LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a trip to London scheduled for next month to open a new embassy, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed by the Obama administration to sell the old one for “peanuts”.

The trip’s cancellation is a further blow to relations between the close allies. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many Britons vowing to protest against a man they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues.

The decision to move the U.S. Embassy from its current Grosvenor Square location in the upmarket Mayfair area of London and to a site on the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under the presidency of George W. Bush. [tmsnrt.rs/2DnVe8U]

However, Trump blamed former president Barack Obama for the sale, saying he would not attend the official opening of the new site.

“(The) reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” Trump said in a tweet late on Thursday.

“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!” Trump said.

A pillar of Britain’s foreign policy since World War Two, the “special relationship” with Washington has taken on added importance as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in 2019 and seeks new major trade deals.

Prime Minister Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration in January last year, and they were filmed emerging from the White House holding hands. She later said Trump took her hand in a gentlemanly gesture as they walked down a ramp.

But British officials have been dismayed by some of Trump’s pronouncements, particularly a proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States and most recently when Trump rebuked May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos.

During May’s U.S. trip a year ago, she extended an invitation to Trump to make a formal state visit - which includes pomp, pageantry and a banquet with Queen Elizabeth.

May’s spokesman told reporters Trump was welcome in London and that the invitation to visit had been accepted, although no date agreed. He said the opening of the embassy was a matter for the U.S. government.

“The U.S. is one of our oldest and most valued allies and our strong and deep partnership will endure,” the spokesman said.

“HE’S GOT THE MESSAGE”

Many British politicians have voiced their opposition to Trump being granted a state visit, and say the invite should be recalled.

“Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has often exchanged barbs with Trump on social media, tweeted.

“It seems he’s finally got the message.”

FILE PHOTO: The new United States embassy building is seen during a press preview near the River Thames in London, Britain December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Rousseau/Pool/File Photo

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said opponents such as Khan were putting the relationship with the United States, the biggest investor in Britain, at risk.

“We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed-up, pompous popinjay in City Hall,” Johnson tweeted.

The American flag was this month removed from Grosvenor Square where the U.S. embassy has been based since 1938 with the area known as “Little America” during World War Two, when the square also housed the military headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

It was also the scene of violence in 1968 when thousands of demonstrators protested against the U.S. war in Vietnam.

In October 2008, the embassy was put up for sale and, the following year, sold to Gulf investor Qatari Diar. The purchase price was not disclosed. In 2009, it was given “listed” status which limits changes that can be made to the building’s exterior because of its historical significance.

Woody Johnson, Trump’s appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain, told reporters last month that moving to the new site at Nine Elms reflected “the global outlook of the U.S. going forward in the 21st century: rather looking out, than looking in”.

“This isn’t just a new office, though, it signifies a new era of friendship between out two countries. President Trump wants us to work more closely than ever with the UK,” said Johnson, adding he hoped the president would attend the opening ceremony.

There had long been security concerns about the Grosvenor Square site, dating back to the late 1990s after attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa.

Some local residents had opposed measures that they felt would detract from one of London’s plushest neighborhoods while others feared not enough was being done to ensure they would not be caught up in any attack.

Slideshow (5 Images)

The new embassy is a veritable fortress set back at least 100 feet (30 meters) from surrounding buildings - mostly newly-erected high-rise residential blocks - and incorporating living quarters for U.S. Marines permanently stationed inside.

The $1 billion construction was funded by the sale of other properties in London.</s>It wasn't quite the G19 summit, but President Donald Trump's approach to foreign affairs is severely straining global cohesion on key issues like climate change and free trade, exchanging an aggressive, traditional American leadership role for isolation in a club of one.

Don't expect him to apologize, though.

The lonely US role at the G20 summit, a forum of the world's most powerful economies that Washington once dominated, is exactly consistent with what Trump sees as his mandate for a nationalistic, "America first" foreign policy.

As Trump boarded Air Force One in Germany for the long flight across the Atlantic, some G20 leaders were left to reflect that their fears that he would be a disruptive force on the world stage have unarguably come true.

By now, most US allies had expected to be settling into the Hillary Clinton era, forging progress based on a shared vision of Western civilization, pursuing familiar multilateral approaches to saving the planet and to globalization.

Instead, they are learning to live with a sometimes capricious American President keen to redefine the West in his own nationalist image, who goes against the consensus of centrist, multilateral international politics, and who is not afraid to pull at the divisions existing within the European Union.

The United States' step back has left other nations, especially Germany under veteran Chancellor Angela Merkel, to take up the banner of traditional Western leadership -- a stunning scenario given Washington's decades-long role as the most prominent player in global diplomacy.

At the end of Saturday's meeting in Hamburg, Trump declined to give a traditional end-of-summit press conference, leaving it to leaders like Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron to give their take on developments with no push-back from the US side.

But it didn't need a rare presidential press conference to make clear that the President's second trip abroad showed just how much he has reshaped America's role in the world since taking office six months ago.

The President appeared increasingly at ease on the international stage, mixing with foreign leaders, holding a flurry of bilateral meetings and sitting through long summit sessions -- even if his daughter Ivanka caused a stir by briefly sitting in him for him in one meeting Saturday.

Some of the other countries at the summit rebuked the US for Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. Trump did, however, win a concession in the final summit communique on the need to promote what he calls "fair" trade. That final agreement pledged to fight protectionism, but did "recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments."

The broad language appeared to be an attempt to keep Washington in the big G20 tent in terms of trade policy, even though leaders recognize there are broad differences of approach. The President won the White House partly by arguing that large multilateral trade deals had shattered the American economy, and he also has cast doubt on the existence of global warming and said the Paris accord would kill US jobs.

Merkel used the word "deplore" to describe her reaction to the US withdrawal from the Paris pact that Trump's predecessor Barack Obama played a prominent role in negotiating. The German leader pointedly noted that the other 19 of the group's 20 nation's agreed the climate change agreement was "irreversible."

