President Trump said “that judicial decisions that halted his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries had allowed a flood of refugees to pour into the country,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump cited a report in the Washington Times that asserted that 77 percent of the refugees who entered the United States since Judge James L. Robart of Federal District Court in Seattle blocked the order on Feb. 3 had been from the seven ‘suspect countries.'”
New York Times: “While Republicans in Washington appear flummoxed by the complexities of one-party rule, struggling with issues from repealing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to paying for President Trump’s promised wall on the Mexican border, rising party leaders in the states seem far more at ease and assertive. Republicans have top-to-bottom control in 25 states now, holding both the governorship and the entire legislature, and Republican lawmakers are acting with lightning speed to enact longstanding conservative priorities.”
“In states from New England to the Midwest and across the South, conservative lawmakers have introduced or enacted legislation to erode union powers and abortion rights, loosen gun regulations, expand school-choice programs and slash taxes and spending.”
“Alec Baldwin does a pretty convincing Donald Trump impersonation – just ask a newspaper in the Dominican Republic,” the AP reports.
“El Nacional published an apology on Saturday after mistakenly running a photo of the actor doing his impression of the U.S. president on “Saturday Night Live” instead of Trump himself.”
“When President Trump ordered a vast overhaul of immigration law enforcement during his first week in office, he stripped away most restrictions on who should be deported, opening the door for roundups and detentions on a scale not seen in nearly a decade,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Up to 8 million people in the country illegally could be considered priorities for deportation.”
“Far from targeting only ‘bad hombres,’ as Trump has said repeatedly, his new order allows immigration agents to detain nearly anyone they come in contact with who has crossed the border illegally. People could be booked into custody for using food stamps or if their child receives free school lunches.”
Wall Street Journal: “The White House has designated Mr. Cohn to play a central role on taxes, infrastructure, financial regulation and replacing the Affordable Care Act. He stood over the president’s shoulder as Mr. Trump signed executive orders on financial regulation. The White House says it is preparing a tax-overhaul plan for release within weeks, giving Mr. Cohn a prime role when several top economic posts remain vacant.”
“Though these will eventually be filled, Mr. Cohn is rapidly assembling a growing portfolio that could solidify his influence in the administration for the long term.”
“Whoever monitors twitter at WH for Pres Trump get on subject of my immediate tweet and stop overclassification & start declassifying”
— Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Twitter.
Gizmodo: “Yes, that’s right. A sitting senator is trying to communicate with the President by just imploring ‘whoever monitors twitter’ for him to get on top of this issue.”
“A top deputy to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was rejected for a critical security clearance, effectively ending his tenure on the National Security Council and escalating tensions between Flynn and the intelligence community,” Politico reports.
“The move came as Flynn’s already tense relationships with others in the Trump administration and the intelligence community were growing more fraught after reports that Flynn had breached diplomatic protocols in his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.”
“Sales of Ivanka Trump’s fashion line tumbled 32% at Nordstrom last fiscal year, with the declines deepening in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election,” according to internal Nordstrom data reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
“Amid calls to boycott the brand, Ivanka Trump footwear and apparel sales fell more than 70% in the second, third and fourth weeks of October compared with a year ago, the Nordstrom data show. The declines have moderated somewhat since then, averaging 26% year-over-year in January.”
“Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump and one of the most visible figures in the administration, is expanding her operation inside the White House by hiring a veteran congressional staffer as her chief of staff,” the Washington Post reports.
“By hiring a chief of staff of her own, Conway is asserting and perhaps growing her influence in the White House, where a coterie of top advisers have been competing for Trump’s ear and over the shape of his agenda.”
Related: The struggle to stay by Trump’s side
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) told Bill Maher that his Republican Senate colleagues privately express “great concern” about President Trump’s temperament.
Said Franken: “Well, there’s a range in what they’ll say, and some will say that he’s not right mentally. And some are harsher.”
He added: “No, no. That’s not fair. That was cheap. There are some who I guess don’t talk to me.”
Politico: “Since gaveling in this year, legislatures in states that went for Hillary Clinton have proposed a flood of laws or resolutions that mock, challenge or repudiate some of the most controversial aspects of Trump’s presidency. Some are designed for the sole purpose of needling Trump by reminding him that he lost the popular vote, or that his for-profit school “Trump University” has been under legal attack for years or that a state’s own relations with Mexico are strong.”
“And that’s on top of the legal challenges to Trump’s controversial travel ban, a push for protections to state reproductive rights laws and vocal defiance of Trump’s economic threats against immigrant sanctuary cities.”
“Top political advisers to John Kasich have formed a nonprofit organization that will promote themes the Ohio governor pushed during his unsuccessful run for last year’s Republican presidential nomination,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“The move will fuel speculation that Kasich is keeping his options open for the 2020 election — perhaps as a GOP alternative to Trump.”
Coming in April: Two Paths: America Divided or United
Ryan Lizza: “To stay on top, being by the President’s side is crucial. Priebus, for example, has a deputy, Katie Walsh, who previously worked with him at the Republican National Committee and who has taken on many of the responsibilities of a traditional White House chief of staff so that Priebus can remain glued to Trump. The situation has irritated the anti-Priebus faction.”
Said one longtime Trump adviser: “Reince is a glorified bodyman. I don’t see how he has time for his responsibilities.”
“Conway’s lack of clearance for high-level national-security discussions was increasingly leaving her out of the inner circle. Trump frequently asked Conway why she wasn’t in meetings, and Conway had to explain that she was waiting for her top-secret clearance. All that was left, for her to gain the access that her male rivals have, was to finish the training yesterday. But her comments about Ivanka pulled her off track.”
President Trump taunted Democrats by telling them “Pocahontas is now the face of your party” — his insult of choice for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — during a meeting with senators earlier this week, sources told CNN.
“The sources said the Warren moment came up in the context of the Trump’s impromptu analysis of the state of the Democratic Party. Trump made his comments in what appeared to be a reference to Warren’s criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his confirmation process. Her comments prompted Republicans to invoke an arcane rule to cut her off.”
NBC News has learned that U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a “gift” to President Donald Trump — who has called the NSA leaker a “spy” and a “traitor” who deserves to be executed.
“That’s according to a senior U.S. official who has analyzed a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports detailing Russian deliberations and who says a Snowden handover is one of various ploys to ‘curry favor’ with Trump. A second source in the intelligence community confirms the intelligence about the Russian conversations and notes it has been gathered since the inauguration.”
“The Trump administration is not currently planning to appeal a temporary hold on his travel ban to the Supreme Court,” The Hill reports.
“But the White House said it will forge ahead on the broader battle against a lawsuit challenging the executive order.”
“For the first time, US investigators say they have corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent,” CNN reports.
“None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs.”
“But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier… CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.