President Trump Celebrates Hanukkah at the White House

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump led two Hanukkah receptions in the White House East Room yesterday, celebrating the fifth night of the Festival of Lights. “In his first of two Hanukkah events, Mr. Trump remembered the life of former President George H.W. Bush, calling him a wonderful man. He went on to condemn anti-Semitism, specifically mentioning the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue,” CBS News reports. The receptions came exactly one year after President Trump announced that the U.S. Embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem. Click here to read more.

In Bloomberg, Javier Blas reports that “America turned into a net oil exporter last week, breaking almost 75 years of continued dependence on foreign oil” and marking a pivotal moment in President Trump’s promise to become energy independent. “The shift to net exports is the dramatic result of an unprecedented boom in American oil production, with thousands of wells pumping.”

“An illegal immigrant arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a co-worker in Oregon is discovered to have been deported at least eight times,” Jason Hopkins reports for The Daily Signal. The suspect is currently being held in the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office, where he “is being charged with one count of murder, one count of felon in possession of a weapon, and one count of INS detainer. His bail has been set at $5,000,000.”

“President Donald J. Trump has been the subject of criticism recently because of some confusion about a recent agreement between China and the United States on trade. Although the media will not cut the president a break, as time has worn on, the agreement with China seems likely to be yet another trade victory for President Trump,” Corey Lewandowski writes in The Hill.

In The Washington Times, Stephen Dinan writes that yesterday the Senate voted to confirm Kathleen Kraninger as the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “She has promised to stay the course set by Mr. Mulvaney, saying her priorities will be to bring transparency and accountability to the agency, and to protect consumer privacy while launching ‘aggressive’ action against bad actors.”