Donald Trump is reportedly toying with the idea of live tweeting the Democratic 2020 debates on 26 and 27 June to taunt his would-be rivals for the presidency as they face off against one another for the first time.
Ahead of his own formal campaign launch in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, the president has meanwhile announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will begin deporting “millions of illegal aliens” next week.
“They will be removed as fast as they come in,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement. The only ones who won’t do anything are the Democrats in Congress.”
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"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore."
These MAGA fans are arriving for the 45 Fest at the Amway Center in downtown Orlando, essentially a World Cup fan park for people who couldn't get tickets to the Trump speech.
Apparently attendees will be able to watch his raving on large screens, get fast food from trucks and watch a live band called The Guzzlers.
More droning from Trump on the currency market in response to stimulus efforts by the European Central Bank.
Is he watching Bloomberg because he fell out with Fox?
Trump says he will be having an "extended meeting" with Chinese premier Xi Jinping at the G20 in Japan, which takes place on 28-29 June. The pair will presumably hope to restore diplomatic relations and bring an end to their trade war.
Here's Louis Staples for Indy Voices on Trump's bid to place immigration at the heart of the 2020 election and why, so far, the tactic is working.
With the president jetting out to Florida later, The Orlando Sentinel has shown its hand and is backing anyone but Trump in 2020.
This is of particular significance as the newspaper has a history of backing Republicans and is by no means unquestioningly partisan.
A bitter blow for Donald in a state where he spends so much of his "executive time" and where he is rallying for the seventh time today, more than any other.
With President Trump reigniting the immigration debate, Fox News host Tucker Carlson has described the arrival of about 500 African migrants at the US border in the space of a week a “flood” that could become a “torrent”.
The number is unusually high for African nationals trying to enter the US on the southern border, roughly double the number detained by Border Patrol during the whole 2018 financial year. However, it is a fraction of the 33,000 people apprehended since the start of the year at the US border.
Here's more from Alessio Perrone.
Trump is not exactly known as a big reader, preferring "documents" liberally dotted with bullet points and graphics over fine prose.
He did list his favourite books in conversation with Megyn Kelly in 2016, citing the Bible, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and his own (ghostwritten) The Art of the Deal.
Now an old clip has re-emerged and gone viral of the then-real estate tycoon being interviewed on CNN's Crossfire in 1987 and expressing his admiration for the late novelist Tom Wolfe. Trump is, however, unable to name the author's latest book, The Bonfire of the Vanities, until prompted by hosts Pat Buchanan and Tom Braden and is finally forced to admit he hasn't read it.
On a largely unrelated note, what an account this is.
It was always likely, but it appears that the president will be live-tweeting the Democrat 2020 candidate debates next week.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump is tentatively planning to live-tweet the debates on 26 and 27 June, according to people familiar with the planning.
A number of political advisers are said to have argued that there is an advantage in letting potential Democrats challengers attack one another without the distraction of Mr Trump inserting himself into the debate - and apparently planning is still fluid and the president could change his mind.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump is tentatively planning to live-tweet the debates on 26 and 27 June, according to people familiar with the planning.
A number of political advisers are said to have argued that there is an advantage in letting potential Democrats challengers attack one another without the distraction of Mr Trump inserting himself into the debate - and apparently planning is still fluid and the president could change his mind.
Back to the issue of Mr Trump's threat over deportations, Republican Representative Mike Turner, of Ohio, has told CNN that tweeting such policy on the hoof is not helpful and that both Democrats and the GOP are going to have to work together to deal with immigration reform.
What else is going on on Capitol Hill?
Well, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has disparaged TV satirist Jon Stewart over his impassioned defence of 9/11 first responders who risk having their healthcare take away, the former saying he doesn't know why the latter is "all bent out of shape" over the issue.
Stewart appeared on Stephen Colbert's show last night to offer a rebuttal.
Meanwhile, veteran Republican senator Chuck Grassley has been out sightseeing in his home state of Iowa for his 'Gram.
