Category Archives: Donald Trump

CLEVELAND On Tuesday's 3News Now with Stephanie Haney, the top headlines include how you can snag one of 1,500 new jobs with Progressive Insurance in Cleveland, and allegations of President Donald Trump trying to buy votes from minorities in Ohio.

Plus, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield promises to make the dreams of a young boy who wants to play catch with him come true, and 3News sports analyst Ben Axelrod joins the show to talk about Browns general manager Andrew Berry's role in that 1-31 stretch, during the 2016 (1-15) and 2017 (0-16) regular seasons.

And with it being Fat Tuesday, we have your guide on where to get the best paczkis (pronounced "poonch-keys") in Northeast Ohio.

Progressive Insurance announced plans on Tuesday morning to hire 1,500 people right here in Cleveland with more than 8,000 jobs up for grabs nationwide, including 400 work-from-home positions.

The new jobs are expected to be filled throughout 2020.

With an increase in customers and total revenues topping $39 billion, the company needs more employees to support continued growth in the auto, property, commercial lines and recreational products insurance at more than 250 locations across the country, the company announced in a press release.

Apply for one of the open position at Progressive's career website, here.

On Monday, video of a little boy named Deacon Jones was tweeted, holding up a poster board saying that his one wish is to play catch with the Browns' quarterback.

"If you had one wish, what would it be?" the adult, presumably Deacon's father, asks in the video.

Deacon replies, "Play catch with Baker Mayfield."

Mayfield, who was tagged in the tweet, saw it and replied, "We can make this happen!"

We'll all be watching for that, when it happens.

The Browns continue to get national attention, even in the off-season, as the Today Show discussed whether new general manager Berry is the right man for the job, despite his role in the Browns' 1-31 stretch.

Ben joins Stephanie to talk about how Berry explains that time period, when he served in the Browns' vice president of player personnel.

"The focus was a little bit more on accumulating assets whether it was draft picks, young players, cap space to set a foundation for long-term success," Berry said. "But at the end of the day, it is about winning and that has to be the focus and we didn't win enough games."

Hopefully that turns around this time, as Berry becomes the youngest GM ever in the NFL, at the age of 32.

And for those who observe Lent, today is Fat Tuesday, the last day to gorge yourself on whatever you plan to give up for the next 40 days (46 days if you include Sundays).

To help you out, we have compiled a list of the best places to partake in the Polish tradition of Fat Tuesday paczkis.

A paczki is a jelly-filled donut, and every Fat Tuesday Cleveland-area bakers rise super early and spend hours preparing the treats for customers to enjoy, often times selling out in just hours.

Here are a few 3News favorites:

5580 Ridge Road Parma, OH 441123

267 Cooper Foster Park Rd, Amherst, OH 44001

6379 Pearl Rd, Cleveland, OH 44130

Check out the fill list here.

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Watch | Progressive Insurance brings 1500 jobs to Cleveland, and Donald Trump accused of trying to buy votes in Ohio on 3News Now with Stephanie Haney...

At the State of the Union, President Donald Trump appeared to refuse Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's outstretched hand prior to his address. Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to make the case for his reelection, claiming success in delivering on promises, especially the economy.

"Unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises," Trump said at an event marked by partisan acrimony.

The tensionsplayed out live on national television, with Trump refusingto shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand at the start of his address and her dramatically rippinga copy of his speech into pieces when he was done.

Trump delivered his speechthe nightbefore the Senate is expected to acquit himon Democratic-initiated impeachmentcharges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress. But the partisan hostilities also can be linked to significant policy differences on issues such asborder security, immigration and tax cuts.

Heres are someof Trumps key campaign pledges and his record so far in office:

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.(Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY, AFP via Getty Images)

Trumps2016 presidential campaign was just a few minutes old when he made a bold promise.

I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall, Trump vowed after riding down an escalator into the gilded lobby of Trump Tower, where he formally announced what some considered to be a quixotic campaign for president.

To those doubters in the room and around the country, Trump wrapped his campaign promise in a three-word coda: Mark my words.

Perhaps no other issue animated Trumps campaign as much as immigration. From his proposed impenetrable physical wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to the dramatic changes he proposed to the legal immigration system, Trump hammered away at what he described on the campaign trail as one of the greatest challenges facing our country today.

During a major address on immigration in the summer of 2016, Trump laid out 10 policies he promised to pursue, from building the wall and requiring Mexico to pay for it to ending catch and release to blocking funding for so-called sanctuary cities that decline to cooperate with some requests from the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump has cracked down on illegal immigration and curtailed legal immigration as well but on the specific promises he made during his campaign, the administration has a mixed record. Thats partly because the White House has been unable to make deals with Democrats, has pursued its policies unilaterally and has been repeatedly shut down in court.

Hell claim success but from our point of view the goalposts are quite different, said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington-based group that advocates on behalf of immigrants.

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, gave the president generally high marks for meeting his promises on immigration. A lot of this is effort, he said. If the courts stopped you, thats not necessarily your fault.

Strong winds gusting across Southern California have toppled several panels of a new barrier being installed along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Jan. 30) AP Domestic

The presidents border wall is among the most illustrative examples.

The administration said this month it had built 100 miles of border wall, for instance, but virtually all of that construction has replaced barriers that previously existed during the Obama administration. That is despite a government shutdown in 2018 over wall funding and an emergency declaration that allowed Trump to free up military funding for the wall. Mexico has not paid for the wall and its government has vowed it will not do so.

Still, the president is aggressively campaigning on the wall this year as well, promising to build 450 miles of barrier by the end of 2020.

Ive always thought of it more as a metaphor and rally change than anything close to being an effective immigration strategy, Sharry said.

