The White House dubbed this week "Workforce Development Week" but the chaos in Washington has taken center stage instead. President Trump hasn't done much to help refocus the narrative, at least on Twitter.
The stats: This week, the president tweeted 28 times: four of his tweets were related to the administration's agenda, while the others ranged from the "Fake News Media" to Hillary Clinton to his travel ban.
Why it matters: Rather than setting a clear agenda and sticking to its message, the White House has had to contain scandal after scandal. That's a difficult goal to accomplish while the man at the center of it all can't help but use Twitter to address issues that only distract from the administration's core.
Trump released his 2016 financial disclosures Friday evening, detailing income and assets of his trust and post-election finances, as well as retirement accounts, up through April 15 this year. This does not include his tax filings, which he has refused to release.
Why it matters: Trump did not sell his business holdings when he became president, and instead put them in a trust, bucking experts' recommendations. And all this will accrue to him when he hands off the presidency to someone else, which is why critics are concerned visitors and foreign guests to his properties are currying favor with the POTUS, potentially violating the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution.
Majority Whip Steve Scalise "was in critical condition with an imminent risk of death" when he arrived at the hospital Wednesday after being shot at the GOP Congressional baseball practice, per the MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Dr. Jack Sava, trauma director at the hospital, told reporters that everybody's understanding of "critical condition" is different, so he clarified that Scalise "was as critical as you can be when he came in."
Scalise is in the ICU today and will likely have an operation in the next 48 hours, with more to come, Dr. Sava said. Since his arrival Scalise has undergone two surgeries to mitigate the bullet's trajectory; it entered his left hip and traveled directly across in through his pelvis, rendering "substantial damage" to bones, blood vessels, and organs in what is called a trans-pelvic gunshot wound. Dr. Sava guessed this has left hundreds of bullet fragments.
Three Republican governors sent a letter to Senate leadership Friday detailing their critiques against the proposed cuts to Medicaid in the House health bill, the WSJ reports. They urge Congress to instead focus on calming down the private insurance market.
Context:The House bill's savings are mostly rooted in Medicaid cuts, which are causing the bulk of coverage losses as well. The Senate is taking a similar tack in developing its bill.
Who signed off: John Kasich (OH), Brian Sandoval (NV), Charlie Baker (MA). Four Dems also signed on, including Steve Bullock (MT), John Hickenlooper (CO), John Bel Edwards (LA), Tom Wolf (PA).
President Trump announced Friday that he is "cancelling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba" and replacing it with a new policy that seeks to both promote human rights as well as drastically limit travel to the country. His speech comes roughly a year after Barack Obama unveiled his own Cuba policy designed to strengthen U.S.-Cuba relations.
"To the Cuban government, I say put an end to the abuse of dissidents. Release the political prisoners. Stop jailing innocent people ... We will enforce the ban on tourism, we will enforce the embargo, we will take steps to make sure that investments flow to the people" so they can begin to build and invest in their future. ... We challenge Cuba to come to the table with a new agreement that is in the best interest of both their people and our people."
The Trump administration has released a fact sheet on his administration's new Cuba policy, which revises Obama's Cuba deal, minutes before he began his speech in Miami. Here's what's changing:
The U.S. embargo against Cuba will be reinforced. U.S. companies will only be allowed to have business ties with non-government-related small businesses there.
American tourism in Cuba is banned again, with the exception of educational travel and group travel.
The new policies require reporting on Cuba's progress toward "greater political and economic freedom."
The policy gives the Departments of the Treasury and of Commerce 30 days to being the process of issuing new regulations, after which the changes will take effect.
The Trump administration is planning to announce the design finalists for the southern border wall at some point this summer, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Breitbart's Charlie Spiering. The wall prototypes will then reportedly be built in San Diego.
What it could look like: Sean Spicer told reporters in a May press briefing that the White House was requesting designs for a levee wall and a bollard wall.
Chants of "U-S-A!" on a night of unity: "Democrats easily defeated Republicans 11-2 in the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game ... [W]hen Democratic manager Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle was presented the winning trophy, he called Republican manager Texas Rep. Joe Barton to join him. Doyle gave the winning trophy back to the Republicans to put in Scalise's office."
Trump's video message: "By playing tonight, you are showing the world that we will not be intimidated by threats, acts of violence, or assaults on our democracy. The game will go on... So on this special night, I leave you with three great American words that for generations have torn down barriers, built bridges of unity, and defied those who have sought to pull us apart. Ladies and gentlemen: Let's play ball!"
