Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Israel lifts restrictions on building more homes in East Jerusalem

Israeli settlements being built

By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told senior ministers he is lifting restrictions on settlement building in East Jerusalem, a statement said on Sunday, immediately after the city’s municipal government approved permits for the building of hundreds of new homes in the area.

“There is no longer a need to coordinate construction in the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. We can build where we want and as much as we want,” the statement quoted Netanyahu as saying, adding that he also intended to allow the start of building in the West Bank.

“My vision is to enact sovereignty over all the settlements,” the statement also said, pointing to Netanyahu’s apparent bid to win greater support from settlers and appeal to a right-wing coalition partner.

Netanyahu told the ministers of the move at a meeting where they also decided unanimously to postpone discussing a bill proposing the Israeli annexation of the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, home to 40,000 Israelis near Jerusalem.

A brief statement issued after the discussion by the ministerial forum known as the Security Cabinet, said work on the bill would be delayed until after Netanyahu meets the new U.S. President, Donald Trump.

Netanyahu held his first phone conversation with the president on Sunday, saying afterwards that the conversation had been “very warm” and that he had been invited to a meeting with Trump in Washington in February.

“Many matters face us. The Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat,” Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile the housing projects approved by the Jerusalem municipality on Sunday are on land that the Palestinians seek as part of a future state and had been taken off the agenda in December at Netanyahu’s request to avoid further censure from Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

However, Israel’s right wing believes that Trump’s attitude towards settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — areas Israel captured in the 1967 war — will be far more supportive than that of Obama.

Jerusalem’s City Hall approved the building permits for more than 560 units in the urban settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramat Shlomo and Ramot, areas annexed to Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement that the eight years of the Obama administration had been “difficult with pressure … to freeze construction” but that Israel was now entering a new era.

The Palestinians denounced the move. “We strongly condemn the Israeli decision to approve the construction,” Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters.

In its final weeks, the Obama administration angered the Israeli government by withholding a traditional U.S. veto of an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations Security Council, enabling the measure to pass.

Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, echoed his condemnation of the world body over its treatment of Israel at her Senate confirmation hearing last week.

Before taking over as president, Trump also pledged to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has nominated as new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who is seen as a supporter of settlements.

Israel views all Jerusalem as its capital, but most of the world considers its final status a matter for peace negotiations. The Palestinians have said that an embassy move would kill any prospect for peace. Negotiations broke down in 2014.

Commentators in Israel have said it is too early to tell what Trump’s policy on these matters will actually be although the White House said on Sunday it was in the early stages of talks to fulfill Trump’s pledge.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement.

Most countries consider settlement activity illegal and an obstacle to peace. Israel disagrees, citing a biblical, historical and political connection to the land — which the Palestinians also claim — as well as security interests.

(Additional Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by David Goodman, Greg Mahlich)

European stocks fall, investors seek safety after Trump address

People walk through lobby of London Stock Exchange

By Abhinav Ramnarayan

LONDON (Reuters) – European stocks and bond yields edged lower on Monday and the dollar briefly hit a six-week low after U.S. President Donald Trump began his term in office with a protectionist speech that drove a nervous market into safe-haven assets.

Wall Street was set to open slightly lower, tracking stock markets in Europe and parts of Asia, having hit multi-year highs earlier this month on expectations Trump would boost growth and inflation with extraordinary fiscal spending measures.

However, his inaugural address on Friday, signaling an isolationist stance on trade and other issues, led investors to retreat to the safety of higher-rated government bonds.

Trump also made it clear that he plans to hold talks with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. stock futures were down 0.2 percent, pointing to a lower open after European stocks touched their lowest levels this year in early trades. By midday, the broad STOXX index had come off the day’s lows but was still down 0.3 percent.

Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.1 percent while shares in Australia fell 0.8 percent after Trump’s administration also declared its intention to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation trade pact that Japan and Australia have both signed.

Other Asian shares were more resilient, however, in part due to dollar weakness, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 percent.

“The focus this morning is on the protectionist rhetoric and the lack of detail on economic stimulus, so it’s a nervous start (to the presidency),” said Investec economist Victoria Clarke.