Building the wall?: Homeland Security chief marks completion of 100 miles of 'new border wall' with plaque

On other immigration fronts, Trump signed an executive order in 2017 to block sanctuary cities and counties from receiving federal funding, but much of that order has been struck down or is pending in federal courts.

There were nearly 1 million border apprehensions in the 2019 fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Thats almost double the year before but still below several peaks in the 2000s, when Border Patrol was routinely catching more than a million people a year. Trump promised to remove immigrants in the country illegally, but the number of deportations under Trump about 267,000 in 2019 remains lower than virtually every year of the Obama presidency.

Trump, meanwhile, approved a plan last year to cap the number of refugees admitted to the United States to 18,000 the lowest level in four decades ago and he recently expanded a travel ban he implemented early in his term to six additional countries.

Trump's travel ban, which the administration re-worked after a series of court losses, suspends the issuance of certain types of visas from countries the administration says does not adequately screen visitors to the U.S. The initial version of the travel ban, which Trump had promised on the campaign trail, led to chaos and protests at U.S. airports and was struck down by federal courts over concerns that it discriminated against Muslims.

Travel ban: Trump expands controversial travel ban restrictions to six new countries

Trump promised annual economic growth of at least 3% on a sustained basis but dangled the possibility of 4, 5, and maybe even 6%.

That hasnt happened.

Unemployment is at a 50-year low, and the economy has expanded an average 2.5% during the first three years of his term, somewhat faster than the 2.2% post-recession average before he took office. The federal tax cuts he spearheaded, along with government spending increases, juiced growth to 2.9% in 2018 but gains slowed to 2.3% in 2019 and are expected to throttle back to slightly less than 2% this year and in 2021.

An aging population and weak productivity growth are restraining the U.S. and global economy over the long term.

Still, Trumps economic record has been very solid, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a nonprofitgroup that promotescenter-right policies.

Trumps rollback of federal regulations that stymied business growth has been stunningly large and impactful, Holtz-Eakin said. And many of the corporate reforms included in the tax cuts and jobs package passed in late 2017 will benefit businesses for years, he said.

Trump vowed the $1.5 trillion in sweeping tax cuts he spearheaded in 2017 wouldnt increase the federal deficit because they would pay for themselves through faster economic growth that swells government revenue.

But the tax law is projected to add $1.8 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal budget. While faster economic growth is forecast to generate about $570 billion in additional revenue, that will be offset by higher interest payments on a bigger national debt, the committee says.

Trump also said the tax cuts would spark a wave of business investment as a result of both lower rates and changes allowing businesses to deduct capital spending more rapidly. A study by the International Monetary Fund found the legislation did boost investment but by 3.5 percentage points, but that was below the average 5.3 percentage point increase that was forecast. About 80% of the tax savings was channeled into stock buybacks, dividends and other similar activities while just 20% went to capital spending or research and development.

President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping in 2017.(Photo: FRED DUFOUR, AFP/Getty Images)

Trump kept his promise to withdraw the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama. On his third day in office, Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the agreement, which he had once called a rape of our country.

Trump also lived up to a pledge to negotiate a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Just last week, Trump signed into law the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a revised trade pact that puts in place rules for moving products among the three countries and replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a quarter-century-old trade pact that Trump had mocked as the worst trade deal ever.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to "cut a better deal with China that helps American businesses and workers compete."

After months of on-again, off-again negotiations and a trade war in which the two countries slapped billions of dollars in tariffs on each others products, Trump signed a limited "Phase One" trade dealwith China in January. The agreement calls for China to buy an additional $200 billion worth of U.S. goods and services over the next two years, including$32 billionin agriculture products. Trump said negotiations would begin soon on a broader agreement that he said could be completed after the 2020 election.

China trade: What's in Trump's 'Phase One' trade deal between the U.S. and China?

Regardless, Trump gets a B-minus on trade policy from Daniel Griswold, a trade expert at The Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Part of the reason, Griswold said, is the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada looks a lot like NAFTA, which Trump had disparaged. At the same time, many parts of the new trade pact were lifted directly from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the deal Trump abandoned after taking office.

Whats more, Griswold said, the nations trade deficit has risen by 25 percent under Trump when compared to Obamas last year in office despite Trumps campaign promise that, under his administration, the trade deficit would drop like youve never seen before.

U.S. duties on $360 billion in Chinese imports and Chinas counter-tariffs on U.S. exports to that country lowered economic growth by three-tenths of a percentage point last year and are expected to cut growth by a tenth of a point in 2020, said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics. And Trumps trade fights have shaved U.S. employment by 340,000 jobs, said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moodys Analytics.

On the positive side, the Phase One trade deal requires China to buy an additional $200 billion in agricultural and other goods from the U.S. over the next two years, more than doubling current exports. Daco said its questionable whether China has the desire and drive to boost shipments that much. In any case, he said it doesnt appear the U.S. has the capacity to produce that much more without shifting its exports to China from other countries, leaving economic growth unchanged.

President Donald Trump smiles as he walks with his daughter Ivanka Trump across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)

Everybody is getting a tax cut, especially the middle class, Trump promised when he was a candidate.

Not everyone got a tax cut. But many Americans did.

An analysis by PolitiFact found that, under the tax cut and jobs package that passed Congress at the end of 2017, every income group would pay less taxes in 2019, but that the benefits would flow disproportionately to wealthier taxpayers.

By 2027 every income group below $75,000 would see a tax increase, while only those income ranges above $75,000 would still see a cut, PolitiFact found. The primary reason is some of the individual tax cuts phase out after 2025.

