Tag: Mark Rutte

Soft-Brexit cabinet ministers fear that Theresa May is determined to appease hardline leavers rather than reach out across the House of Commons, after key figures were excluded from discussions with other ministers. However, government sources suggested this may have been down to logistics. Rudd has also said there should be “everything on the table because the priority is to find a negotiated settlement”. Cabinet sources said ministers at the Friday meetings had pressed the PM for reassurance that her public statements rejecting any movement on a customs union or a referendum reflected what was being said in private. “As to what the next steps are, we are none the wiser.” Another cabinet source said May was urged not to pursue a route that could see a Tory split. “The only way forward that doesn’t split the party is to bring the DUP and the ERG on board,” the source said. On Thursday night and on Friday morning, she took calls from European leaders including the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and the EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk. In her call with Rutte, May insisted there would be no delay to the UK’s departure from the EU on 29 March, while he in turn said the withdrawal agreement would not be “tweaked” to help her get the deal through parliament. “She is really expecting Brexit to go ahead on 29 March,” Rutte told his weekly press conference, adding that he was concerned about the lack of time to avoid a no-deal scenario. That would in effect make it impossible for the government to legally leave the EU without a deal on 29 March.

Trump met Monday with four federal appeals court judges: Brett M. Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Amul R. Thapar and Raymond Kethledge, according to three people briefed on the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump’s meetings with the four candidates Monday were each about 45 minutes. Sanders insisted that the president did not discuss past cases, such as Roe v. Wade , during the interviews. On Twitter, Schumer argued that Coney Barrett would support overturning Roe v. Wade. “The bottom line: Judge Barrett has given every indication that she will be an activist judge on the Court,” Schumer wrote. McGahn worked closely with Trump ahead of Monday’s interviews, both conferring with the candidates and briefing the president, according to two White House officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump’s meeting Monday with Thapar, who lives and works in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, was described by several White House aides as both a gesture of respect for the Senate GOP leader and evidence that he is in serious contention. McGahn and Lee spoke by phone Thursday and talked about the confirmation process, according to three people familiar with the conversation who were not authorized to speak publicly. Informally called the “war room,” the group of Trump officials is expected to work closely with congressional Republicans in the coming weeks. Most outside conservative groups, for the moment, are targeting Senate Democrats running for reelection in states won by Trump in 2016, but one veteran GOP strategist said Monday that advertising campaigns against moderate Republicans are not being ruled out by major donors.

Meeting President Trump in the Oval Office, Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte asks, 'Is it always like this?' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news.…

Donald Trump has defended his controversial positions on tariffs and trade, even as global markets were buffeted by a disappointing start to the second half of the year. At a meeting with the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, in the Oval Office on Monday, the president mused that the World Trade Organization had mistreated the US: “I hope they change their ways. They have been treating us very badly for many, many years and that’s why we were at a big disadvantage with the WTO. “We’re not planning anything now, but if they don’t treat us properly we will be doing something,” Trump added. Trump's EU trade war costing manufacturers in US and eurozone Read more At the same meeting, the president said his negotiators were “very close to making some very good trade deals – fair trade deals, I don’t want to say good, I want to say fair – fair trade deals for our taxpayers, and for our workers and for our farmers.” Trump’s comments came even as signs mounted that administration policies on global trade were beginning to bite. Goldman Sachs warned the second half of 2018 would be tough for investors as they grapple with rising tariffs and interest rates, while the latest survey of American factories by IHS Markit found that tariffs were driving up costs for US manufacturers and exacerbating a slowdown for eurozone members. In another stark warning, JP Morgan warned that a full-blown trade war would punch a hole in global economic growth because of reduced trade volume, supply chain disruptions and lost confidence. John Normand, the bank’s head of cross-asset fundamental strategy, said he believed that the worst-case scenario could reduce global growth by a “material” amount of at least 1.4% over the next two years. Some effects are already being felt. The largest US nail manufacturer, Mid-Continent Nail, has laid off 60 workers and said it might be out of business by the end of the summer.