Media

Donald Trump's first two weeks have been a frenetic sprint that has unsettled Washington and left a rattled world wondering what's next.

Trump's White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is the provocateur who has engineered the historically disruptive opening gambit of executive orders, diplomatic upheaval, Twitter attacks and continuing attacks on the media.

The strategy? To send one deafening message that rings louder than all the seeming commotion: Trump is bringing a sledgehammer to the status quo.

Democratic lawmakers in a new letter to President Trump say his executive order blocking entry to the U.S. by people from seven largely Muslim nations is short-sighted and could prevent innovation in the United States.

The letter, signed by 25 Democats, notes that Google founder Sergey Brin is himself an immigrant whose parents came from the Soviet Union.

"Your policy misguidedly applies a blanket ban on immigration for individuals traveling from predominately Muslim countries, and wrongly halts work visas from those areas," the lawmakers wrote.

The Trump administration is continuing to make reckless threats against Iran. On Wednesday, in response to recent missile tests, National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn announced the White House was "officially putting Iran on notice," and refused to say whether military force is under consideration.

Democrats are demanding briefings on a U.S. raid on al Qaeda that left one Navy SEAL dead, along with an unspecified number of civilians.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) wrote to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry asking for an "urgent briefing." Separately, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said in a statement that he requested a briefing from the Pentagon.

Last week, the famed Doomsday Clock, created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to sound the alarm over the inherently catastrophic nature of nuclear weapons, was set ahead 30 seconds, to two and a half minutes to midnight, the closest it's been to midnight since 1953.