Trump also embraced daughter Ivanka Trumps push for paid family leave when he was running for office. At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, Trump called for six weeks of paid maternity leave as part of a package of childcare initiatives.

That idea went nowhere in Congress. But some 2.1 million civilian federal workers will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child, adoption or the start of foster care under a deal struck last year.

The paid leave policy was included in a compromise defense package. Congressional Democrats signed off on money for Trumps Space Force program while Republicans agreed to demands on parental and family leave.

Paid family leave for everyone is not going to happen this year, Holtz-Eakin said. Thats something hes going to have to promise in a second term.

Speech drama: He snubbed her handshake, she tore up his speech. Drama between Trump and Pelosi was on full display at the State of the Union address.

Vice President Mike Pence claps as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to rip up a copy of President Donald Trumps's speech after the State of the Union address at the Capitol in Washington.(Photo: MANDEL NGAN, AFP via Getty Images)

Candidate Trump promised Americans he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care reform law enacted under Obama.

Real change begins with immediately repealing and replacing Obamacare. What a mess, Trump told a crowd at a political rally in Toledo on Oct. 27, 2016.

But three years after Trump took office, Obamacare is still in effect.

The big promise was the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, Holtz-Eakin said. That hasnt happened. Republicans in general had a fairly spectacular unsuccessful run at that.

They have, however, managed to dilute parts of the law.

In their 2017 tax package, the GOP eliminated the penalty on people who can afford health insurance but choose not to buy it. The change wiped out one of the most unpopular provisions of Obamacare, but the law itself still stands.

Even so, Obamacares fate remains uncertain.

A federal judge ruled in Texas ruled in 2018 that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, finding that the mandate that everyone buy insurance or pay a fine is so central to the law that it cannot stand now that Congress has rolled back the penalty. A three-judge appeals court panel has sent the case back to the Texas judge to decide which portions of the law can stand.

Repeal and replace?: 3 promises Trump made about health care that repeal plans haven't kept

Trump may be hard pressed to articulate any major foreign policy accomplishments, since many of his initiatives have yet to bear fruit. His push to oust Venezuelas president, Nicholas Maduro, has stalled. His negotiations with North Koreas Kim Jong Un have fizzled. His push for a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan remains out of reach.What's more, Trumps recently unveiled Middle East peace plan years in the making was dismissed by regional experts as a nonstarter.

Trump has unquestionably made good on his promise to take a hard line on Iran. But while he yanked the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed severe economic sanctions on Iran, he has not been able to persuade Tehrans leaders to negotiate a new agreement with him.

Instead, Iran has begun to abandon its commitments under the 2105 deal and appears to be inching toward acquiring a nuclear weapon. And while Trump has touted his decision to authorize a deadly strike killing Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian military leader, it is not clear if that will make Americans safer.

Shortly after the Soleimani strike, Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at an Iraqi air base in an attack that left more than 60 U.S. service members with traumatic brain injury. And while tensions have eased since Soleimanis death, many experts believe Iran will continue to look for less overt, but still lethal, ways to retaliate against the U.S. for his killing.

President Trump meets with Kim Jong Un and is first U.S. President to step onto North Korean soil(Photo: Getty)

Trump has met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un twice since last years State of the Union address in Hanoi last February and at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea over the summer. The president has said his bold new diplomacy could result in tremendous things for U.S.-North Korea relations.

But Trumps unconventional strategy of engagement focusing on personal diplomacy at the highest level has yet to produce any concessions that would put North Korea on the path to denuclearization.

Kim has not tested long-range ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons during the negotiations, but he has continued to test short-range missiles and other weapons. And the region is on a knifes edge, after Kim promised to unveil a new strategic weapon and as Trumps next move remains unclear.

In the meantime, experts say North Korea continues to improve its ballistic missile program and expand its nuclear arsenal with ongoing fissile material production.

Trump promised in last years State of the Union address that he would reduce Americas military presence in the Middle East repeating his oft-cited campaign pledge.

Our brave troops have now been fighting in the Middle East for almost 19 years, he said. Great nations do not fight endless wars.

But Trump has deployed more American troops to the region, particularly in recent months amid escalating tensions with Iran.

After Trump authorized a deadly striking killing Irans Soleimani, the president sent an additional 3,000 troops to Kuwait amid increased threat levels in the region. According to the Associated Press, 14,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the Middle East since May.

The president has successfully reduced U.S. troop levels in Syria after a successful military campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group.

But Trump was forced to back off his call for a complete withdrawal from Syria amid an uproar over what many saw as a betrayal of Americas Kurdish allies in Syria, who helped U.S. troops rout ISIS. He also endured withering bipartisan criticism for his decision to withdraw about 50 American troops from the Syria-Turkey border, a decision that paved the way for Turkey to invade Syria and attack the Kurds.

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Build the wall? Travel ban? Tax cuts? After Trump's State of the Union, here's where he stands on promises - USA TODAY

Everything is falling into place.

Its great to be Donald J. Trump this morning right now is about as good as its ever been since he became president three years ago.

The latest impeachment hoax will be over this afternoon, his approval ratings are at an all-time high, the State of the Union address is in the can and most importantly, his Democrat opponents are so desperate that theyre reduced to stealing their own intramural elections from one another.

Joe Biden has fallen and he cant get up. It didnt matter that they killed the final poll before the caucuses, because he was already in free fall. The national Democrats made it even worse for him when they arranged the schedule of the impeachment trial in the Senate so that Biden was the only major candidate in the Hawkeye State for days before the Monday night caucuses.

The more Biden had Iowa to himself, the faster he fell in the polls. Every night was a gaffe-a-palooza on TV. On Super Bowl weekend, they flew in reinforcements, including Rep. Steve Lynch, D-South Boston.

