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National

It isn't clear if there was a plan for last week. Some consequential things went down: The U.S. sanctioned Iran's top diplomat, revved up the trade war with China, and signed off on a spending bill that will spike the national debt. But all that got largely lost by the wayside as the president went to war with a Baltimore icon.

The big picture: Nobody knew it was coming, nobody knew how to handle it, and a week later, senior White House officials have their fingers crossed that the president won't turn their week upside-down once again with another tweet about a "Fox and Friends" segment. As the week has unfurled, people inside and outside the White House described to me how a few pokes of a keyboard by the leader of the free world sent some of Washington's most powerful political players scrambling for cover.

Driving the news: Inside the White House, the conversation about Baltimore last week moved into a brief discussion of policy solutions. 

In at least one conversation with senior aides and another discussion with an outside ally, Trump entertained the idea of declaring a state of emergency in Baltimore — an extraordinary action that would potentially open up new federal powers and funding, according to four sources familiar with the conversations.

The idea, one of these sources said, would be to say that the living conditions in Baltimore were unacceptable and that people were suffering because their Democratic representatives let them down. So Trump would take action to fix things.

Trump also discussed declaring a state of emergency in other cities controlled by Democrats, including San Francisco and Detroit, a White House official told me.

Between the lines: The emergency idea appears to have been a brief conversation and no more than that. And by Thursday, White House officials had concluded it was too difficult, logistically, for the president to visit Baltimore next week — another idea they had tossed around. So we're back where we started, a week and a day after Trump's inflammatory tweets.

How it all began: Last Saturday morning, the president of the United States was watching "Fox and Friends." The show aired a segment that claimed Rep. Elijah Cummings was ignoring his district in West Baltimore and that it was full of trash.

The segment opened with footage of Cummings upbraiding the Department of Homeland Security's acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan for the awful conditions migrant children face in detention camps at the border.

"You know to have Congressman Cummings talk about the situation at the border, it's laughable," the Republican strategist guest said, "because the conditions in his own district, and a lot of people said he hasn’t even been there in a while, are atrocious."

Trump parroted the segment, describing Cummings' district as "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess." The president went on to imply that Cummings was corrupt.

Behind the scenes: After Trump's tweet, many elected officials rushed to Cummings' defense. CNN anchor Victor Blackwell choked up. "When he tweets about infestation," Blackwell said, "it's about black and brown people."

A few inside the White House were disturbed by the remarks, especially coming so soon after Trump told four female congresswomen of color to "go back" to where they came from, according to sources with direct knowledge.

But many more White House officials and Trump allies supported the attack on Cummings, whose committee is investigating the president and his administration. They saw a political advantage in Trump highlighting urban plight in districts that have long been under Democratic control.

From Monday, White House officials began brainstorming how they could amplify the president's attacks on Cummings. They talked about whether Trump should visit Baltimore. (He didn't.) They discussed whether the only African American in Trump's Cabinet, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, should visit Baltimore. (Carson, a former Baltimore resident, held a press conference there on Wednesday after touring a housing development.)

On Tuesday, Ivanka Trump reminded people that in 2017 she donated proceeds from her book to support an initiative, "incubated in Baltimore," to help female entrepreneurs.

Trump's allies outside the White House sprung into action. Also on Tuesday, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who remains close to Ivanka Trump, tweeted: "Instead of all of this back and forth about who everyone thinks is racist and [who's] not, the President just offered to help the people of Baltimore. They should take him up on it." 

Benny Johnson from Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump group that mobilizes young conservatives, toured Cummings' district and reinforced Trump's message in a short video.

Back in the White House, Trump wondered aloud about what he could do to show he could fix the problems in Baltimore and other cities under Democratic control. That’s when he discussed declaring states of emergency in these cities. The idea hasn't gone anywhere yet, according to White House officials. 

Officials said that once they thought it through, the idea didn't make much sense. It wouldn't make much sense to funnel more federal money into a district after Trump had described the same district as corrupt, one said. Another official compared Baltimore to Puerto Rico. And a third questioned where it would end. How many emergencies would Trump declare? 

These officials told me that as far as they were aware, White House lawyers never got involved in these conversations. Former senior White House lawyers who worked for previous presidents told me they'd never heard of a president declaring an emergency in a city, absent a natural disaster and local leaders' requests for help. 

What's next: The Baltimore conversation seems to be waning inside the White House. Certainly, nobody senior who I spoke to thought that any new policy would come out of it.

Then on Friday morning, Trump tweeted: "Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!"

This went too far even for some allies, including Nikki Haley.

The bottom line: Baltimore Week illuminates how things often work inside the Trump White House: The president watches TV, he tweets, and the machinery of government scrambles into action to deal with an emergency of the president's own creation. Then everyone moves on.

