Axios

President Trump's Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, joined Sarah Sanders today to deliver an update on Hurricane Irma and the recovery process in Texas.

Bossert told reporters that President Trump will likely sign the Harvey aid package today, adding that the White House also expects to ask Congress for more money for disaster relief in the future, on top of the new funds approved by the House today.

Highlights from Tom Bossert's briefing:

• The U.S. will evacuate people in the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Martin.
• Some point people will be on their own, likely for 72 hours.
• Worst case scenario: If the storm "dips down, moves west, and curls around the other side of the state."
• Florida residents should plan to be without water and power for days.

House Republicans were not happy today when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin urged members to "vote for the debt ceiling for me," per The Hill.

Why it matters: Mnuchin's pleading, which some House leaders called "arrogant" and "intellectually insulting," is placing further strain on an already tense relationship between Capitol Hill and the White House following this deal with the Democrats.

The critiques:

• "His performance was incredibly poor," said Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC).
• "It was a very arrogant lecture that turned off more of the conference," said another congressman. "I'm less sold than when I walked into the meeting."
• Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) said the pitch was "about as well received as his wife's Instagram post."
• Rep. David Brat (R-Va.), a Freedom Caucus member, called the comments "unhelpful" and "intellectually insulting."

The House has approved the deal that President Trump made with top leaders from the House and Senate Tuesday, which provides $15.3 billion in aid for Hurricane Harvey recovery, increases the debt ceiling and extends government funding through December 8.

The process to getting here: The House initially passed a $7.9 billion Harvey aid package on Wednesday, which was then sent to the Senate, where lawmakers attached measures to extend the debt limit and government funding. The Senate then passed that legislation Thursday, and sent it back to the House for a final vote. Now the bill, which Trump is expected to sign off on, is headed to the president's desk.

"Running on hope: Ravi Gupta is recruiting a fresh slate of candidates to take down Trump. But can a former Obama staffer forge a new path for Democrats?" by Ben Austen in New Republic:

"Created in December 2016 to harness the collective energy of America's postelection freak-out, the Arena aims to recruit, train, and support first-time candidates for office.""The Arena was dreamed up by Ravi Gupta, a former staffer on Barack Obama's first presidential campaign. Gupta, now 34, served at the United Nations under Susan Rice before leaving government in 2010 to open a string of charter schools for low-income students in the South."Why it matters: "Since Trump's election, the Democratic Party has found itself both invigorated and adrift. ... The Arena joins a crowded field of get-out-the-candidate organizations that have formed since the election, from Indivisible and Swing Left to Code Blue and Run for Something."

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll revealed deep divisions amongst Republicans — based on if they cast their primary vote for President Trump — on some of the most hot-button issues facing the United States today.

• Immigration drew the starkest battle lines between Trump voters and non-Trump voters.
• 59% of Trump voters believe immigration weakens the country, while 59% of non-Trump voters believe immigration strengthens it. And 50% of Trump voters said immigration impacted their vote — compared to just 24% of non-Trump voters.

Other sources of division:

• Trump himself: 98% of Trump voters approve of his performance, compared to 66% of non-Trump voters who feel the same.
• Social changes in the U.S.: 63% of Trump voters are uneasy with recent changes that have made the U.S. more diverse and tolerant. That's a view shared by just 35% of non-Trump voters.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked the White House about interviewing staffers who were on Air Force One when President Trump helped his son draft a misleading statement about the purpose of his meeting with a Russian attorney, CNN reports citing three sources familiar with the conversations.

• What is Mueller is hoping to learn? Whether information was purposefully excluded from the statement, and who was involved, according to the sources.
• Why it matters: Mueller's investigating something that directly involves Trump, and he wants to get top staff on the record as part of his investigation.
• Flashback: Trump Jr.'s initial statement claimed that he primarily discussed adoption in the meeting. Later, he released emails revealing he believed the Russian lawyer would provide him with incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

The Koch brothers plan to mobilize their conservative political network in order to push Congress to protect the young undocumented immigrants left at risk by the Trump administration's decision to rescind DACA, per The Daily Beast.

Their influence: Many GOP members of Congress were elected with Koch money and support, so this decision grants them cover to support some form of legislation that would allow DREAMers to stay in the United States — even as more hawkish conservatives push for stricter immigration laws.

Why it matters: It underscores that the DACA debacle — and immigration reform as a whole — is the rare issue that can transcend partisan lines in Washington.

The Senate approved legislation that would deliver the first installment of Harvey aid, raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for the next 3 months, Politico reports. That includes about $22 billion in disaster relief funds for FEMA. The package will now head to the House, which could vote as early as Thursday night, per CNN.

The backstory: This plan is essentially the one floated by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in a meeting yesterday with Trump, and such a short term debt ceiling raise was opposed by top Republicans and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Trump sided with the Democrats, and now the plan is moving forward.