“The other concern is how the Fed interprets Trump’s stance, the worry being the less he does on fiscal stimulus the more nervous they may get on pushing the rate hikes through.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve, which has indicated it expects to raise its benchmark interest rate three times this year, is due to hold its next meeting on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

Rabobank analyst Michael Avery said a more protectionist United States could lead to a U.S. dollar liquidity squeeze, with Mexico and Asia likely the most badly hit.

“We would see outright confusion over what currency to invoice, trade, and borrow in: a 19th century world of competing reserve currencies in different geographic zones, but without the underpinning of gold,” Avery said in a note.

The problem would be exacerbated if China tightens capital controls further, he said.

The U.S. dollar was down 0.4 percent against a basket of six major currencies.

The nervous start on Monday saw safe-haven assets in demand.

The yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond, the benchmark for the region, led most euro zone bonds lower and was down 2 basis points to 0.34 percent.

This followed 10-year U.S. Treasuries yields, which fell to 2.43 percent, after having risen briefly on Friday to 2.513 percent, their highest since Jan. 3.

Spot gold prices, meanwhile, rose on Monday to their highest in two months.

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Trump invites Netanyahu to Washington for visit: White House

US Embassy in Tel Aviv

By Ayesha Rascoe and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington in early February during a phone call in which they discussed the importance of strengthening the U.S.-Israeli relationship, the White House said on Sunday.

In his first call with Netanyahu since taking office on Friday, Trump stressed his “unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security.”

“The president and the prime minister agreed to continue to closely consult on a range of regional issues, including addressing the threats posed by Iran,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump also said peace between Israel and the Palestinians could only be negotiated between the two parties, but that the United States would work with Israel to achieve that goal.

Relations between Israel and the Obama administration ended on a contentious note, when the United States declined to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement-building.

The readout from the White House did not include any mention of moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, an action that would likely spark anger in the Arab world.

Earlier on Sunday, the White House said it was only in the early stages of talks to fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge to relocate the embassy.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement. Aides said no announcement of an embassy move was imminent.

Washington’s embassy is in Tel Aviv, as are most foreign diplomatic posts. Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal capital, but Palestinians also lay claim to the city as part of an eventual Palestinian state. Both sides cite biblical, historical and political claims.

Any decision to break with the status quo is likely to prompt protests from U.S. allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Washington relies on those countries for help in fighting the Islamic State militant group, which the new U.S. president has said is a priority.

The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1995 describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and saying it should not be divided, but successive Republican and Democratic presidents have used their foreign policy powers to maintain the embassy in Tel Aviv and to back negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem.

In early December, then-President Barack Obama renewed the presidential waiver on an embassy move until the beginning of June. It is unclear whether Trump would be able to legally override it and go ahead with relocation of the embassy.

U.S. diplomats say that, despite the U.S. legislation, Washington’s foreign policy is in practice broadly aligned with that of the United Nations and other major powers, which do not view Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and do not recognize Israel’s annexation of Arab East Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements in expectation that Trump will row back on the previous administration’s criticism of such projects.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, Warren Strobel and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Howard Goller and Paul Simao)

Executive actions ready to go as Trump prepares to take office

Donald Trump takes the oath

By Ayesha Rascoe and Julia Edwards Ainsley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump is preparing to sign executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to take the opening steps to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama’s policies.

Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8 to succeed Democrat Obama, arrived in Washington on a military plane with his family a day before he will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Aides said Trump would not wait to wield one of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, to sign several executive actions that can be implemented without the input of Congress.

“He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you’re going to see that in the days and weeks to come,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week.

Trump plans on Saturday to visit the headquarters of the CIA in Langley, Virginia. He has harshly criticized the agency and its outgoing chief, first questioning the CIA’s conclusion that Russia was involved in cyber hacking during the U.S. election campaign, before later accepting the verdict. Trump also likened U.S. intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany.

Trump’s advisers vetted more than 200 potential executive orders for him to consider signing on healthcare, climate policy, immigration, energy and numerous other issues, but it was not clear how many orders he would initially approve, according to a member of the Trump transition team who was not authorized to talk to the press.

Signing off on orders puts Trump, who has presided over a sprawling business empire but has never before held public office, in a familiar place similar to the CEO role that made him famous, and will give him some early victories before he has to turn to the lumbering process of getting Congress to pass bills.

The strategy has been used by other presidents, including Obama, in their first few weeks in office.

“He wants to show he will take action and not be stifled by Washington gridlock,” said Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer.

