President Trump said on Friday afternoon that he's "not talking about pulling out" of the World Trade Organization, per pool reports.
"We've been treated very badly by the WTO... it's a very, very unfair situation. When you look at the WTO, that's where China emerged, when they joined the WTO. We have been treated very badly. We have lost many, many cases over the years... we've had minority judges.. we've had a minority position in judges. WTO has to start treating the United States fairly because they have not treated us fairly."
The big picture: Axios' Jonathan Swan reported earlier on Friday that Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials that he'd like to withdraw from the WTO, although there has not yet been moves to do so and it's unlikely there will be because the "move seems too extreme, even for Trump."
President Trump vocalized during his 2016 campaign that, if elected, he would appoint judges that would put an end to the historic abortion ruling Roe vs. Wade. And now, with the announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement, Trump has his chance.
President Trump said Friday that the fatal shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom Thursday "shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief." Yesterday a White House spokesperson, Lindsay Walters, said "There is no room for violence in our country."
The key quote: He said he thinks “journalists like all Americans should be free from the fear of being violently attacked” while doing their job. "My government will not rest until we do everything in our power to reduce violent crime and protect life."
Member states of the International Organization of Migration rejected Ken Isaacs, the U.S. pick to lead the organization — a break with precedent that marks a striking rebuke of the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The move constitutes a pointed blow — delivered not without risk. The U.S. contributes roughly a third of the organization’s $1 billion operating budget and some fear that President Trump could retaliate by slashing funding.
The Justice Department is drafting a rule that would prevent immigrants who are criminally prosecuted for crossing the border illegally from being granted asylum, and increase scrutiny toward Central American asylum seekers, reports Vox's Dara Lind, who saw a draft of the rule.
Why it matters: Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented the zero-tolerance policy in order to deter immigrants from unlawfully crossing the border, and instead incentivize them to apply for asylum at legal ports of entry. But this approach takes that strategy to a whole new level.
"You're right to be concerned," former President Barack Obama told the crowd at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Thursday, where he gave Democrats the winning playbook and charged them to "boil down" their message, Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere reports.
"Do not wait for the perfect message, don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote. Because that’s part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much.”
President Trump met with a group of bipartisan senators on Thursday night to discuss Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday.
Why it matters: The group included Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (IA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — all of whom could be a defining vote given their views on abortion and commitment to precedent; as well as red-state Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) — all of whom all voted to confirm Trump's last SCOTUS nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
America’s closest allies once believed President Trump could be contained — by the likes of James Mattis, or in a pinch Emmanuel Macron, if not by the weight of his office and America’s role in the world. In recent months, they’ve all but given up on that idea.
The bottom line: Despite repeated exhortations from U.S. officials to “pay attention to our actions, not the tweets,” Axios’ Jonathan Swan reports that European officials are reaching a new, uncomfortable consensus: no one really speaks for Trump but Trump himself.
The Senate passed a five-year, $857 billion farm bill 86-11 on Thursday.
One big thing: The Senate's version of the bill, unlike the House's, doesn't include changes to the SNAP program, but the legislation does contain "minor tweaks such as extending job training pilot programs ... and establishing a new pilot related to income verification," reprots Reuters. The last time a farm bill was passed was in 2014.
Hundreds of women activists marched from Washington D.C.'s Freedom Plaza to Capitol Hill Thursday, protesting President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy and demanding the abolishment of ICE.
What's happening: The protestors swarmed the main floor of the Hart Senate Office Building, wearing foil blankets and chanting, "abolish ICE!" and "where are the children?" U.S. Capitol Police arrested a few hundred of the protestors, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). The arrests have reportedly been peaceful so far, and no one was handcuffed.
President Trump is consulting with advisers about replacing Chief of Staff John Kelly, the WSJ’s Rebecca Ballhaus and Peter Nicholas first reported.
What we're hearing: Sources with direct knowledge of the situation have confirmed to me what the Wall Street Journal first reported — that Trump has told people he's interested in Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, or Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, to replace Kelly.
