Us Of Ed

"He's not the President of the United States, he's the President of about 30% of the United States, and that's all he wants to be..."​ This week, Ed has a few harsh words for President Trump in the wake of the horrific Las Vegas massacre and multiple failures in Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, what's the Republicans' next move on healthcare following their inability to pass a vote to repeal and replace Obamacare? The latest on the Mueller investigation and what the expulsion of Cuban diplomats from the US means for relations between the two nations.

"What the guys are saying is, we really love the United States and this is one way of showing it. There are problems of race and we're trying to bring them to your attention with what we have, and that's our name and our ability." Trump's attacks on former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick and other protesting NFL players, a far-cry from the kind of hedged language used against Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, seem to have backfired with more sport stars taking up the challenge. Off the field, Republicans' "last-ditch" efforts on repealing Obamacare have also failed and tax reform could leave an even bigger hole in the deficit. And was Senator Luther Strange's loss in Alabama a victory in disguise for Trump? 

"Impeaching him might be easy, removing him from office might be very, very hard.." President Donald Trump has threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea if Kim Jong-un doesn't back down from his latest threats, making the leaders of the two nations harder and harder to tell apart. So will we see any peaceful resolution to the situation? Plus Puerto Rico as the 51st State, Mueller smells blood in the water around Paul Manafort and Republicans' 'last-ditch' effort on an Obamacare repeal.

"[Trump] has really lost the Republicans, and he has nothing to gain from trying to get them back... but with the Democrats, if he can bring them onside on a few key issues... he might save his presidency for this four years, because they'll stop pursuing him." As recovery begins following Hurricane Irma, Ed talks about the fallout both physical and political. But, is Trump showing some of those fabled deal-making skills in reaching across the aisle to Democrats on the DACA Dreamers? And what does that mean for his relationship with his own party? Plus, back-downs on both the travel ban and transgender military ban, while China could be poised to take the North Korea situation out of American hands.

"They'd be a boon, actually, to Mexico, to have these well-educated people come back... And Canada will receive these people with open arms. This is another one of these deals where Donald Trump thinks he's winning his base but he's losing everyone else."​ While America was still getting its head around the ravages of flooding in Houston, another massive storm got ready to batter Florida. How is the government responding? And Donald Trump continues to kick up a storm on both sides of the aisle, ordering the dismantling of Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, and yet siding with Democrats on raising the debt ceiling, a policy Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan had called "ridiculous" barely an hour before the announcement.

"This is a slap in the face to the justice system... practically anyone of any conscience has backed away." Hurricane Harvey has devastated parts of Houston, Texas. As former Executive Director of Recovery Management for the City of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, Ed gives some insight into what the road to recovery will look like for Houston. Meanwhile, Hurricane Trump continues to rage in Washington DC with a pardon for controversial Arizona ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio and Robert Mueller making more in-roads in the Russia investigation, meaning there won't be any pardons for Trump associates caught conspiring in the 2016 election.

"The best strategy sometimes is to lose gracefully, and maybe this is the exit route." Trump has come out with a new strategy in Afghanistan promising less "nation-building" and more "killing terrorists", so what do we know so far? Meanwhile, following his resignation, Trump adviser Steve Bannon has declared the Trump presidency over and Trump has launched a war of words with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Can Trump afford to lose both the support of his base and the Republican party?

"People need to feel they're working towards an agenda of unity, the agenda that Abraham Lincoln talked about... When you can't believe that anymore the fabric of the nation starts coming apart." Following Charlottesville, America seems in crisis about what kind of country it wants to be and how to get there, and the White House does not appear to be helping steer the ship. Meanwhile, Trump has made some unexpected comments about military intervention in Venezuela, unsupported by the US Department of Defense. In his growing need for distraction, is the president developing a taste for war?

"We'd have to have supreme intelligence to knock down every one of those rockets." An escalation in the war of words between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have some questioning whether the United States is on the brink of nuclear war. How likely is that to be the case? Plus, the New York Times believes we could be seeing a Pence 2020 presidential campaign and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has had his home searched by the Mueller investigation, on the hunt for tax documents and foreign banking records.

"It appears that Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner have been involved in laundering money, taking bribes or giving bribes, and avoiding in several countries and stashing money around the world... Mueller is using the threat of sending those people to prison for a long time." The Mooch is out and John Kelly is in, but is there any end in sight for chaos in the White House? More leaks to the Washington Post of Donald Trump's conversations with other world leaders says no. Meanwhile, with a federal grand jury becoming a part of the investigation is Robert Mueller following the money surrounding the Trump family and likely indite the President himself and his associates on RICO charges?

Have you ever thought about this? All during the American financial crisis, the Trump empire kept tooling along. Now, where's the money coming from? It wasn't coming from US banks, it wasn't coming from banks that we know about, but it looks pretty clear it came from Russian banks..

Ed and Sean talk the Trump agenda, where has it gone amidst turmoil over healthcare and the failed attempts at a travel ban? Also, Donald Trump Jr and Paul Manafort to testify before a Senate judiciary committee on July 26th, and unfortunate news for presidential nominee John McCain.

Ed and Sean on the latest from a besieged Trump White House. Accusations of collusion between Donald Trump Jr. and other members of the Trump campaign, Republicans and the new FBI head distancing themselves from President Trump, and is Russia taking advantage of their supposed hold over President Trump?