In August, Saudi-led coalition forces used an American bomb to blow up a school bus in Yemen, reportedly killing at least 51 people, including 40 children.
What he's saying: In his first public comments on that attack, President Trump told "Axios on HBO" that the killings were "a horror show." But he declined to say if it's made him reassess American arms sales to the Saudis.
President Trump has made more false or misleading claims in the last seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections than he did in the first nine months of his presidency, according to the Washington Post's Fact Checker.
By the numbers: In the first nine months of his administration, Trump made 1,318 false or misleading claims, or an average of five a day. In the last seven weeks, as part of his throw-it-all-at-the-wall midterm strategy, that number has ballooned to 1,419 — or 30 a day. Through Oct. 30, the WashPost puts Trump's total at 6,420 in 649 days.
More than 100 volunteers from U.S. civilian militia groups are en route to the southern border in an effort to enforce the country’s immigration laws, as thousands of Central American migrants make their way through Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., reports the Washington Post.
The big picture: The volunteers and so-called “border vigilantes” were motivated by President Trump’s constant warnings that the migrant caravan posed a threat to the country’s national security. Trump has also claimed that "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners" are among those traveling. “My phone’s been ringing nonstop for the last seven days. You got other militias, and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana. We’ve even got two from Canada,” Shannon McGauley, president of the Texas Minutemen, tells the Post.
Corporations in the Trump era have not faced the same level of policing by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department that they did under the Obama administration, an investigation by the New York Times has revealed.
The big picture: Government data shows that across the board, there has been a sharp decline in financial penalties against banks and corporations accused of misconduct. According to the Times, this mirrors the Trump administration's approach to rolling back regulations and belief that corporate penalties "unfairly punish a company’s shareholders for the misconduct of employees."
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a staunch supporter and "friend" of President Trump, will join the president Monday night at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley in Missouri.
Why it matters: This is Trump's final campaign rally for the midterm season. A new poll on Saturday showed Claire McCaskill, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent senators, statistically tied with Hawley.
Update [Nov. 5]: An earlier version of this story said that Fox News host Sean Hannity would also be joining Trump at the rally, as noted in the Trump campaign's announcement. However, Hannity has since tweeted that he is not campaigning with the president, but "will be doing a live show from Cape Girardeau and interviewing President Trump before the rally."
Yes, but: Those surveyed in both polls said they are satisfied with the country's booming economy under President Trump. And as the Post notes, midterm elections are typically viewed as a referendum on the sitting president and "tend to reflect views of the economy."
At a rally in Montana yesterday, President Trump said when he turned to the fear-the-caravans part of his speech: "We have our military, now, on the border. [Cheers.] And I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today. ... Barbed wire, used properly, can be a beautiful sight." Trump repeated his ode to barbed wire during a rally in the Florida Panhandle last night.
Why it matters: This is a fitting coda to a barbed strategy of choice, not circumstance. Imagine if Trump had done the unthinkable — chucked the fear and loathing bit and crusaded across the country thundering about promises made, promises kept and an American economy on fire.
President Trump's plans to send as many as 15,000 troops to the southern border could cost more than $200 million by year-end, according to analyst and Pentagon estimates reported by the Washington Post.
The big picture: The added expenditure, which is just a fraction of the $716 billion the U.S. spends on defense each year, comes at a time when the government is operating under a 17% spike in the federal deficit — the largest increase in six years. Per the Post, Trump has ordered the Pentagon to cut $33 billion from its 2020 budget.
Midterms are theoretically local and state elections, but Tuesday's contests add up to a remarkable snapshot of a quickly changing America: more women running than ever ... more Muslim Americans ... more Native Americans ... more veterans ... more teachers ... more millennials ... and more LGBTQ Americans.
With turnout expected to hit record levels, the results will tell us a lot about the type of candidate who matches up best against Trump in 2020.
President Trump's decision to deploy up to 15,000 troops to the border to handle the migrant caravan traveling north through Central America could cost as much as $200 million by the year's end, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: The deployments won't put a major dent in the military funds relative to the $716 billion defense budget, but the move goes against the Pentagon's request to cut unnecessary expenditures to battle the federal deficit.
President Trump and President Obama have gleefully turned Tuesday's midterms into a proxy fight over their legacies, while President Clinton is sidelined during a season when he had dreamed of being back in the spotlight.
Both presidents are onsprints: Trump is hitting 11 rallies in eight states in six days. Obama will hit Illinois and Indiana tomorrow, after stops yesterday in Florida and Georgia.
A woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of raping her "several times" has been referred to the Department of Justice and FBI by Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley for making "potential...materially false statements."
The big picture: The woman, Judy Munro-Leighton, was not one of the primary accusers brought up during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court. She detailed her accusations in a "Jane Doe" letter which was provided to Sen. Kamala Harris. According to Grassley, the letter "listed no return address, failed to provide any timeframe, and failed to provide any location." Per Grassley's referral, when the committee reached out to Munro-Leighton to speak about her allegations, she said she had not ever met Kavanaugh and "just wanted to get attention."
TechCongress announced Friday it will be receiving $1 million over three years from the Knight Foundation to send more technologists, engineers, and computer scientists to Congress for year-long fellowships to help Capitol Hill better tackle emerging technology policy.
Why it matters: Many lawmakers’ understanding of technology — and how to regulate it — is trailing behind innovation, as was all too apparent during Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony this spring. TechCongress already placed 13 fellows on their tours of duty in Congress after being founded three years ago.
