Donald Trump will reportedly ask Congress for $8.6bn (£6.6bn) to build his southern border wall on Monday under proposals for his 2020 fiscal budget, a $3bn (£2.3bn) increase on his last estimate for the job.
The White House is proposing $2.7trn (£2trn) in spending cuts for the year beginning 1 October, a reduction of 5 percent across all non-defence agencies while military funding is boosted to $750bn (£577bn).
Senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were quick to shoot down the proposals, saying the president had “hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos” with the recent 35-day government shutdown and warning: “Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again.”
As Washington reacted to the budget proposal, the country's capital prepared for the anticipated report from special counsel Robert Mueller's office, which has dived into potential coordination between the Trump campaign, the president, and Russian interests during the 2016 election.
It is not clear when that report will be released, but observers say that the investigation is likely imminent. The week ahead itself will contain several high level updates that could set the stage for how the report is received, and what happens afterward.
But, with no specific word on whether the special counsel report will include recommendations to indictments against the president, leading Democrats are holding back from support for impeachment.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for instance, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she is worried about the divisive impact that impeachment proceedings would have on the American public.
"He's just not worth it," Ms Pelosi said of impeaching the president.
That said, it appears unlikely that Democrats in control of the House would not pursue impeachment if a damning Mueller report were delivered to them form the attorney general's office.
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
President Trump will today revive the debate over funding his much-promised US-Mexico border wall with a request for for $8.6bn (£6.6bn) from Congress as part of his 2020 budget proposal.
That's a $3bn (£2.3bn) increase on his last estimate for the job.
"A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First" sees the White House proposing $2.7trn (£2trn) in spending cuts for the year beginning 1 October, a reduction of 5 percent across all non-defence agencies while military funding is boosted to $750bn (£577bn).
During the recent 35-day government shutdown, the longest in American history, the president demanded $5.7bn (£4.4bn) to build his wall but the Democrats stood firm and refused the request, prompting Mr Trump to yield, sign a spending bill pledging just $1.4bn (£1.1bn) towards the project and then declare a national emergency on the "crisis" of illegal immigration at the southern border.
This allowed him to invoke emergency powers and reallocate federal funding without consulting Congress, a move that has already been the subject of a resolution of disapproval in the House of Representatives and which will face a vote in the Senate this week.
A handful of Republican senators, uneasy over what they see as an overreach of executive power, are expected to join Senate Democrats in voting through the resolution. Congress appears to have enough votes to reject Mr Trump's declaration but not enough to overturn a presidential veto.
Here's Clark Mindock.
Trump to demand extra $3bn for border wall from congress, White House officials reveal
The IndependentThe budget proposal is expected to be sent to congress on Monday, setting up a fight that could define the 2020 electionLeading Democrats immediately rejected the proposal.
"Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again," said House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.
"President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico. Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government."
"The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson," they said, arguing the "money would better be spent" on other issues such as education.
They said the money "would be better spent on rebuilding America."
Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky, called the proposed cuts to essential services "dangerous."
He said President Trump had already added nearly $2trn (£1.54trn) to deficits with the Republicans' "tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations and now it appears his budget asks the American people to pay the price."
California senator and 2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris had this to add:
Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, has meanwhile insisted President Trump's proposal "embodies fiscal responsibility" and said his administration has "prioritised reining in reckless Washington spending", marking a "return to fiscal sanity."
While pushing down spending in some areas, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the proposal will seek to increase funding in others to align with the president's priorities.
Along with border wall money, the proposed budget will also increase funding to increase the "manpower" of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Patrol at a time when many Democrats are calling for cuts - or even the elimination - of those areas. The budget also proposes policy changes to end sanctuary cities.
The administration will invest more than $80bn (£61.5bn) for veterans' services, a nearly 10 percent increase from current levels, including "significant" investments in rehabilitation, employment assistance and suicide prevention.
Mr Trump signed an executive order to establish a task force to address the latter issue last week after speaking on the subject at the White House. The group will be led by veterans' affairs secretary Robert Wilkie. An estimated 20 US military veterans take their own lives every day, according to Mr Wilkie.
The budget proposal will also increase resources to fight the opioid epidemic with money for prevention, treatment, research and recovery, the administration said. And it seeks to shift some federal student loan costs to colleges and universities.
In seeking $8.6bn (£6.6bn) for more than 300 miles of new border wall, the budget request would more than double the $8.1bn (£6.2bn) already potentially available to the president for the wall as a result of his national emergency declaration last month - although there's no guarantee he'll be able to use that money if he faces a legal challenge, as is expected.
This is interesting.
A Chinese business consultancy run by a donor to President Trump claimed it could provide clients with a chance to mingle and take photos with the president, along with access to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
It remains unclear how much Li Yang's firm GY US Investments, registered in the Sunshine State in 2017 but now apparently defunct, charged for the services and whether she was ever hired to provide them.
But the company's claims and other eyebrow-raising activity, which were first reported by The Miami Herald and Mother Jones, mark the latest in a litany of complications and ethical issues stemming from Mr Trump continuing to own and operate a private club where dues-paying members and their guests rub shoulders with the president of the United States and his family, friends, White House staff and members of his Cabinet.
The firm "provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace," according to a translation of the page accessed through an internet archive service.
That has included, the website claims, access to presidential dinners and roundtables, White House events, photo opportunities and "VIP" activities including the "opportunity to interact with the president, the Minister of Commerce and other political figures."