The most significant moment of Trump's trip was his more than two-hour meeting with Putin, in which he raised the issue of alleged Russian election meddling. But there were conflicting accounts from each side over whether the President had accepted Putin's insistence that he had done nothing wrong.

"He asked a lot of questions on this matter, I answered as many as I could answer," Putin told reporters Saturday. "I think he took it into consideration and agreed with it. But you should ask him what his opinion is on that."

A senior Trump administration official told CNN on Friday, however, that Trump did not accept Putin's claim of noninterference.

The meeting will be interpreted by many of Trump's critics as a sign that Russia will pay no real price for an alleged attempt to help defeat Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

But in geopolitical terms, it was also significant. Trump effectively welcomed Putin back to the international stage as an equal, validating the Russian leader's core goal of reestablishing Russia's lost influence. Just last month, the US and European Union respectively tightened and extended sanctions on Russia over its alleged incursion in Ukraine. European leaders hope the meeting between Trump and Putin does not mean a weakening of the US position on the Ukraine question, more than three years after Russia's takeover of Crimea.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained that the relationship between the world's two top nuclear powers was too important to let the estrangement between Moscow and Washington linger any longer.

"How do we start making this work? How do we live with one another? How do we work with one another?" he said.

Trump did go some way to living up to his claims to being a master deal-maker — presiding, along with Russia and Jordan, over a renewal of a ceasefire deal in southwestern Syria. The deal could lead to more US-Russia cooperation in the looming post-ISIS future in the shattered nation, but critics will see it as Washington acquiescing in Russia's geopolitical influence in the region.

It is also clear that there are sharp differences emerging on what exactly the West, the block of liberal, democratic, globalized nations, that have dominated global politics since World War II, should stand for.

Trump's speech in Warsaw on Thursday -- already one of the seminal moments of his presidency -- set out a strikingly different world view than his predecessors.

"The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive," Trump said. "Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders?"

Those words, coming from a President who has tried to impose a ban on travel by residents of six predominantly Muslim nations to the US, and halted refugee admittances, appeared to be a clear critique of European leaders who have permitted Muslim immigration which critics say threatens Western values.

"Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?" he said in a remark that may have been aimed at Merkel herself, who let hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany -- a move harshly criticized by Trump during his campaign.

While Trump's remarks could be popular in Poland and its right-wing government, they might have set him on a collision course with other allied leaders who view his actions and rhetoric as a far greater threat to Western values than immigration.

There is also frustration in Germany, and in Europe more generally, at the President's repeated criticisms of the trade imbalance between Washington and Berlin, a sentiment that has come through in Merkel's rhetoric as she campaigns for a fourth term in office ahead of September's election.

While Trump was isolated from most of America's allies at the G20, he smartly offered a valuable political gift to one leader, weakened British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The President said that he expected a trade deal that would bolster Britain after its exit from the EU could be agreed to "very, very quickly."

The move stored up a favor, should he need May to return it, in the months to come.</s>WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Americans to embrace their diverse backgrounds on Friday (Jan 12), after President Donald Trump reportedly insulted immigrants from "s***hole countries".

Washington's top diplomat was giving a speech on the value of respect to his staff that had been planned before Trump's reported outburst at a White House meeting on immigration reform.

Aides said the speech was written before Trump's comments, but his inclusive language marked a sharp contrast with the terms which senators say Trump used on Thursday.

"America at its birth was far from perfect and we're still an imperfect nation but the American people have never lost sight of our aspirational values of equality and liberty for all," Tillerson said.

"What makes out country great is that we are constantly striving to achieve our aspirations," he said in a speech ahead of the Martin Luther King day holiday weekend.

"This process involves each of us as individuals working on our own self improvement, recognising that our lives are enriched when we embrace the diversity in our nation and within the ranks of our own colleagues here at the State Department.

"By respecting our differences in life experiences and culture we set ourselves on a path to growth that then allows us to grow as an organisation," Tillerson said.

According to one witness, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, Trump repeatedly used the term "s***hole" while arguing on Thursday that the United States should accept fewer immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador.

When reports of the exchanges first surfaced the White House chose not to deny them, but on Friday, with outrage spreading around the world, Trump tweeted "this was not the language used."

While Tillerson's prepared speech was not a deliberate response to Trump's comments, the top US diplomat has previously split from Trump over issues of racially-charged language.

In August, after Trump said that there had been some "good people" among a crowd of racist protesters, Tillerson said in a television interview that "the president speaks for himself".

Tillerson "would have given this speech regardless of what anyone had said," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Steve Goldstein said.

Tillerson also said that US diplomats and State Department and embassy staff around the world will receive training in how to prevent or deal with sexual harassment.</s>At the end of Donald Trump’s first year in office, his job approval ratings are lower than those of any American president in modern history. The establishment mass media, on which he has declared war, provides credible evidence almost every day of an incoherent and incompetent administration, led by an ignorant, incurious, unstable, egotistical former reality TV star who may be guilty of sexual misconduct and under investigation for obstruction of justice.

David Cay Johnston is one of Trump’s more visible and vocal critics. An award-winning investigative journalist, Johnston is the author, among other books, of The Making of Donald Trump. He appears frequently as a talking head on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.

Johnston faces challenges in attracting readers. Political junkies will be familiar with some of the information he presents, including Trump’s tax returns and his business practices. The book was completed before Johnston could apply his expertise on tax policy to Trump’s most significant legislative accomplishment. Moreover, Johnston’s programmatic and policy-oriented approach must compete with the headline-grabbing revelations of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury.

That said, It’s Even Worse Than You Think shines a light on actions by the White House and Trump-appointed federal officials on climate change, job creation, taxes, race, immigration, and foreign affairs, among other topics, that should concern – and alarm – all Americans.

