The president's quest for a viral attack line against Biden may be driving him to diverge even more politically.
Jul 5, 2020Social media platforms are beginning to turn down the volume on the president's megaphone.
Jun 30, 2020It’s a sign of how brazen his latest statements have gotten.
May 31, 2020Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that more lives could have been saved if earlier action was taken.
Apr 12, 2020Trump's Ukraine campaign against Biden fits a similar pattern of attacks.
Sep 29, 2019His track record shows he carries out enough threats that they can't be dismissed.
Jun 13, 2019White House trade adviser Peter Navarro defended President Trump on Sunday for spending the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey and signing executive orders in the absence of a congressional deal on coronavirus aid, calling him the "hardest-working president in history."
Why it matters: Trump has received bipartisan pushback and allegations of executive overreach for the orders, which include an extension of extra unemployment benefits. Democratic leaders have called for Republicans to return to the table and compromise, but there remains a trillion-dollar gap in the size of the package that each side is seeking.
President Trump speaking during a press conference on Aug. 8. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump on Saturday signed four executive actions to provide relief from economic damage sustained during the coronavirus pandemic after talks between the White House and Democratic leadership collapsed Friday afternoon.
Why it matters: Because the Constitution gives Congress the power to appropriate federal spending, Trump has limited authority to act unilaterally — and risks a legal challenge if congressional Democrats believe he has overstepped.
Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump announced on Friday he will pursue an executive order requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, something that is already law.
Why it matters: The Affordable Care Act already requires insurers to cover pre-existing conditions. The Trump administration is currently arguing in a case before the Supreme Court to strike down that very law — including its pre-existing condition protections.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (L) and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speak to the media on Capitol Hill. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Trump should sign executive orders unilaterally addressing coronavirus stimulus spending after negotiations with congressional Democrats stalled again on Friday.
Why it matters: Friday was viewed as a self-imposed deadline to negotiate a new relief bill. But after an intense week of negotiations on Capitol Hill, White House and Democratic leadership failed to reach a deal on delivering much needed aid to Americans and businesses.
Don McGahn in an October 2018 Cabinet meeting. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A D.C. appeals court on Friday allowed House Democrats to continue their case for testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn before the House Judiciary Committee.
Why it matters: The ruling has broader implications beyond this specific instance, agreeing that Congress has the standing to sue to enforce subpoenas against executive branch officials even if the White House refuses to comply.
Fauci testifying in front of Congress. Photo: Erin Scott-Pool/Getty Images
Anthony Fauci declined to tell the Washington Post on Friday if mail-in voting should be used as a public health measure amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying his statement would "almost certainly ... be used as a soundbite."
Why it matters: Fauci said he didn't want the media to set up another confrontation between him and President Trump, but it highlights how government medical experts have often found themselves in politically contentious situations when dealing with issues like reopening schools, mask mandates or the upcoming election.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
TikTok has become a Rorschach test for how U.S. politicians view China, with little consensus on the specifics of its threat to homeland security.
The big picture: Much of what D.C. fears about TikTok is fear itself, and that's reflected in President Trump's executive order to ban the app by Sept. 20 if it's not sold by parent company ByteDance — alongside another focused on Chinese messaging app WeChat and its parent company Tencent.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
President Trump escalated his campaign to claw apart the Chinese and American tech worlds Thursday evening, issuing executive orders that threaten to ban both TikTok and massive global messaging app WeChat.
The big picture: Trump's orders come against a backdrop of heightening tension with China, the steady unfolding of a hard "decoupling" between the world's two largest economies, and the Trump campaign's effort to wave a "tough on China" banner.
Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
TikTok said Friday that it was "shocked" by President Trump's executive order that will ban Americans from dealing with ByteDance, its China-based owner, in 45 days.
Why it matters: TikTok argued that Trump's move "risks undermining global businesses' trust in the United States' commitment to the rule of law, which has served as a magnet for investment and spurred decades of American economic growth."
President Trump in Cleveland, Ohio on August 6. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
The Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday denied the Trump campaign's request to add a fourth debate in the first week of September or move up one of the existing debates in order to get ahead of an expected surge in early voting.
The bottom line: Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are set to debate on Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Oct. 15 in Miami, and Oct. 22 in Nashville. "If the candidates were to agree that they wished to add to that schedule, the Commission would consider that request," the organization wrote in a statement.