The department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday it will triple the size of an immigration detention camp outside El Paso to accommodate up to 3,800 migrant children, reports the Dallas Morning News.
The details: Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for HHS, said the expansion is in response to the growing number of new arrivals at the border, not the administration’s family separation policy that ended in June after amid widespread rebuke. Wolfe said that the Tornillo site will stay open through the end of the year.
President Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as Wednesday that would threaten sanctions on foreign companies, individuals or governments that meddle in U.S. elections, Reuters reports citing two sources.
Why it matters: There are fewer than 100 days before the 2018 midterm elections, and candidates and government officials have already been targets of hacking this year. Both Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri have been targeted by hacking attempts.
Why it matters: This increase was due mostly to the new Republican tax law and Congress' routine decision to increase spending, which grew by 7% compared to revenue growth of only 1%. The CBO says the deficit will approach $1 trillion by the end of Fiscal Year 2019.
Editor's note: This post was corrected to reflect that the CBO did not change their estimate of when the U.S. would approach a trillion dollar deficit. (We had incorrectly stated they changed their current estimate from one in April.)
Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter is joining Gary Cohn in releasing a statement against Bob Woodward's new Trump book, "Fear."
What they're saying: Porter alleges Woodward's book is "selective and often misleading" about President Trump and the administration, while Woodward tells Axios, “I stand by my reporting.”
Gary Cohn, former White House economic adviser to President Trump, is taking on Bob Woodward's "Fear" with a statement calling it inaccurate — but is declining to say what specifically Woodward has gotten wrong.
What he's saying: "This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House," Cohn told Axios in a statement. "I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda."
The European Parliament will debate Tuesday whether to sanction Hungary and its authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán for consistently undermining democracy and the rule of law, a move that could lead to a suspension of the country's voting rights, reports Reuters.
The big picture: Orbán represents the extreme end of Europe's immigration hardliners, having ordered a physical border barrier in 2015 to prevent asylum seekers from entering Hungary at the height of the migrant crisis. The vote will be a test of whether the EU's center-right establishment, which is aligned with Orbán's party in parliament, will take a stand against the rising tide of far-right populists in Europe.
People who voted for Barack Obama and then Donald Trump still want the change they voted for in 2016 — and they're open to giving Democrats a chance.
Why it matters: These are the quintessential swing voters who can decide an election. Last week I traveled to Canton, Ohio, to sit in on an Engagious focus group of six Obama-Trump voters and six Mitt Romney-Hillary Clinton voters. Turns out they're not too happy, and their dissatisfaction could benefit Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
Attempting to discern the roots of Europe's rising populist minority is difficult given the broad range of attitudes and social currents across the continent.
The big picture: While Europe's populist movements get a lot of frenzied discussion in the press, they haven't really gained that much clear electoral success. But they're still managing to seize the political narrative seemingly everywhere — even in countries that vary wildly demographically.
President Trump’s favorite hot-and-cold deal-making strategy appears to be losing steam. Trump ratcheted up tensions with North Korea to get Kim to the Singapore summit, and is following the same script with Iran: scuttling the nuclear deal, increasing economic pressure but then proposing talks. But North Korea has been dragging its feet on denuclearization since the summit, and Iran has for now rejected Trump's offer.
The big picture: Both Pyongyang and Tehran have suspected Trump's administration of harboring internal resistance to him, an impression that's been bolstered by Bob Woodward and a senior official's anonymous op-ed. It's clear now that there's a rift between Trump's own foreign policy and the recommendations of much of his national security team, as well as the default positions of the Republican (not to mention American) foreign policy establishment, and that his administration is thwarting his efforts to implement it.
White House chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett, during a presentation on the overall health of the economy, pushed back Monday on comments made by former President Obama last week, saying its "factually incorrect” to assert that current economic gains are a continuation of trends from the previous administration.
Yes, but: Hassett made a point to note that the presentation he gave today was "not in any way a timing that's related" to Obama's speech, adding that his appearance in the briefing room had been planned for weeks. He also said President Trump's tweet from earlier today falsely claimed GDP growth has exceeded the unemployment rate for the first time in over 100 years. It's 10 years, Hassett said, not 100 years.
It’s looking more likely that Republicans could lose the House in November, and Democrats are already planning their opening moves against the GOP if that happens.
Why it matters: The 2016 election gave Republicans the power to pass their agenda easily, from cutting taxes to cracking down on immigration. But a Democratic House would be able to stop them in their tracks. Democrats need to win 23 seats to take the majority in the House.
