President Trump told reporters in Utah Monday that he is encouraging Sen. Orrin Hatch to run for reelection. His endorsement of the 83-year-old follows a Politico report that Trump is "going all out" to persuade Hatch to run in order to avoid any chance of Mitt Romney taking his place.
Why it matters: Senior administration officials told Politico that Trump values the bond he has with Hatch, who has been a loyal defender of the president. Romney sharply criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign, calling him a "phony" and "a fraud," and would likely butt heads with the president if elected to the Senate.
The Trump administration is pulling the plug on the The Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems, a group that helped local officials prepare for extreme weather and other natural disasters. Its chairman Jesse Keenan told Bloomberg the group was "one of the last federal bodies that openly talked about climate change in public."
Why it matters: The Trump administration has ended or altered "a series of federal climate-related bodies" so far this year, Bloomberg said. The Community Resilience Panel was created after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore said President Trump called him on Monday after his full-throated endorsement, saying that Moore is a "fighter" who would help him pursue his major agenda items in Congress. The Moore campaign said Trump wrapped up his call saying, "go get 'em, Roy!"
Background: Moore has been under intense scrutiny amid multiple accusations that he made unwanted sexual advances on teenage girls in the 1970s. In recent comments, the President stopped short of explicitly endorsing Moore in the closely watched special election to be held next week.
Time Magazine has released a list of finalists for their "person of the year:" Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Jeff Bezos, Colin Kaepernick, The Dreamers, Robert Mueller, Patty Jenkins and Donald Trump.
Why it matters: President Trump was named Person of the Year by the magazine last year, and tweeted a couple weeks ago that he he had told Time "no thanks" when they informed him he would "probably" receive the title again. Time denied the story. Trump has often boasted about being on the cover of Time magazine, and the Washington Post discovered that fake Time Magazine covers featuring Trump are hanging in several of his golf clubs.
President Trump told reporters while boarding Marine One Monday that he feels "very badly" for his fired National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday.
He also claimed that Hillary Clinton has lied repeatedly to the FBI "and nothing happened to her," while Flynn's life has been ruined by doing the same. "I think it's a shame," he said. (Note that Former FBI Director James Comey said in July 2016 that Clinton never lied to the bureau).
President Trump is expected to announce today a reduction by as much as 92% of the land protected as part of Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, The New York Times reports. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will also lose about half of its protected land.
Why it matters: This would be the largest reduction of a national monument, and will be at the center of a debate over how much land a president is able to set aside as a national park or monument. The Times says the move comes "as the administration pushes for fewer restrictions and more development on public lands."
President Trump issued his first full-throated endorsement of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct with teenage girls in the 1970s, in a tweet this morning:
BIlly Bush, the "Access Hollywood" correspondent on the infamous tape with Donald Trump, writes in the New York Times that Trump is "indulging in some revisionist history" by claiming he didn't say the offensive things on the tape.
Of course he said it. And we laughed along, without a single doubt that this was hypothetical hot air from America's highest-rated bloviator. Along with Donald Trump and me, there were seven other guys present on the bus at the time, and every single one of us assumed we were listening to a crass standup act. He was performing. Surely, we thought, none of this was real. We now know better.
Bush also passes along a previously unreported quote from Trump when asked about inflating his ratings: "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you."
Flashback: The NYT reports Trump is telling associates the voice on the tape isn't his.
The National Rifle Association is expected to score its first big legislative win of the year this week, when the House votes on a concealed-carry bill that's likely to pass. It's the group's first major legislative priority to see action on the floor since President Trump took office, and it would show that the group still has clout on Capitol Hill after experiencing a series of unusual setbacks in the last few months.
Why it matters: The NRA is known for its political power, and it's rare for the group to lose a fight. Yet nearly one year into the Trump presidency, the majority of Americans are calling for stricter gun laws, there have been several high-profile mass shootings, and the candidates the NRA has endorsed in several special elections ended up losing.
