The Trump administration's twenty-eighth week in service has been characterized by a series of firings, a promised immigration bill and the ever-evolving Russia investigation. Washington D.C led America into the week with Special Counsel Bob Mueller's strategic use of a grand jury in federal court to further investigate Trump's involvement with Russia. While the grand jury has been in operation for several weeks, Mueller's jury will also investigate the possible corruption behind Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, along with the financial information of former Trump political consultant Paul Manafort and national security advisor Michael Flynn. Mueller's expansion of the investigation by a grand jury holds great significance, given that the use of grand juries in the past have been to obtain important documents and influence additional witnesses to testify.
On President Trump's end, however, a novel approach has been taken towards Russia and related arrangements: the Russia sanctions bill. The bill includes sanctions for Russia as a response to its involvement in the 2016 election, and requires that Trump seek congressional approval to make any further changes to the bill in the future. While the bill eventually met the pen of President Trump, the former business mogul noted that the bill was "significantly flawed" but "despite it's problems, I'm signing this bill for the sake of unity." The bipartisan bill appeared to foster unity indeed, finding support by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In response, Russian leader Vladimir Putin swiftly ordered the Russian-based American diplomats to decrease their staff to 755 employees.
In an action that rivals the daring attitude of Putin, President Trump shook up the White House with the firing of the former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus through a tweet congratulating the arrival of his new chief of staff, John Kelly. Priebus' service as a chief of staff lasted approximately six months. Nevertheless, the short life of Priebus' appointment does not compare to the now former communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Serving a total of ten days, the financier was almost immediately replaced in efforts to provide Kelly with a brand new array of employees underneath him.
A new bill introduced by President Trump to tackle immigration policies, the RAISE Act, if approved, will implement a point-system to allow immigrants into the U.S. The system would include criteria such as education level, age, fluency in the English language and the presence of a job offer. In order for the bill to become law, 60 senators will have to show support of the RAISE Act. Given that there are 52 Republican senators, 8 senators will have to approve the bill.
Republican senator of Florida Marco Rubio shared his thoughts on the future of the bill, boldly asserting "That bill's not going to pass." Rubio continued, stating "Where I probably have a big difference of opinion with this bill is that it sets an arbitrary cap on the number of people that are able to come through with a green card. I don't think that should be an arbitrary cap. That number should be driven by demand."
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/special-counsel-mueller-using-grand-jury-in-federal-court-in-washington-as-part-of-russia-investigation/2017/08/03/1585da56-7887-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.10be09495173
- https://news.vice.com/story/trump-calls-russia-sanctions-bill-unconstitutional-but-signs-it-anyway
- https://news.vice.com/story/week-28-in-trumps-america-people-got-fired
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/world/europe/russia-sanctions-us-diplomats-expelled.html
- http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/marco-rubio-trumps-immigration-bill-is-not-going-to-pass-the-senate/article/2630834
