The World Blog by humble servant.

President Trump has privately questioned Vice President Mike Pence’s loyalty, reports the New York Times. “In one conversation after another he has asked aides and advisers a pointed question: Is Mike Pence loyal?” according to the Times. “Trump has repeated the question so many times that he has alarmed some of his advisers,” the Times noted, citing sources. “The president has not openly suggested dropping Mr. Pence from the ticket and picking another running mate, but the advisers say those kinds of questions usually indicate that he has grown irritated with someone.” This news comes amid speculation about many high-level changes in the Trump administration in the days ahead.

The idea is that the Cabinet and VP are the president's closest advisers, Feerick said, so they would be the ones with the best sense of his mental faculties. They, and Congress, could also consult doctors to evaluate the president's physical and mental health in order to determine if he or she is fit for the job, though they don't have to.

John D. Feerick, former dean of Fordham Law School, is one of the chief architects of the 25th Amendment who shepherded it through Congress in the early 1960s. He told Business Insider in March 2017 that the senators who signed the provision into law specified that declaring the president unfit must rely on "reliable facts regarding the president's physical or mental faculties," not personal prejudice.

US President Donald Trump has made yet another bizarre, off-the-cuff remark during an interview that has left people scratching their heads, and meme-smiths working overtime. Having previously criticized authorities in California for improper forest management, irking survivors and first responders alike, Trump has now made another one of his infamous, off-hand remarks regarding a Nordic country (see: #LastNightInSweden); this time he opted for Finland. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump  With proper Forest Management, we can stop the devastation constantly going on in California. Get Smart!

Last year, Donald Trump said that Saudi Arabia wants “women as slaves and to kill gays” — and suggested that the kingdom had ordered the 9/11 attacks. “Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis,” Trump informed Fox & Friends in February 2016. “It was Saudi — take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents.” The mogul reiterated this (not entirely baseless) charge on the stump, while arguing that Saudi Arabia was taking advantage of America financially — even though their monarchy “wouldn’t exist very long” without Washington’s aid. When the candidate wasn’t painting Saudi Arabia as a tyrannical, terroristic parasite, he was, quite often, describing its faith as a malignant virus threatening the survival of Western civilization. The Republican standard-bearer announced that “Islam hates us”; called for banning all of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the United States; and repeatedly cited the mass murder of Muslim prisoners of war with bullets dripp...

Alleged Saudi role in September 11 attacks The alleged Saudi role in the September 11 attacks gained new attention after two former U.S. senators, co-chairmen of the Congressional Inquiry into the attacks, told CBS in April 2016 that the redacted pages of the Congressional Inquiry′s report refer to evidence of Saudi Arabia's substantial involvement in the execution of the attacks,[1][2][3] and calls renewed to have the redacted pages released. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.[4] Origins of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 attacks Nationality Number Saudi Arabia 15 United Arab Emirates 2 Egypt 1 Lebanon 1 The panel's findings 'did not discover' any role by 'senior, high-level' Saudi government officials, said officials familiar with the report,[5] but the "commission’s narrow wording", according to critics, suggests the possibility that "less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role"...

The Great Escape By CRAIG UNGER JUNE 1, 2004 Americans who think the 9/11 commission is going to answer all the crucial questions about the terrorist attacks are likely to be sorely disappointed -- especially if they're interested in the secret evacuation of Saudis by plane that began just after Sept. 11. We knew that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudis. We knew that Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, was behind 9/11. Yet we did not conduct a police-style investigation of the departing Saudis, of whom two dozen were members. of the bin Laden family. That is not to say that they were complicit in the attacks. Unfortunately, though, we may never know the real story. The investigative panel has already concluded that there is ''no credible evidence that any chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationals departed the United States before the reopening of national airspace.'' But the real point is that there were still some restrictions on American airspace when the Saudi fli...

Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven lashed out at Donald Trump again Sunday, saying his behavior is the “greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime” after the president criticized McRaven for failing to bring Osama bin Laden to justice sooner. Trump disdainfully dismissed earlier criticism from McRaven, who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL mission that killed bin Laden, when Chris Wallace questioned him about it in an interview that aired earlier in the day on “Fox News Sunday.” “Hillary Clinton fan,” Trump snapped, cutting off Wallace. “He’s a Hillary Clinton backer and an Obama-backer, and frankly ... wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that?”In an interview on CNN Sunday, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling characterized McRaven as an “unbelievable patriot” and a “true servant” of the Constitution. Asked about Trump’s comments on McRaven, Hertling responded: “Having someone like the president of the United States, a man that holds an office that’s su...