Trump ended this year’s G7 Summit saying that he will invite Putin to the summit hosted in American next year. He also plans to host at his Doral resort in Florida.
On Thursday the Trump Administration announced a rule change fro the EPA: “The Environmental Protection Agency, in a proposed rule, will aim to eliminate federal government requirements that the oil and gas industry put in place technology to inspect for and repair methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities.”
On Sunday morning, Joe Walsh announced his primary campaign against Trump.
Mattis broke his silence this week, doing an interview with the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.
The FBI’s IG released a report criticizing Comey’s release of his memos about his encouters with Trump. Wittes gives this criticism of the criticism.
Immigration News
The Washington Post reports that Trump is pushing staff and his DHS to speed construction of border wall, even if they have to break laws and “take the land” to do it: “When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said. He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying “take the land,” according to officials who attended the meetings.”
The Boston Globe and then the Miami Herald reported this week that Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sent deportation letters to families who are in the country because their children are undergoing life-saving medical treatments. Here is the New York Times report on the situation.
According to the New York Times: “White House officials have begun preparing options to help bolster the American economy and prevent it from falling into a recession, including mulling a potential payroll tax cut and a possible reversal of some of President Trump’s tariffs, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
A news analysis of the New York Times: “In the space of a few hours, he declared that his own central bank chief was an “enemy,” claimed sweeping powers not explicitly envisioned by the Constitution to “order” American businesses to leave China and, when stock markets predictably tumbled, made a joke of it…. Even some of his own aides and allies were alarmed by his behavior, seeing it as the flailing of a president increasingly anxious over the dark clouds some have detected hovering over an economy that until now has been the strongest selling point for his administration. They privately expressed concern that he was hurting the economy and was doing lasting damage to his own prospects for re-election.”
Trump canceled a trip to Denmark because the prime minister rebuffed his offer to purchase Greenland.
Trump called Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats disloyal to Israel.
Immigration News
On Wednesday the Trump Administration announced a new rule that overturns the Flores agreement, allowing children and families to be detained together indefinitely: “Mr. McAleenan said families would be detained until they were either released after being awarded asylum or deported to their home countries. Some families might be awarded parole to leave the facilities while the courts decide their fate, he said.” A court review is expected.
Here is a good history of the Flores consent decree.
ABC News reports that two children had both parents detained for 8 days after the Mississippi ICE raids.
The Trump Administration is shutting down all New England asylum cases, diverting them to the southern border. There are 40,000 pending New England cases.
ProPublica reports that some Trump immigration policies are being rushed to the point of having sloppy mistakes. The recent rule change on immigrants using public services: “The regulation’s full text, detailed in 217 pages of three-column text in the Federal Register, contradicts its own implementing language regarding how the new rule will apply to military families. … And the form that’s supposed to implement the rule doesn’t distinguish between families of service members who are citizens and service members who are not citizens — although the form’s instructions do…. At one point, the preamble to the regulation says that “active duty service members, including those in the Ready Reserve, and their spouses and children” are exempt from their use of public benefits being counted against them, implying that the exemption applies to all military families. In fact, it does not. Deepening the confusion, USCIS has a form for applicants that doesn’t reflect the two standards mentioned in the rule.”
Veterans Affairs did not vouch for vets affected by the rule change while the DOD did vouch for active duty service members and their families: “As a result, the regulation, which goes into effect in October, applies just as strictly to veterans and their families as it does to the broader public, while active-duty members of the military and reserve forces face a relaxed version of the rule…. Active-duty military members can accept public benefits without jeopardizing their future immigration status; veterans and their families, however, cannot.”
Policy: The Washington Post reported that last year the Trump Administration was planning a mass arrest and deportation of immigrant families; The White House is putting together a war plan to counter Iran that calls for 120,000 troops to be deployed to the Middle East; talks with China collapsed (again) last Friday, some Republican senators are publicly expressing concern over Trump’s trade war and tariff tactics: “The Trump administration has identified at least 1,712 migrant children it may have separated from their parents”; 6th child has died in CBP custody
Taboos: Trump’s visit to Japan over Memorial Day weekend, the White House had the USS John McCain cover the name of the ship with a tarp
Russia Investigation: Hundreds of former federal prosecutors signed a letter that said Mueller had enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction; The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Burr, issued the first subpoena for a Trump family member, Don Jr; Deutsche Bank investigators triggered several suspicious activity reports for Trump and Kushner finances; Mueller gave first public statement
Non-Russia Related Legal Troubles: Mnuchin finally formally refused to hand over Trump’s tax returns ; The New York Times obtained copies of Trump’s tax returns from 1985-1994– 1 billion in losses; A series a legal blows to Trump attempting to fight congressional investigations came this week: The decision in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York could clear the way for Deutsche Bank and Capital One to hand over the president’s financial records
Defections: GOP congressman Justin Amash became the first Republican congressperson to call for Trump’s impeachment.