A government watchdog is to investigate whether the US Interior Department broke the law by making plans to open lands cut from a Utah national monument by President Trump to leasing for oil, gas and coal development, a pair of Democratic congress members said on Monday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO)'s investigation into whether the Interior violated the appropriations law by using funds to assess potential resource extraction in the lands cut from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the latest chapter in a long-running saga over the sprawling monument created in 1996 on lands home to scenic cliffs, canyons, dinosaur fossils and coal reserves.
Trump slashed the monument by nearly half in 2017 following a contentious review by former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke of monuments around the country. Trump ordered the review based on arguments by him and others that a law signed by President Theodore Roosevelt allowing presidents to declare monuments had been improperly used to protect wide expanses of lands instead of places with particular historical or archaeological value.
The GAO investigation comes after Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico and Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota, both Democrats, requested the investigation in May. They argue that a section of the appropriations law on the books since 2002 states that no taxpayer money can be used to do pre-leasing studies on lands in monuments that were created by 20 January 2001.
Last year, the Interior made public proposals for managing Grand Staircase, saying its preference for one of the sites would be the "least restrictive to energy and mining development." That plan also would allow commercial timber harvesting to keep forests healthy.
The public comment period closed on the proposals and the Bureau of Land Management's website says it intends to finalize the plans later this year.
Interior Department press secretary Molly Block said in a statement the agency will provide "factual information" to the GAO and is "confident" the probe will determine the Interior "acted appropriately and within the law."
GAO spokesman Charles Young confirmed the inquiry. He said it's too early to known how long the probe into the legal question will take.
Trump in 2017 also downsized the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, but that won't be part of the GAO's inquiry because it was created in 2016 by President Barack Obama.
Environmental, tribal, paleontological and outdoor recreation organizations have separate lawsuits pending to restore the full sizes of the monuments, arguing presidents don't have the legal authority to undo or change monuments created by predecessors.
Udall and McCollum announced the GAO investigation in a joint news release. Udall is the ranking member of the Senate's Appropriations Subcommittees on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. McCollum is chair of the same committee in the House.
Udall called on the Interior to halt work on proposed management plans until the GAO makes its determination on the legal question.
"National monuments like Grand Staircase-Escalante protect some of our most spectacular wilderness areas and breathtaking lands, and it is imperative that the Department manage them in accordance with the laws passed by Congress," Udall said in the news release.
One of the first to attack Trump's "deportation squad" of ICE agents targeting migrants is Libby Schaaf, the mayor of Oakland, California, who has some strong words for the president.
She and Trump have form - to put it mildly.
The Don here acting as his own hype man.
"People have never seen anything like it (unless you play a guitar)," he says, audaciously likening his upcoming MAGA rally to Woodstock.
CNN correspondent Jim Acosta is meanwhile reflecting on his many extraordinary encounters with Trump supporters at these events over the last year.
The latest twist in the lawsuit against InfoWars conspiracy nut Alex Jones - brought by the parents of children murdered in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 after he claimed the massacre was a "hoax" - is absolutely breathtaking.
Here's Lily Puckett's report, worth reading for Jones's response alone.
Here's Richard Hall with Iran's response to the news of further US troops being deployed to its doorstep.
Trump is up and accusing the president of the European Central Bank of fiddling the economy.
What did he expect Draghi to do - keep it a secret?
Oh look, here's more.
Here's London mayor Sadiq Khan hitting back at Donald Trump over his recent run of abusive tweets against him.
Khan calls Trump "a poster boy for racists" after he used a Katie Hopkins tweet to launch an attack on the mayor over violent crime in the British capital.
One of the president's more interesting tweets of late came yesterday evening when he attempted to school his favourite broadcaster on polling and said: "Something weird is going on at Fox".
He was referencing this poll over the weekend, conducted on Fox's behalf, which indicated the incumbent was 10-points behind leading 2020 Democratic challenger Joe Biden, nine behind Bernie Sanders and was also projected to lose against Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg at the ballot box.
Here's one theory as to what going down over there - ratings jealousy over Trump's "30-hour" interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC.
Here's a rundown of the key takeaways from the latest Stephanopolous encounter courtesy of Chris Riotta.
The president didn't appear to get much sleep last night, apparently sitting up late watching Fox worrying about his impeachment and tweeting fever dreams about Hillary's Emails.
Let's hope it was his nagging conscience keeping him awake.