Trump is expected to impose a federal hiring freeze and take steps to delay a Labor Department rule due to take effect in April that would require brokers who give retirement advice to put their clients’ best interests first.

He also will give official notice he plans to withdraw from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, Spicer said. “I think you will see those happen very shortly,” Spicer said.

Obama, ending eight years as president, made frequent use of his executive powers during his second term in office, when the Republican-controlled Congress stymied his efforts to overhaul immigration and environmental laws. Many of those actions are now ripe targets for Trump to reverse.

BORDER WALL

Trump is expected to sign an executive order in his first few days to direct the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico, and actions to limit the entry of asylum seekers from Latin America, among several immigration-related steps his advisers have recommended.

That includes rescinding Obama’s order that allowed more than 700,000 people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in the country on a two-year authorization to work and attend college, according to several people close to the presidential transition team.

It is unlikely Trump’s order will result in an immediate roundup of these immigrants, sources told Reuters. Rather, he is expected to let the authorizations expire.

The issue could set up a confrontation with Obama, who told reporters on Wednesday he would weigh in if he felt the new administration was unfairly targeting those immigrants.

Advisers to Trump expect him to put restrictions on people entering the United States from certain countries until a system for “extreme vetting” for Islamist extremists can be set up.

During his presidential campaign, Trump proposed banning non-American Muslims from entering the United States, but his executive order regarding immigration is expected to be based on nationality rather than religion.

Another proposed executive order would require all Cabinet departments to disclose and pause current work being done in connection with Obama’s initiatives to curb carbon emissions to combat climate change.

Trump also is expected to extend prohibitions on future lobbying imposed on members of his transition team.

‘THE HIGHEST IQ’

Washington was turned into a virtual fortress ahead of the inauguration, with police ready to step in to separate protesters from Trump supporters at any sign of unrest.

As Obama packed up to leave the White House, Trump and his family laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery and attended a concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Trump spoke earlier to lawmakers and Cabinet nominees at a luncheon in a ballroom at his hotel, down the street from the White House, announcing during brief remarks that he would pick Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League, as U.S. ambassador to Britain.

“We have a lot of smart people. I tell you what, one thing we’ve learned, we have by far the highest IQ of any Cabinet ever assembled,” Trump said.

Trump has selected all 21 members of his Cabinet, along with six other key positions requiring Senate confirmation. The Senate is expected on Friday to vote to confirm retired General James Mattis, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, and retired General John Kelly, his homeland security choice.

Senate Republicans had hoped to confirm as many as seven Cabinet members on Friday, but Democrats balked at the pace. Trump spokesman Spicer accused Senate Democrats of “stalling tactics.”

Also in place for Monday will be 536 “beachhead team members” at government agencies, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said, a small portion of the thousands of positions Obama’s appointees will vacate.

Trump has asked 50 Obama staffers in critical posts to stay on until replacements can be found, including Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Brett McGurk, envoy to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.

The list includes Adam Szubin, who has long served in an “acting” capacity in the Treasury Department’s top anti-terrorism job because his nomination has been held up by congressional Republicans since Obama named him to the job in April 2015.

The Supreme Court said U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath of office on Friday, met with Trump on Thursday to discuss inauguration arrangements.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, David Shepardson, Susan Heavey, David Alexander, Doina Chiacu, Ayesha Rascoe, Ginger Gibson, Mike Stone, Emily Stephenson, David Brunnstrom and Lawrence Hurley)

In Trump We Trust: Inauguration prompts celebration in Russia

poster of Donald Trump in Russia

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin may have spent years reviling America, but Russians hoping Donald Trump will usher in a new era of detente marked his inauguration on Friday with parties and trinkets from commemorative coins to “matryoshka” nesting dolls in his image.

Washington was turned into a virtual fortress with an estimated 900,000 people — backers and protesters — descending on the capital. In London, anti-Trump activists draped a banner reading “Build Bridges Not Walls” from Tower Bridge. Protests were planned across western Europe on Friday and Saturday.

But according to Gennady Gudkov, a Putin critic and former lawmaker, Russia is in the grip of “Trumpomania”, with state media giving the President-elect blanket air time at the expense of more mundane and sometimes depressing domestic news stories.

That, he said, was in part because the U.S. election, unlike elections in Russia, had been unpredictable. The Kremlin is hoping Trump will ease sanctions imposed over the annexation of Crimea, team up with Russia against Islamic State, and cut back NATO military activity near Russian borders.

