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Trump says US officials staying at his resorts 'nothing to do with me' – live
'A dynasty for decades': Trump aide stokes succession speculation – live
(about 1 hour later)
Morgan said Bahamians struggling with the effects of Hurricane Dorian would be allowed into the United States on “humanitarian reasons,” but he stressed he would continue to observe US policies about denying entry to those with criminal histories, for example.
Acting CBP head Mark Morgan on Bahamians who were turned away:"There's going to be some confusion. What I will say is that's what happened.""We'll accept anyone on humanitarian reasons."
The comments came after dozens of Bahamians were kicked off a Florida-bound ferry because they did not have visas to travel to the US.
Morgan appears open to allowing more Bahamians entry to the country, but he also seems to be giving himself a lot of wiggle room to block some people from doing so.
Morgan was asked about the US offering Temporary Protected Status to Bahamian residents who are grappling with the effects of Hurricane Dorian.
The acting CBP chief said he would consider such a measure, but he emphasized the agency would not turn a “blind eye” to immigration procedures in reaction to the disaster.
He added, “We would not support returning people to a place it’s not safe to be.”
This is interesting. In addition to repeating Trump’s false claim that the border wall is already being built, Morgan keeps emphasizing the importance of a “wall system.”
He has specifically cited improved lighting and access roads along the border as a means of enhancing immigration enforcement.
But Trump has repeatedly promised he would build a physical wall along the southern border. Could this signal a shift?
Morgan deflected questions about concerns over how the border wall will be paid for, including by deflecting funds for dozens of military construction projects.
Morgan said that wall funding was a “political” issue and thus did not concern him, although he noted he had confidence in the secretary of defense. He said Mark Esper would not approve diverting funds unless he thought it was in the country’s best interest.
He also argued that the southern border represented a national security crisis, justifying the use of the diverted funds.
Trump’s acting CBP commissioner echoed the president’s demands for a wall along the US-Mexico border, claiming experts have backed up the effectiveness of such a measure.
“It works,” Morgan said of a wall. “The experts say it works. The experts have asked for this.”
He also commended the Trump administration’s work on the issue and called for Congress to act to close immigration “loopholes.” In short, Morgan is following through on a key reason why Trump appointed him, as an Axios reporter noted.
Mark Morgan running through President Trump’s favorite immigration talking points in the briefing room. Remember, part of the reason POTUS nominated Morgan in the spring was because he liked his performance on Fox News
Morgan noted the number of August apprehensions represented a 56-percent decrease since the 144,255 apprehensions in May.
During the month of August, CBP apprehended or deemed inadmissible a total of 64,006 people. For July, that number was 82,055. This represents a decline of approximately 22%. Moreover, the August number reflects a decline of 56% since the May peak, which was a staggering 144,255. pic.twitter.com/olKXrfyg41
Morgan has taken the podium at the White House and is addressing the “unprecedented crisis at the southern border.”
He noted that Customs and Border Patrol apprehended 64,000 undocumented migrants at the US-Mexico border last month.
Customs & Border Mark Morgan appears in WH briefing room to announce August migration numbers pic.twitter.com/YVh5oAH8p4
The acting commissioner of Customs and Border Patrol, Mark Morgan, will soon speak at a White House press briefing. (Morgan was originally scheduled to take the podium at 12:30 p.m. E.T., but that was pushed back to 1.)
Morgan will likely be asked about his agency’s decision not to change travel protocols for Bahamian visitors to the United States as the country recovers from Hurricane Dorian. Dozens of Bahamians were kicked off a Florida-bound ferry last night after it was announced they would still need a visa to travel to the US.
Morgan defended the policy in a pair of tweets yesterday:
.@CBP has the discretion to issue humanitarian or medical parole on a case-by-case basis to travelers with a proven need to enter the U.S. – for a temporary period of time – to receive emergency care.
Discussion has intensified recently around a core question in TrumpWorld: which of the president’s children, if any, will prove to be his political successor?
Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, predicted over the weekend that the president’s family would become “a dynasty that will last for decades.”
Obviously, the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, has a head start as the only one of his children serving as a senior White House adviser.
But more recently, Donald Trump Jr has built a loyal following of his own as the president’s eldest son goes around the country to enthusiastically campaign for Republican candidates.
The Atlantic reports:
By November 2018, Don had appeared at more than 70 campaign events across 17 states—and powerful Republicans were abuzz. ... Notably, many of these Republicans seemed less enthusiastic about his sister. ...
None of this newfound excitement about Don seemed to rub off on the president, however. People close to Trump told me he remained enchanted by the idea of Ivanka as the inheritor of his political legacy. ...