No matter what they did, though, the hacks couldnt pull it out for Uncle Joe, who like the original Uncle Joe in Petticoat Junction, is movin kinda slow at the junction. Lets go to the video.

Joe is stumbling around the stage in Cedar Rapids as we join the meltdown in progress:

I been doing this, I hate to acknowledge it how you doin man?

He has spotted someone, or something Lynch perhaps? Or maybe just a hallucination?

Great to see ya This is one-a the leaders in Mass legis, a really really really really fine man .

He just cant think of whats-his-names name. But does he get extra credit for remembering what state Lynch hails from?

Anyway. Oh thanks for bein here.

Wherever here is. In whatever century Biden thinks hes in at this particular moment.

Speakin of loyalty, speakin of loyalty God love ya thank you but any rate uh the fact is that uh um I forgot what the hell I was gonna say Excuse my language.

So the Iowa Dems finally released some caucus results late Tuesday afternoon, showing Mayor Pete Buttigieg clinging to a slight lead. That becomes the lead story on the news, at least for an hour or two, until the State of the Union address, and then this afternoon, the acquittal of President Trump in the Senate.

When the other 38% of the Iowa results trickle in, maybe, lets say probably, Bernie wins. But by then itll be too late. The news cycle will have moved on.

Either way, win or lose, Bernie gets no mo going into the New Hampshire primary next week.

Mission accomplished!

Thats the way the national Democrat party looks at it, I guess. They want to stop the Brooklyn Bolshevik Bernie, at any cost, including the ridicule and anger their stunt engendered yesterday.

But to what end? Is Mayor Pete the answer? Last night in Laconia, in his second Eastern time zone victory speech, he was mimicking the speech patterns of Obama I kept expecting him to say his election would mean an end to the rising of the sea levels, or If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

Blacks dont care much for Mayor Pete. We know the Bernie Bros hate him. Great, lets all get on the Buttigieg bandwagon. More likely, the bosses are just trying to buy themselves some time, until they can figure out their next step to Stop Bernie.

The other thing they had to accomplish with the caucuses was to keep Biden above 15%, so he can get a few delegates and thus continue to at least appear to be a viable candidate.

The over-under to get delegates was 15% and in the first count, Biden had 15.6%. Think of it this way: the party bosses took the over, and they just made it at least until the remainder of the results trickle in.

Theres an old saying: Id rather be lucky than good. Do you think Donald Trumps ever heard that one?

Bernie or Buttigieg or Biden or the fake Indian can any of these people defeat Trump? Theres another old saying: You cant beat somebody with nobody.

Everything is falling into place.

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Its good to be Donald Trump today - Boston Herald

In Gallup's latest poll released Tuesday morning, 49% approve of the job Trump is doing in office while 50% disapprove. Trump's previous high was in April 2019 when he got to 46% approval in Gallup. The first poll Gallup conducted when Trump became president in January 2017 showed him at 45% approval.

Trump's current 49% approval puts him ahead of where his predecessor -- Barack Obama -- was at this same time in his first term. (Obama was at 46% approval.) Which is absolutely remarkable, given the first 3+ years of Trump's presidency and the fact that he became just the third president in American history to be impeached by the House last month.

The Democratic-led impeachment effort likely contributed to Trump's strengthening numbers. You see it most clearly in the fact that 94% of self-identified Republicans in the poll said they approve of the job Trump is doing -- up 6 points from those who said the same thing in Gallup's poll last month. And that 94% approval is Trump's highest rating -- by 3 points -- ever among Republicans.

It's hard not to see the impeachment investigation in the House and subsequent trial in the Senate as the prime driver of the near-total fealty that Republicans are now exhibiting toward Trump. Trump, as well as his allies in the House and Senate, from the start have portrayed the impeachment proceedings as a purely partisan effort led by Democrats who just can't accept that Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Tribalism was already at work in our politics -- you can trace its current nasty iteration back 20 years to the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton -- but what Trump has done is supercharge it. And if possible, the attempt to impeach him has amped up the tribalism even more. The best evidence? While 94% of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing, just 7% of Democrats feel the same; that 87-point gap is the largest ever measured in Gallup polling. Ever.

But it's not just among Republicans where Trump's numbers have improved. His approval among independents in this latest Gallup poll is 42% -- up 5 points from where he was among this group in January and tied for his highest mark ever among unaffiliateds.

Those gains likely have less to do with impeachment -- although it's worth noting that 52% of all respondents in Gallup think Trump should be acquitted in the Senate trial -- than they do with the continued strength of the economy. More than 6 in 10 people now approve of the job Trump is doing with the economy, which is both the best Trump has ever done on that question and the highest mark for any president on it since George W. Bush in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (Bush overall approval numbers shot to 90% following the attacks.)

Combine Republicans rallying even more closely to Trump during impeachment and independents started to come around on Trump due to the perceived strength of the economy and you see how Trump has reached new polling heights. And while these numbers obviously don't factor in the utter mess of the Iowa caucuses that played out on national TV Monday night, it's hard not see how that chaos doesn't help Trump too.

In short: it's been a very good 24 hours for Trump. And the next 24 look pretty good too, as he is all-but-certain to be acquitted by the Senate on the articles of impeachment.

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Donald Trump just got the best polling news of his presidency - CNN

President Donald Trump has spent three years molding Americas immigration system to primarily be concerned with keeping people out.

He built, layer by layer, impediments in Central America, at the border, in detention centers, and in the immigration courts that have made obtaining asylum nearly impossible.