The site also featured numerous photographs, including a picture of Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and photographs of Ms Yang with Mr Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, transportation secretary Elaine Chao and former White House aide Sebastian Gorka.
Ms Yang is described on the website as the company's "Founder CEO," as well as a member of a "Presidential Fundraising Committee" and a "Presidential club member."
Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, played down the significance of the webpage and photos Ms Yang has posted of herself with the president and other prominent Republican politicians.
"Anyone can buy tickets to any event and I'm assuming that is what she had done," Ziegler said. "I've never met the lady and I could never pick her out of a police lineup."
He added: "I know the media, Democrats, the left is going to try to do everything to connect her with us, but she had zero role with us. It just looks like she attended some events and took some pictures."
Here's Tom Embury-Dennis.
Founder of alleged prostitution spa 'sold Chinese businessmen access to Trump’
Li Yang's website offers 'opportunity to interact' with Donald Trump at Mar-a-LagoAll this on another busy morning in Trumpland, at a time when the White House is again the subject of a conspiracy theory regarding the use of a "Fake Melania" on the president's recent visit to tornado-battered Alabama.
This photo of Melania Trump is causing people to spread body double rumours...again
On Friday, Donald and Melania Trump arrived in Alabama to pay their respects to 23 victims who lost their lives earlier this week at the hands of a deadly tornadoTexas border sheriffs say the Trump administration has not consulted them about the necessity of building a wall.
Trump administration 'hasn't asked us' about border wall, border police say
Exclusive: One sheriff says his deputies found the bodies of eight migrants who tried to cross into the United States last year. They didn't need a wall to stop themHere's what would happen if President Trump refused to leave office in the event of a defeat in the 2020 presidential election, a hypothetical scenario darkly hinted at by his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen in his recent testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Trump ‘to be removed by force’ if he refuses to leave after 2020 loss
Exclusive: America could wake up to Fox News and the billionaire reality TV star claiming a rigged election on 4 November 2020 – but what would happen next?The president was busy retweeting support for his "no collusion" mantra over the weekend (spent at his Mar-a-Largo resort in Florida), posting complimentary job statistics and making his familiar attacks on the media.
He also found time to brand right-wing commentator and former ally Ann Couter a "wacky nut job".
Trump brands Ann Coulter a ‘wacky nut job’ over border wall criticism
President claims ‘major sections’ of barrier are under construction while hitting out at his one-time ally"The Isis threat will remain", said US national security adviser John Bolton on ABC's This Week yesterday, warning of the situation in Syria and endorsing the opinion of General Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command.
"But one reason that the president has committed to keeping an American presence in Iraq and small part of an observer force in Syria, is against the possibility that there would be a real resurgence of Isis and we would then have the ability to deal with that if that arose," he said.
"The president has been, I think, as clear as clear can be... When he talks about the defeat of the Isis territorial caliphate, he has never said that the elimination of the territorial caliphate means the end of Isis in total. We know that's not the case."
"Isis fighters [are] scattered still around Syria and Iraq and Isis itself is growing in other parts of the world."
"The importance of the territorial caliphate goes to an ideological point of Isis itself, namely that they were a caliphate because under their view of what a caliphate is, you have to control a territory," Mr Bolton said.
Mr Trump has certainly come a long way from this bold statement a week before Christmas and has already rolled back his initial plan for the complete withdrawal of US troops of the region.
Speaking of US peacekeeping forces overseas, here's an astonishing idea for the billionaire businessman president - charging foreign powers for hosting them!
Trump leaves longstanding US allies rattled with plan to charge them for hosting American troops
Under the formula – which would raise billions of dollars – countries would pay the full cost of hosting troops, plus a further 50 percent
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The Republicans are still seeking to exploit Democratic division by accusing the opposition of antisemitism over the Ilhan Omar affair.
The Minnesota congresswoman criticised the influence of lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, sparking a rift within her party and prompting Mr T to call them "anti-Israel" on Friday.
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro has since been rebuked by the network (a rare occurrence) for suggesting Ms Omar's wearing a hijab is somehow at odds with American democracy.
"Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?" she asked viewers of her Fox show Justice.
Liz Cheney, daughter of all-powerful former vice-president Dick Cheney, was one of 23 House Republicans to vote against a resolution condemning prejudice in the lower chamber on Thursday (407 representatives were in favour) and appeared on NBC's Meet the Press to accuse the opposition of "enabling" bigotry.
A useful qualifier on President Trump's spending proposals with the Office of Management and Budget.
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg - mayor of South Bend, Indiana - has launched an absolutely stinging attack on vice-president Mike Pence, a famously devout Christian.
Speaking at a CNN Townhall event at SXSW in Austin, Texas, Mr Buttigieg said: "How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?"
Jay Caruso for Indy Voices on why it's important for political opponents not to ignore the achievements of the Trump administration and why applauding what it does right does not mean "enabling" a world leader widely disapproved of.
Opinion: I'm far from a Trump fan - but don't call me an 'enabler' when I say what he's done right
We are not 'three tweets away from the Holocaust', so let's be brave enough to examine the president's policies on their own merits2020 presidential candidate and universal basic income champion Andrew Yang is having a good day.
So far today Donald Trump has not been composing many tweets himself, but he has been retweeting quite a bit.
Here's the most recent tweet he had from last night. Of course, he's calling out witch hunts.
He must have been watching this blog. Donald Trump has tweeted a couple doozies, including a message that he would be fine with making daylight savings time permanent (the clocks changed on Sunday in the US).
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