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 DemocratsNancy 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.”
The new amount of money Donald Trump is asking for sets the stage for yet another fight between the White House and Congress.
He wants way more than he demanded earlier this year when he kept the government shut down in what became the longest funding lapse in modern American government.
Trump to demand extra $3bn for border wall from congress, White House officials reveal
The budget proposal is expected to be sent to congress on Monday, setting up a fight that could define the 2020 electionLast week we in the New York office for The Independent wondered what would happen if Donald Trump lost his election in 2020, but refused to leave.
So, after consulting with some experts, here's what we came up with:
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?Donald Trump has been ridiculed for calling the CEO of Apple Tim Cook "Tim Apple" last week.
He was apparently not in on the joke:
There is plenty of news coming out of the South by Southwest festival in Austin.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those who showed up, and had some strong words to illustrate her feelings toward capitalism.
Here's our report:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims capitalism is ‘irredeemable’
'We should be scared right now because corporations have taken over our government,' she saysHe 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).
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.
2020 presidential candidate and universal basic income champion Andrew Yang is having a good day.
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 meritsDemocratic 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?"
A useful qualifier on President Trump's spending proposals with the Office of Management and Budget.
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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.
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"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.
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 allyHere'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?Texas 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 themAll 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 tornadoThis 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-Lago
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.
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.
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