A few less well-known examples. Since Trump took office, Johnston reveals, the net balance of trade between Mexico and the United States increased in Mexico’s favor by more than a third, while the president insisted that our neighbor to the south would pay for his wall. While Trump promised immediate and personal action to assist veterans of the armed services, Johnston indicates, his administration proposed ending disability benefits as soon as a vet became eligible for Social Security, an approach that would reduce annual income on average from $35,000 per person to less than $13,000. Trump’s appointees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Johnston demonstrates, will see to it that consumers pay billions of dollars more for electricity. And Johnston identifies specific ways in which Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education is in bed with for-profit colleges, the biggest abusers of student loans.

Johnston also demolishes Trump’s contention that Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was “convicted for doing his job” and therefore deserved a pardon. Referring to one of his jails as “my concentration camp,” Johnston writes, Arpaio spent $1.15 per day to feed jail dogs and 90 or 95 cents for inmate food. On his watch, the death rate of prisoners was far higher than in other large jails, with 39 suicides by hanging, 37 dying in hospitals with no explanation offered, and 34 simply found dead in jail. Arpaio often denied medical treatment to individuals in custody; pregnant women were often shackled to beds.

Trump contested the legitimacy of the trial in which Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt for ignoring a court order that he cease illegally rounding up Latinos (“I think we’re doing something good, if they’re leaving town,” the sheriff declared). He should have had a jury, the president said at a rally, when he knew or should have known that Arpaio chose to be tried by Judge Susan Bolton.

Acknowledging that Trump tapped into the economic malaise in the United States in 2016, Johnston provides chapter and verse about the president’s narcissism, lies, delusions, and attempts to create his own reality. Assuming, perhaps mistakenly, that his book will not simply preach to the choir, Johnston asks his ideal reader “to wipe from your mind the image Trump spent decades polishing” and the bluster about his wealth, genius, and deal-making prowess, and consider instead his “ignorance of basic issues of diplomacy, economics and geopolitics.” To acknowledge, at the very minimum, that his freshman year in office has not been one win after another. And to be open to the possibility that Trump is dividing us and undermining our democratic institutions.</s>SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – North Korea has found good material to attack U.S. President Donald Trump: Michael Wolff’s bombshell new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

The book paints Trump as a leader who doesn’t understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides. Trump and other White House aides have blasted it as inaccurate trash. But it was the top-selling book in the U.S. last week, and its numbers are likely to grow far higher.

On Thursday, the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, run by its ruling Workers’ Party, carried an article about the book’s subject matter, how Trump reacted and why it is selling so well.

READ MORE: Here are some of the things we have learned from Michael Wolff’s ‘Fire and Fury’ book

Its sales reflect “rapidly surging anti-Trump sentiments in the international community,” the article said. “The anti-Trump book is sweeping all over the world so Trump is being massively humiliated worldwide.”

The book’s popularity “foretells Trump’s political demise,” the article said.

WATCH: People close to Donald Trump consider him a ‘moron’ who acts ‘like a child,’ author says



Last summer, Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen” in an exchange of taunts with the North, which claimed it was examining plans to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have since traded threats of war and crude insults, as the North conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Trump called Kim “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission.” Kim called the 71-year-old American president “the mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” In his New Year’s address last week, Kim said he has a “nuclear button” that could fire weapons anywhere in the United States, and Trump responded that he has a much bigger and more powerful “nuclear button.”

READ MORE: Donald Trump open to North Korea talks at ‘appropriate time’

Recently, North Korea has taken steps toward improving ties with rival South Korea in what critics call a tactic to divide Seoul and Washington and weaken U.S.-led international pressure and sanctions on the country. On Tuesday, it had its first formal talks with South Korea in about two years and agreed to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics in the South and hold military talks aimed at easing front-line animosity.

WATCH: Trump says Michael Wolff never interviewed him, blames ‘Sloppy’ Steve Bannon for book’s content



But North Korea hasn’t stopped its rhetoric against Trump. Last week, the North’s state media called Trump a “war maniac” and “madman.”

After Tuesday’s inter-Korean talks, Trump said during a phone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the United States was open to talks with North Korea “at the appropriate time, under the right circumstances,” according to a White House statement.

“Fire and Fury” was released last Friday and sold 29,000 copies through Saturday, NPD BookScan told The Associated Press. Digital sales already top 250,000 and audio sales exceed 100,000, according to John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, the parent company of the book’s publisher, Henry Holt and Co. It has raised an initial announced printing of 150,000 to more than 1 million.</s>Geneva: The United Nations human rights office on Friday rejected as "racist" and inciting xenophobia the reported remarks by US President Donald Trump describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from "shithole" countries.

Trump on Thursday questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as "shithole countries," according to two sources familiar with the comments made in the White House.

"These are shocking and shameful comments from the President of the United States. There is no other word one can use but 'racist'," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing when asked about the comments.

"You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as 'shitholes', whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome," he added.

The issue was more than "vulgar language", Colville said.

"It's about opening the door to humanity's worst side, about validating and encouraging racism and xenophobia that will potentially disrupt and destroy lives of many people."

Trump had also failed to clearly condemn the "anti-Semitic and racist actions of white supremacists in Charlottesville" at a rally in Virginia last August, Colville said.

The programme that was being discussed at the White House is called Temporary Protected Status.

In November, the Trump administration decided to end the status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua. It gave the approximately 59,000 Haitian immigrants who had been granted the status until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States. Nicaraguans were given until January 2019.

"The future of the Dreamers should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate the most severe and restrictive immigration and security measures possible. These are human beings, not commodities," Colville said.

"Dreamers" is term used for undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States as children.

