Trump news: President demands billions for border wall as Pelosi says he 'isn't worth' impeaching
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Your support makes all the difference.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 Democrats Nancy 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.”
As Washington reacted to the budget proposal, the country's capital prepared for the anticipated report from special counsel Robert Mueller's office, which has dived into potential coordination between the Trump campaign, the president, and Russian interests during the 2016 election.
It is not clear when that report will be released, but observers say that the investigation is likely imminent. The week ahead itself will contain several high level updates that could set the stage for how the report is received, and what happens afterward.
But, with no specific word on whether the special counsel report will include recommendations to indictments against the president, leading Democrats are holding back from support for impeachment.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for instance, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she is worried about the divisive impact that impeachment proceedings would have on the American public.
"He's just not worth it," Ms Pelosi said of impeaching the president.
That said, it appears unlikely that Democrats in control of the House would not pursue impeachment if a damning Mueller report were delivered to them form the attorney general's office.
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Among the things being considered this week is reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
The measure was dropped during appropriations earlier this year to avert a second damaging government shutdown.
We are also expecting a new DREAM Act to be introduced by Democrats this week.
Anyone who has been paying attention over the past several months will know that conservative media personality Ann Coulter was seen as a key figure pushing Donald Trump to essentially hold the US government hostage in order to get his border wall money.
He didn't, and she swiftly began insulting the president for failing to get what he demanded.
Now, Mr Trump appears to have soured on her, too:
Donald Trump's adult son has mocked Democrats for their choice of Milwaukee as the site for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Mr Trump Jr has also weighed in on the newly unveiled tape show Fox News host Tucker Carlson saying some.... unsavory things while on tape.
Senator Bernie Sanders has released the following statement slamming Donald Trump's budget proposal, which includes cuts to Social Security and a major increase in border wall funding:
“The Trump budget is breathtaking in its degree of cruelty and filled with broken promises. Donald Trump promised the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, that he would be a champion of the working American and that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But his budget does the exact opposite of what he promised the American people.
“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, Trump’s budget pays for his huge tax break to the top one percent by cutting $1.5 trillion from Medicaid, $845 billion from Medicare and $25 billion from Social Security. Make no mistake about it: Trump’s budget is a massive transfer of wealth from working class families to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America.
“At a time when the U.S. already spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, Trump is proposing an $861bn increase in base defense spending over a 10 year period. And he proposes to pay for it by cutting over $1tn from education, affordable housing, nutrition assistance and the needs of working families over a 10-year period. Trump’s proposed increase in base Pentagon spending could make public colleges and universities tuition-free over the next decade.
“This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street and for the billionaire class. It is dead on arrival.”
Top Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy is among those who have called Donald Trump's most recent budget dead in the water.
Mr Leahy said that the budget recommendation released today "isn't worth the paper it is printed on," according to The Hill.
"Yet again, the President has proposed shortsighted cuts that would slash investments in infrastructure, medical research, and American families, cuts that have been rejected by Congress two fiscal years in a row," he said.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that Americans should embrace automation, but re-think how the country views those who are unemployed.
The White House is holding a rare press conference to discuss the budget proposal released today by the administration
"This is not funding for endless wars," one official at the briefing says of the upgraded defence budget requested by the Trump administration.
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