White House Watch: Trump Announces He Will Fix Health Care By Himself

The priorities—including funding and construction of a border wall, more funding for internal enforcement of immigration, and reforms of the system toward a merit-based regime—are in line with President Trump’s campaign promises on immigration. But are they the starting point for negotiation, or a line in the sand? Whether Trump will insist on all of these objectives passing as part of a deal to pass a legislative fix for the DACA program, which he says he wants, is unclear.

“I’m not going to stand up here and negotiate from the podium with you guys,” Sanders said to that question Wednesday. “That’s something for the president and Congress to work out, but we’re laying out our priorities. That’s exactly what we put in that document and we’re going to work with Congress to try to get the most responsible immigration reform package that we can.”

On a conference call with reporters on Sunday, a senior administration official also echoed this view by declining to comment on whether or not Trump would veto any DACA fix that did not include these priorities. “We’re not discussing what’s a veto threat right now, and we’re not looking to negotiate with ourselves,” the official said. “We’re asking Congress to move on them as expeditiously as possible.”

Spotted at the White House—Former United Nations ambassador John Bolton, on Tuesday. I’m told by sources Bolton did not meet with President Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, or national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Bolton had previously been considered as a possible secretary of State, and his recent arguments on what the administration should do on the Iran deal have grabbed the attention of the president.

President Trump heads to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday afternoon to deliver another speech on tax reform. Joining him at the hangar for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard will be a number of local business and civic leaders along with, the White House says, a group of truckers.

The idea of the speech will be to demonstrate through truckers how the president’s proposed tax cuts and reforms will lower taxes for middle-class truckers, boost the trucking industry, and increase domestic manufacturing. “There will also be trucks set up there as props,” said a senior administration official.

Among the talkings points the president is expected to make is that the tax reforms will give the average American family about $4,000 more in take-home pay. A senior administration official directed questions about how this would work to the Council of Economic Advisers, who the president will cite in the speech.

Trump Tweets of the Day

Health Care Watch—President Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that since Congress won’t pass a health-care bill, he’ll make changes to the system by himself.

During an afternoon Oval Office meeting, Trump told reporters that his plan would involve allowing consumers to cross state lines to buy insurance.

“I’ll also be signing something probably this week, which is going to go a long way to take care of many of the people that have been so badly hurt on healthcare,” Trump told reporters during an afternoon Oval Office meeting with Henry Kissinger. “They will get great, competitive healthcare, and it will cost the United States nothing.”

“With Congress the way it is, I decided to take it upon myself,” Trump added.

Trump was vague on the details of the plan, which he called “very simple in one way but very intricate in another.” But Senator Rand Paul gave the nebulous proposal a surprise endorsement, saying it was “a great plan and a big deal for millions of Americans” that he’d been working on with the president “for months.”

Must-Read of the Day—Ronan Farrow has a blockbuster of a piece at the New Yorker with more details and on-the-record allegations from women in Hollywood of their sexual harassment (and worse) by producer Harvey Weinstein.

Included in the story is audio of Weinstein admitting in 2015 to groping a woman in a New York police sting operation—one that went nowhere after Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. declined to press charges. Read the whole thing, a companion piece to last week’s New York Times exposé on Weinstein.

The ongoing (and strange) war of words between President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continued in an interview the president gave to Forbes, released Tuesday. The whole thing is worth a read, but here’s a particularly juicy bit. Responding to the allegation that Tillerson called Trump a “moron” earlier this year, Trump said: “I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

At our editorial staff meeting Tuesday, we were reminded of another IQ-boasting pol: Joe Biden, way back during his presidential bid in 1988. Asked during a campaign stop in New Hampshire about his law school credentials, Biden snapped, “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect.” It seems the future vice president, embroiled in scandals about his academic pedigree and his cribbing a speech from British Labour leader Neil Kinnock, was a little testy at the idea of someone questioning his intellect.

Star Wars Watch—The trailer for the next Star Wars cash grab debuted during Monday Night Football this week. My friends at the Weekly Substandard podcast, of course, have their hilarious reactions to the trailer in a new micro-episode. Listen to it here.

My own take on the trailer for The Last Jedi? Take it away, Rick McCallum.

Song of the Day—“Warning Sign” by Coldplay.