He swept aside former President Barack Obamas immigration enforcement priorities in favor of vastly expanding immigration detention and prosecuting every immigrant who crosses the border without authorization. The result is a punitive system that treats immigrants as criminals and places them in prolonged detention even if they dont pose any danger to the public.

And he waged a quiet and effective campaign to reduce legal immigration including expanding his travel ban to block immigration from Nigeria, the largest country in Africa. Under Trump, the legal immigration system increasingly rewards skills and wealth over family ties to the US, while shutting out a growing number of people from low-income countries.

When Trump laid out the start of his reelection-year argument in the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, his guests included a senior Border Patrol official and the brother of a man who was killed by an unauthorized immigrant. His immigration record was one of his top talking points.

He painted immigrants as criminals that pose a danger to public safety (overall, they dont) and railed against sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities. And he touted his policies clamping down on unauthorized border crossers.

Before I came into office, if you showed up illegally on our southern border and were arrested, you were simply released and allowed into our country, never to be seen again, Trump said. My Administration has ended Catch-and-Release. If you come illegally, you will now be promptly removed.

Its true that Trump has run into some roadblocks: Hes behind schedule on construction of the southern border wall, a key messaging tool for his base. He hasnt been able to appoint his preferred candidates to lead the immigration agencies. His attempts to pass immigration-related legislation in Congress have failed. And his policies have faced so much opposition in the courts that his administration has appeared to pursue a strategy of rapidly churning out new policies and hoping that at least some of them survive judicial review.

But while he might not have succeeded at building an actual wall to keep immigrants out, his policies have achieved the same end. Reducing overall immigration levels has long been on the wish list of once-fringe restrictionist groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, whose co-founder advocated for maintaining a European-American majority population. Trump is making it a reality.

Trumps primary focus upon entering office was addressing the unprecedented number of children and families arriving at the southern border from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala collectively known as Central Americas Northern Triangle where crime, violence, and lack of economic opportunity has driven hundreds of thousands to flee over the past two years.

The administration hasnt addressed the root causes of that crisis, but it has effectively cut off migrants access to the US asylum system. His ability to do all this has even surprised Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

I didnt expect them to pull it off, he said. (Krikorian and his group are still pushing Trump to go further in his second term; his strategies have taken the edge off, but migrants are still continuing to arrive in unacceptably high numbers, he argues.)

Trump has deputized Central American countries in his immigration enforcement efforts. Some 60,000 asylum seekers have been sent back to Mexico to wait for their immigration court hearings in the US under his remain in Mexico policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). It has appeared to discourage migrants from attempting to cross the southern border but has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Mexico, where thousands are waiting for their court hearings in the US, many of them in dire need of humanitarian aid.

Some migrants are lucky to find housing in shelters, hotels, or rooms for rent, but for more than 5,000 others, only tents and tarps, some held up by only sticks and stones, stand between them and the elements, even as temperatures drop below freezing. As populations swell, both the US and Mexico have left thousands in the camps without basic necessities like clean drinking water and warm clothes and at risk of extortion, kidnapping, and rape at the hands of cartels and other criminal actors.

Trump has also brokered a series of agreements with the Northern Triangle countries that require migrants to apply for protections in those countries first. If they fail to do so, US immigration authorities can send them back to those countries (though only the agreement with Guatemala is currently in effect). So far, 368 asylum seekers have been deported to Guatemala.

The agreements resemble safe third-country agreements, a rarely used diplomatic tool that requires migrants to seek asylum in the countries they pass through by deeming those countries capable of offering them protection (though the Trump administration has been reluctant to use that term). Until recently, the US had this kind of agreement with just one country: Canada.

These agreements were never meant to be a means to push the burden of absorbing asylum seekers onto other countries, but that appears to be the way Trump is trying to use them. Immigrant advocates say the costs could be deadly, since it means returning migrants to countries that have high levels of crime and instability, and that are not used to dealing with an influx of people seeking refuge.

In Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries, migrants are commonly robbed, kidnapped for ransom, raped, tortured, and killed. The State Department, meanwhile, has issued travel warnings for US citizens in all four countries.

El Salvador has the highest homicide rate in the world, while Honduras ranks fifth, Guatemala 16th, and Mexico 19th, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. They have rampant government corruption and high rates of violence against women and LGBTQ individuals.

As much as Trumps rhetoric focuses on clamping down on unauthorized immigration at the southern border, the president has also instituted new restrictions on legal immigration many of which have survived Supreme Court review.

During his speech on Tuesday, Trump called for an immigration system that rewards immigrants who contribute to our economy, support themselves financially, and uphold our values while keeping out low-income immigrants and nonwhites from what he once referred to as shithole countries. Hes already bringing that vision to life.

Heeding calls from 31 states to end refugee admissions from Syria, Trump has slashed the total number of refugees the US accepts annually to just 18,000 this year, the fewest in history and down from a cap of 110,000 just two years ago.

His so-called public charge rule essentially establishes a wealth test for immigrants seeking to enter the US, extend their visa, or convert their temporary immigration status into a green card. The rule gives immigration officials much more leeway to turn away those who are likely to be a public charge based on an evaluation of 20 factors, ranging from the use of certain public benefits programs including food stamps, Section 8 housing vouchers, and Medicaid to English language proficiency.

Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said that 69 percent of the roughly 5.5 million people who were granted green cards over the past five years had at least one negative factor under the rule, which officials could have used as justification to reject their applications for immigration benefits.

Trump is also cracking down on foreigners giving birth to children in the US who become, by birth, American citizens, particularly if they cant prove they can pay for their medical treatment.

