title: Highlights: The Trump presidency on Feb. 9 at 7:50 P.M. EST
text: (Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday: A U.S. federal appeals court in San Francisco unanimously upholds a temporary suspension of President Donald Trump’s order that restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. Trump plans to announce the most ambitious tax reform plan since the Reagan era in the next few weeks, the White House says; the dollar and stocks rise after the announcement, despite signals from Congress that the timeline for tax reform is slipping. Nine senators from his own Republican party urge Trump to take a “tough-minded” approach to Russia, joining a growing chorus of lawmakers addressing concerns that he might be too conciliatory toward Moscow. In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, sources say. Considering his comments about Russia, NATO allies are looking for signs that Trump will stick with the U.S. commitment to the alliance made by the Obama administration. Trump disputes bipartisan accounts that his U.S. Supreme Court nominee privately voiced dismay over Trump’s attacks on the judiciary, saying Judge Neil Gorsuch’s comments had been misrepresented. Trump meets with airline executives and then laments what he called an out-of-date U.S. air traffic control system while criticizing current modernization efforts as the “wrong system” and too expensive. A dozen Democratic senators urge the Trump administration to reconsider overhauling and renaming a U.S. government program so it would focus solely on countering Islamist extremism, saying it could jeopardize security and may be illegal. Stephen Feinberg, chief executive of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management [CBS.UL] who backed Trump’s election campaign, is being considered to lead a review of the vast U.S. intelligence operation and whether it can be restructured, current and former officials tell Reuters. Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway draws sharp criticism from a top Republican lawmaker and complaints over the ethics of using her position to urge Americans to buy product lines of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, a day after Trump attacked Nordstrom for dropping them. Trump uses the swearing-in ceremony of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to sign three executive orders, including ones targeting transnational drug cartels and those who commit crimes against law enforcement. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new Cabinet-level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets Trump on Friday in Washington, a Japanese government official says. Trump and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani discussed opportunities to strengthen ties, security, counterterrorism cooperation and economic development during a telephone call on Thursday, the White House says in a statement. 