Trump shakes-up staff, weighs signing Russia sanctions bill into law

World Today

It’s still unclear whether U.S. President Donald Trump will sign-off on Congress’ plan for stiff sanctions against Russia.


The bill targets industries including railways, shipping and companies that do business with Russia’s oil industry. The White House has already said they don’t like a provision which would bar Trump from easing or waiving penalties on Russia without Congressional approval.

CGTN’s Jessica Stone reports.

The bill can still become law without the president’s signature if it goes unsigned for ten days. At the same time, President Trump is suffering a major legislative defeat on healthcare and very public war between key staff members in the West Wing. Three members of Trump’s own party refused to back the latest attempt to rollback national healthcare reform, which he supported.

Critics said Trump has proven that he doesn’t know how to get things done in Congress. And that will hold up the rest of his legislative agenda, like cutting taxes and fund major infrastructure spending.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks into the Oval Office as President Donald Trump reads over his notes, Friday, March 10, 2017, prior to meeting with key House Committee Chairmen at the White House.

The White House really needs a team effort when it comes to moving his agenda forward. And the president has just changed his team – appointing his Homeland Security to chief of staff. This comes after a very public battle between the president’s communications director Anthony Scaramucci and his chief of staff Reince Priebus. 

The President replacing Priebus with General John Kelly – his current Homeland Security Secretary, a man he had just called, “one of our great stars.”

Trump turned to social media to make the announcement, just as he and Priebus were returning to Washington after attending an event in New York in which the president praised Kelly’s performance at Homeland Security. There’s at least one domestic report that Priebus secretly resigned Wednesday night.