On a steamy June evening, Trump officially launched his bid for reelection with a raucous rally in Orlando. This time, Ivanka and Jared sat in the audience, while Don—the president’s most skilled warm-up act—strutted across the stage to fervid applause. ... While no one knew when Donald Trump would exit the White House, it was clear what he would leave behind when he did: an angry, paranoid scrap of the country eager to buy what he was hawking—and an heir who knew how to keep the con alive.
Trump is still attracting criticism for planning and then scrapping secret peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David, a proposal that even divided his closest advisers.
Trump is still attracting criticism for planning and then scrapping secret peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David, a proposal that even divided his closest advisers.
The vice president, Mike Pence, was among those who opposed the idea. NBC News reports:
The vice president, Mike Pence, was among those who opposed the idea. NBC News reports:
The idea raised Sept. 1 during a Situation Room meeting with the president was vehemently opposed by national security adviser John Bolton, even as officials at the State Department argued it could move the parties closer to an agreement, officials said.
The idea raised Sept. 1 during a Situation Room meeting with the president was vehemently opposed by national security adviser John Bolton, even as officials at the State Department argued it could move the parties closer to an agreement, officials said.
Bolton had an ally in Vice President Mike Pence, who also made the case against a meeting at Camp David, a location Trump suggested, officials said. Bolton and Pence were in Warsaw together around the time of the internal discussions. ...
Bolton had an ally in Vice President Mike Pence, who also made the case against a meeting at Camp David, a location Trump suggested, officials said. Bolton and Pence were in Warsaw together around the time of the internal discussions. ...
Among the concerns of administration officials who opposed the meeting was that it might take place around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the officials and people familiar with the matter said. Pence argued at one point that such a meeting could send the wrong message to members of the U.S. military who have fought — and been killed by — the Taliban for years, one senior administration official said.
Among the concerns of administration officials who opposed the meeting was that it might take place around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the officials and people familiar with the matter said. Pence argued at one point that such a meeting could send the wrong message to members of the U.S. military who have fought — and been killed by — the Taliban for years, one senior administration official said.
Pence has usually fallen in step with the president’s way of thinking, so his opposition in this case is notable. But what may be more notable is that Trump overruled Pence — siding instead with his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo — before ultimately canceling the proposed talks.
Pence has usually fallen in step with the president’s way of thinking, so his opposition in this case is notable. But what may be more notable is that Trump overruled Pence — siding instead with his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo — before ultimately canceling the proposed talks.
Trump has just wrapped up a ceremony to award the Medal of Valor and Heroic Commendations to officers and civilians who aided victims in the El Paso and Dayton shootings.
The event comes just hours before Democratic leaders will hold an event to call on the Senate to pass a bill expanding background checks.
Multiple officials from cities that have experienced shootings, including the mayor of Dayton and the congresswoman who represents El Paso, are expected to participate.
Trump left the event without taking any questions from reporters.
Valerie Plame, the former CIA officer whose identity was famously leaked in 2003, has released the first ad for her congressional campaign in New Mexico.
Plame announced back in May that she would run as a Democrat to succeed Ben Ray Luján, the House Democrat who is forgoing re-election to run for the Senate.
Plame’s outing as a CIA official touched off a scandal in George W. Bush’s administration that ultimately resulted in the conviction of Scooter Libby, a former top aide to Dick Cheney. Libby was pardoned by Trump last year.
It has become quite apparent that Trump’s tweets have affected global markets. And now one of the largest US banks has come up with a system to measure that effect.
CNBC reports:
In an attempt to quantify the impact of Trump’s tweets on the bond market, J.P. Morgan devised a ‘Volfefe Index’ to analyze how the president’s tweets are influencing volatility in U.S. interest rates.
J.P. Morgan found that the index, named after Trump’s infamous and still mysterious ‘covfefe’ tweet, explains a measurable fraction of the moves in implied rate volatility for 2-year and 5-year Treasurys. ...
Out of about 4,000 non-retweets occurring during market hours from 2018 to the present, only 146 moved the market.
The White House had no comment on the creation of the “Volfefe Index,” but Trump, who has previously been very sensitive to criticisms from business leaders, can’t be pleased.
The White House does not offer a reaction to the creation of the “Volfefe index.” https://t.co/9WK8rzCHxy
The US government decided to extract a covert source from inside the Russian government in 2017, partly over concerns that Trump or his administration may compromise the source’s identity, according to a CNN report.
CNN reports:
A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.
The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.
The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.
