Axios

Both documented and undocumented immigrants are withdrawing from a federal nutrition program out of fear the Trump administration could prevent them from obtaining a green card because they received government benefits, reports Politico.

The big picture: The Department of Homeland Security is considering a new policy that would deny citizenship to immigrants who accept welfare and other public benefits. Agencies that administer the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) — an aid program that provides low-income women with infant formula and healthy food — say enrollment has declined by 20%, which they largely attribute to the threat of the new immigration policy.

President Trump hit Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department Monday over the indictments of Republican congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), that Trump argues put "[t]wo easy wins now in doubt" ahead of the midterms.

Why it matters: Trump is suggesting that political considerations should have played a role in the prosecution of the two congressmen. Collins was arrested in early August for securities fraud. Hunter and his wife were indicted later in the month on charges of using $250,000 in campaign money for personal expenses and for falsifying campaign finance records. Both Collins and Hunter were early supporters of President Trump.

If you read one long thing today, read Jeffrey Toobin's profile of Rudy Giuliani in The New Yorker— "The former mayor’s theatrical, combative style of politics anticipated — and perfectly aligns with — the President’s."

Key quote: "Before Giuliani joined the defense, [Trump's former lawyer John] Dowd and Mueller came close to an agreement for the President to voluntarily testify. They even scheduled a date and a location: January 27, 2018, at Camp David. ... Talks between the Trump and the Mueller teams later broke down..."

Like the quiet planning by presidential candidates for their hoped-for transition to office, House Democrats are already choreographing their opening moves if — as looks likely — they get the gavel back in the midterm elections.

The big picture: The strategy is being driven by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the likely speaker if her party regains the majority. The first three legislative packages will cover health-care costs, $1 trillion in federal infrastructure investment, and ethics and lobbying reform.

Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas has found a new way to measure House Republicans' peril: "vulnerability ratio," which he measures as the net number of seats at risk versus the number needed to flip.

Why it matters: Mehlman, a former lawyer for House Republicans, fears that measure is worse for the majority party than it was in 2006 or 2010, when the House flipped.

Omarosa taped nearly every conversation she had while working in the White House, including ones with "all of the Trumps," a source who watched her make many of the tapes tells Axios. Omarosa did this with a personal phone, almost always on record mode.

Why it matters: Omarosa is far from the only White House staffer to exploit lax internal oversight and loose loyalties to collect damaging info on Trump and others. And we know of several staffers who took careful notes for future deployment.

For all the four-alarm fires around President Trump this summer — Putin, Mueller and Cohen, oh my! — his approval ratings have barely moved, as you can see from this remarkable chart of SurveyMonkey’s weekly tracking poll.

Be smart: Trump's narrow trading range is both the reason he messages only to his base (no one else is gettable), and the reason he has to keep amping up for the volume for his true believers (he has nowhere else to go).

Stormy Daniels' lawyer and apparent 2020 presidential hopeful Michael Avenatti tweeted Sunday that he will lead a "resistance rally" in Texas in October to counter President Trump's planned campaign event for Sen. Ted Cruz.

The big picture: Avenatti, who said last month that he was "seriously" considering running for president, joins Parkland survivor David Hogg in targeting the Trump-Cruz rally with an attempt to needle the president.

The father of Mollie Tibbetts, the Iowa woman allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, called on politicians to stop using her murder to advance their political agenda in an emotional op-ed in the Des Moines Register on Saturday.

"The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people. To suggest otherwise is a lie. Justice in my America is blind."

The big picture: Tibbetts' op-ed came a day after Donald Trump Jr. wrote a column in the same paper lambasting Democrats' response to Mollie's murder. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich emailed Axios' Mike Allen last month to make ensure the story was getting coverage.