And hes placed restrictions on citizens of many Muslim-majority and African countries. His travel ban prevents citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and North Korea from obtaining any kind of visa allowing them to enter the US. He recently added new restrictions on immigration from six additional countries Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania in what advocates are calling an African ban since about four in five of those affected are from African nations.

Trump has overcome court challenges to some of these policies: In four of the six cases in which the Supreme Court weighed in on Trumps immigration policies, the courts conservative majority has so far sided with the administration. Notably, the justices upheld his travel ban in June 2018, affirming his broad powers to restrict immigration to the US for national security reasons.

The justices have also allowed Trump to move forward with his immigration policy plans while lawsuits challenging them make their way through lower courts.

They gave the green light to Trumps rule preventing migrants from applying for asylum if they passed through another country other than their own before arriving in the US. They also allowed him to divert $3.6 billion in military funds to construct the border wall and implement the public charge rule.

The way Trump talks about immigration in his State of the Union address is likely to preview what he says on the campaign trail.

That might appeal to the 42 percent of voters who support his immigration policies. But 57 percent of voters disapprove of Trumps performance on immigration and 60 percent either oppose or strongly oppose the construction of the border wall, his signature immigration policy.

Not only are most voters against Trumps immigration policies, but many also just dont view it as a top priority bread-and-butter issues like health care and the economy are what they care about most. Fifty-one percent of voters overall said that immigration should be a top priority, ranking below eight other policy issues. Republicans seem to care more about immigration, with 68 percent saying it should be a top priority compared to 40 percent of Democrats.

The share of Americans who support increasing immigration has also risen to 32 percent as of 2018, up from 10 percent in 2001.

While Trump mobilizes his core supporters on the issue of immigration, he also mobilizes a backlash to his divisiveness and xenophobia, Frank Sharry, the executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Americas Voice, said.

Democratic candidates have largely ignored the topic of immigration in the debates so far, but based on the immigration plans theyve released, the entire field has moved to the left on immigration. All of the frontrunners would, for example, push for a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants living in the US and streamline the process of applying for asylum and other forms of legal immigration.

Their biggest challenge upon entering office, however, would be reversing Trumps changes to the immigration system. Much of it they could accomplish unilaterally by executive action they could end MPP and the travel ban and raise the cap on refugee admissions immediately, for example but some of Trumps changes are harder to reverse.

Repealing Trump-era immigration regulations would involve a protracted process of giving public notice and the opportunity to comment that often takes months. It may also take time to rebuild some of the institutions that deal with immigration. For example, Trump has presided over a brain drain of experienced staffers in the immigration courts and the State Department, which manages the refugee program and consulates abroad.

For as much as Democratic candidates claim they will reverse Trumps policies, the president has left his mark on the immigration system. He has delivered for his base on that front and hes hoping it will be enough to carry him to victory again in 2020.

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State of the Union: How Trump reshaped immigration - Vox.com

Scott Jennings, Opinion contributor Published 11:56 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2020

DES MOINES, IowaFor a long time, I didnt understand this recurring image in my twitter feed Sesame Streets Elmo, a panicked look on his face and arms raised above his head while standing in front of a wall of flames. I guess because Elmo doesnt have eyelids he necessarily looks panicked all the time, but the inferno definitely adds to the vibe.

But now I get it.

When it became clear last week that Senate Republicans had heard enough and there would be no further witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump (further, because, despite what you heard, there were 18 witnesses and nearly 30,000 documents presented by the House managers), the panic among the Trump-obsessed began to manifest itself on social media, cable televisionand the floor of the U.S. Senate.

It was not pretty.

Trump is now functionally a king! The 2020 election is already stolen! Every future president will invite other countries to rig our elections! If John Bolton (who, amusingly, was one of the biggest boogeymen to the American left until he became their new hood ornament) isnt allowed to testify, then the Constitution is meaningless! Trump and his lawyers are like Stalin, Hitlerand Mussolini!

And so on and so forth.

Adult humans, many paid to help us find deeper meaning in our politics, morphed before our eyes into Inferno Elmo, arms up and ready to burn.

The Great American Impeachment Meltdown of 2020 followed the Great American Mueller Meltdown of 2019, which followed the Great American Kavanaugh Meltdown of 2018, which followed the Great American Inaugural Meltdown of 2017, which followed the Great American Election Meltdown of 2016.

Im not sure which puddle is deeper what I found on the streets of Des Moines during the Iowa Caucus as the snow gave way to unseasonably warm temperatures, or what the American Left has become after three years of Trumps presidency.

Pelosi: It was 'sad' for McConnell to 'humiliate' Chief Justice with witness vote

We live in the greatest country the world has ever known, with the most durable and genius governmental framework ever devised by man. Our economy is humming. We are blessed with work (there are more jobs available than people who want them). Our ancestors struggled against the Nazis; we struggle to choose which emotional support iguana to take on our next vacation.

For Americans looking to leap from the nearest tall building over Trumps acquittal, please back away from the ledge. There is absolutely nothing wrong with American democracy. In fact, it is pretty darn healthy.

In 2018, we had the highest voter turnout for a midterm election in 100 years. This Novembers presidential election turnout will likely top 65%, with millions of additional people participating over four years ago.

In other words, things are fine. They were fine. Nobody is stealing this election, and nobody stole the last one. We will pick the next American president right on schedule after a free, fairand vigorous contest. Trump will win. Or he wont. And the world keeps spinning no matter what.

Opinion: If McConnell wasn't in lockstep with Trump, there might be justice in the Senate

If you hate Trump, heres some advice: Stop worrying about Ukraine and instead worry that impeachment actually helped him. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found more Americans oppose Trumps removal (49% to 46%) than prefer it, and that the presidents political standing has strengthened in recent months, due largely to a more energized Republican Party base.