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This dip follows two weeks after the Mueller Report dip, and it matches that dip for severity, both of them having a rank of 4 and reaching a nadir of 41.2%. This was a period in which everyone was coming to terms with the details of the report, and much media coverage was devoted to those details. While Mueller did make his first public remarks during this dip, the dip had already occurred by the time he spoke and the rebound would begin the following week. It is possible that the dip happened only because of the sharp, brief rise in approval in between the dips, although it is hard to explain that rise. In those two weeks (Week 119-120) there was no much positive news coverage or events that might explain the rebound. it could just be that this was a noisy polling period in which a lot of news covered was spun around between the Mueller Report and Barr’s attempts to spin it. In any case, the Mueller dips to 41.2% were reversed over the next seven weeks as Trump’s approval climbed back up to 43% in Week 130. At this point the 18th dip began, and Trump slid back down to 41.1%.
Policy: government admits it will take years to track all the families they separated at border; judge halts remain-in-Mexico policy; Trump vetos Yemen bill
White House Chaos: Chinese woman sneaks into Mar-a-Lago; security clearance whistle blower talks to congress; Neilson resigned, in a removal of other officials in national security; reports of plans to bus immigrants to liberal cities and closing the border; talk of a purge and harsher policies to come; Grassley calls publicly for Trump to stop firing people from DHS
Russia Investigation:Nadler requests full Mueller report; some of Mueller’s team message to reporters that Barr’s letter is not telling the whole story; Barrs’ first testimony after releasing letter; Mueller report released; Pelosi talks down impeachment; Nadler subpoenas McgGahn; Trump officials on background discuss dangers Russia poses to 2020; reporting on Rosenstein keeping his job last year
Non-Russia Related Legal Troubles: Congress requests Trump’s tax returns from the IRS; Mnuchin refuses to turn over Trump’s taxes; Trump says he will refuse all Congressional inquiries
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This dip corresponds with the release of the Mueller report. 9 previous dips (56%) have been more severe, while 6 have been the same or less severe. By comparison, when Barr first announced Trump-favorable interpretation on Mueller’s report on March 24th there was no change in Trump’s approval rating for the entire week afterward. And the following week there was a brief bump of only .3 points, and from that point the 16th decline began. So the Mueller report is associated with a decline but it’s less than average severity.
Policy: 16 states sue over Trump’s emergency border wall declaration; more reports about children still being separated at the border; House overturns Trump’s emergency declaration; Trump holds second North Korea summit, which is called off; reporting that Trump ordered Kushner to be given a security clearance; Senate overturns Trump’s emergency declaration
Russia Investigation: McCabe book tour about Rosenstein wearing a wire, 25th amendment, recounting the chaos after Comey firing, national security implications; reports of Mueller releasing his report soon; NYTimes expose on Trump’s history of attacking the Russia investigation; Mueller submits final Manafort sentencing memo; Manafort sentenced to four years; Manafort’s second and final sentence; House votes to release the Mueller report
Non-Russia Related Legal Troubles: Cohen testifies in closed and open hearings; publicized checks for hush money; House Judiciary sends 81 subjects requests for information; Cohen produces more hush money checks; Pelosi says no to impeachment; The New York attorney general subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank related to three large loans the bank extended to President Trump
The New York Times studied significant overlap between right wing propaganda and the El Paso shooter’s manifesto: In the four years since Mr. Trump electrified Republican voters with slashing comments about Muslims and Mexicans, demonizing references to immigrants have become more widespread in the news media… Before the first groups of Central American migrants received heavy news media coverage in 2018, words like “invaders” or “invasion” were rarely used by American outlets. In the last year, the use of such terms has surged, with references to an immigrant “invasion” appearing on more than 300 Fox News broadcasts.
Here is a story about what happened to baby Paul Anchondo’s family before and after the shooting.
Scaramucci has fully defected from Trump due to recent events where Trump has used “so charged and so divisive rhetoric,” and is doing interviews saying the Republicans need to place someone else at the top of the ticket for 2020.
There was a lot of chatter about the likelihood of a recession next year based on new economic indicators, and world wide markets slumped on Wednesday.
More recession fears, via the Times: President Trump’s on-again-off-again execution of the trade war with China and other countries has fed uncertainty into businesses’ decision-making. Corporate investment spending is softening, despite the big tax cut that Mr. Trump said would boost it. And the combination of central banks that are at the outer limits of their ability to stimulate growth, and an inward turn by many countries, could make governments less effective at responding to a downturn.
The Washington Post reports that Trump is rattled by news of a recession that will hurt his reelection chances: “Trump has sought to use his Twitter pulpit to drown out negative indicators. On Thursday, he promoted the U.S. economy as “the Biggest, Strongest and Most Powerful Economy in the World,” and, citing growth in the retail sector, predicted that it would only get stronger. He also accused the news media of “doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election.”… Trump has a somewhat conspiratorial view, telling some confidants that he distrusts statistics he sees reported in the news media and that he suspects many economists and other forecasters are presenting biased data to thwart his reelection…”
Trump convinced Israel to bar Democratic Congress members Talib and Ohmar from entering the country: “By enlisting a foreign power to take action against two American citizens, let alone elected members of Congress, Mr. Trump crossed a line that other presidents have not, in effect exporting his partisan battles beyond the country’s borders.”
