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.”
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Trump’s Job Approval: 41.6%