Trumps strongly approve number hit the highest mark of his presidency, he improved among independent voters, and gained ground against the leading Democratic candidates. The latest Associated Press national survey found that Democrats are nervous wrecks and Republican excitement has grown.

Essentially, impeachment was for people who already hated Trump while the rest of America either yawned or moved in his direction. Democrats setting their hair or Elmos fur on fire trying to beat Trump should rethink their strategy.

Conservatives and independents who were soft on Trump in 2016 tell me over and over that they still dont love the guys style but that Democratic antics during primary debates and the impeachment trial have driven them closer to the president than they ever thought possible. The people I know arent attracted to socialism or fatalism or perpetual outrage. They just want to live their lives, go to work, raise their kids and not be overly taxed, blamedor shamed for it.

And therein lies the strategic problem for Democrats. Acting like Inferno Elmo is simply incongruous with how most Americans feel about their country. And prescribing socialist solutions for a capitalist nation enjoying historic prosperity doesnt jibe with the mood of America, either.

Scott Jennings is a Republican adviser, CNN political contributor, and partner at RunSwitch Public Relations. He can be reached atScott@RunSwitchPR.comor on Twitter@ScottJenningsKY.

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Opinion: Thanks to their impeachment meltdown, Democrats have made Trump stronger - Courier Journal

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As comedian Tom Papa was building material for his latest stand-up special, he found himself reminding audiences, Youre doing great.

I got this feeling that people have an overwhelming sense of anxiety right now, Papa tells me on this weeks episode of The Last Laugh podcast. They feel like everythings going to hell and that in their personal life theyre not doing enough, theyre not as fabulous as people they see on social media, theyre not making enough money, theyre always up against it.

Thats why he chose to name his new special, which premieres on Netflix this week, Youre Doing Great!

Its an illusion that your life is shit, he adds. Thats not true. Youre actually doing pretty great. I decided Im going to be less cynical with my stand-up and convey what I really feel, which is more hope than malaise or unhappiness.

Like his longtime friend and mentor Jerry Seinfeld, who first put him on the map by making him his opener in the late 90s, Papa has never been a cynical comic, instead choosing to focus his comedy on observations about everyday family life. He may be just as outraged about Trump as the next guy, but unlike Americas political-minded late-night hosts, he doesnt find it that funny.

Life isnt perfect, he says from the stage. It never was and it never will be. Weve all got stuff to deal with. Youre doing great.

Highlights from our conversation are below and you can listen to the whole thing right now by subscribing to The Last Laugh on Apple Podcasts, the Himalaya app or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ultimately, it is an escape. At my shows, youre not going to be hit with all this heavy political stuff. But if I was really good at it, Id probably be all in on it. My stuff is more about things that last over the lifetime of a human being, its not about the politics of the moment. There are people that are great at that and they should lean into it. I like reading about politics, but I dont find it that funny. I cant help at this moment [but] to watch Alec Baldwin come out dressed as Trump [on Saturday Night Live] and think, Youre really helping him more than what you think youre doing. And youre making this palatable.

I think why I was able to talk to him and become friends with him while he was coming back to do stand-up in the clubs in New York [after Seinfeld ended] was because I was hustling so hard that I wasnt watching TV. I wasnt watching the show. So I wasnt so in awe like everyone else was. He was the biggest star in the country at that time. I remember asking my girlfriend, should I be telling him that I like episodes? But I think he was relieved that I wasnt like, Hows Kramer? I wouldnt have stuck around if I was trying to ask that stuff.

It wasnt a big success. But I tend not to look at all of my failures as devastating. Ultimately I guess it is a failure because it should have been on for 10 years and it was on for like two. There were a lot of things wrong with the show. But I had no control. Part of what hurt was that the first year, it was Jerrys rolodex. So you had Larry David and Ricky Gervais and Madonna and all these crazy high-level people. It was cool, but it was complicated because it was Jerrys thing. We thought the show was going to be this little, quiet Sunday night family show. And now it is Seinfelds return to Thursday nights! During the Olympics! In the promos, they wouldnt even show me. Theyd just show my hands. It wasnt well-received in the first year. And that affected Jerry. And Jerry stepped away the second season, so it was kind of dead at that point. With Jerry not being behind it, [NBC] wasnt behind it.

I get a little sitcom called Come to Papa and it does really well in the pilot phase and everybody loves it. The president of NBC at the time, Jeff Zucker, leaves and Kevin Reilly takes over and hes not into our show. The show is just goofy and fun, me hanging with my friends, and he says, no, it should be a workplace and Im going to work at a newspaper all of a sudden. So they put Steve Carell in as my boss, because they have a deal with him. It was a try-out for The Office. As he was starting to film our thing, they were already making a deal with him to do The Office. And we had no idea. They were like, we have this property The Office or we have this Come to Papa thing and they had to choose and we got screwed. They had to kill us to free him to put him in that.

Next week on The Last Laugh podcast: Stand-up comedian Russell Peters, whose new special Deported is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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Comedian Tom Papa: There's Nothing 'Funny' About Donald Trump - The Daily Beast

The former Chief Strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns kicked off their discussion by telling Apatow how much he loves the mind of a comic, and Apatow quickly returned the compliment by getting into the humor of politics.

The movie producer revealed that after meeting former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett in 2010, he kept dreaming of writing jokes for the president at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. At first, Apatow said, Lovett blew him off. But a year later, Apatow was called upon to contribute.

"When I worked at the Correspondents' Dinner and gave some jokes that were performed, I was just amazed at how good he [Obama] was at standup," Apatow recalled.

