Axios

August is normally a quiet month for Washington. Congress in recess, business is more relaxed, and even the president finds time for a vacation. But this year, the historically uneventful month turned out to be surprisingly notable. Here's what went down:

Keith Schiller, the director of Oval Office operations and a longtime aide to President Trump, is planning to exit the White House, according to a CNN report. The WH did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

• You might know him as the man who delivered the letter that contained James Comey's pink slip from Trump.
• His reasoning is primarily financial. Schiller makes $165,000 at the White House, but he earned $294,000 last year from the Trump Organization and his private security firm. He's also reportedly struggled with restricted access to Trump under the structure imposed by chief of staff John Kelly.
• Why it matters: If Schiller departs, Trump would lose a decades-long confidant — and one of the few remaining Trump Organization holdovers — at one of the most tumultuous times in his presidency.

Sarah Sanders told reporters Friday that President Trump will make a decision on whether or not to end the Obama-era DACA program on Tuesday. "The president's been very clear, he loves people," said Sanders, adding that Trump wants the decision to be made correctly.

Mixed messaging: Friday morning, multiple sources told Axios' Jonathan Swan that Trump would not be announcing any changes to DACA today. A few hours later Trump said his decision would be made "sometime today or over the weekend." Now Sanders is saying the announcement will come Tuesday. Meanwhile, many DREAMers are in limbo, worried that they could become Trump's next deportation target.

President Trump is expected to soon announce a decision on whether to end DACA, the Obama-era policy that temporarily shields illegal immigrants brought to America as children.

• The problem: GOP leadership in both houses of Congress — and a number Republicans in the Senate — are for keeping the policies behind DACA in place, but most House Republicans oppose DACA.
• Paul Ryan earlier today on Trump ending DACA: "I actually don't think he should do that. I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix."
• Why it matters: Even though many Republicans agree with the principles behind DACA, they think that Obama's decision to utilize an executive order to enforce it overstepped the bounds of his office. They want a congressional solution via legislation, but that would require getting their colleagues in the House on board — plus, they'd need President Trump to sign any bill into law.

President Trump told reporters Friday that he will make a decision on whether or not to end the Obama-era DACA program "sometime today or over the weekend," per White House pool reports.

• Should DREAMers should be worried? "We love the DREAMERs. We love everybody... We think the DREAMERs are terrific," said Trump.
• Go deeper: Earlier Friday, Axios' Jonathan Swan reported that multiple sources had told him Trump would not be announcing any changes to DACA today.

Special Prosecutor Rober Mueller has reportedly obtained a letter that President Trump and his top policy advisor, Stephen Miller, drafted in the days leading up to the firing of James Comey. It details why Trump was planning on dismissing his FBI director, per The New York Times' Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman.

White House counsel Donald McGahn stopped Trump from sending Comey the letter in May. Instead, a letter written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which discussed Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal emails, was sent to Comey on the day of his firing.

Why it matters: Trump's explanations for firing Comey have been shifting from the start, and this letter could provide a more solid basis for his original intent.

A week after Hurricane Harvey pummeled the Texas coast as a Category 4 storm, some residents of the region are finally beginning their journey toward recovery. Others, left without drinking water, forced from their homes, or trapped in cities transformed into islands, are still stuck in the middle of a crisis.

• Local officials have recorded at least 46 deaths related to the storm as of this morning, and warned that the number could rise as recovery efforts continue.
• The core of the storm, which is beginning to lose some of its tropical characteristics, is traveling north up the Ohio River Valley and Mid-South, according to the National Weather Service.
• The storm isn't expected to dissipate until later Saturday.

News broke yesterday that former FBI Director James Comey had been preparing a statement that cleared Hillary Clinton of her email investigation months before she was interviewed by the Bureau, leading Senate Judiciary Republicans to call on the FBI to release additional information. President Trump responded to this news with a tweet:

That led Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Brookings' Lawfare, to provide an explanation for Comey's actions in a Twitter thread of his own. His argument: Comey was simply "[thinking] ahead and preparing," which he argues is a common practice at DOJ.

A pair of Republican firms, Definers Public Affairs and WPA Intelligence, partnered up to conduct a survey that would gauge voter sentiment on tax reform.

• The firms collected data based on scores from their national model, which were applied to voters in 10 states that President Trump won in 2016 and are currently held by a Democratic Senator up for re-election in 2018.
• The survey found "broad support" for the tax reform effort, with average support of 68.43% across 10 key states: Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
• Support for the administration's tax plan was highest in four states Trump won by double-digits in 2016 and where incumbent Democrat Senators are particularly vulnerable: West Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, and Missouri.

The question the firms asked voters in those states:

Please tell me if you support or oppose the tax reform plan that is currently being considered by Congress. This plan cuts taxes and would save the average American family around two thousand dollars per year, or more, by doubling the yearly standard deduction, eliminating the death tax, removing the tax on savings interest and dividends and ending the alternative minimum tax. From what you know do you support or oppose this tax reform plan? The findings:

• Florida: 63.1% support Trump's tax plan; while 36.9% oppose it
• Indiana: 68.4% support; 31.6% oppose
• Michigan: 62.6% support, 37.4% oppose
• Missouri: 72.5% support, 27.5% oppose
• Montana: 75.0% support; 25.1% oppose
• North Dakota: 72.8% support, 27.2% oppose
• Ohio: 67.2% support, 32.8% oppose
• Pennsylvania: 56.6% support, 43.4% oppose
• West Virginia: 77.3% support, 22.7% oppose
• Wisconsin: 68.8% support, 31.2% oppose

Survey method: "7,277 responses were collected via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) calls. Responses were then matched to a consumer data enhanced voter file which contains data on vote history, voter demography, socio-economics, political behavior, and consumer behavior."

"Meet [White House budget director] Mick Mulvaney, who proudly calls himself a "right-wing nutjob" and is quietly ... trying to dismantle the federal bureaucracy," by Politico's Michael Grunwald:

• "Republicans have said for years that government should only take people's money to provide absolutely vital services, but Mulvaney truly believes it — and as the head of the powerful Office of Management and Budget, he's got the perfect job to try to act on it."
• Why he matters: "He ... has juice with the president, which is one reason Trump's agenda has been much more rigidly conservative and partisan than many expected from an ideologically gelatinous former Democrat who ran as a flexible deal-maker."
• He cheerfully points out: "I don't think anyone in this administration is more of a right-wing conservative than I am."

"How government policy exacerbates hurricanes like Harvey: As if global warming were not enough of a threat, poor planning and unwise subsidies make floods worse" — cover editorial of The Economist:

• "Around the world, governments are grappling with the threat from floods. This will ultimately be about dealing with climate change. Just as important, is correcting short-sighted government policy and the perverse incentives that make flooding worse."
• "The overwhelming good news is that storms and flooding have caused far fewer deaths in recent decades, thanks to better warning systems and the construction of levees, ditches and shelters."
• Why it matters: "All this is a test of government, of foresight and the ability to withstand the lobbying of homeowners and developers. But politicians and officials who fail the test need to realise that, sooner or later, they will wake up to a Hurricane Harvey of their own."