Craftsmen in the city of Zlatoust, east of Moscow, have released a limited series of silver and gold commemorative coins, engraved with “In Trump We Trust” – an allusion to the phrase on U.S. banknotes “In God We Trust”.

‘TRUMPOMANIA’

Sellers of traditional matryoshka nesting dolls have added Trump dolls to their popular line-up of items carved in the likeness of President Vladimir Putin, Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, ex-President Mikhail Gorbachev and Josef Stalin.

And a shop selling Russian military kit located opposite the U.S. embassy in Moscow has unveiled a cheeky promotional campaign offering embassy employees and U.S. citizens a 10 percent discount on its wares to celebrate Trump’s inauguration.

Some of Trump’s opponents believe the Kremlin helped him win the White House by staging a hacking campaign to hoover up embarrassing information about Hillary Clinton, his rival. The Kremlin denies that, but few here make any secret of the fact that they are pleased that Trump and not Clinton triumphed.

Relations between Putin and Barack Obama had soured badly.

“Trump’s election has generated enormous enthusiasm in Russia because his warm words about Russia and Putin have given us hope that the USA and the West will stop their attack on Russia,” Sergei Markov, a former pro-Putin lawmaker, said on social media.

“We don’t know for sure if there will be an improvement (in relations) or not. But we Russians are optimists … so we are hoping for the best, while preparing for the worst.”

For Russian nationalists, Trump’s inauguration is an excuse to mix fun with self-promotion.

They are holding an all-night party at what used to be the main Soviet-era post office in Moscow where they will showcase their favorite prop, a triptych of Putin, Trump and French Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

Konstantin Rykov, a former pro-Putin lawmaker and one of the event’s promoters, said on social media it was right to celebrate the first phase of the “New World Order.”

“Washington will be ours,” he quipped.

(Additional reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

British protesters tell Trump from Tower Bridge: ‘Build bridges not walls’

Protesters hold banner on London bridge

By Alistair Smout and Luke Bridges

LONDON (Reuters) – A banner reading “Build bridges not walls” was draped across London’s Tower Bridge on Friday as part of a series of protests across the world aimed at expressing displeasure at the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

Protesters on the drawbridge, with its two Gothic-style towers, held up pink letters reading “Act now!” soon after sunrise, while others unfurled the banner over the railings and a speedboat with a black flag reading “build bridges not walls” raced down the River Thames.

Beside the British parliament, protesters draped banners saying “Migrants welcome here” and “Migration is older than language” over Westminster bridge. Other protests are planned in London, other British cities and across the world on Friday.

Julie Chasin, a 42-year-old teacher originally from New York who has lived in London for a decade, said she joined the protest to hold up one of the pink letters on Tower Bridge as she was concerned about the Trump presidency.

“Yes Donald Trump is President, but he still needs to protect everybody’s rights,” said Chasin, a Democrat who said she worked on Hillary campaign in North Carolina.

“It’s scary. I hope he’s kept in check. I hope everyone who is telling me not to worry, and saying that we have a strong system of checks and balances, I hope that it’s true,” Chasin said.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to “make America great again”, drawing strong support especially from areas of industrial decline. He said on Twitter that he would fight very hard to make his presidency a great journey for the American people.

TRUMP’S FRESH APPROACH

Due to be sworn in at a ceremony in Washington on Friday, he faces protests in Washington during his inauguration, and in cities from Toronto to Sydney, Addis Ababa and Dublin over his politics which critics say are divisive and dangerous.

The protest in London was organized by the campaign group also called “Bridges not Walls”, in reference to Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border.

“We won’t let the politics of hate peddled by the likes of Donald Trump take hold,” Nona Hurkmans of Bridges not Walls said in a statement.

Trump opponents have been angered by his comments during the campaign about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims and his pledges to scrap the Obamacare health reform and build a wall on the Mexican border.

The Republican’s supporters admire his experience in business, including as a real estate developer and reality television star, and view him as an outsider who will take a fresh approach to politics.

For some on the protest in London, Trump’s victory a little over 4 months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, symbolizes a rise of populism across the West.