Republican political campaigns and U.S. government agencies have spent more than $16 million on Trump properties for events, lodging, meals, rounds of golf and more since Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, according to data collected by ProPublica.
Data: ProPublica; Note: Chart does not include five undated payments and three payments of negative amounts; Chart: Harry Stevens/Axios
Why it matters: Government ethics watchdogs have claimed that this kind of spending reveals a presidential conflict of interest — or at the very least, bad optics. In May, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit accusing Trump of breaking the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which bans improper payments from individual states and foreign governments, to move forward. A final ruling is expected in July.
Many young migrant children who have been separated from their parents will have to face deportation proceedings alone as the Trump administration works to reunite these families following a court order.
Why it matters: “We were representing a 3-year-old in court recently who had been separated from the parents. And the child — in the middle of the hearing — started climbing up on the table. It really highlighted the absurdity of what we’re doing with these kids,” Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center in Los Angeles, told Kaiser Health News.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe is a "make or break" issue in a speech to the German parliament, reports CNN.
The backdrop: EU member states have been bitterly divided on the issue, illustrated by Italy's refusal last week to take in a ship containing hundreds of migrants, forcing it to dock in Spain instead. European leaders agreed to consider an emergency compromise over the weekend that migrants should be screened in offshore centers in North Africa before heading to Europe — all before a full EU summit kicks off today.
President Trump, with his refusal to take advice or yield to experts, is the West Wing. Republicans who control both halves of Congress won't lift a finger against him and fully support his every move.
The big picture: With his chance to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, Trump may have fewer checks on his power than any president in his lifetime. (Trump was born in 1946, the year after FDR died in office, 72 years ago.)
You've already read a hundred stories about President Trump's clashes with some of America's closest allies at the G7 summit in Canada. But we've got new details from his private conversations with heads of state that have put some of these leaders on edge leading into next month's NATO summit.
What we're hearing: In one extraordinary riff during his meeting with the G7 heads of state earlier this month in Quebec, Trump told the other leaders: "NATO is as bad as NAFTA." An official read this quote to me from notes transcribed from the private meeting.
"The worst thing to be in many Democratic primaries? A white male candidate," per WashPost's Michael Scherer and Dave Weigel.
The big picture: "The newest star of the Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, launched her New York congressional campaign by declaring 'women like me aren’t supposed to run for office' ... Her campaign slogan: 'It’s time for one of us.' ... That appeal to the tribal identities of class, age, gender and ethnicity turned out to be a good gamble ... in a year when Democratic voters are increasingly embracing diversity as a way to realize the change they seek in the country."
The detention of thousands of migrant children in U.S. government facilities — 2,047 according to an HHS estimate this Tuesday, though as many as 5,000 in Texas alone per another report — has the potential to result in widespread illnesses.
Why it matters: While there is no exact precedent for the current situation along the U.S.–Mexico border, large-scale detention of individuals, especially children, under conditions of crowding and emotional stress has historically been linked with infectious disease outbreaks.
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s departure from the Supreme Court has incited triumphant celebration from Republicans and panicked alarm from Democrat eager to have a say over the fate of his successor.
One common theme: Some top Democrats want to delay the confirmation process of the next Justice until after the midterm elections — using Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's dismissal of President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland in the run-up to the 2016 election, as precedent. But while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argues that Senate Republicans "should follow the rule they set in 2016: Not to consider a Supreme Court justice in an election year," McConnell is pushing back by stating, "There’s no presidential election this year."
President Trump, in his element at a rally in Fargo, North Dakota, Wednesday night, used Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement to fire up his supporters and encourage them to get out and elect more Republicans:
“Kennedy's retirement makes the issue of Senate control one of the vital issues of our time ... Democrats want judges who will rewrite the Constitution any way they want to do it, and take away your Second Amendment, erase your borders, throw open the jailhouse doors, and destroy your freedoms. We must elect more Republicans.”
