The Pentagon plans to deploy 5,200 troops to ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, Arizona and California by the end of this week to support immigration authorities' efforts to stop Central American migrants headed for the U.S., officials announced Monday.
The details: Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, head of the U.S. Northern Command, told reporters that a group of 800 soldiers was already heading to Texas from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox. The announcement comes in the closing days of the midterm elections season, in which President Trump has said he will cut off federal aid to the countries from which migrants are fleeing. He is reportedly planning to deny any requests for asylum and close the southern border as a migrant caravan makes its way north.
President Trump asked the thousands of Central American migrants traveling in a caravan toward the United States to "please go back" in a Monday morning tweet, adding that they "will not be admitted into the United States unless [they] go through the legal process."
Reality check: Most of these migrants intend to pursue a "legal process" to enter the U.S. via a claim of asylum. Unlike refugees who apply for protection while still in their home country, asylum-seekers must be on American soil and present themselves at a port of entry or to immigration officials in order to claim asylum.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Pennsylvania tomorrow to "grieve with the Pittsburgh community" following Saturday's mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
"The president cherishes the American Jewish community for everything it stands for ... he adores Jewish-Americans as part of his own family."
President Trump and The Trump Organization — along with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — have been accused in a new federal lawsuit of using their name to encourage people to invest in alleged business scams, the New York Times reports.
Details: The three businesses named in the lawsuit include a telecommunications company with products endorsed by Trump, and both a vitamin marketing business and real estate classes that used the Trump name. The suit was brought on behalf of four anonymous plaintiffs and funded by the Tesseract Research Center, which is chaired by Democratic donor Morris Pearl, prompting allegations that it was politically motivated.
In a letter addressed to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) called for the committee to convene "an emergency hearing" on "the wave of domestic terrorism gripping our nation."
The big picture: Lee, Nadler and Cohen wrote that the committee is charged with "confronting the causes of racial and religious violence, assessing the adequacy of federal hate crime statutes, and protecting the civil liberties of all Americans." They noted that they had made a similar request to Goodlatte in the aftermath of the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville last year, but that he never responded.
The wait time for U.S. citizenship applications to process has been stretched to more than two years in some parts of the country, prompting backlash from immigration rights advocates who question whether the delay is aimed at suppressing the votes of potential-anti-Trump voters, reports the AP.
The details: The average wait time for immigration officials to decide on citizenship applications is more than 10 months nationwide, but it now takes up to 22 months in Atlanta and 26 months in parts of Texas, per official estimates cited by the AP. A spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told the AP the extension is due to a “record and unprecedented” surge in applications. The number of applications increased by 8% between 2016 and 2017.
Congressional Republicans don't seem to have the pharmaceutical industry's back the way they used to — and the way the industry might expect them to, after donating millions of dollars to GOP campaigns, cycle after cycle.
The big picture: The Trump administration rolled out a drug-pricing proposal last week that pharma hates — and that, on paper, congressional Republicans should hate, too.
President Trump is adding an 11th rally to his final six-day blitz leading into the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Trump will be ending his campaign swing, on election eve, in the pivotal Senate state of Missouri, according to a source with direct knowledge of Trump's plans.
Why this matters: Trump is going to Trump country within Trump states. Only two competitive House seats lie within these locations.
President Donald Trump derided billionaire Tom Steyer as a "wacky" and "crazed & stumbling lunatic" in a tweet Sunday, just days after the Democratic activist was one of the prominent liberals and Trump critics to be sent a suspicious package.
Why it matters: Trump’s tweet came in response to Steyer’s interview on CNN, in which he said the president and the Republican Party are creating a climate of "political violence." On Friday, Steyer called for the president's impeachment citing "a systematic attack on our democracy that extends much further than just one isolated terrorist in Florida."
House Speaker Paul Ryan said in an interview on CBS "Face the Nation" Sunday that President Trump's campaign rallies "sometimes" cause division and that "sometimes he doesn't" practice unifying politics. "I worry about tribal identity politics becoming the new norm of how politics is waged," Ryan added.
Why it matters: The president’s brand of political rhetoric has been long criticized by Democrats and a handful of Republicans. In the wake of recent violence ahead of the midterm election, Trump called for unity and pledged to prevent "political violence to take root in America." But at subsequent campaign rallies, Trump abandoned his scripted call for national solidarity and lashed out against the media and critics he said are "enemies."
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Sunday pushed back against President Trump’s suggestion that arming houses of worship instead of enacting stronger gun control laws would stop mass shootings like the one at the Tree of Life Synagogue, where at least 11 congregants were killed.
The backdrop: Speaking to reporters after the shooting, President Trump said, "[i]f there was an armed guard inside the temple they would have been able to stop him, maybe there would have been nobody killed, except for him frankly." The gunman has been arrested and charged with 29 federal counts. He made statements about genocide and his desire to kill Jewish people during the shooting.
More and more people in the U.S. and worldwide believe brands should take a stand on societal issues, a report from Edelman says.
Why it matters: Public stances, from campaign ads to press releases — especially on activist issues — have effects on the public perception of a company, its future sales and even the stock market. People see brands as an important way of expressing themselves and consumers want companies to align with their core beliefs, Felix Richter, data analyst for Statista, writes.
President Trump has publicly criticized Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell six times for raising interest rates.
Flashback: Nearly one year ago, Trump struck a very different tone when nominating Powell:
"If we are to sustain all of this tremendous economic progress, our economy requires sound monetary policy ... That is why we need strong, sound, and steady leadership at the United States Federal Reserve. I have nominated Jay [Powell] to be our next Federal [Reserve] Chairman ... because he will provide exactly that type of leadership."