"But what I can say is that UNHCR's position is always that people forced to flee war or persecution, and needing asylum, should be given protection by whichever country they are in, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity or place or country of origin," Spindler said.</s>President Donald Trump has once again sparked a debate about his intelligence and fitness for office, after claims in an explosive new book.

Author Michel Wolff claims in his book Fire and Fury that the President's staff view him as a "child" and "semi-literate".

In response, Trump went on a Twitter rant, branding the book "really boring and untruthful", and adding that he is "like, really smart" and "a very stable genius".

Trump's IQ has been a subject of debate for years.

In 2013, he tweeted that his IQ was "much higher" than presidential predecessors Barack Obama and George W Bush.

And in October he challenged Rex Tillerson to an IQ test after reports that his Secretary of State had called him a "f**king moron".

The president told Forbes: "I think it's fake news. But if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win."

In 2016, then-candidate Trump even challenged London Mayor Sadiq Khan to an IQ test , amid a bitter transatlantic war of words over his comments about Muslims.

Mr Khan branded The Donald 'ignorant' over his plan to ban Muslims from entering America, saying his views would make the world less safe if he became President.

So we were wondering...what is Donald Trump's IQ?

He's frequently mocked for saying (and tweeting) some pretty outlandish things.

And according to Wolff's book, he is considered by those closest to his presidency as "no more than semi-­literate".

But, on the other hand, he graduated from a very prestigious business school, was a savvy businessman, and did become president of the US ( on his second attempt ).

Just try and ignore the Trump Steak thing, obviously. That was ludicrous.

So here's what we found out about The Donald's IQ.

What is an IQ?

It's a score derived from standardised tests designed to assess human intelligence.

Around two thirds of people have an IQ between 85 and 115. About 5% score higher than 125, and about 5% score below 75.

What to we know about Donald Trump's IQ

This has been a matter of some debate, but we'll give it a go.

There's no evidence he's ever actually taken a formal IQ test, but we can fudge a guess from his education and achievements.

Several articles have estimated his IQ at around 156, which would make him smarter than 99.98% of the population.

This article was based on Trump being a graduate of the prestigious Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.

It is, but it might not tell the full story.

Wharton has a very famous business school, particularly known for its MBA course - which Trump did not take.

He took some Wharton classes, but he graduated from Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and anthropology.

Plus, the original article estimates Trump's IQ based on Wharton's admissions requirements.

But Trump didn't go through the usual admissions process - he transferred to Wharton from the main Pennsylvania intake part way through his first year, the conditions for which are less rigorous.

Oh...so he's not so smart after all?

Let's not go overboard. Not being a Wharton MBA graduate doesn't automatically make Trump a dummy. University of Pennsylvania is a highly regarded, Ivy League school.

But Trump has never released his High School or College Transcripts, so it's impossible to tell how he got in to the school or got on while he was there.

He didn't make the 'Dean's List' - a list of students recognised for academic achievement. And he didn't graduate with any kind of honours.

A classmate told the Daily News: "He was not first in the class. He was not known on campus for any reason at all. I have no memory of him whatsoever."

So what is Donald Trump's IQ?

We don't actually know what Donald Trump's IQ is, but it's probably not 156.

Some have speculated his IQ could be in the 120-130 range.

That's still higher than most people, but it's far from "genius" level.

In the meantime, can you answer these questions designed for 16-year-olds?</s>The Republican Party has embraced President-elect Donald Trump's positions on immigration, trade, the deficit and conflicts of interest, but when it comes to Russia, Trump and his party are not even close to being on the same page.

Trump has repeatedly and consistently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin and has refused to accept intelligence community findings that Russia hacked Democratic Party emails during the campaign. That puts him at odds with almost every other Republican in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN he is mystified by Trump's feelings toward Russia.

"What bothers me is that President-elect Trump seems to get the Chinese for what they are; the Iranian agreement is bad, he understands that; he understands the threat we face from ISIL; and he understands we can't let the North Koreans build a ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] to attack our homeland," Graham said. "When it comes to Russia, he seems to have a blind spot. And I'm completely perplexed, because the Russians are undermining democracy throughout the entire world; they're taking land owned by others by force; they did hack into our political system; they're doing it to other political systems, and they need to pay a price."

Vice President-elect Mike Pence seemed to reinforce Trump's effort to undermine confidence in the intelligence community. During a press briefing with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday, Pence referenced Trump's upcoming briefing with the intelligence community. "We'll be looking at the facts and the information," Pence said. "But I think, given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elect has made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy, and I think the American people hear him loud and clear."

But Trump has gone beyond skepticism. He has sided openly with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, a fugitive from justice and someone most Republicans consider an enemy of the state.

Ryan, the highest ranking Republican on Capitol Hill, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he didn't share Trump's approval of Assange.

"I think the guy is a sycophant for Russia," Ryan said. "He leaks; he steals data and compromises national security."

According to Molly McKew — an expert on information warfare and a foreign-policy consultant who has advised the governments of Georgia and Moldova — the national-security community can't quite figure out Trump's unwavering devotion to the Russian line. But theories abound.

"I think the discussion in the region and intelligence services that deal with Russia," McKew said, "is that his behavior looks like someone who may be compromised or may be concerned about something and nobody knows what that is — if it's financial ties or financial leverage, if it's something more than that. I don't know. I think there's a lot of different things. I think there probably are long-term relationships with Russians and Russian oligarchs that we don't understand, that we don't see."

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, a Trump supporter and a harsh critic of Putin, argues, though, that people should give Donald Trump a chance.

"I don't think the rubber has met the road on this yet," said Bolton, who is reportedly under consideration for a job in Trump's State Department. "It's one thing to exchange niceties and compliments before a president actually takes office. It's another when you confront concrete Russian behavior. That's the real test."

Bolton said the president-elect will draw his conclusions once he receives his full briefing by the intelligence community Friday.

What those conclusions will be will send an important signal to Republicans on Capitol Hill, and to the Russians, who, McKew said, are also unsure about the new disruptive president-elect.

