The Pentagon announced Tuesday that President Trump has nominated Army Gen. Mark Milley to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten to be vice chairman.
The big picture: Milley, a 4-star general who currently serves as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, will become the highest-ranking official in the U.S. Armed Services and the principal military adviser to the president. It was first noted Trump wanted to replace current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford with Milley back in December 2018.
Sen. Bernie Sanders told The New York Times in an interview on Tuesday that he will release 10 years of his tax returns by Monday, April 15, after he had promised in February during a CNN town hall to release them "sooner than later."
"We wanted to release 10 years of tax returns. April 15, 2019, will be the 10th year, so I think you will see them."
Why it matters: Sanders, who has made attacks on wealth inequality a signature issue of his political career, has been dogged by questions of why he has waited so long to release his tax returns. Though he once ranked among the least wealthy members of the Senate, Sanders acknowledged to the Times that he is now a millionaire: "I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too."
Border patrol encountered 103,492 migrants attempting to cross the border illegally last month— the highest number for March in over a decade, according to newly released data from the Department of Homeland Security.
Why it matters: Border patrol and ICE have been releasing many migrant families almost immediately due to limited space in detention centers. The majority of these migrants are families and minors — a stark difference from years past when border crossings were this high, but mostly consisted of single, Mexican adults. In response to the recent surge, President Trump has directed top officials to execute the most aggressive changes in immigration policy since his inauguration.
Former FBI general counsel James Baker told the House Judiciary Committee last October that it's his understanding that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there were 2 members of President Trump's Cabinet who were willing to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
The backdrop: The New York Times reported last September that Rosenstein had discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment, which provides procedures for removing the president when he is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Around the same time, Rosenstein also reportedly discussed wearing a wire to secretly record Trump in the White House.
The majority of Americans (58%) say race relations are bad in the U.S. and that expressing racist views has become more common under President Trump (56%), according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
Adapted from a Pew Research report; Chart: Axios Visuals
16 Democratic senators have demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reinstate an Obama-era rule for the presumptive release for all pregnant women, citing a stillborn birth in a Texas immigration center in February and an increase in miscarriages, NBC reports.
The big picture: President Trump "ended the presumption of release for all pregnant detainees" last March through an executive order. ICE said it now evaluates on a case-by-case basis and takes "special factors" into consideration, and provides appropriate care to pregnant women in custody. In its argument to reinstate the Obama-era rule, the letter referenced a USA Today article that states at least 28 women have had miscarriages while in ICE custody over the past 2 years.
President Trumphas directed top officials to execute the most aggressive changes in immigration policy since his inauguration, sources tell Axios. Some officials consider the moves legally and politically dubious.
The bottom line: The new policies,which the administration wants to impose using executive authority following the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, would be even more restrictive than those of his first two years.
The White House announced Monday that U.S. Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles would soon be leaving his post, a move that "shocked" USSS agents, according to a secret service official, but didn't come as a surprise to staffers inside the West Wing.
Behind the scenes: Randolph "Tex" Alles, who had no Secret Service experience when appointed by President Trump in April 2017, was brought on to fix an agency with a lot of problems. He was selected at the personal urging of then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, despite others cautioning Trump against it, a senior administration official told Axios.
A federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction on Monday afternoon blocking the Trump administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases have been finalized starting this weekend.
The big picture: The injunction, which will come into effect this weekend, marks yet another attempt by the Trump administration to curb immigration that has been shut down by the courts. The decision comes one day after the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — who just last week ordered that the remain-in-Mexico policy be expanded — and as border agents continue to struggle to handle the surge of migrant families coming across the border.
The designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) imposes few if any new restrictions. As President Trump noted, though, it is technically an "unprecedented" action, since the label was intended for non-state actors.
The big picture: This amounts to just one more layer of opprobrium on top of Iran’s 1984 designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, the IRGC’s designation under separate counterterrorism authorities, and a long list of related sanctions. Because most countries and firms worried about U.S. sanctions have already left the Iranian market, it's unlikely to chill much international business.
Over the past few months, President Trump has clashed with top officials — including outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — over border security, urging them at different points to reinstate a stricter family separation policy, deny asylum seekers entry, and shut down the port of entry in El Paso, CNN's Jake Tapper reports.
The bottom line: A senior administration official reportedly told CNN, "At the end of the day, the President refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is constrained by the laws."
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar said Monday that her campaign has raised $5.2 million in the 7 weeks since launching her 2020 campaign.
Details: The Minnesota senator's campaign said she received $3 million last year, putting her end-of-quarter total at over $8 million with $7 million in cash on hand. Klobuchar didn't release her number of individual donors, but said the average online grassroots contribution was $40, with 85% of all donors giving less than $100. Klobuchar's Q1 total puts her in 5th place out of the 7 Democratic candidates who have released fundraising totals.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads in early fundraising against his fellow Democratic opponents, setting a tone as an "indisputable front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination," AP reports.
Why it matters: "He now carries the weight of high expectations and will face heightened scrutiny over everything from the cost and feasibility of his government-funded policy proposals to his tax returns, which he has not yet released," AP's Juana Summers and Julie Pace write.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen brought her resignation letter with her when she met President Trump in the White House residence yesterday afternoon, top sources tell Axios.
Inside the room: She wasn't intenton quitting but was prepared to, sources tell us. The meeting went poorly, and Trump didn't even let her announce her "resignation." While she was racing to put out the letter (not that different from one she wrote after midterms), Trump tweeted that she "will be leaving her position."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Sunday he's in El Salvador to let people know President Trump's views don't reflect the U.S., "that’s an individual in our country, who happens at this moment to be president."
Why it matters: Newsom and Trump have clashed on several issues ahead of 2020 elections, as California spearheads liberal states' fight against the president. Trump has cut off federal aid to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. "You have a president that talks down to people in this country ... demoralizing folks living here and their relatives in the United States,” Newsom told reporters Sunday.
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg directly addressed Vice President Mike Pence in a speech Sunday, saying his marriage to Chasten Glezman made him a better man and moved him closer to God.
What he's saying: Buttigieg told the LGBTQ Victory Fund event the message that being gay is wrong puts people at war with themselves and their maker. "That’s the thing that I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand," the South Bend, Indiana, mayor said. "That if you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."
President Trump elevated Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to acting secretary of homeland security following Kirstjen Nielsen’s abrupt resignation Sunday evening.
The bottom line: McAleenan has now been thrust further into the bitter escalating fight over Trump's immigration policies and put in charge of some of the president's key hardline initiatives, including a push for a long-promised border wall and a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned, President Trump tweeted Sunday.
"Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!"
Behind the scenes: A source close to DHS told Axios that Nielsen would be having a showdown with the president on Sunday night.
