Questions?
Fire away.
Hey everyone,
I’m planning to run a mailbag column tomorrow, so just quickly dropping into your inbox to see if anyone has questions you’d like me to answer. You can put them in the comments, or use this form to submit them anonymously.
There’s a lot going on in many of the topic areas I cover closely in Wake Up To Politics:
We are about 40 hours away from funding expiring for the Department of Homeland Security. Notably, unlike in the shutdown standoff last year — when the Trump administration flatly refused to negotiate over the Democrats’ demands — the White House is playing ball here, having submitted a counter-offer to Democratic requests for ICE restrictions. However, the two sides are still far apart from an agreement, which means we are likely headed towards a DHS-specific shutdown. (As I wrote last month, the impact, at least on Trump’s immigration agenda, would be muted due to funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill.)
The Trump administration announced that its immigration crackdown in Minnesota is ending. “I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude,” White House border czar Tom Homan said this morning. This is just another proof point of yesterday’s column on the Sandcastle Presidency: Trump has frequently been forced — due to public and legal pressure — to back down from his attempts to sway policy through executive action, creating a lot of shock-and-awe but little in the way of long-term policy movements.
The House voted yesterday to undo President Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Six Republicans bucked the president and voted to end the import taxes. The resolution now goes to the Senate, where similar measures have previously passed — although its chances of becoming law are very slim, since Trump can use his veto power, and Republican opposition to the tariffs is nowhere near veto-proof levels in either chamber.
Feel free to send over questions on any of these topics — or anything else in American politics, government, history, or media that’s on your mind, whether it’s a question about recent news or a bigger-picture curiosity.
Here’s that link for the form again.
In case you’ve missed my recent newsletters, here’s what’s been on my mind recently:
Looking forward to your questions!
— Gabe
Trump has threatened to cancel next November's mid-terms. Does he have any legal grounds to do that, or is it just desperate bluster? Could he send ICE goons to intimidate voters? Any other disruptive maneuvers he could be planning? (But don't give him any clever ideas!)
I feel like a broken record, but I'm obsessed by the fact that no matter what criticisms come back to most of Trump's cabinet and other people of importance, nothing ever seem to stick to Stephen Miller who wields so much influence over the President's domestic programs. Why is that