The Millennial generation, aged 21 to 36, is continuing to grow due to an influx of Millennial-aged immigrants and is forecasted to overtake Boomers in population next year. The generation isn't expected to peak until 2036, at 76.2 million people, according to a study by Pew Research.
An exceedingly eager President Trump wants to launch his steel-and-aluminum salvo tomorrow, and Europe is threatening to clamp down on U.S. steel imports that get steered across the Atlantic. Not to mention on the sale of peanut butter, cranberries, orange juice, bed sheets, chewing tobacco and more.
Why it matters: Europe is starting out its threatened retaliation gingerly, affecting only a few billion dollars worth of American goods. But all manner of wars begin gingerly, only to migrate quickly out of control due to factors no one anticipated. At the low end, the cost could be hundreds of jobs, but the industries under discussion employ millions.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday officially announced the DOJ's lawsuit against California, charging that state officials are undermining the Trump administration's immigration agenda and that the state’s “radical” sanctuary cities law is “advancing an open borders philosophy.”
Why it matters: Almost every immigration policy proposal or executive order has been met with litigation, and several items have been blocked in California courts. Sessions also directly attacked Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for warning immigrants of an ICE raid. "How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement just to promote your radical open borders agenda," he said.
Why it matters: Even if the administration meets the deadline, which appears unlikely, it may not make its report public. Human rights groups consider the failure to release and explain changes to a previously public policy a dangerous step backward.
This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed a decision that gave asylum-seekers and applicants for withholding of removal a right to a full hearing even after deemed ineligible for asylum according to their paperwork. This upended the precedent set by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) four years ago.
Why it matters: This is an attempt to curtail the growing backlog in immigration courts by allowing quicker denials of these kinds of applications without a hearing. Devin O'Malley, a DOJ spokesperson, told Axios the BIA's decision had "added unnecessary cases to the dockets of immigration judges who are working hard to reduce an already large immigration court backlog.”
The White House hasn't done any succession planning, but here's who we're hearing as possible replacements for Gary Cohn as President Trump's chief economic adviser.
Four rumored contenders for the position are: Kevin Warsh, former Fed governor and economic official for President George W. Bush; Shahira Knight, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, Cohn's top tax official; Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser, who argued for tariffs; and Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior contributor and conservative commentator, who shares Cohn's views on trade.
The Department of Justice is suing the State of California, alleging "obstruction of federal immigration enforcement," Politico reports.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has been battling California over sanctuary laws and immigration enforcement for months now. Just last month, Trump said he would consider pulling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials out of the state because they were getting no support.
Porn star Stormy Daniels (real name: Stephanie Clifford), who claims to have had an affair with President Trump, filed a suit against him on Monday, NBC News reports.
The details: The suit reportedly claims the non-disclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election is invalid because, while it included a line for Trump's signature, he never signed it. It claims that Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, has attempted to "intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and 'shut her up' in order to 'protect Mr. Trump.'"
President Trump offered his own solution to prevent Russia meddling in the 2018 midterm elections saying, "it's called paper." He suggested a "paper backup system" for voting when asked about how to combat Russia's meddling at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven of Sweden.
The reality: Trump isn't wrong that many states have a paper trail of votes — but not every state has a paper trail of votes right now. That means they are unable to verify with a 100% guarantee that the result of an election is exactly how voters cast their ballots. 5 states lack a paper trail in their voting systems and use solely electronic voting machines.
President Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed his plans to place tariffs on steel and aluminum, despite pushback from Republicans, industry leaders and threats of retaliation from European Union. He made the announcement during a White House press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.
What they said: Trump said the country has been taken advantage of and mistreated, and the European Union "makes it almost impossible" to do business with them. He later said, 'Trade wars aren't so bad." Meanwhile, Löfven warned that "increased tariffs will hurt all of us in the long run."
There's been record early voting turnout in Democratic primaries across Texas's 15 largest counties. The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman noted a 105% spike compared to the 2014 midterm election — while Republican turnout only increased by 15%.
Why it matters: Democrats haven't won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, and the state hasn't voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. But things are shifting this year, as Democrats are running in all of Texas' 36 congressional districts for the first time in 25 years. Wasserman's numbers suggest an energy that could threaten Republicans' seats across the state.
From 2010 to 2016, the concentration of minorities in the U.S. increased in 411 out of 435 congressional districts, according to a CNN analysis of census data. In 171 districts, minorities now represent more than 40% of the population, and are expected to represent an even higher population by the next census in 2020.
Why it matters: CNN used Orange County, California, as a case study to analyze how demographic tides are threatening to upend House races across the country. It concluded that while Democrats still "face serious obstacles in converting growing diversity into improved electoral chances," a slight increase in the minority share of the vote could tip the scales in at least 10 Republican-held seats this fall.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led President Trump's now-disbanded voter fraud commission, will attend a federal trial starting Tuesday over a legal challenge to a law he championed that had blocked tens of thousands of voter registrations because it requires residents to provide proof of citizenship.
Why it matters: The trial, expected to last seven days, will be a major test to Kansas’ sweeping voter registration laws as well as Kobach, who helped fuel the president's unsubstantiated claims that millions of fraudulent votes had cost him the popular vote. He said the law was intended to curb voter fraud, but now has to prove that Kansas has that problem — a similar undertaking his commission had failed to provide concrete evidence of.
Monday evening, Maryland federal Judge Roger Titus ruled that President Trump was legally allowed to end DACA, even though the judge admitted he did not agree with the president's decision.
Why it matters: Two other injunctions halting the end of DACA are still in place, making yesterday's "deadline" meaningless. Those rulings maintained that Trump has the right to end DACA, but must provide more sound, legal reasons before doing so.
The Washington Post reports that the exodus from Venezuela during the current economic crisis is beginning to resemble the flow of Syrians into Europe in 2o15, and "just as in that crisis, countries overwhelmed by the flood of new arrivals are beginning to bar their doors."
President Trump blasted media reports of chaos in his administration due to multiple staff departures as "fake news" — and hinted at more departures to come because he is "always seeking perfection" — in a morning tweet:
The context: Trump's White House has had more first-year departures than any other president in at least 40 years.
In August 2016, John Bambenek, a former Republican state senate candidate in Illinois, launched his own clandestine investigation of Guccifer 2.0, the public face of the Russian cyber break-in at the Democratic National Committee. What Bambenek found was that the Guccifer 2.0 persona — believed to be a cover for Russia's military intelligence arm — reflected a more slapdash chapter in the operation to sow U.S. election chaos than usually presented.
Why it matters: In transcripts of Twitter messages that Bambenek shared with Axios, Guccifer 2.0 seemed to be either careless or indiscriminate, apparently failing to do even a cursory check on Bambenek, and with only a vague understanding of what he was sharing.
President Trump and the video game industry's trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, will be meeting on Thursday to discuss gun safety in the wake of the Florida school shooting where 17 people were killed.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had first announced the meeting last week, which the industry group confirmed separately to Axios today.
