Axios

For the second time in recent weeks, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has requested a small cohort of lawmakers convene at Camp David Friday — though this is the first meeting that will include Democrats, Politico reports.

What we're hearing: At this time, President Trump will not attend the meeting. Axios' Alayna Treene reports that Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of the Democratic senators who has been invited. Considering Trump's shaky relationship with the House majority, the cross-party guest list is seen as surprising.

Beto O’Rourke told Oprah Winfrey in an interview Tuesday that he has been thinking about running for president in 2020, and that he will make a decision "before the end of this month."

"That’s a big question for us to think through. I gotta tell you — I’m so excited at the prospect of being able to play that role. I want to make sure [with my family] that we’re all good with this."

The big picture: O'Rourke's Texas Senate campaign against Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterms brought the 46-year-old former congressman to national prominence, though he ultimately lost the election by about 3%. If O'Rourke launches a bid, he would join what is already a crowded Democratic field, which includes Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and others.

Go deeper: Track which candidates are running in 2020

After facing minimal foreign policy friction with Congress in the first half of his term, at least among Republicans, President Trump has for several months been caught in a maelstrom of bipartisan criticism from lawmakers.

The big picture: Historically, American presidents have enjoyed wide latitude on foreign policy. But Trump has finally bumped up against the limits of that freedom and can no longer count on Congress falling in line — with pushback from both an assertive Democratic House and a foreign policy establishment well channeled by the Republican Senate.

Taking advantage of what's likely to be his largest audience of the year, President Trump plans to use tonight's State of the Union address to pitch an unlikely message of bipartisanship and to sell policy ideas that his advisers think can be "70-30" issues across the country.

The big picture: The theme of the speech will be "choosing American greatness" — with the subtext being Trump's argument that Democrats should abandon their resistance against him and work together on a few things they should be able to agree on.

President Trump’s nominee to fill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — the nation’s second-highest court — faced criticism during her confirmation hearing Tuesday from some members of both parties on the Senate Judiciary Committee over her controversial past writings on gender equality, sexual assault and race.

The backdrop: Neomi Rao, who currently serves as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, attended Yale University and wrote often about date rape. In an October 1994 column, she suggested that sexual assault at college parties could be avoided if women didn’t drink too much. She also wrote articles that characterized sexual and racial oppression as “myths.”

Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2020 have invited State of the Union guests who reflect some of their major policy issues and reinforce their contrast with President Trump.

Why it matters: State of the Union guests are a way for members of Congress to highlight a political point, and 2020 candidates can use this event to bolster their campaigns' policy platform with the people sitting next to them — even though they're not out on the trail. These Democrats are sending a clear message that they prioritize things like criminal justice reform, LGBTQ rights and economic stability.

Members of Congress and the White House often choose their State of the Union guests to provide a human face to hot-button political issues — and this year is no different.

The big picture: In the wake of the 35-day government shutdown over President Trump's demand for a border wall, many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have chosen immigration as their focus, inviting members of families who were separated at the border or border patrol officials. But individuals impacted by gun control, the opioid crisis, and criminal justice reform are expected to be in the House chamber on Tuesday night as well.

The FCC recently proposed a new rule that will allow unlicensed users to access the 6 GHz band — a frequency on the radio spectrum — for Wi-Fi connectivity, causing a disagreement between broadband companies that would benefit from the rule and utility companies that currently rely on the frequency to communicate.

The big picture: The FCC and utility companies are on two different pages. Utility leaders say the FCC focuses more on the needs of the telecommunications sector and does not understand the negative effects their decisions might have on critical infrastructure operations. Since the FCC controls the radio frequency that grid operators rely on to communicate, utilities are frustrated their needs are being overlooked.

That's the arresting headline on Gideon Rachman's column in the Financial Times on Tuesday.

What's new: "In the years since 'Brexit-and-Trump,' a global populist movement has gathered momentum. The fact that Mr Trump is despised by much of the western establishment and media can obscure this point. But the US president has many admirers, some of them running governments around the world."

The Trump White House was genuinely rattled and hacked off about the leak of three months of the president’s private schedule.

Given how rarely this administration reacts to the incessant leaking, we pinged several former and current White House insiders to find out which leaks of sensitive information had troubled Trump officials most.

Federal prosecutors in New York have ordered President Trump’s inaugural committee to turn over documents relating to its donors, finances and event attendees, the New York Times reports, citing sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Details: The news was first reported by ABC News on Monday evening, which noted that specific details of the request remain unclear, and that the investigation — which comes as many observers have speculated that special counsel Robert Mueller is nearing to his Russia probe — is zooming in on Trump's political fundraising both before and after his 2016 presidential election.

At least 18 unauthorized immigrant workers at five golf courses in New York and New Jersey that are operated by President Trump’s company were fired in the past two months, per the Washington Post.

Details: The publication says Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, confirmed the dismissals on Monday. This comes amid growing scrutiny and media exposés over the past year that suggested Trump's properties have at times turned a blind eye to the immigration status of its workers despite to president's hard-line immigration stance.