Scoop: Trump considered declaring state of emergency in Baltimore

In at least one conversation, Trump entertained the idea of declaring a state of emergency in Baltimore.

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Politics

Trump tweets

Mitch McConnell fractures shoulder after falling at Kentucky home

The injury comes as lawmakers are urging McConnell to cancel the Senate recess to address gun control legilsation.

Mitch McConnell: Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Mitch McConnell

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Less than 13 hours after a mass shooting during back-to-school shopping left 20 dead in El Paso, 9 people were killed overnight in Dayton, Ohio, in a second mass shooting. 

Driving the news: CNN's banner tells the story of a weekend that no one will want to remember, but that we can't forget: "13 hours of bloodshed: Two mass shootings leave 29 dead."

The El Paso massacre ranks 8th in deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. (See the list.)

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said during a televised briefing that the shooting at a Walmart may have been a hate crime. 

A racist, anti-immigrant screed — complaining of a "Hispanic invasion of Texas" — was posted online shortly before the shooting.

Authorities suspect that it was written by the 21-year-old man they arrested at the scene, nine hours and 650 miles from his home in Allen, Texas. 

The FBI has opened a domestic terrorism investigation, CNN reported. 

Dayton authorities say the suspected Ohio shooter was wearing body armor and had extra magazines, per the AP. The shooting was the 22nd mass killing in the United States in 2019, according to an AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database.

The project tracks all U.S. homicides involving four or more people killed — not including the offender — over a short period of time.

The first 20 mass killings in the U.S. in 2019 claimed 96 lives.

A week ago today, a 19-year-old gunman killed three people, including two children, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California.

The sad facts on the twin tragedies, via AP: 

Law enforcement responds to reports of an active shooter in El Paso. Photo: Joel Angel Juarez/AFP/Getty Images

In Texas, a gunman armed with a rifle opened fire in a shopping area packed with thousands of people, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured.

El Paso police provided updates about the shooting in English and Spanish in the largely Latino city. The shopping area is about 5 miles from the main border checkpoint with its sister city, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

"The city has had a binational feel ... and has been in the national spotlight for months," the N.Y. Times points out. "Thousands of Central American families have flooded the city and surrounding areas seeking asylum, overwhelming the Border Patrol and nonprofit groups working with immigrants."

Get the latest. ... The story in photos. 

Police officers following a mass shooting in the popular bar and nightlife Oregon district in Dayton, Ohio. Photo: Derek Myers/AFP/Getty Images

In western Ohio, Dayton police tweeted that an active shooter situation began in the Oregon District, a historic neighborhood at 1 a.m., but officers nearby were able to "put an end to it quickly."

Nine were killed and at least 16 others were taken to hospitals.

Police said the suspect was shot to death by responding officers.

The Oregon District is described by police as a safe part of downtown — home to entertainment options, including bars, restaurants and theaters. 

Mass murder in America

The El Paso massacre ranks 8th in deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

People hold hands during a vigil for victims at St Pius X Church in El Paso, Texas. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

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Mass shootings

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Axios Capital

Jay Powell did his best impression this week of a Fed chair making his own data-driven decisions about where he should set short-term interest rates. The reality, however, is that the markets and the president are giving him very little choice.

Driving the news: Powell cut interest rates on Wednesday — the first time the Fed has done so in over a decade. In doing so, he effectively fulfilled a prophecy that the fixed-income markets (and even the stock market) had been making for all of 2019. They saw the rate cut coming long before the Fed was willing to admit it, and they were right all along.

Donald Trump has been just as adamant about the necessity of a rate cut — a big one — and this week he worked out how to get what he wants. After the rate cut a few days ago, the market priced in a 64% chance of another cut in September. Less than 24 hours later, thanks to Trump, that probability had risen to north of 95%.

What we're seeing: The most important new word in the official Fed statement was "global." The Fed is no longer just reacting to domestic conditions; it's looking at an economic slowdown around the world, including China. Trump's announcement of new tariffs ensured that global trade will continue to disappoint and the Fed will continue to cut rates.

"The president and his trade negotiators believe they have downside protection against the possibility that trade policies will cause any lasting damage to the economy or the stock market. After all, the Fed has very publicly shown that it views it as appropriate to cut interest rates to combat any slowdown related to trade wars."

The catch: Fed rate cuts are better at protecting the markets than they are at protecting the economy. In any case, as economist Nouriel Roubini notes, the Fed doesn't have nearly enough ammunition to protect against a fully fledged trade war.

The bottom line: Now that the Fed is being treated as a marionette by both the markets and the president, its much-vaunted independence is becoming increasingly insubstantial. The less control that Powell has over the Fed's actions, the less power he has.

Jay Powell's constraints

Trump's new tariffs ensured that global trade will continue to disappoint and the Fed will continue to cut rates.