“For me it’s about not just the inauguration of Trump, but about the rise of right wing populism across Western Europe and the US, and Trump’s inauguration is a celebration of that,” Jac St John, 26, a doctoral student from London, who unfurled one of the banners.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Luke Bridges; editing by Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge, Ralph Boulton)

Tensions rise at North Dakota pipeline as Trump set to take White House

Protest to the Dakota Access Pipeline

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Tensions have increased this week near the construction site of the Dakota Access pipeline, with repeated clashes between protesters and police ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, an unabashed fan of the $3.8 billion project.

Police used tear gas and fired bean-bag rounds to disperse crowds, and have arrested nearly 40 people since Monday, many of them on a bridge that has been the site of frequent confrontations, law enforcement officials said.

Demonstrators at the shrinking protest camp have voiced desperation and declining morale, citing weaker support from the local Standing Rock Sioux tribe that launched the effort last year and the backing that Trump, a Republican, will provide the pipeline once he takes office on Friday.

“It’s closing in on the inauguration, and people want to make sure that their voices are heard while they still have a chance,” said Benjamin Johansen, 29, a carpenter from Iowa who has been at the camp for two months. “There’s a very real possibility that once the new president is inaugurated, our voices won’t matter.”

This week’s clashes between protesters and police are the most serious since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement in December for the pipeline to travel under Lake Oahe.

Native Americans and environmental activists have said that the pipeline threatens water resources and sacred lands.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation is near the pipeline, asked protesters to disperse following the Corps’ decision, but around 600 remain in the main camp, now called Oceti Oyate.

The tribe is asking that the camp be evacuated by Jan. 29, and is offering an alternate site on reservation land that avoids any risk of flooding. Tribal leaders and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum have warned about potential flooding at the protest site in early March.

The call for the protest to end has left those still on site in a darker mood, said Amanda Moore, 20, an activist with Black Lives Matter.

“We’re stressed with Donald Trump’s inauguration coming so soon, and feeling that we have to stop the pipeline now,” she said.

Protesters and law enforcement faced off early Thursday morning on Backwater Bridge for the third straight night, with demonstrators throwing snowballs at officers and climbing onto a barricade before being pushed back.

Law enforcement fired a volley of bean bags and sponges at protesters at around 2 a.m., sending protesters fleeing from the ice- and snow-covered bridge, according to a Reuters witness. Police said they also used pepper spray.

The skirmish came as the Army began the process of launching an environmental study of the pipeline.

At least one protester was taken to the hospital, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Since Monday, 37 have been arrested, adding up to 624 since August.

“They come and say they want to pray and want us to fall back, then they get aggressive and try and flank our officers and get behind us,” Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department said. “What they say and what they do are two different things.”

Both Herr and protesters conceded that communication between the two sides had deteriorated in past months.

Kalisa Wight Rock, a volunteers from Georgia working as a medic, said focus shifting away from the protest had left some feeling abandoned after the widespread attention the opposition to the pipeline garnered last year.

“A lot of people think this is over and that we’re not still here,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Ben Klayman and Jonathan Oatis)

‘The work begins!’: Trump to be sworn in as U.S. president

workers install the presidential seal for Trump's inauguration

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump will be sworn in on Friday as the 45th president of the United States, taking power over a divided country after a savage campaign and setting the country on a new, uncertain path at home and abroad.

In a ceremony likely to draw 900,000 people, including protesters, Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, will take the oath of office at midday (1700 GMT) outside the domed U.S. Capitol, with U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presiding.

“It all begins today!” Trump wrote in a note on Twitter at about 7:30 a.m. “I will see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES – THE WORK BEGINS!”

Security was tight around the White House and Capitol. Streets near the president’s home were blocked to traffic by empty buses and dump trucks or temporary pedestrian security checkpoints where law enforcement officers and National Guard troops checked people’s bags.

Checkpoints around the National Mall in front of the Capitol opened early to begin admitting guests, some of them wearing red caps bearing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. They were barred from bringing selfie sticks, coolers for beverages, and long umbrellas despite the rainy weather.

Most of the area was orderly, but about 100 protesters shouted slogans near one checkpoint and linked arms to block people from entering. Police in riot gear pushed them back into an intersection to allow people attending the inauguration to reach the checkpoints.

Trump, 70, enters the White House with work to do to bolster his image. During a testy transition period since his stunning November election win, the wealthy New York businessman and former reality TV star has repeatedly engaged in Twitter attacks against his critics, so much so that one fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, told CNN that Trump seemed to want to “engage with every windmill that he can find.”

