a brutal process," he said. "Smart people, tough people - couldn't get it done."

The White House on Thursday lauded Trump's success in nominating a Supreme Court justice - conservative Neil Gorsuch - and overseeing a growing economy.

"President Trump's impact on the economy has been immediate, spurring job creation across the country," the White House claimed.

"Just six months in office, President Trump has taken historic action to eliminate wasteful and costly regulations that have stood in the way of hardworking Americans."

Trump also travelled across Washington to the Pentagon on Thursday, to highlight another bright spot in his administration - military success in rolling back the Islamic State group. "We're doing very well against ISIS. ISIS is falling fast. Very fast," he said.</s>President-elect Donald Trump says Democrats shouldn't be "complaining" about the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton because she is "guilty as hell" and shouldn't have been allowed to run for president in the first place.

 

Trump seems to be responding to a Justice Department inquiry into the FBI's handling of its investigation into Clinton's private email server, and the FBI's decision to release information about the review days before the election. Clinton aides have blamed the FBI for influencing voters.

 

Trump tweeted early Friday: "Based on the information they had she should never have been allowed to run - guilty as hell. They were VERY nice to her."

 

Trump adds that Clinton lost because she "campaigned in the wrong states - no enthusiasm!"

 

Trump will be sworn in Friday in a ceremony Clinton plans to attend as a former first lady.

 

Meanwhile, Trump says his team will have a "full report on hacking within 90 days." He's again dismissing as fake a document alleging Russia has damaging information about him.

 

Trump tweeted Friday morning that the dossier includes "totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans - FAKE NEWS!" He added: "Russia says nothing exists," and that the allegations will never be proved.

 

U.S. intelligence officials briefed Trump and President Barack Obama on a dossier that includes unproven information about close coordination between Trump's inner circle and Russians about hacking into Democratic accounts - as well as unproven claims about unusual sexual activities by Trump attributed to anonymous sources. The Associated Press has not authenticated any of the claims.</s>Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin also chatted over dinner on the final night of the summit</s>Washington: US President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have been asked to appear before US Senate committees next week to answer questions about the campaign’s alleged connections to Russia, officials said on Wednesday.

The three men are the closest associates of the president to be called to speak to lawmakers involved in probing Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Trump, who came into office in January, has been dogged by allegations that his campaign officials were connected to Russia, which US intelligence agencies have accused of interfering in last year’s elections.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday that it had called Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Manafort to testify on 26 July at a hearing.

The president’s son released emails in early July that showed him eagerly agreeing to meet in 2016 with a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The meeting was also attended by Manafort and Kushner, who is now a senior adviser at the White House.

Kushner is scheduled to be interviewed by the senate intelligence committee on 24 July behind closed doors.

“Working with and being responsive to the schedules of the committees, we have arranged Mr. Kushner’s interview with the Senate for 24 July,” Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “He will continue to cooperate and appreciates the opportunity to assist in putting this matter to rest.”

A special counsel, Robert Mueller, is also conducting an investigation of Russian meddling in the US elections and any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.

The issue has overshadowed Trump’s tenure in office and irritated the president, who told the New York Times on Wednesday that he would not have appointed ally and former senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from oversight of the Russia probe.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said in the interview.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic member of the judiciary committee, said the committee’s hearing would enable the panel to begin to get testimony under oath.

“There has been an enormous amount that has been said publicly but it’s not under oath, which means that people are free to omit matters or lie with relative impunity,” Whitehouse told CNN.

The senate intelligence committee is conducting one of the main investigations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US election and possible collusion by Trump associates, but the judiciary committee has been looking into related issues.

The public judiciary hearing on Wednesday will look into rules governing the registration of agents working for foreign governments in the US and foreign attempts to influence US elections.

Chuck Grassley, the committee’s Republican chairman, has said he wanted to question the Trump associates, but has also raised concerns about why the Obama administration allowed Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the Trump Tower meeting in June, into the US.

He also has called before the committee and threatened to subpoena Glenn Simpson, a co-founder of Fusion GPS, a firm that commissioned former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to dig up opposition research on Trump, when he was a presidential candidate. Reuters</s>WASHINGTON—No, David Brody says, this “will not be the world’s shortest book.” David Brody, chief political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network, announced Friday that he is writing The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography, a book to be released in January by a HarperCollins imprint devoted to conservative non-fiction. The news was greeted with incredulity and mockery from a bipartisan array of pundits, some of whom joked that the pages would be blank. But Brody, who interviewed Trump nine times during the 2016 campaign and once as president, says that he and co-author Scott Lamb, a Baptist minister and the “Jesus in the Public Square” columnist for the conservative Washington Times, have an interesting and non-fictional story to tell. He spoke to the Star on Monday. The interview is below, condensed and lightly edited: This is “a spiritual biography.” Do you think Donald Trump has a spiritual life?

