Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" is in its eleventh printing and topped the New York Times bestseller list after its release last Friday. 700,000 copies have shipped and publisher Henry Holt has ordered 1.4 million, the company said in a press release.
Why it matters: President Trump's attorney sent a cease and desist letter to stop publication, but Henry Holt instead published it 4 days early. Trump has called the book"fake," and Wolff "a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book."
In an Oval Office meeting on immigration with Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsay Graham on Thursday, President Trump argued against restoring protections for people who arrived in the U.S. from El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries, the Washington Post's Josh Dawsey reports:
"Why are we having all these people from shithole countries coming here?"
President Trump told the Wall Street Journal Thursday that he "probably" has a "very good relationship with Kim Jong-un," the North Korean leader who has called him and "dotard" and whom he has repeatedly called "Little Rocket Man"
“I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised," he said in the interview. Trump would not say whether he had spoken with Kim.
Trump also said Mexico could "indirectly" pay for a border wall because the U.S. would use "a small percentage" of the money gained from renegotiating NAFTA for the wall: "Guess what? Mexico’s paying.”
Eight cabinet members are accompanying President Trump to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week, including Sec. Rex Tillerson, DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen and Energy Sec. Rick Perry.
Why it matters: People who attend the Forum were pushed as "anathema to the nationalist, populist voters who put Trump in the White House" by former strategist Steve Bannon, Bloomberg reports. But Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is leading the delegation, said Thursday that they will be pushing an America-first agenda.
Mnuchin said the Forum isn't a "hangout for globalists," and that the cabinet members have "no interest in going over there and rubbing elbows with anybody. ... This trip is all business."
Other members of the delegation include Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Homeland Security adviser Thomas Bossert, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
86% of American voters, including 76% of Republicans, say they want Dreamers to remain in the country, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac.
Why it matters: Jeff Flake announced today that a bipartisan group of senators had reached a deal on immigration that would protect the 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. But the White House and other immigration hardliners in Congress are not sold.
This latest poll confirms others from CNN, Marist, and CBS News showing that the vast majority of Americans back legal status for Dreamers.
Congress still doesn't have a clear strategy for reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, but there's now talk of putting together a small package of must-pass health care items, including CHIP. Funding children's health care is popular, and could help pull more controversial measures across the finish line.
The problem: The strategy still seems to be very much in flux. Attaching CHIP to a must-pass spending bill next week is still a possibility — especially if the spending bill needs some help garnering votes. Meanwhile, Democrats are coalescing around a 10-year CHIP reauthorization, and it's unclear whether the GOP would support this.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that there was "no conflict at all" between President Trump's tweet this morning bashing the FISA surveillance law, and the White House's policy in favor of renewing it (which Trump expressed in a follow-up tweet hours later).
"The president fully supports the 702 and was happy to see that it passed the House today. But, he does have some overall concern with the FISA program more generally. We weren't confused, but some of you were" she added.
Why it matters: Sources in GOP leadership told Axios' Jonathan Swan that they were "horrified by a tweet they considered wildly irresponsible given the national security stakes."
Sen. Jeff Flake says a bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal on an immigration bill that includes a replacement for DACA, NBC News reports.
"We've got this bipartisan group, we're at a deal. So we'll be talking to the White House about that and I hope we can move forward with it, it's the only game in town. There's no other bill."
Reality check: As Axios' Jonathan Swan points out, we don’t know where Trump is on this, and Flake could not be a worse messenger to sell the deal to POTUS. Another reason for caution — immigration hardliner Sen. Tom Cotton has said it's a "joke of a proposal," per NBC News' Frank Thorp.
Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) announced Thursday that he will not be running for U.S. Senate, reports AP. He told talk radio host Scott Hennen that he is seeking reelection in the House instead.
Why it matters: The move is a blow to Republicans, who thought Cramer would have a good shot at unseating Democrat Heidi Heitkamp in the North Dakota race this fall. The move leaves state Sen. Tom Campbell as the only Republican in the race, but he lacks Cramer's name recognition and experience.
The House voted Thursday to renew a major surveillance law hours after the president partially walked back a tweet criticizing the bill.
Why it matters: The law expires next week, and the Senate has yet to take the issue up. President Trump's tweet has now raised the profile of the debate over the law — which privacy advocates say picks up the communications of American citizens without a warrant.
President Trump caught Republican leadership by surprise on Thursday morning with his tweets on FISA renewal, according to five sources close to the situation.
Why it matters: Sources in GOP leadership were horrified by a tweet they consider wildly irresponsible given the national security stakes. Per a source close to Republican leaders: “I have decided that the only way to stay sane in Trump’s Washington is to ignore everything he says.“
His tweet: "Disproven and paid for by Democrats 'Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?' @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!"
Senate Republicans have strategically revved up their attempt to convince President Trump to not withdraw from NAFTA. Some senators and aides say he may not have understood how popular it was with the caucus until recently, and are encouraging him to focus instead on improving it.
Why this matters: This is Congress’s clearest shot at saving the trade agreement. If Trump decides to withdraw, Congress probably couldn’t stop him, and both the legal and economic consequences are extremely unclear.
President Trump's signature issue during the campaign was a "big, beautiful wall" spanning the southern border and paid for by Mexico. Trump has insisted that any immigration deal must include funding for a wall, but he has recently appeared more flexible on the details. Here's Kellyanne Conway explaining the latest thinking on CNN:
"After conferring with the experts who are involved in this process, Christopher, the president has discovered that part of it, he knows, will be the physical wall, part of it is better technology, part of it is also fencing."
Why it matters: That's not what Trump promised in 2016, but it might indicate where a compromise could lie: a border security package that includes a smaller stretch of wall and other elements, like improved technology, that mainstream Republicans have advocated for years and Democrats are more willing to accept.
In the two years before Donald Trump received the Republican nomination for president, 4% of buyers of Trump properties were anonymous. Since then, about 70% have hidden their identities, a USA Today analysis found.
The big picture: The Trump organization sold $35 million worth of real estate properties in 2017, including 41 luxury condominium units in Las Vegas, mostly to anonymous buyers. Per USA Today: "The opaque sales come at a time when Congress and ethics watchdogs have called on Trump to be more transparent about his domestic and foreign customers and partners, including the buyers of his companies' real estate."
