At least 40 immigrant U.S. Army reservists and recruits have been discharged or now have questionable futures in the country despite having been promised citizenship in exchange for their military service, the Associated Press reports.
The details: Per the AP, some who have been discharged said they didn't get an answer as to why, while others said they were told "they'd been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them." The Pentagon told Axios they "cannot go into detail" because of "ongoing litigation."
President Trump told reporters on Thursday aboard Air Force One that there was "no final straw" when it came to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's resignation, and that Pruitt resigned on his own accord.
The big picture: Despite months of controversy surrounding Pruitt's management decisions and spending habits, the president has stuck by him publicly. Trump said that Pruitt came to him and said he "[didn't] want to be a distraction."
Lanny Davis, counsel to former President Bill Clinton, told the New York Times' Maggie Haberman Thursday that he has been retained by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to help defend him against federal prosecutors in their investigation into alleged violations of election law and possible crimes related to his business dealings.
Davis said in a statement that Cohen "deserves to tell his side of the story — subject ... to the advice of his counsel." He added that he recognized Cohen's "sincerity" when he told ABC that he will "put family and country first" over any allegiance to Trump. Davis joins attorney Guy Petrillo in representing Cohen.
Embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has resigned after months of scandals regarding his spending habits and management decisions, which led to a series of federal probes.
The big picture: Despite his questionable behavior, Pruitt continued to have support from the president. But, as Axios' Jonathan Swan reported at the beginning of May, that support was wavering as the negative coverage piled on, and everyone else in the White House wanted Pruitt out.
The AP today paints a picture of Trump's cabinet as a life of "everyday doses of presidential adulation, humiliation, perks and pestering" after interviewing almost two dozen officials, lawmakers and outside advisers.
Why it matters: "Trump has had more turnover of Cabinet-level positions than any president at this point in their tenure in the last 100 years," the AP reports
Democratic Senator Jon Tester's re-election campaign placed a full-page ad in 14 Montana newspapers today thanking President Trump for signing 16 of his bills into law. Trump is holding a campaign rally in Montana tonight supporting Tester's GOP challenger, Matt Rosendale.
Why it matters: Tester is considered vulnerable because he's a Democrat representing a state Trump won in 2016, but he's rewriting the red-state's Democratic playbook by shrugging off the president's repeated attacks and appealing to Independent voters.
Temporary Protected Status for Yemeni citizens living in the U.S. has been extended for another 18 months, according to a press release from the Department of Homeland Security.
The details: The extension was granted given the "ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that support Yemen's current designation for TPS continue to exist," DHS writes. There are around 1,250 Yemeni beneficiaries in the U.S., DHS reports, and they will be able to re-register and remain in the country "with work authorization through March 3, 2020."
Health and Human Services is working to unite migrant families with children under five years old by this Tuesday, Secretary Alex Azar told reporters.
The big picture: There are fewer than 3,000 separated migrant children in HHS' custody, and around 100 of them are under five, according to Azar. He criticized the most recent court ruling, which put a 30-day deadline for migrant families to be reunited and a 2-week deadline for children under five saying, "I wouldn’t get to stay with my children if I were in prison." HHS plans to use DNA matching to ensure the children are reunited with their parents.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a private phone call with President Trump earlier this week, during which he pressured the president to nominate federal judge Merrick Garland to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, reports the Washington Post's Seung Min Kim and Robert Costa.
The bottom line: The suggestion is absurd, and Schumer knows it. Trump, who successfully worked with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to block Merrick Garland when the last Supreme Court vacancy opened up, has repeatedly said that he will choose a conservative judge to replace Kennedy. Trump has also already narrowed down his short list of candidates to three, and Garland is far from any of them.
President Trump and Russian President Vladmir Putin may discuss extending the New START arms control treaty between the United States and Russia for another five years during their upcoming one-on-one meeting this month, according to a senior administration official.
The big picture: With the treaty's February 2021 deadline approaching, the meeting presents an opportunity for both countries to discuss its value and address issues each side may have with it. It isn't confirmed that New START will be part of the discussion, the official added, but it's likely the treaty will come up.
Speaking on NPR's podcast The Indicator, Li Jiang, who owns a flag-making company in China's Zhejiang province, said he's been contracted to manufacture flags for President Trump's 2020 election bid. Jiang also made flags for the Trump and Clinton campaigns in 2016.
Why it matters: This runs counter to Trump's "Buy American and Hire American" motto, and is even more glaringly out of step with the Trump campaign's direct commitment to "proudly continue to sell American products and introduce new ones ... [a]ll the way through 2020 and beyond."
President Trump has completed the interview process for his Supreme Court pick to replace Anthony Kennedy — set to be announced Monday night — and Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge, who is not particularly well-known to the conservative movement, are considered to be the frontrunners, per a source with direct knowledge and as first reported by John Roberts of Fox News.
The big picture: As Axios' Mike Allen reported this morning, Trump's ultimate decision will as much as any other factor, come down to his personal rapport with the candidates, preferring to choose "who he feels most comfortable with in a personal setting."
Grassroots Leadership, a non-profit civil rights organization, has published letters from immigrant mothers detained and separated from their children at the United States-Mexico border.
Why it matters: The letters offer a glimpse of their grim living conditions, as well as the mothers' anguish after being separated from their children.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is utilizing more career prosecutors at the Justice Department, which could be a sign that he's planning to hand off parts of the sprawling Russia investigation as his team's legal burden grows, reports Bloomberg.
The big picture: Mueller is simply using the expertise of existing DOJ and FBI staffers — not adding additional members to his staff. Government officials told Bloomberg that "there's no political appetite" for Mueller to grow his team, especially given continued attacks on the scope of the investigation from President Trump and congressional Republicans.
"On Mideast trip, Elizabeth Warren polishes her credentials," The Boston Globe's Matt Viser and Liz Goodwin write: "Warren stopped in Kuwait for breakfast at Camp Arifjan with about 25 troops from a Reading-based unit of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, and then traveled to Iraq, where she joined Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican."
Why it matters: "For Warren, the trip is bound to raise further talk about her 2020 plans, as the Massachusetts Democrat and former Harvard Law professor continues trying to bolster her foreign policy credentials, which to date have been a weaker point in her resume. When asked, she says that she is running for the US Senate this year and not for president."
Alumni of President George W. Bush's second term are getting flashbacks: Democrats are favored to take over the House, spelling a raft of headaches for a Republican president.
The big picture: What's true today was also true in 2006. Bush 43 aides were certain that winter was coming — and they were right: Voters, driven by discontent over the Iraq war, ended 12 years of Republican rule in the House, giving Speaker Pelosi the gavel in January 2007.
What we're hearing: A White House official involved in the vetting process tells me that President Trump's Supreme Court pick will come down to "who he feels most comfortable with in a personal setting."
Justice Anthony Kennedy was in the majority of Supreme Court decisions more than any other justice, and according to Axios editor Sam Baker, that's the key to understanding his power. Neither the conservatives nor the liberals could win without him, and his vote greatly impacted major decisions on abortion, unions, affirmative action, and gay marriage.
Why it matters: Trump's pick to replace Kennedy on the Supreme Court could last for decades, and could mean that there may not be many 5-4 decisions that liberals will win.
