Axios

U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped only 6 immigrants at the southern border who were on the federal government's terror watch list in the first half of FY 2018, NBC News' Julia Ainsley reports.

Why it matters: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders recently claimed that CBP had stopped nearly 4,000 suspected or known terrorists at the border last year as an argument for building Trump's border wall. There were 41 suspected terrorists stopped at the southern border in the first half of last year— 35 of them were U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

President Trump announced that he will address the nation on Tuesday at 9 pm ET regarding the ongoing partial government shutdown before a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said will see him "meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis."

Background: Trump said he would focus on "the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border" in his prime-time speech, which was first reported by the New York Times. Trump's visit to the border will come on the 20th day of the shutdown, should it continue, which is in a stalemate over his demand that congressional Democrats vote to fund a wall — now a steel barrier — along the border.

Go deeper: The force that could end the shutdown

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she believes there is "no question" that President Trump is racist, citing his response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville in 2017 as well as his day-to-day rhetoric in an interview with Anderson Cooper for CBS' "60 Minutes."

The big picture: Ocasio-Cortez added, "The president certainly didn't invent racism, but he's certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things." The White House brushed off her assertions in a response to "60 Minutes," highlighting Trump's criminal justice reform package and stating that the president "has repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms."

Go deeper ... Exclusive poll: Most Democrats see Republicans as racist, sexist

Former Vice President Joe Biden will make a decision on whether he plans to run for president in 2020 soon and has told allies that he thinks he is the Democratic Party's best chance to defeat President Trump, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: Biden is the Democrat that Trump fears most in 2020, believing that he could steal away Rust Belt voters in states like Pennsylvania, Axios' Mike Allen reported last year. But a centrist Biden run — from a 76-year-old white man — could prompt a schism in a Democratic Party that's increasingly influenced by progressive ideals, especially with multiple female and minority candidates expected to jump into the 2020 race.

The government shutdown "is abstract for most Americans," writes Axios' Mike Allen, but it's about to get very real very quickly. In the markets, nothing's going to get SEC approval while the shutdown is in effect. That means no IPOs, just for starters.

What's happening: The government also attempted to halt bankruptcy proceedings at a nursing-home chain, blaming the shutdown. Both debtors and creditors agree that would put patient health at risk. As Mike says, crunch time is coming. The shutdown will impose real hardship on the nation and its economy.

On day 16 of the partial government shutdown, President Trump tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence's meeting on Sunday with Democratic congressional representatives had been "productive," announcing that his administration is now "planning a Steel Barrier rather than concrete."

The big picture: Trump's tweet echoes a concession first offered by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on NBC's "Meet the Press" — and floated by Trump in another tweet last month. But a Democratic official familiar with the meeting blasted Trump's take, saying that it started 45 minutes late after administration officials were unprepared to justify the $5.7 billion they've requested for the wall, though the Washington Post reported that the White House drafted a letter that more specifically outlined the administration's proposals, including $800 million for "urgent humanitarian needs." The official added that no progress had been made — and no other meetings of the group had been scheduled.

President Trump told reporters outside the White House on Sunday that he’s "in no hurry" to replace his acting Cabinet secretaries with formal replacements, saying, "I have acting, and my actings are doing really great. ... I sort of like acting. It gives me more flexibility, do you understand that?"

Why it matters: Trump's attorney general, secretaries of Defense and Interior, EPA head, and UN ambassador are all working in acting capacities, despite being Senate-confirmed positions. The appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general, in particular, came under fire as potentially unconstitutional — even from conservative legal scholars like John Yoo. And the Washington Post reported this week that Patrick Shanahan's position as acting Defense secretary could also be constitutionally murky. Furthermore, Trump, who campaigned on "draining the swamp," faced criticism for his acting secretaries' lobbying ties.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told "Fox News Sunday" that President Trump "means what he says" regarding his threats to keep the government shut down for months or even years over his request for border wall funding.

The big picture: Sanders added that congressional Democrats "agree" with Trump on the need for more border security, but "they just are unwilling to let this president win." Trump echoed that sentiment during a press gaggle outside the White House on Sunday, telling reporters, "Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and myself could solve this in 20 minutes if they want to." Congressional Democrats have offered Trump $1.3 billion in additional border security funding — not the $5.7 billion the administration wants for a wall.

Go deeper: The force that could end the shutdown

President Trump told reporters outside of the White House on Sunday that he "can relate" to furloughed federal workers, adding that he expects they "will make adjustments" while they do not receive paychecks during the ongoing government shutdown.

The big picture: Republican sources told Axios' Mike Allen that they believe the only thing that will make Trump cave on the shutdown and his border wall demands is the moment when the hardships of hundreds of thousands of furloughed government employees become a staple of local news coverage across Trump country. But Trump personally seems to believe that those workers will stand with him, telling reporters that "many of those people who won't be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree with what I'm doing."

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that President Trump would be willing to "give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence" at the U.S.-Mexico border in order to appease Democrats and end the government shutdown.

With the departure of White House chief of staff John Kelly, the misinformation emanating from President Trump has only escalated.

What's happening: Alumni of this White House see a possible reason. Although Kelly was thwarted in many of his efforts to control the president, one place he made authentic inroads was clamping down on the paper flow to the Oval Office. "Anyone who circumvented that process was going to have a serious problem," said a former official who saw the transformation up close.