"Although Judd Apatow, you have to take some responsibility for the current events because you participated in maybe the most famous Obama White House Correspondents' Dinner routine ever, which was 2011," he said. "Donald Trump was sitting in the audience. I think I was two tables away from him and watched his face as these jokes landed."

Axelrod continued: "You couldn't help but do it [watch] because they were so brutal. But one particular joke was the president recounting some of the highlights of that season's 'Apprentice' in the context of, you know, leadership and, well played, sir."

Trump was also on the receiving end of some jokes the same evening by comedian Seth Meyers.

And that, Axelrod said in jest, is why Trump is president today.

"I've got enough guilt as a Jew," Apatow cracked back. "I don't need to be responsible for Trump."

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David Axelrod blames the brilliance of Judd Apatow's jokes for the Donald Trump presidency - CNN

From the black rural South we get this nugget of wisdom, most often expressed in song: Dont let the devil ride. Dont let the devil ride. If you let him ride, he gon wanna drive; dont let him ride. Subsequent verses provide additional warnings. If you let him flag you down, hell turn you around. If you let him be your boss, hell make your soul be lost. But they all make the same point: Theres no power-sharing agreement with the dark side. Once you welcome it, you become its subject, and it becomes your ruler.

When Donald Trump was running for president, there were quite a number of Republicans who correctly called out his unfitness for the office. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the candidate a loser, a nut job and a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot who doesnt represent my party. When Trump, who was being sued for fraud, claimed that he couldnt possibly get a fair hearing from federal judge of Mexican descent, Paul Ryan, then speaker of the House, called the comment a textbook case of a racist comment. These are the words and phrases Sen. Ted Cruz used to describe Trump: pathological liar, utterly amoral, a narcissist at a level I dont think this countrys ever seen and a serial philanderer. Cruz also called Trump a bully.

All those Republican critics of Trump were spot-on. He is what they said he is. But all of those critics gave him their political support and cover. They all seemed to believe that if he were elected then they would be able to effectively restrain him and rein him in when necessary.

There were right-leaning pundits and columnist making similar arguments. Dont worry, they said to those of us horrified at the 2016 election results, the Republican establishment is merely tolerating this guy; theyll keep him in check.

But all weve seen are Republicans falling down before him like supplicants around a throne. All the senators present answered affirmatively when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts asked them, Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you god?" But most of them were lying. There was never any plan for the Republican members of the Senate to do anything other than acquit the president.

If you argue that it was always the plan for most Democrats to convict Trump, then youre right. The difference, though, is that an honest evaluation of the evidence supports Trumps conviction and removal from office. Entering the impeachment proceedings with a mind fixed on acquittal means deciding in advance that no evidence would matter.

Republican senators seem to be most concerned about what might happen to them at the polls if they were to oppose the president. But they ought to be most concerned about what will happen to this country if the person some of them have previously described as an amoral, lying, narcissistic nut job is rewarded and not punished for the lying, amorality and narcissism that led to his impeachment. Obviously, hes already emboldened, but the Senate endorsing his view that he did nothing wrong will only embolden him more.

On July 4, 2017, the first year of Trumps term, NPR published the Declaration of Independence line-by-line on Twitter. Theyd been broadcasting a reading of the document on air every year for 29 years, but when they also turned to social media to promote Americas founding document, Trump supporters accused the news outlet of Trump-bashing. Because who else could NPR have been referring to when it tweeted, A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people?

How does this country go from rejecting the monarchy and establishing a system to keep its chief executive in check to essentially establishing a monarchy by signaling a willingness to deny, look the other way or brazenly lie about the available evidence?

When we look back at it, well see that the first fatal step was believing that Trumps awfulness could co-exist with and be made subservient to the greater needs of the country. In short, that he would just climb aboard and be content to let other, less obnoxious leaders do the driving.

Instead, hes taken over everything. All the people in the White House who were supposed to be his minders are gone, and the two other branches that are supposed to check and balance his powers have all but waved the white flag of surrender.

The Trump-wont-be-that-bad crowd is awfully silent right now. One senses that they are shocked and disappointed at Republicans they believed would provide resistance.

But some of us arent shocked at all. We took the old folks warning to heart.

Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist at Cleveland.com and a member of the editorial board. Reach him at jdeberry@cleveland.com or on Twitter at @jarvisdeberry.

Originally posted here:

Accommodating Donald Trump cost the GOP its soul - cleveland.com

WASHINGTONAs the beginning of primary season upped the stakes in their search for an alternative candidate, Democratic National Committee officials reportedly mulled Monday asking Donald Trump to run for president as a Democrat in an effort to stop Bernie Sanders. Hes obviously not our first choice, but Trump has a track record of winning elections, not to mention he does well with the conservative voters well need to swing some red states blueif thats who we need to ask to ensure Bernie doesnt win, well do it, said DNC chairman Tom Perez, who had circled Trumps name on a white board lising dozens of potential candidates the party could try to convince to jump into the Democratic Party primaries in order to obstruct a Sanders nomination. This late in the game, we need somebody with name recognition and a built-in following, which Trump definitely has. He has political experience working with Republicans, which will help him win over moderate voters who are turned off by the idea of a socialist president. Plus, hell have the backing of the Democratic donor base, who generally prefer him to Sanders. Look, sometimes politics makes strange bedfellows, but I think I speak for party leadership when I say that wed much rather see Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee. At press time, Perez was in negotiations to ensure Trump was on every Democratic primary ballot for Super Tuesday and changing the requirements to allow Trump to qualify for the next Democratic debate.

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DNC Mulls Asking Donald Trump To Run As Democrat In Effort To Stop Sanders - The Onion