“The Justice Department has warned the White House a national emergency declaration is nearly certain to be blocked by the courts on, at least, a temporary basis, preventing the immediate implementation of the president’s plan to circumvent Congress and build the wall using his executives powers,” ABC News reports.

Washington Post: “House Democrats are gearing up to pass a joint resolution disapproving President Trump’s emergency declaration to build his U.S.-Mexico border wall, a move that will force Senate Republicans to vote on a contentious issue that divides their party.”

For members: Pelosi’s Next Move

“In the early months of the Trump administration, with the president no longer running his family business, his eldest sons embarked on a plan to roll out two new hotel lines in dozens of American cities,” the New York Times reports.

“Now, in a striking reversal, the Trump Organization is no longer pursuing the signature initiative… Plans for the two hotel chains, Scion and American Idea, are to be shelved indefinitely, most likely for the remainder of the presidency.”

“President Trump weighed in at 243 pounds during his physical last week, an increase of four pounds from last year,” USA Today reports.

At Trump’s reported height of 6 feet 3 inches, his weight would give him a body mass index of 30.4, just over the line of obesity.

“The administration released the report in the midst of a busy news cycle, just minutes after officials announced that Trump would declare a ‘national emergency’ at the border in a bid to obtain funding for a border wall.”

“President Trump’s aides now say they are less certain he will sign a bipartisan spending compromise that doesn’t include the money he demanded for a border wall — a major shift from earlier this week when officials indicated privately that he would,” CNN reports.

“As more details about the package have emerged, conservative figures in Trump’s orbit have voiced new displeasure at the bill. That includes Fox host Laura Ingraham, who tweeted earlier Thursday that Trump should not sign it. The White House had attempted earlier this week to bolster support among Trump’s media allies.”

“President Trump appears to be moving — unhappily — closer to signing a bipartisan agreement that provides only a fraction of the money he demanded for a border wall,” CNN reports.

“But in conversations with allies over the past days, he has griped that Republican negotiators were outplayed by their Democratic counterparts, securing a border funding number far smaller than Trump has spent the last two months demanding.”

“In public, Trump has remained gracious about the GOP effort… But privately, Trump has cast the GOP’s dealmaking efforts as inadequate and wondered why he, an experienced dealmaker, wasn’t consulted at more regular intervals as the two sides haggled over an agreement.”

“Andrew McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director, said in an interview aired on Thursday that top Justice Department officials were so alarmed by President Trump’s decision in May 2017 to fire James Comey, the bureau’s director, that they discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office,” the New York Times reports.

“The concerns about the president’s actions also prompted Mr. McCabe to order the bureau’s team investigating Russia’s election interference to expand their scope to also investigate whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey. They also were to examine if he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.”

After the interview aired, Trump ripped McCabe on Twitter, calling him “a disgrace to the FBI and a disgrace to our Country.”