An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found only 40 percent of Americans viewed Trump favorably, the lowest rating for an incoming president since Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1977, and the same percentage approved of how he has handled the transition. (http://abcn.ws/2jU9w63)

His ascension to the White House, while welcomed by Republicans tired of Democrat Barack Obama’s eight years, raises a host of questions for the United States.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist path and has vowed to impose a 35 percent tariff on goods on imports from U.S. companies that went abroad.

His desire for warmer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and threats to cut funding for North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations has allies from Britain to the Baltics worried that the traditional U.S. security umbrella will be diminished.

In the Middle East, Trump has said he wants to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at the risk of angering Arabs. He has yet to sketch out how he plans to carry out a campaign pledge to “knock the hell out of” Islamic State militants.

DEMOCRATS’ BOYCOTT

The inaugural festivities may have a more partisan edge than usual, given Trump’s scorching campaign and continuing confrontations between him and Democrats over his take-no-prisoners Twitter attacks and pledge to roll back many of Obama’s policies.

More than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to stay away from the proceedings to protest Trump, spurred on after he derided U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, for calling him an illegitimate president.

Thousands of anti-Trump protesters were expected among an inauguration crowd that organizers estimated will be upwards of 900,000. Many demonstrators will participate in the “Women’s March on Washington” on Saturday. Protests are also planned in other cities in the United States and abroad.

Trump, whose Nov. 8 victory stunned the world, will start his presidency with a 20-minute inaugural address that he has been writing himself with the help of top aides. It will be “a very personal and sincere statement about his vision for the country,” said his spokesman, Sean Spicer.

“He’ll talk about infrastructure and education, our manufacturing base,” Spicer told reporters. “I think it’s going to be less of an agenda and more of a philosophical document, a vision of where he sees the country, the proper role of government, the role of citizens.”

Keith Kidwell, chairman of the Republican Party in Beaufort County, North Carolina, was among the crowds on Friday, eager to see the start of the Trump presidency.

“I cling to my guns and my Bible. I’ve been waiting a long eight years for this day,” said Kidwell, adding he initially supported U.S. Senator Ted Cruz to be the Republican presidential nominee but was now squarely behind Trump.

QUICK ACTION

Trump’s to-do list has given Republicans hope that, since they also control the U.S. Congress, they can quickly repeal and replace Obama’s signature healthcare law, approve sweeping tax reform and roll back many federal regulations they say are stifling the U.S. economy.

Democrats, in search of firm political footing after the unexpected defeat of their presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, are planning to fight him at every turn. They deeply oppose Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric from the campaign trail and plans to build a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

Trump’s critics have been emboldened to attack his legitimacy because his win came in the Electoral College, which gives smaller states more clout in the outcome. He lost the popular vote to Clinton by about 2.9 million.

“Any time you don’t win the popular vote but you win by the Electoral College it makes people come unglued,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. “It angers people that somebody can win the popular vote but you’re not president.”

Trump’s critics also point to the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia used hacking and other methods during the campaign to try to tilt the election in the Republican’s favor. The president-elect has acknowledged the finding – denied by Moscow – that Russia was behind the hacking but said it did not affect the outcome of the election.

To his supporters, many of them working-class whites, Trump is a refreshingly anti-establishment figure who eschews political correctness. To critics – including Obama who during the campaign called Trump temperamentally unfit for the White House – his talk can be jarring, especially when expressed in tweets.

But while a Wall Street Journal opinion poll showed a majority of Americans would like Trump to give up on Twitter, Trump said he would continue tweeting because the U.S. news media does not treat him fairly.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Richard Cowan, Ian Simpson, David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Frances Kerry)

Washington braces for anti-Trump protests, New Yorkers march

protests

By Ian Simpson and Joseph Ax

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Washington turned into a virtual fortress on Thursday ahead of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, while thousands of people took to the streets of New York and Washington to express their displeasure with his coming administration.

Some 900,000 people, both Trump backers and opponents, are expected to flood Washington for Friday’s inauguration ceremony, according to organizers’ estimates. Events include the swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and a parade to the White House along streets thronged with spectators.

