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 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. 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. 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. 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? 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.
U.S. President Donald Trump nominates Mark Esper as Secretary of the Army.