I think Donald Trump has a spiritual life, and a spiritual journey that needs to be explored, and that’s exactly what this book is going to do. We all have a journey, he does too. He’s president of the United States, and it’s worth exploring. A lot of people who don’t like Trump think that he doesn’t really have a spiritual journey — that he has never cared about God or religion, and then started running for president and started claiming that he did. How would you respond? Those people that are thinking that probably aren’t going to buy the book, number one. But number two, I think they would also have to admit that none of us are perfect, and this book doesn’t claim to make Donald Trump out to be something he’s not. But at the same time, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a spiritual walk with the Lord, and that’s something we’re going to explore. There are a lot of interesting stories that I think people might be interested to know.

I do think it’s important for some of the critics to understand that we’re not going to gloss over some of what has taken place in the past, whether it be anything from “Two Corinthians” (the phrase Trump was mocked for using during the campaign instead of “Second Corinthians”) or some of the other things that people might bring up from time to time about Donald Trump. He’s been described as recently as last year, by James Dobson, as a “baby Christian.” Where do you think he is today on that spiritual journey? That’s something I’m going to have to leave for the book, unfortunately. I’d love to answer that question. I would just suggest that people keep an open mind and gather all the evidence, not just the evidence they have before them right now. The press release says the book will delve into the president’s “rarely discussed, but deeply important, religious beliefs.” Why do you believe that these beliefs, in Donald Trump, are actually important? For so many different reasons. Let me just start with this: the Judeo-Christian values that this country was founded on is something that Donald Trump does believe in. He’s been very clear about that. And he’s actually shown that through public policy since he’s become president. How intense do you think evangelical devotion to Trump remains today after these tumultuous first six months? He is off to a good start with evangelicals. There’s no doubt about it. They’re pleasantly — I don’t even know about “pleasantly surprised.” Some may be pleasantly surprised. Others knew that he would do this all along and he’d be good for them.

I’ve been frequently asked how God-fearing, churchgoing people support this vulgar adulterer and so on. There are so many different reasons for this, but let me kind of boil it down to this: Donald Trump sees the world in black and white, right versus wrong, good versus evil. In essence, he sees the world in absolutes. Evangelicals see the world in absolutes as well: good versus evil, heaven and hell, Jesus is the only way to heaven. Donald Trump has been ridiculed for the fact that he’s taken certain stands, and is unapologetic about it. You know what? Christians, evangelicals, take a stand about their faith in public and get ridiculed for it as well. And so there’s a common bond between the two in some sort of Dr. Phil psychological way that no one’s ever going to be able to put in a test tube and explain. During the campaign, you wrote that evangelicals didn’t like Trump’s “name-calling and hefty ego.” How do evangelicals justify continued support for this man even though he refuses to change those elements of his personality? There’s two sects, if you will, of evangelicals. There were pro-Trump folks that were pro-Trump in the primary. And then there are the folks that said, “Hey look, it’s either Trump or Hillary.” For those evangelicals, they’re going to be able to overlook a few things based on the fact that: “Well, if it comes down to that or do I want the next Supreme Court to rule 5-4 on cultural issues in this land” — they’ll play for the long term. And sometimes you have to choose what potentially makes sense for the longer-term benefit.

Do you know if Trump prays regularly? I can’t talk about that, because that’s part of some things we may discuss in the book. When you’ve delved into issues of religion with the president, is there anything that surprised you or struck you about what he was saying? He’s a lot more pensive than people think when it comes to matters of faith. It’s more deeply rooted than you might think. Your press release says he managed to win over evangelicals without “pandering” or “pretending to be something he’s not.” A lot of people would say that he was pretending to be much more devout than he ever actually was. Are you convinced that he ran without fakery? I’ll just say this: he’s a guy that never claimed to be the Bible Answer Man. That would be pandering if he was a guy that went around and said, “Look how great I am, I’m the greatest Christian in the world.” He’s not going to win Christian Man of the Year; he understands that and they understand that.
U.S. President Donald Trump nominates Mark Esper as Secretary of the Army.