"I think they're as nervous about Trump as the rest of us," she said. "And I think that's potentially a very big opportunity for Trump if he chooses to use it. I don't know what happened in the election. I don't know what his relationship with Russian financial interests or others are. None of us know any of that. What we do know is he will be the American president very soon. And if he wants to operate as a man defending our country's interests, he needs to have a smart, aggressive Russia policy that limits what Russia is doing to us and exposes what that is."

That's why the Friday private briefing for Trump is so important. His reaction to what he hears will be the first clue about whether the new president wants to stand up to Putin when he works against the interests of the United States.



All right. Tomorrow, Donald Trump will be briefed by intelligence officials on Russia's alleged cyberattacks. Now, Trump has dismissed the agency's conclusions, even questioning their competence. And as NPR's Mara Liasson reports, there's also a big split between Trump and his own party on this issue.

MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: The Republican Party has embraced Trump's positions on immigration, trade, the deficit and conflicts of interest. But when it comes to Russia, Trump and the GOP are not on the same page. Trump has repeatedly and consistently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. And he's refused to accept the intelligence community's findings that Russia hacked Democratic Party emails during the campaign. That puts him at odds with almost every other Republican in Washington. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said on CNN that he's mystified.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: When it comes to Russia, he seems to have a blind spot. And I'm completely perplexed because the Russians are undermining democracy throughout the entire world. They're taking land owned by others by force. They did hack into our political system, and they need to pay a price.

LIASSON: Tomorrow, Trump will hear from the intelligence community directly. And yesterday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence seemed to reinforce Trump's effort to undermine confidence in the agency's work.

MIKE PENCE: I think, given some of the intelligence failures of recent years, the president-elect's made it clear to the American people that he's skeptical about conclusions from the bureaucracy. And I think the American people hear him loud and clear.

LIASSON: But Trump has gone way beyond skepticism. Yesterday, he sided openly with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange and against the CIA. Assange is a fugitive from justice and someone most Republicans consider a traitor. Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he didn't share Trump's approval of Assange.

PAUL RYAN: I think the guy is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks. He steals data and compromises national security.

Molly McKew, an expert on information warfare and a foreign policy consultant, says the national security community can't figure out Trump's unwavering devotion to the Russian line. Experts are asking if this is something more than just Trump's sincere admiration for populist strongmen like Putin. Theories abound.

MOLLY MCKEW: The discussion in the region, certainly in intelligence services that deal with Russia, is that his behavior looks like someone who may be compromised or may be concerned about something. And nobody knows what that is. If it's financial ties or financial leverage, if it's something more than that - I don't know.

LIASSON: Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton is a Trump supporter and a harsh critic of Putin. He says give the president-elect a chance.

JOHN BOLTON: I don't think the rubber's met the road on this yet. And it's one thing to exchange niceties and compliments before a president actually takes office. It's another when you confront concrete Russian behavior, such as extending their influence throughout the Middle East, such as further military action in the eastern Ukraine, such as threatening the Baltic republics. That's the real test.

I mean, he will now have the full briefing by the top leaders of the intelligence community. And they'll bring the evidence that they have, and he'll draw his conclusions at that point.

LIASSON: What those conclusions are will send an important signal to Republicans on Capitol Hill and to the Russians who, says Molly McKew, are also mystified about the new, disruptive president-elect.

MCKEW: I think they're as nervous about Trump as the rest of us. And I think that's potentially a very big opportunity for Trump if he chooses to use it. I don't know what happened in the election. I don't know what his relationship with Russian financial interests or others are. None of us know any of that. What we do know is he will be the American president very soon. And if he wants to operate as a man defending our country's interests, he needs to have a smart, aggressive Russia policy that limits what Russia is doing to us and exposes what that is.

LIASSON: That's why Friday's private briefing for Trump is so important. His reaction to what he hears will be the first clue about how the new president plans to deal with Vladimir Putin.</s>**Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.**

On the roster: Trump blunder raises chances of shutdown - Trump preserves Iran deal - GOP may have to cede N.D. Senate race - Trump talks treason - Ooops

TRUMP BLUNDER RAISES CHANCES OF SHUTDOWN 

 Do you really care if the president used a dirty word to say that he thought that Africa was a continental outhouse? If so, you either spend your outrage too cheaply or have only recently emerged from a cryogenic deep freeze.

That a guy who referred to one of his primary opponents as a vulgar term for part of the female anatomy and imitated the tics of a disabled reporter would disparage the nations of the developing world in a private meeting can hardly be a shock.

This is a person who’s lawyer today is in a dispute with the Wall Street Journal over the alleged payment of hush money to a pornographic performer on his client’s behalf. So please spare us your astonishment at him having said uncouth things about poor countries.

A good rule of thumb for gauging the fallout from this demi debacle is that anyone who is focused on the naughty words is either being disingenuous or is probably too foolish to pay attention to, anyway.

Now, it is certainly a matter of substance whether or not you agree or disagree with Trump’s underlying sentiment that the United States should choose against immigrants from poor or chaotic nations. That has been an ongoing policy debate for years, much more so since 2016.

Wherever you come down on that policy debate, though, this fact is unavoidable: In expressing his view crassly, President Trump made life much worse for himself and his party at a crucial moment.

The central character in this drama is not Trump but Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Durbin, the soul of the Democratic establishment, has been tasked with finding some way to provide at least nine Democratic votes in the Senate on a deal to avoid a government shutdown a week from today.

Republicans want a spending deal for the remaining eight or so months of the federal fiscal year. They also need a lift in the debt ceiling, a patch for ObamaCare subsidies and an extension for Medicaid for poor kids.

Democrats want more spending on some of their own priorities but, most of all, permanent legal status for hundreds of thousands of young adults who were brought to the United States illegally as minors.

