New York Times reports of a national increase in hate crimes where Trump’s name is being used as a racial taunt of minorities.
Border patrol separated an El Salvador man from his one year old son as they tried request asylum in the United States. The Trump administration is considering separating children from parents to dissuade boarder crossings.
The New York Times reported that in a June meeting on immigration he ranted that Haitians coming into the the country all had AIDS, and that Nigerians all lived in huts.
Saturday afternoon Axios reported that Meuller’s team has acquired tends of thousands of emails from the Trump transition team.
Trump’s lawyers immediately sent a letter to Congress claiming that the emails were illegally obtained, but shortly after midnight Sunday the Meuller spokesman put out a statement that all emails were obtained legally through “the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process.”
David Frum writes about the attack this week of a conservative Trump agnostic lashing out at a conservative Trump critic. His analysis is that the agnostics are wrong to think conservatism will snap back after Trump leaves office, but that political ideology is reshaped by the actual people who lead it and follow it: meaning conservatism is being transformed into support of Trump and his policies. Interesting tidbit: only six of the 21 conservative writers in the Spring 2016 “Against Trump” National Review issue are still actively speaking out against the President. Three of them are Mona Charen, Bill Kristol, John Podhoretz.
Similarly, Mathew Yglesias writes about how the passage of the tax bill is further evidence of the dissolution of long held political norms–like being honest about what your legislation does and using an open process to enact it; at least attempting to heed public opinion. He equates this moment to when social breakdowns like power outages temporarily suspend social norms and looting breaks out.
Trump signed the tax bill into law on Friday in the Oval Office, a rushed and unceremonious signing because he did not want to be criticized for not signing it before he went on Christmas vacation in Florida.
Trump made two claims about how the tax bill was sold to the public that may come back to haunt Republicans: that the biggest part of it is the corporate tax cut, and that he told congress not to talk about ending the Obamacare mandate during the run up the the final vote, but now that the voting is done they are all able to crow about it.
Here is a good summary of how GOP consultants plan to try to make the tax bill more popular. Current polling is 24% approval. The expectation is that the GOP will spend a lot of ad dollars to sell the bill in the coming weeks and months. They will want to shape public perception before their opponents do.
Tax experts say the Trump family will personally benefit from many provisions of the tax bill.
The Affordable Care Act enrollment for 2018 was on par with 2017, despite Trump administration attempts to curtail sign ups.
FBI stories:
New York Times reporting on FBI Director Wray trying to navigate leading his agents while avoiding angering the president.
On Saturday night reports came out that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will retire in the spring, bowing to political pressure from Republicans that he is biased in favor of Democrats and against Trump. CNN reported that McCabe in congressional testimony backed up Commey’s claim that Trump asked for his loyalty.
In a controversial report by Politico, House Republicans are investigating whether FBI General Counsel James Baker leaked the Steele Dossier. Many journalists and bloggers have come to Baker’s defense saying he was not the leaker, and would not leak. Reports came out this week that he was reassigned within the bureau, and this was widely perceived as either punishment or giving in to Republican demands.