In his first public comments on the matter, President Trump told Axios that his niece, Mary Trump, is "not allowed" to write her forthcoming book about him because doing so would violate a nondisclosure agreement she signed.
Driving the news: "She's not allowed to write a book," Trump told me. "You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with — she's got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total ... signed a nondisclosure."
In an Oval Office interview on Friday afternoon,President Trump told me that he held off on imposing Treasury sanctions against Chinese officials involved with the Xinjiang mass detention camps because doing so would have interfered with his trade deal with Beijing.
Driving the news: Asked why he hadn't yet enacted Treasury sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials or entities tied to the camps where the Chinese government detains Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, Trump replied, "Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal."
The Biden campaign plans to seize upon Trump’s Tulsa claim that he asked officials to "slow the [coronavirus] testing down, please" to focus on Trump’s broader policy goal of dismantling the Affordable Care Act. (Trump’s campaign later said he was joking.)
The Biden strategy is pretty straightforward: Reiterate Biden’s commitment to Obamacare while signaling that he is open to revising it with a public option — all while drawing a contrast with President Trump, who continues to call for its repeal.
Conservatives are frustrated with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after a pair of surprising rulings last week — and those frustrations are only likely to grow.
Driving the news: The court is set to rule in the next week or two on abortion, federal bank regulations and President Trump’s taxes, and none of those cases are primed for sweeping conservative victories.
In an Oval Office interview with Axios on Friday, President Trump suggested he's had second thoughts about his decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela and said he is open to meeting with dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Driving the news: Asked whether he would meet with Maduro, Trump said, "I would maybe think about that. ... Maduro would like to meet. And I'm never opposed to meetings — you know, rarely opposed to meetings.
Eight Minnesota correctional officers filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming they were banned from guarding Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, because the jail superintendent would only permit white officers to guard him, NBC News reports.
The state of play: Chauvin, who has been charged with second-degree murder, is currently being held in the Ramsey County Jail after being taken into custody on May 29. The attorney representing the eight officers of color called them "highly trained, experienced professionals" and said they were “humiliated and debased” by the jail's decision to bar them from their duties.
Senate Democrats are debating how to deal with the GOP police reform bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) intends to bring to a vote this week.
The state of play: Some Democrats want to negotiate to push Republicans to include an outright ban on police chokeholds and stronger federal control of police training and accountability. Others are indicating they don’t trust McConnell to negotiate in good faith and would rather oppose this legislation and risk being labeled obstructionists.
Just under 6,200 people attended President Trump's rally in Tulsa Saturday, well below the BOK Center's total capacity of 19,200, a public information officer for the Tulsa Fire Department told Forbes Sunday.
Why it matters: Trump's campaign had planned to turn the rally into a massive pro-Trump festival to energize his re-election bid amid the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality. Campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted last week that 800,000 people had signed up to attend the rally.
House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that allegations from John Bolton's new book that President Trump was willing to alter trade policies on China in exchange for help with his re-election bid are a "perfect echo of his misconduct with Ukraine."
Flashback: During the closing arguments of Trump's impeachment trial in February, Schiff — the House's lead impeachment manager — famously said on the Senate floor: "He will not change and you know it. What are the odds if left in office that he will continue trying to cheat? I will tell you: 100%."
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that President Trump's low-turnout rally in Tulsa on Saturday was "an embarrassment," denouncing the president for failing to address the racial tensions that have gripped the country over the last few weeks.
Why it matters: Bottoms, one of the candidates to be Joe Biden's running mate, is dealing firsthand with the fallout from the killing of a black man by police in her city of Atlanta. She accused Trump of using the rally to continue "to try and divide us" and employing rhetoric that "really inflames the worst in people."
President Trump's campaign claimed he was "obviously kidding" when, during last night's return to the campaign trail, he took a crowd-pleasing swipe by suggesting America should slow COVID-19 testing to slow case counts. But a pandemic doesn't make a great punchline.
Why it matters: Joe Biden pounced on the line, kicking off a head-to-head general election campaign after the three-month basement hiatus. The Biden campaign is likely to push that moment into ads.
"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace grilled Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp on why the president's Saturday rally in Tulsa saw lower-than-expected attendance, despite claims by Trump last week that 1 million people had requested tickets.
The big picture: As Wallace pointed out, the president frequently touts crowd sizes at his rallies as an indicator of enthusiasm and support. The Trump campaign planned for a massive crowd by setting up an outdoor overflow section for supporters who were shut out of the city's BOK Center, which has a total capacity of 19,200.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has spent nearly $400,000 on ads in the week before her primary this Tuesday, according to Advertising Analytics data.
Why it matters: Some view this as a sign of AOC being nervous as her opponent, former CNBC anchor Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, continues to pump resources into her campaign.
House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that Attorney General Bill Barr "deserves impeachment" for his alleged politicization of the Justice Department, but described the endeavor as "a waste of time" because Senate Republicans are "corrupt" and will not vote to convict.
Driving the news: Nadler has launched an investigation into the firing on Friday of the powerful U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman, who had been investigating President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — among other politically charged cases.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that President Trump's claim at his rally that he asked officials to slow down coronavirus testing was "tongue-in-cheek," calling it a "light moment."
Why it matters: Trump said as recently as last week that coronavirus testing is "overrated," arguing that it makes the U.S. "look bad" because it leads to a higher number of confirmed cases.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign out-raised that of President Trump's last month, newly released figures show.
Why it matters: It's the first time Biden and the Democratic National Committee have raised more than Trump and the Republican National Committee, which reported raising $74 million in May.
President Trump told Fox News in an interview on Saturday his administration intends to "refile" plans to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before the presidential election in November.
Driving the news: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the way in which the Trump administration rescinded the program in 2017 violated federal law.
Two large "Baby Trump" balloons were launched in Tulsa ahead of President Trump's rally in the Oklahoma city on Saturday in a drive to raise money to restore the historic Vernon AME Church, per Tulsa World.
The big picture: Kajeer Yar, a co-owner of The Shrine under which a Trump blimp sits, told the outlet it "calls to mind the childish nature of governance through partisanship." Trump said at the rally he'd done more for black communities "than any other president." By Saturday night, over $30,000 was raised for the church, which states on its site that it's the "only standing black-owned structure from the Historic Black Wall Street era" from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, when a white mob attacked black-owned businesses.
President Trump told the crowd at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday that he asked officials to "slow the testing down" for the novel coronavirus.
Details: This is the first time Trump has made such remarks, and the campaign for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issued a statement calling Trump's comments "outrageous" and "appalling." White House officials told reporters that Trump was joking, Axios' Hans Nichols notes.
President Trump addressed thousands who gathered for his smaller-than-expected rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, calling the crowd "warriors."
Driving the news: The event was originally billed as a massive gathering that could attract tens of thousands outside as well as inside the 19,000-capacity arena. But the larger crowds didn't materialize and Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled plans for outdoor speeches.