Trump is set to end protected status for the so-called DREAMers in about six weeks, instructing Congress to craft a permanent solution. It falls to Durbin as the number two Democrat in the Senate to help craft a deal that will keep Republican immigration hardliners from bolting en masse but also get those crucial nine Democrats.

Durbin was invited to the White House on Thursday to tell the president about a tentative deal he had struck with Republicans Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake. What Durbin got, though, was a snoot full from not only Trump but also the most ardent immigration foes in the Senate GOP, Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue.

Whether it was a good idea to box Durbin’s ears that way is immaterial now. By using disparaging language in front of a liberal of deeply held conviction like Durbin would have left the Illinois Senator more than embarrassed. Graham says he stuck up for poor nations and, by extension, Durbin in the face of Trump’s denigrations, but the damage was done.

Trump made it worse by trying to contradict Durbin, who then felt obliged to come out and stick up for himself.

The net effect of all of this is that the president substantially increased the likelihood of a government shutdown and made much more arduous what should be the ordinary work of Congress on unrelated topics.

Trump privately humiliated his key negotiating partner and now is publicly calling Durbin a liar. Even if the Illinoisan can put aside his own dignity for the sake of larger issues, he now will find Democrats far less willing to be party to a deal to avert the coming fiscal cliffs.

Remember, Trump needs more than just the red-state Democrats on this one. He’s got to have core Democratic Senate votes, the kind that would have been hard for Durbin to cajole in the first place.



You could hear the weariness in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s voice when he was asked about Trump’s remarks today at an event back home in Wisconsin.

“The first thing that came to my mind was: Very unfortunate, very unhelpful. But you know what I thought of right away? I thought of my own family,” Ryan said. “My family, like a whole lot of people, came from Ireland on what they called the coffin ships then. Came here and worked the railroads. The Irish were really looked down upon back in those days. I hear all these stories from my relatives about ‘Irish need not apply.’”

Remember, it was just Tuesday when this note was talking about the possibilities for the president to build on the success of GOP tax cuts and potentially midwife a historic overhaul to U.S. immigration policy.

That feels like a hundred years ago now.

THE RULEBOOK: YOURS IS NO DISGRACE 

 “My motives must remain in the depository of my own breast. My arguments will be open to all, and may be judged of by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit which will not disgrace the cause of truth.” – Alexander Hamilton, who was born on this day, 261 years ago, Federalist No. 1

TIME OUT: MARTIAN NAVY 

 Wired: “Locked away beneath the surface of Mars are vast quantities of water ice. But the properties of that ice—how pure it is, how deep it goes, what shape it takes—remain a mystery… Future visitors to Mars… will need to understand the planet's subsurface ice reserves if they want to mine it for drinking, growing crops, or converting into hydrogen for fuel. … In this week's issue of Science, researchers led by USGS planetary geologist Colin Dundas present detailed observations of eight Martian regions where erosion has uncovered large, steep cross-sections of underlying ice. … The deposits begin at depths as shallow as one meter and extend upwards of 100 meters into the planet. The researchers don't estimate the quantity of ice present, but they do note that the amount of ice near the surface is likely more extensive than the few locations where it's exposed. And what's more, the ice looks pretty damn pure.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at

 HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions.

 

 SCOREBOARD

 Trump net job-approval rating: -23.6 points

 Change from one week ago: down 3 points

[President Trump’s score is determined by subtracting his average job disapproval rating in the five most recent, methodologically sound public polls from his average approval rating, calculated in the same fashion.]

TRUMP PRESERVES IRAN DEAL

 Fox News: “The Trump administration on Friday announced it will extend waivers for Iran nuclear sanctions, keeping alive the landmark Obama-era deal for at least another few months—but White House officials vowed this is the ‘last waiver’ the president will issue. In addition to the waivers, the Treasury Department rolled out more targeted sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses. Further, officials said the Trump administration will warn Iran that it will pull out of the nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama in 2015 if fixes are not addressed by spring. White House officials said Friday that if the president can deny Iran a path to nuclear weapons ‘forever,’ not just for 10 years, [President Trump] would be ‘open to remaining in such a modified deal.’ … Trump's decision has been expected since earlier this week. The sanctions that Trump has to waive deal with Iran's central bank and were suspended under the nuclear deal.”

Trump botches excuse for canceled London visit - USA Today: “President Trump said he canceled a planned trip to London because he doesn't want to cut the ribbon at the new U.S. embassy there that he described as a ‘bad deal.’ Trump's on-again, off-again visit to the United Kingdom had been in the planning stages but hadn't been officially announced. The latest cancellation is sure to increase tensions with a vital ally that has broken with Trump recently over his anti-Muslim rhetoric. Some neighborhoods in London declared themselves off-limits to the president. Trump confirmed his decision on Twitter late Thursday night after British newspapers reported that fears of mass protests had scuttled the trip. A poll from last year found that about 4% of Britain's population — roughly 2.5 million people — would protest a state visit by Trump.”

Matt Labash: ‘The Book That Ate Washington’ - The Weekly Standard: “But what comes through loud and clear in [Michael Wolff’s] telling is that no matter how bad you thought it was in Trump’s White House, it was actually much worse. From the end of what [Steve Bannon] called, with characteristic gentility, Trump’s ‘broke-dick campaign,’ through the transition, and all the way through Bannon’s ouster last August, Team Trump didn’t resemble a team so much as a collection of competing brand managers fighting in a loser-leaves-town cage match. For an administration that pretends to hate the ‘fake news’ media, members leaked so much and so often that some even hired dedicated press staffs and leaked about each other leaking. Each faction … was trying to capture Trump’s ever-diminishing attention. None of them was as interesting to the president as watching his own cable-news coverage, DVRing talking-head slights to replay and obsess over while he ate cheeseburgers in bed…” 

 

 Trump still has no nominees for 245 key jobs - WaPo: “Over the first year, a fixation on the chaos and churn inside the West Wing has often overshadowed the less-sexy decay and neglect at the departmental level. There are a striking number of big jobs that have not been filled. The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, have been working together to track the status of 626 top jobs in the executive branch. This includes assistant secretaries, chief financial officers, general counsels, heads of agencies, ambassadors and other leadership positions that experts believe are critical for the federal government to function effectively. These represent about half of the roughly 1,200 positions that require Senate confirmation.”

