The Trump administration will unveil the top-line figures from its 2020 budget on Monday.
The big picture: Trump's budget won't balance in 10 years, and it uses a controversial Pentagon "slush fund" to give Trump a $750 billion military budget without exceeding the spending caps imposed under a 2011 budget law.
Senior Trump administration officials are crafting a plan ahead of the president's re-election bid that sounds like a blend of Bill Clinton's "triangulation" and Barack Obama's "pen and a phone."
The big picture: The plan — which acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and policy staff are developing, and which is in its early stages — would have Trump sign a series of executive orders on issues including education, drug pricing, the opioid epidemic and veterans affairs. Aides say the moves would appeal to Democrats and Republicans.
To prevent leaks from Trump's Friday night Mar-a-Lago speech to RNC donors, security guards made attendees put their cellphones in magnetized pouches that they carried around like purses until they left the club.
So leakers had to rely on their memories. Trump entered to Lee Greenwood’s "Proud to Be an American," then launched into one of his trademark stream-of-consciousness speeches, according to three people who were there. They said the crowd roared with laughter throughout.
Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trump's weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading "fake news" when they said he called the CEO of Apple "Tim Apple."
Trump told the donors that he actually said "Tim Cook Apple" really fast, and the "Cook" part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the "fake news," he said, was "Tim Apple."
What are America's biggest problems that a 2020 president should focus on solving? A new Harris Poll given exclusively to Axios asked 2,035 American adults that question, and 451 of them, or 22%, said that the national debt was one of the three most important issues.
Data: The Harris Poll; Poll conducted Feb. 21–25 among 2,035 adults; Chart: Axios Visuals
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow confirmed reports that President Trump will ask Congress for $8.6 billion in additional funding to build a border wall as part of his 2020 budget proposal.
Why it matters: The request, first reported by Reuters on Sunday, will certainly provoke another partisan slugfest over wall funding, which led to a historic government shutdown earlier this year and a national emergency declaration after Trump failed to secure funds. The proposal will include $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of the wall and $3.6 billion for the Pentagon’s military construction budget, according to Reuters.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed a tax credit last month for people and businesses who donate money for children to attend private schools, a move that has stirred up the school choice debate among politicians and education analysts.
The big picture: Despite the encouragement for more growth through scholarships, New York City charter schools, which are funded by local taxes, grants and donations, reached their cap last week. If the state doesn’t lift the cap, charter growth will most likely end. Resources have begun to drain while enrollment for charter schools across the country has grown exponentially, causing teachers from charter schools to walk out this year for the first time ever.
House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Erik Prince was lying when he claimed last week that he testified about a 2016 meeting he had with foreign nationals at Trump Tower.
Generation Z has a more positive view of the word "socialism" than previous generations, and — along with millennials — are more likely to embrace socialistic policies and principles than past generations, according to a new Harris Poll given exclusively to Axios.
Data: The Harris Poll; Poll conducted Feb. 21–25 among 2,035 adults; Chart: Axios Visuals
"Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasn't figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built ..."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told an Iowa crowd his progressive policies once considered "too radical" by establishment politicians now form key parts of his Democratic presidential rivals' platforms, FoxNews reported Saturday.
Details: The Democratic presidential hopeful cited raising the minimum wage, addressing climate change and his "Medicare-for-all" bill as being among the policies once considered too radical by the political establishment. "They are ideas that Democratic candidates from school board to president are now campaigning on," he said. Sanders is a frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race, but he pledged during his rally in Iowa to support whichever candidate succeeds in running for the Democrats in 2020.
President Trump attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Saturday over newly built shelters for asylum-seekers and the sidelining of a planned high-speed rail project.
Why it matters: The attack is the latest in a war of words between Trump and Newsom in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential race, as California spearheads liberal states' fight against Trump. California has launched a series of lawsuits against the president. Newsom had attacked the Federal Government Friday while visiting the shelters, telling CNN: "It’s the Federal Government’s responsibility. ... These are people that came through the process legally, seeking asylum legally." The pair last clashed over the scaled-back rail project over Twitter in February.
Why it matters: The poll of likely caucus-goers placed Biden at the top with 27 percent. Biden is their first choice for president Biden is "very close" to making a decision on whether to run in 2020 after getting his family's blessing. This poll showing he has a 2-percentage-point lead over state Democrats' next-preferred candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), may help him decide to run. “If I’m Joe Biden sitting on the fence and I see this poll, this might make me want to jump in,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of the Des Moines-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll, to the Des Moines Register.