The number of planned protests and rallies this year is far above what has been typical at recent presidential inaugurations, with some 30 permits granted in Washington for anti-Trump rallies and sympathy protests planned in cities from Boston to Los Angeles, and outside the U.S. in cities including London and Sydney.

The night before the inauguration, thousands of people turned out in New York for a rally at the Trump International Hotel and Tower, and then marched a few blocks from the Trump Tower where the businessman lives.

The rally featured a lineup of politicians, activists and celebrities including Mayor Bill de Blasio and actor Alec Baldwin, who trotted out the Trump parody he performs on “Saturday Night Live.”

“Donald Trump may control Washington, but we control our destiny as Americans,” de Blasio said. “We don’t fear the future. We think the future is bright, if the people’s voices are heard.”

In Washington, a group made up of hundreds of protesters clashed with police clad in riot gear who used pepper spray against some of the crowd on Thursday night, according to footage on social media.

The confrontation occurred outside the National Press Club building, where inside a so-called “DeploraBall” event was being held in support of Trump, the footage showed.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said police aimed to keep groups separate, using tactics similar to those employed during last year’s political conventions.

“The concern is some of these groups are pro-Trump, some of them are con-Trump, and they may not play well together in the same space,” Johnson said on MSNBC.

Trump opponents have been angered by his comments during the campaign about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims and his pledges to scrap the Obamacare health reform and build a wall on the Mexican border.

The Republican’s supporters admire his experience in business, including as a real estate developer and reality television star, and view him as an outsider who will take a fresh approach to politics.

Bikers for Trump, a group that designated itself as security backup during last summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, is ready to step in if protesters block access to the inauguration, said Dennis Egbert, one of the group’s organizers.

“We’re going to be backing up law enforcement. We’re on the same page,” Egbert, 63, a retired electrician from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

SECURITY CORDON

About 28,000 security personnel, miles of fencing, roadblocks, street barricades and dump trucks laden with sand are part of the security cordon around 3 square miles (8 square km) of central Washington.

A protest group known as Disrupt J20 has vowed to stage demonstrations at each of 12 security checkpoints and block access to the festivities on the grassy National Mall.

Police and security officials have pledged repeatedly to guarantee protesters’ constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.

Aaron Hyman, fellow at the National Gallery of Art, said he could feel tension in the streets ahead of Trump’s swearing-in and the heightened security was part of it.

“People are watching each other like, ‘You must be a Trump supporter,’ and ‘You must be one of those liberals’,” said Hyman, 32, who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election.

Friday’s crowds are expected to fall well short of the 2 million people who attended Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, and be in line with the 1 million who were at his second in 2013.

Forecast rain may also dampen the turnout, though security officials lifted an earlier ban on umbrellas, saying small umbrellas would be permitted.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in Washigton, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone, James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)

China’s Xi says to build new relations with United States

Xi Jinping, China's president

By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – China will build a new model of relations with the United States as part of its creation of a “circle of friends” around the world, President Xi Jinping said in a speech at the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday.

His speech, the finale of a Swiss trip that included a state visit and topping the bill at the World Economic Forum in Davos, was intended to highlight a Chinese interest in playing a cooperative role in international affairs.

“We always put people’s rights and interests above everything else and we have worked hard to develop and uphold human rights,” he said. “China will never seek expansion, hegemony or sphere of influence.”

Human rights groups and Western governments have accused China of widespread human rights abuses. Beijing has also been accused by smaller neighbors of expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea but denies such charges.

“Big countries should treat smaller countries as equals instead of acting as a hegemon imposing their will on others.

“We will strive to build new model of major country relations with the United States, a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Russia, a partnership for peace, growth, reform and among different civilizations,” he said.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was particularly critical of China during his election campaign, accusing it of exploiting the United States economically. He also raised concern by taking a telephone call after his election from the president of Taiwan which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

Xi called for unity on climate change and the fight against terrorism, as well as nuclear disarmament.

“The Paris agreement is a milestone in the history of climate governance. We must ensure this endeavor is not derailed…China will continue to take steps to tackle climate change and fully honor its obligations,” Xi said.

China itself suffers serious air pollution but has pushed hard to develop “green” energy systems. President-elect Trump has cast doubt on accepted scientific wisdom that carbon emissions are driving a rise in global temperatures.

The deep sea, the polar regions, outer space and the Internet should be new frontiers for cooperation rather than a wrestling ground for competition, he said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Ralph Boulton)