Balance of Power: Trump’s `Dreamer' Dodge Roils Republicans
Balance of Power: Trump’s `Dreamer' Dodge Roils Republicans
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s decision yesterday to halt a popular Obama-era immigration program risks touching off a Republican civil war, pitting the president against the party’s business-minded base in Congress.
The program is known as DACA — short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — and it protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Corporate leaders, everyone from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to Goldman Sachs’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein, criticized Trump’s move and said workers in the program deserve protection. Democrats say ending it is heartless. And many Republicans believe alienating the fast-growing Hispanic voting bloc is political suicide.
Stoking the anti-immigration flames is Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, who has used his newfound freedom to egg on Trump to pursue his nationalist impulses.
Trump is giving himself an out, leaving it to Congress to protect the so-called Dreamers by the time he ends the program in March. He suggested he might revisit the issue if lawmakers don’t.
In trying to have it both ways, Trump angered a lot of Republicans right when he needs them to avert a showdown over spending and the debt ceiling — trading leverage in those upcoming fights for a win among Bannon’s Breitbart News readers.
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Germany votes | With Germans going to the polls on Sept. 24, our election hub page goes live today. Build your own coalition, find out how the electoral system works and get all the news and features from the campaign trail here.
Congressional cramming | The House is set today to pass a $7.4 billion Hurricane Harvey aid package, which Senate Republicans are considering tying to a debt-limit suspension, and perhaps even a measure to fund the government past Sept. 30. They need to move fast — Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm to form in the open Atlantic Ocean, made landfall today and is threatening to slam into Florida.
Russia revelations | Democrats say the probes into Russian meddling could stretch into 2018 because of new discoveries. “It seems like there’s not a week that doesn’t go by that another undisclosed meeting doesn’t come up,” said Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Intelligence Committee Democrat. The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to interview Donald Trump, Jr. tomorrow in a closed-door session, the New York Times reported.
Carpe diem | With North Korea preoccupying the Trump administration, the U.S. has become less vocal on China’s actions in the South China Sea, leading Beijing to tighten its grip on the disputed waterway. Vietnam has halted drilling in a contested area, while the Philippines is talking about joint exploration with China. Southeast Asian nations appear less willing to stand up to Beijing without overt American support.
Triple trouble | Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plans have suffered more setbacks. As Birgit Jennen and Tim Ross report, not only did a top EU official say she doubts trade talks will start next month, but the opposition Labour Party announced it was prepared to challenge key legislation. May also has to deal with the leak of a document outlining new immigration limits that, according to the Guardian, are meant to “make existing residents better off.”
And finally… Brazilian police found suitcases and cardboard boxes bursting with bills in what was the country’s largest-ever cash seizure. By early evening, police were still counting and the tally has now surpassed the equivalent of $12.8 million. Found in an apartment allegedly used by Geddel Vieira Lima, a cabinet minister until last year, police haven’t struggled to find superlatives for the haul: They’ve dubbed it the “Lost Treasure.”
--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Winfrey at mwinfrey@bloomberg.net, Caroline Alexander