Who’s the boss? Legal fight continues over financial regulation agency - LAT: “The leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remains under a cloud of uncertainty despite another Trump administration victory in the legal battle over who should be the agency's acting director. A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to remove President Trump's appointee for the temporary job, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney. But Leandra English, the deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting director, is expected to appeal the decision. Such a move would extend for weeks the unease among banks and consumer advocates about the direction of the independent watchdog agency created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.”

GOP MAY HAVE TO CEDE N.D. SENATE RACE 

 Politico: “Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) has decided against challenging North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp this November, rejecting pleas from President Donald Trump and leaving the GOP without a top-tier candidate against Heitkamp — a first-term Democratic senator seeking reelection in a state Trump won by 36 points in 2016. Cramer made the announcement Thursday… saying he needed to spend time with his 10-year-old son. ‘We've decided that the best thing for our family and for me and I think, frankly, for North Dakota is for me to seek reelection to the House of Representatives,’ he said. ‘And while it's still a robust campaign … it's far less intense…’ Even without Cramer in the race, Republicans are still expected to maintain their narrow Senate majority. Democrats need to flip two seats without losing North Dakota — or any of the other nine seats they hold in states Trump carried in 2016.”

Once a bright spot, Senate hopes dim for GOP - NYT: “‘This is shaping up to be a tough cycle for Republicans across the board,’ said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for The Cook Political Report who specializes in Senate races. ‘It only makes sense that recruiting is going to be difficult. For someone like [Kevin] Cramer, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to give up a safe seat for a difficult race in a lousy environment.’ That assessment is an abrupt reversal of how most analysts saw the midterm landscape shaping up a year ago. Democrats are defending 24 seats, including those in states Mr. Trump won, compared with eight for Republicans. But the president’s chaotic first term has led to the lowest approval ratings for any first-term president at this time in his tenure in the history of polling, and he is now seen as a drag for many candidates.”

Amy Walter: ‘(Don’t) Miss Independents’ - Cook Political Report: “First, let’s get a couple of things out of the way. Independent doesn’t mean ‘moderate.’ A person who identifies as independent may be a conservative who sees the GOP as insufficiently conservative. Or, he or she can be a liberal who thinks that the Democrats are too closely tied to the traditional establishment. These voters are also not consuming politics in the heavy doses that self-described partisans do. They aren’t tracking Twitter’s every ping. They are glancing up at the news instead of mainlining it on cable TV every night. They engage later in the election cycle than do traditional partisans. Second, winning over independent voters doesn’t guarantee electoral success. For example, in 2016, despite losing the national popular vote, Donald Trump carried independent voters by 4 points (46 to 42 percent).”

White House sets focus on upcoming Pennsylvania special election - Politico: “The White House is scrambling to avoid another special election disaster, this time in a Pennsylvania congressional district in the heart of Trump country. After a humiliating loss in the Alabama Senate race last month, the administration is drawing up ambitious plans that will kick off next Thursday when Trump travels to the conservative district to appear with Republican candidate Rick Saccone. Vice President Mike Pence and an assortment of Cabinet officials are also expected to make trips; Pence may go twice ahead of the March 13 special election, two administration officials said. The White House has taken an especially keen interest in the race: Members of Trump's political affairs office met with Saccone this week.”

McSally officially announces Senate campaign - AP: “Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally called on the national GOP to ‘grow a pair of ovaries’ as she launched her Senate bid Friday, joining the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake by embracing President Donald Trump and his outsider playbook in one of the nation’s premier contests. The 51-year-old retired Air Force combat pilot cast herself as a tough-talking outsider as she vowed to work closely with the Republican president to combat illegal immigration. ‘There should be no sanctuary for anyone breaking our laws and harming our people,’ said McSally, wearing a military flight suit as she faced dozens of supporters in a Tucson airport hangar. ‘You better believe I will keep working with President Trump.’”

Messer accused of rigging Senate straw poll - Indy Star: “U.S. Senate candidate Luke Messer is paying for college students to attend a state Republican party straw poll event on Saturday — a move his opponents are criticizing as vote rigging. But Messer's campaign and the state's Republican party chairman are defending the tactic. Emails and social media exchanges obtained by IndyStar show that Messer campaign staffers offered to cover registration and hotel costs for college students to attend the Indiana Republican Party's Congress of Counties conference. The event takes place Friday and Saturday and will include a straw poll featuring all six GOP candidates running in Indiana's contentious U.S. Senate primary. The state party describes the straw poll as ‘the first grassroots barometer to measure early support in this high-profile, statewide race that has national implications.’”

Talk about a tough neighborhood! - Chicago Tribune: “A candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint while he was taking promotional photos for his campaign Thursday afternoon in the Northwest Side ward where he’s also the Democratic committeeman, according to his campaign manager and authorities. Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were in the middle of taking publicity shots when the robbery happened, according to Goldstein’s campaign manager.”

 

 TRUMP TALKS TREASON

 Fox News: “President Donald Trump said in an interview Thursday that the FBI agent who was removed from the Russian-interference probe and once referred to the president as a ‘loathsome human being’ committed an act of ‘treason.’ Trump told the Wall Street Journal that the text message from Agent Peter Strzok, where he mentioned an ‘insurance policy’ if Trump was elected, was tantamount to treason. Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe in July. The agent had been deeply involved in the Clinton email inquiry and was in the room when she was interviewed by the FBI. He later helped investigate whether the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. … Aitan Goelman, Strzok’s attorney, told the paper that it was ‘beyond reckless’ for the president to accuse a man who ‘devoted his entire adult life to defending this country, of treason.’”