The tally: 80-17, with all 17 nos coming from Republicans.

At his joint press conference with the Emir of Kuwait on Thursday, President Trump said he "would be willing to be the mediator" for the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, even offering to host the feuding countries at the White House if necessary. He later added that if "certain countries" don't "stop the funding of terrorism, I don't want [the GCC] to come together."

Other highlights from the president:

• On North Korea: "Military action is definitely an option. Is it inevitable? Nothing's inevitable... I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it's something certainly that could happen."
• Palestine-Israel peace deal: "It's an event that's just never taken place... sometimes people think they're close and it just never happens... I think we have a chance of doing it... but again I say that a little bit reluctantly."
• Syria: "As far as Syria's concerned, we have very little to do with Syria, other than killing ISIS."

Correction: the first sentence has been corrected to show President Trump did not mention Qatar by name, but said "certain countrines."

At his meeting with Senate Judiciary staff today, Donald Trump Jr. denied that he told his father about the infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016 or took any Russians to meet his father following its conclusion, per CNN. Trump Jr. has made similar denials before, but the stakes are higher now as lying to Congress is a crime.

• More from the hearing: Trump Jr. also stated that Trump's tweet on the afternoon of the meeting — one of his first mentions of Clinton's 33,000 missing emails — along with Trump's promise on June 7 of a "major speech" on "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons" had no connection with the meeting, stating it was all simply the way his father speaks.
• Why it matters: Trump Jr.'s statements here are both forceful and potentially disprovable if, as was the case when news of the meeting first broke, he gave misleading information.

Trump Jr. told Senate investigators today that he set up his 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, after being promised help from the Russian government for his father's campaign, because he wanted to determine Hillary Clinton's "fitness" to serve as president.

His shifting explanations:

• Trump Jr. told the NY Times in March that he had never met with any Russians on behalf of the campaign.
• On July 8, after news of the meeting emerged, Trump Jr. said it was a "short introductory meeting" focused on Russian adoption.
• After the NY Times reported on the emails, Trump Jr. tweeted them out on July 11. They showed that, promised dirt on Clinton and told of Russian government support, Trump Jr. replied, "if it's what you say I love it."
• On September 7, Trump Jr. told congressional investigators, "To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out."

Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators Thursday he set up his 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin because he wanted to learn about Clinton's "fitness" to be president, the NYT reports. Trump Jr. disclosed this information in a meeting with Senate staff as well as some Democratic Senators.

A key point: Trump Jr. said he was initially conflicted when the lawyer told him she might have damaging information on Clinton and that he intended to talk with his lawyers about it.

Why it matters: That means Trump Jr. knew to some extent accepting potentially damaging information about a political opponent from a foreign country could get him in legal trouble. And although Trump Jr. has given several different statements about the nature of the meeting, his testimony on Capitol Hill has added pressure, since it's a crime to mislead Congress.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was essentially the one who sealed yesterday's deal combining Harvey relief funding with extending the debt limit by proposing to attach a government funding measure to it. "That's really what actually strengthened our hand," she said.

Other highlights:

• How they reached a deal: "It wasn't quick..it was a very long, intense negotiation."
• DREAM Act: Pelosi said that during yesterday's meeting, President Trump said he would sign the DREAM Act if the House passes it. "I am hoping and I am praying that the president really cares about the DREAMers."
• On Pelosi telling Trump to send his DACA tweet: "When he called this morning, I said thanks for calling, and said 'The people really need a reassurance from you that the six-month period is not a period of round up... and boom, boom, boom, the tweet appeared."

Leading members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly three dozen House Republicans who can block GOP leadership on key legislation, discussed the Trump administration's current plans on tax reform, the debt ceiling, reconciliation and more in a breakfast with Bloomberg's Kevin Cirilli this morning.

Rep. Mark Meadows said: "I think theres going to be a rebellion against everybody, not just leadership... If we get to December and we've not repealed Obamacare, don't build the wall... it's not going to be pretty."

Other takeaways from the group's plans, explained by Meadows, Scott Perry, and Jim Jordan, to push the White House into acting on their 2017 agenda, which they warned is rapidly approaching:

Paul Ryan set his goal for the corporate tax rate to be lowered to "the mid-to-low twenties" as a part of his bid to pass comprehensive tax reform "this year." More from his conversation with the New York Times this morning as a part of its TimesTalks series at the Newseum:

• Ryan believes wage growth and international competitiveness are inextricably tied, saying, "We keep businesses based in America, we keep manufacturing things in America…I think the thing that's holding us back from higher wage growth is a 3-percent growth economy."
• When pressed on the need for tax reform as a second major hurricane is set to hit the United States, Ryan said, "Growth helps so many of these problems. Getting our country healthy economically is an incredibly important foundation to solve our problems."