Trump quickly lashed out against CNN, although without explicitly referencing the report:
...But most importantly, @CNN is bad for the USA. Their International Division spews bad information & Fake News all over the globe. This is why foreign leaders are always asking me, “Why does the Media hate the U.S. sooo much?” It is a fraudulent shame, & all comes from the top!
And a former senior CIA official underscored the gravity of the report:
Just for some context, recruiting a source with key access is extremely hard. A source in a key position may happen once a generation, if ever. Keeping him or her safe is daunting work (See "The Billion Dollar Spy"). It is a big deal to lose these kind of sources. https://t.co/yHVY2kK6y5
Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary who has repeatedly engaged in so-far unsuccessful negotiations with Chinese officials to cool trade tensions, is adopting a “nothing to see here, folks” attitude about the tariffs’ impact on the US economy.
Mnuchin told Fox Business that the Trump administration has “not yet seen any impact on the U.S. economy” stemming from the president’s trade war, adding that there are “no signs” of a looming recession.
The treasury secretary also voiced optimism about the trade talks resuming next month. “They’re coming here. I take that as a sign of good faith that they want to continue to negotiate, and we’re prepared to negotiate,” Mnuchin said of his Chinese counterparts.
But Mnuchin’s cheery tone is somewhat undercut by the administration’s own actions on the trade war. For example, Trump has signed off on billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers affected by China’s retaliatory targeting of US agricultural goods. And yet the president has shown no sign of backing down. Mnuchin will have his work cut out for him next month.
A new poll confirms what has been repeatedly shown in recent years: the overwhelming majority of Americans want tougher gun laws.
According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 89 percent of Americans support universal background checks, and 86 percent back red flag laws, which would allow law enforcement to take guns from someone deemed dangerous by a judge.
But what’s more surprising is the support that more strict proposals, like an assault weapons ban, attract. A majority of Americans, 56 percent, say they support a ban on military-style assault weapons, and 52 percent support a mandatory buyback program for assault weapons.
Those policies have notoriously been the third rail for the Democratic Party since a number of House Democrats lost their seats after supporting an assault weapons ban in 1994. The poll may signal that public attitudes on those policies are changing, even if congressional inaction isn’t changing along with them.
The Democratic-controlled House has already passed a bill to expand background checks, but Mitch McConnell has not taken it up for a vote, and Trump has pledged to veto it. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are holding an event late today to call on the Senate to pass the bill, but McConnell will almost certainly remain obstinate unless Trump gives him the go-ahead signal.
Trump is on a tweeting tear this morning. He has now weighed in on a Politico report that the Air Force is investigating why flights in recent months have refueled at a small airport near Trump’s Scotland resort as government personnel stayed at the property.
I know nothing about an Air Force plane landing at an airport (which I do not own and have nothing to do with) near Turnberry Resort (which I do own) in Scotland, and filling up with fuel, with the crew staying overnight at Turnberry (they have good taste!). NOTHING TO DO WITH ME
He also again denied he had anything to do with the vice president, Mike Pence, staying at his golf club in Ireland. (But Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, previously said Trump made a “suggestion” to stay there during an official government trip.)
I had nothing to do with the decision of our great @VP Mike Pence to stay overnight at one of the Trump owned resorts in Doonbeg, Ireland. Mike’s family has lived in Doonbeg for many years, and he thought that during his very busy European visit, he would stop and see his family!
Politico has more on the Air Force investigation:
The review comes as additional instances of military personnel staying at Trump properties have been uncovered. The C-17 crew’s overnight stay at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland earlier this year, first reported by POLITICO on Friday, was not an isolated incident.
In September 2018, on its way back to the U.S. from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, a unit of the Maine Air National Guard landed at Prestwick Airport, the airport closest to Trump’s luxury waterfront resort. The crew and their passengers then spent the night at his hotel, according to one person who was present, an Instagram post and a voucher detailing the crew’s itinerary reviewed by POLITICO.
The Air Force did not immediately respond to questions about that September stay, but Air Force Brig. Gen. Ed Thomas, the chief spokesman, told POLITICO in a statement that ‘initial reviews indicate that aircrew transiting through Scotland adhered to all guidance and procedures.’
He acknowledged, however, that U.S. service members ‘lodging at higher-end accommodations, even if within government rates, might be allowable but not advisable. Therefore, we are reviewing all associated guidance.’
Trump’s own stays at his properties, most notably Mar-a-Lago, have previously raised concerns that he is trying to profit off his presidency. And the latest news from the Air Force will certainly only give House Democrats more fuel for their investigations into how Trump’s businesses have benefited from his position.
Trump is taking heat from all sides for announcing he had planned (and then canceled) secret peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David.
Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar accused Trump of treating foreign policy like “some kind of gameshow.” And Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger dismissed the original plan as a horrible idea.
Never should leaders of a terrorist organization that hasn’t renounced 9/11 and continues in evil be allowed in our great country. NEVER. Full stop. https://t.co/pagnRFuFtc
The New York Times has more on how the talks came together — and fell apart:
On the Friday before Labor Day, President Trump gathered top advisers in the Situation Room to consider what could be among the profound decisions of his presidency — a peace plan with the Taliban after 18 years of grinding, bloody war in Afghanistan.
The meeting brought to a head a bristling conflict dividing his foreign policy team for months, pitting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo against John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, in a battle for the competing instincts of a president who relishes tough talk but promised to wind down America’s endless wars. ...
Mr. Trump made no decision on the spot, but at some point during the meeting the idea was floated to finalize the negotiations in Washington, a prospect that appealed to the president’s penchant for dramatic spectacle. Mr. Trump suggested that he would even invite President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, whose government has not been party to the talks, and get him to sign on.
In the days that followed, Mr. Trump came up with an even more remarkable idea — he would not only bring the Taliban to Washington, but to Camp David, the crown jewel of the American presidency. The leaders of a rugged militant organization deemed terrorists by the United States would be hosted in the mountain getaway used for presidents, prime ministers and kings just three days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the Afghan war.
Thus began an extraordinary few days of ad hoc diplomatic wrangling that upended the talks in a weekend Twitter storm. On display were all of the characteristic traits of the Trump presidency — the yearning ambition for the grand prize, the endless quest to achieve what no other president has achieved, the willingness to defy convention, the volatile mood swings and the tribal infighting.
The targets of Trump’s ire extend far beyond politics, even stretching to singer John Legend and his wife, model and Twitter favorite Chrissy Teigen.
....A man named @VanJones68, and many others, were profusely grateful (at that time!). I SIGNED IT INTO LAW, no one else did, & Republicans deserve much credit. But now that it is passed, people that had virtually nothing to do with it are taking the praise. Guys like boring.....
.....the importance or passage of Criminal Justice Reform. They only talk about the minor players, or people that had nothing to do with it...And the people that so desperately sought my help when everyone else had failed, all they talk about now is Impeaching President Trump!
Trump signed the First Step Act, meant to reform the US criminal justice system, earlier this year at the urging of everyone from Jared Kushner to Kim Kardashian West.
And apparently the president was irritated that a recent special on US prisons, hosted by NBC News anchor Lester Holt, failed to mention Trump’s contribution to improving the system ... except that the program did mention it.
Teigen had a characteristically, ahem, colorful response to the president.
lol what a pussy ass bitch. tagged everyone but me. an honor, mister president.
Good morning, live blog readers!
Congress is back in session today, and leadership in both chambers has its hands full with questions surrounding potential gun legislation and impeachment inquiries. But Donald Trump has once again managed to snatch the spotlight by attacking his newest Republican primary challenger before tonight’s campaign rally in North Carolina.
The presidenton Twitter attacked Mark Sanford, less than a day after the former South Carolina governor and congressman announced he would challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Sanford lost his own congressional primary last year after Trump endorsed his opponent, who went on to lose her general election in the traditionally Republican district.
...but then he ran for Congress and won, only to lose his re-elect after I Tweeted my endorsement, on Election Day, for his opponent. But now take heart, he is back, and running for President of the United States. The Three Stooges, all badly failed candidates, will give it a go!
Trump doesn’t have much to sweat when it comes to his primary challenges. The Republican Party has done basically everything it can to clear the way for Trump’s nomination.
But the president’s attack may say more about his concerns for a certain other Republican candidate. Trump will travel to North Carolina tonight to hold a rally for Dan Bishop, the Republican running in the special congressional race there. Despite Trump winning the GOP-leaning Third District by 12 points in 2016, the race has become a toss-up after the 2018 result was thrown out over allegations of election fraud.
Trump cannot afford to lose North Carolina next year, and a defeat in this race could spell trouble. His attacks on his challengers, along with his repeated tweets endorsing Bishop, may signal he is more nervous than he wants to let on.
Here’s what else the blog is keeping its eye on:
Trump will award the Medal of Valor and Heroic Commendations before leaving for North Carolina.
The acting commissioner of Customs and Border Patrol, Mark Morgan, will hold a White House press briefing at 12:30 p.m. E.T.
Democratic lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, will hold an event at at 3 p.m. E.T. to call on the Senate to take up the background checks bill that has already passed the House.