[Read for yourself - The transcript of the WSJ interview with the president available here.]

Senators getting irritated with lack of info on Russia probe - Roll Call: “Two Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced frustration Thursday that they weren’t being kept in the loop on the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana summed up his access to information from the panel investigation this way: ‘I’ve seen nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.’ Kennedy brought up the issue at the end of an otherwise sedate committee meeting, asking Chairman Charles E. Grassley for a status report on the ‘various and sundry investigations we have ongoing so we can be brought up to speed.’ Texan John Cornyn, the majority whip, added to that sentiment and said it was important all members get a chance to be informed of what the committee is doing.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY 

 Trump to receive his first medical physical as president today - NPR

 

 ANY GIVEN SUNDAY

 This Sunday, Chris Wallace sits down with Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen and California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra. Watch “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Check local listings for broadcast times in your area.

#mediabuzz - Host Howard Kurtz has the latest take on the week’s media coverage. Watch #mediabuzz Sundays at 11 a.m. ET.

AUDIBLE: CASSH HIM OUSSIDE 

 “Listen, [if] this guy got in my space, you want to get in my space, I’ve always said, Chris, you punch me, I’m gonna punch you back twice as hard. And it wouldn’t be hard to do it.” – Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said about the president during an interview with on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”

 

 FROM THE BLEACHERS

 “Is there anything positive? I guess as compared to some norm.” – Herb Haas, Sun City, Ariz.

[Ed. note: As a person who has devoted his professional life to American politics, Mr. Haas, take it from me when I tell you that it is not the most important thing in the world. Rightly understood, politics and government are necessary annoyances in organizing a civil society. One of the reasons things seem so bad these days – and that politics itself has turned into such an open sewer – is that what is supposed to be a tool for the achievement of other aims has been made into an end unto itself. There is so much positive happening in this country and in this world at this moment, and very little of it has to do with who is winning and who is losing at politics. We want you and all of our readers to be equipped to understand what is happening now and what is likely to happen next in politics so that you are free to focus on the things in your life that are more important than the scurrying of politicians. Heck, we don’t even make it through an entire note without taking a break to talk about interesting developments in science, culture and history. Yes, it is true that failures in politics have the potential for serious consequences for real life – as the saying goes, that government is like fire, a powerful servant but a fearful master. That’s why we pay so much attention to the process. But that’s not the same as saying that it is more important than the daily joys and sorrows of our lives. Quite the opposite.]

 

 “Sheesh! You made me look up micturate. Thanks?” – Michael Grabowski, Mission Viejo, Calif.

 

 [Ed. note: It’s kind of funny, Mr. Grabowski, that we were at such pains to avoid using a coarser term for the bodily elimination of fluid waste just hours before the entire media world would become a carnival of scatology (which would also be a great name for an alternative band). I do believe there are times when straight forward reporting and discussion requires using unpleasant words, but only if it’s necessary to be understood. The journalists who so obviously delight in having the excuse to repeat ad nauseam President Trump’s vulgar language are obviously doing so in service of a rapidly diminishing shock value.]

Share your color commentary: Email us at

 HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please make sure to include your name and hometown.

OOOPS 

 Popular Mechanics: “India’s first ballistic missile submarine was out of commission for ten months after someone neglected to properly close a hatch. The nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant was flooded with saltwater, necessitating nearly a year’s worth of repairs. The submarine is designed to function as a floating arsenal of nuclear weapons, guaranteeing a retaliatory strike in case of surprise attack. The incident was first reported by The Hindu. According to an Indian Navy source, a hatch was left open on the rear left side of the ship, allowing seawater to rush into the propulsion area while the Arihant was in harbor. Arihant was out of action for ten months as water was pumped out and pipes were cut out and replaced. Indian authorities likely felt that pipes exposed to corrosive seawater couldn't be trusted again, particularly pipes that carry pressurized water coolant to and from the ship’s 83 megawatt nuclear reactor. Failing pipes could not only endanger the ship’s crew but the entire submarine... and her nuclear weapons.”

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.</s>Yesterday, President Donald Trump inadvertently presented a dilemma for U.S. media outlets, whose executives had to decide how they should report about him calling certain African nations "shithole countries" during a January 11 meeting with senators over immigration policy. In the end, many national outlets went into the shithole with Trump, while plenty of local TV stations, including numerous ones in Denver, did not.

Some major news purveyors exhibited caution. This morning, for example, a National Public Radio report referred vaguely to a term that could result in radio station fines if broadcast — an interesting assertion, since it's hard to imagine the FCC lowering the boom on any outlet for accurately quoting the President of the United States (though Trump has now denied the "language used" on Twitter).

Last night, in contrast, both CNN and MSNBC actually spelled out "shithole" in graphics that lingered on screen during long segments spent discussing the potential fallout from this particularly impolitic turn of phrase.

Hilarious side note: National Review editor Rich Lowry, a CNN contributor, insisted in one bantering session that what Trump actually said was "shithouse," not "shithole." Based on today's coverage, his assertion hasn't caught on. Locally, the Denver Post actually used "shithole" in the headline of the reprinted Washington Post story that revealed the comment in the first place, and 9News's website sports a USA Today article that spells out the word, too. Moreover, a source tells us that someone on KOA radio said "shithole" during the pre-dawn hours. However, Denver7 went with dashes ("s—-hole"), and both CBS4 and Fox31 opted for asterisks ("s***hole"). And at this writing, we haven't heard a news anchor at any local TV station actually speak the word.
United States President Donald Trump cancels his scheduled trip to the United Kingdom next month.