Business

Jerome Powell

Federal Reserve

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended President Trump on ABC's "This Week" against allegations that some of his past comments have downplayed the rising threat of white nationalism in the U.S., and that his divisive rhetoric is helping fuel violent domestic attacks like the shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.

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JON KARL: "Back in March he was asked directly, do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world? His answer: 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have a very serious problem.' He downplayed the threat of white nationalism. Was he wrong to do that?"

MULVANEY: "No, I don't believe that's downplaying it, look at what he said. Read the last sentence. I don't have it in front of me. 'This is a small group of people' and finish the sentence."

KARL: "I'll read the whole thing again. He was asked directly, do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world? His answer: 'I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have a very, very serious problem."

MULVANEY: "Look, this is not the same as international nuclear weapons. This is a serious problem, there's no question about it. But they are sick, sick people and the president knows that. Again, Jon, I don't think it's fair to try and lay this at the feet of the president. There are people in this country this morning thinking that President Trump was happy by this. That's a sad, sad state of this nation. He's angry. He's upset. He wants it to stop. I don't think it's at all fair to sit here and say that he doesn't think that white nationalism is bad for the nation. These are sick people. You cannot be a white supremacist and be normal in the head."

Why it matters: Some evidence from authorities indicate the mass shooting in El Paso on Saturday, which resulted in at least 20 deaths, could be prosecuted as a hate crime. Police are investigating a racist online post that appeared just before the shooting, per AP. The shooter allegedly told police after the shooting that he "wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible," according to ABC News.

A number of 2020 candidates and high-profile Democrats accused President Trump of fueling racism and violence in the aftermath of the shooting. Beto O'Rourke said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump is a "white nationalist" and that "this cannot be open for debate."

2020 candidate Julián Castro responded to Mulvaney's defensive stance in a follow-up interview on ABC:

"It's so unfortunate that not only our president but his administration can't rise up to the challenge of leadership in these times."

"There's one person that's responsible directly for that shooting in El Paso and that's the shooter. At the same time, as our national leader you have a role to play in either fanning the flames in division or bringing Americans of different backgrounds together."

Go deeper: What you can and must do to help stop mass shootings

Mick Mulvaney denies Trump has downplayed threat of white nationalism

In March, Trump called white nationalists "a small group of people that have a very serious problem."

Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates called for tighter gun control Saturday after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, blaming the National Rifle Association and President Trump following the latest massacre to rock the U.S.

Details: Some blamed Trump for a rise in white supremacist-related incidents and hate crimes, pointing to the president's singling out people of color in Twitter attacks in recent weeks, and for his administration's strict immigration policies.  

Context: Police arrested a 21-year-old white man following Saturday morning's shooting in El Paso, per AP. Hate crime is among the motives police are investigating.

Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke said after returning to his hometown of El Paso of Trump, "He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country ... it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence."

"We've had a rise in hate crimes — every single 1 of the last 3 years — during an administration where you have a president who's called Mexicans rapists and criminals."

Former Vice President Joe Biden told the Public Service Forum, hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in Las Vegas, "This is beyond anything that we should be tolerating. ... We can beat the NRA. We can beat the gun manufacturers."

Southbend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg told the forum, "America is under attack from homegrown white nationalist terrorism."

"White nationalism is evil, and it is inspiring people to commit murder, and it is being condoned at the highest levels of the American government ... The president of the United States is condoning white nationalism. ... We are the only country in the world with more guns than people. It has not made us safer. We can respect the Second Amendment and not allow it to be a death sentence for thousands of Americans."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Americans must reject the "dangerous and growing culture of bigotry espoused by Trump and his allies." Instead of  "wasting money putting children in cages" the U.S. needed to "address the scourge of violent bigotry and domestic terrorism," Sanders said. 

"After every tragedy the Senate, intimidated by the NRA’s power, does nothing. This must change. We need a president and congress that listen to Americans, not the ideology of a right-wing extremist organization.  We must pass common sense gun safety legislation. ...

"We must treat this violent racism like the security threat that it is. That means investing in law enforcement resources to combat the growing population of white nationalists who are engaging in violence." 

Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) tweeted that Trump must "have the courage to act" on gun violence. (Harris has pledged previously that if elected, she would use executive action within her first 100 days of office to impose gun control.) 

"We shouldn't have to live in fear of mass shootings. Congress must have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. If they won't act, I will."

Sen. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) tweeted, "Far too many communities have suffered through tragedies like this already. We must act now to end our country's gun violence epidemic."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) told the AFSCME forum, "The NRA have long dominated American politics to the point where they have stopped sensible legislation that would have prevented deaths and prevented killings. They have done it time and time again."

El Paso shooting: 2020 hopefuls back gun control, blame NRA and Trump

Beto O'Rourke leads criticism of Trump after shooting in his hometown.

Axios

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