Former tea party Congressman Joe Walsh published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for credible conservative candidates to primary Trump.
Immigration
The Trump administration issued new rules for who gets a green card: “Poor immigrants will be denied permanent legal status, also known as a green card, if they are deemed likely to use government benefit programs such as food stamps and subsidized housing. Wealthier immigrants, who are designated as less likely to require public assistance, will be able to obtain a green card…. immigration advocates warned that vast numbers of immigrants, including those not actually subject to the regulation, may drop out of programs they need because they fear retribution by immigration authorities.”
ProPublica has a story about ICE making false claims against asylum seekers: “the system she’d once known, as flawed as it was, had turned into a black box she no longer understood, with an ever-shifting array of rules and policies that granted untold discretion to the government. She couldn’t even get ICE attorneys to comply with a fundamental tenet of a fair system: providing proof of their case, evidence they could fight against… [Pena] and her colleagues were counting hundreds of new cases of family separation along the border that occurred after the “zero tolerance” policy supposedly ended in June 2018. But no one could track what the government was doing with every case.”
Trade War
The Trump administration announced delaying some tariffs until after the Christmas buying season so that American consumers won’t be affected when doing their Christmas shopping.
A day after the El Paso shooting, there was another shooting in Dayton Ohio, killing nine.
The El Paso gunman’s manifesto echoed language Trump and other Republicans have used to talk about immigration: “The suspect wrote that his views “predate Trump,” as if anticipating the political debate that would follow the blood bath. But if Mr. Trump did not originally inspire the gunman, he has brought into the mainstream polarizing ideas and people once consigned to the fringes of American society.”
The National Review’s editorial: “the patterns on display over the last few years have revealed that we are contending here not with another “lone wolf,” but with the fruit of a murderous and resurgent ideology — white supremacy — that deserves to be treated by the authorities in the same manner as has been the threat posed by militant Islam.”
George Will: “It is not implausible to believe that Trump’s years of sulfurous rhetoric — never mind his Monday-morning reading, seemingly for the first time, of words the teleprompter told him to recite — can provoke behaviors from susceptible individuals, such as the alleged El Paso shooter. If so, those who marked ballots for Trump — we have had quite enough exculpatory sociology about the material deprivations and status anxieties of the white working class — should have second or perhaps first thoughts. His Republican groupies, meanwhile, are complicit.”
Trump delivered scripted remarks on the shootings from the White House. He denounced hatred in general terms. Trump visited shooting victims in Ohio and Texas, where he attacked Democrats and bragged about crowd sizes: “That was some crowd,” Trump says of his event. “We had twice the number outside. And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot, and they said his crowd was wonderful.” None of the shooting victims still being treated in the hospital agreed to meet with Trump.
Here is a good piece on the orphaned baby being photographed with a smiling Trump giving a thumb’s up: “A really exceptional work of obscenity, like a really exceptional work of beauty, exceeds the ability of its viewers to fathom what they just saw. Did that just happen? But … how? What sorcery created it? Words don’t arrive, and the stammering gives way to silence.”
Epstein was found dead in his cell on Saturday morning. Later that day Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory that the Clinton’s were behind the death.
Which prompted David Frum to write: “But it shouldn’t be forgotten, either, in the onrush of events. The certainty that Trump will descend ever deeper into sub-basements of “new lows” after this new low should not numb us to its newness and lowness. Neither the practical impediments to impeachment and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment process, nor the foibles and failings of the candidates running to replace him, efface the fact that this presidency shames and disgraces the office every minute of every hour of every day. And even when it ends, however it ends, the shame will stain it still.”
Nadler is saying he is currently doing an impeachment inquiry, and his committee may recommend articles of impeachment by the end of the year.
Immigration
A man who was born in a refugee camp and had been in America since he was 6 months old in 1979 was recently deported to Iraq, where he died two months later. According to ICE: “was ordered removed from the United States in May 2018 after at least 20 criminal convictions over the previous two decades, including assault with a weapon, domestic violence and home invasion. While awaiting deportation, he was released in December with a G.P.S. tracker, but he cut it off, the agency said. Local police arrested him in April on a larceny charge, and he was finally deported on June 2.”
On the same day Trump traveled to El Paso, there was a massive ICE raid in Mississippi. Over 600 immigrants were arrested. Many of their children were left without immediate caregivers.
Trade War
New York Times: “The trade war between the United States and China entered a more dangerous phase on Monday, as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken, Chinese enterprises stopped making new purchases of American farm goods and President Trump’s Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator.”
How the episode still lives up to the hype five decades later
Edith Keillor voices Star Trek’s Mission Statement, and is a stand in for all Star Trek fans
A comparison with Ellison’s script–the good, the bad and the ugly–especially Keillor, whom Ellison wrote as a Pentecostal evangelical crossed with L. Ron Hubbard. Hint: the filmed version is better.
