On Friday, Trump declared a national state of emergency at the border between US and Mexico. The move allows him to bypass Congress and access funds that lawmakers have refused to give him. He will divert $3.6 billion from military construction projects. He'll separately use his presidential budgetary discretion to pull another $2.5 billion from anti-narcotics programs and $600 million that the Treasury Department has from its forfeiture proceedings. The move allows Trump even more money - a total of $8 billion - than he had requested from Congress, $5.7 billion.
Still, Democrats and civil rights groups have promised to fight Trump's move. Democrats plan to pass a joint resolution condemning Trump's decision. It would require a simple majority to pass (a White House aide suggested that Trump would veto any congressional attempts at interference). The American Civil Liberties Union is planning to file a lawsuit. The Justice Department told the White House that the emergency declaration would likely face immediate challenge in the courts, which would prevent Trump from accessing funds until the court proceedings were resolved.
Trump did agree to sign other spending legislation produced by Congress, averting for now a looming government shutdown.
The Senate confirmed Trump's pick for attorney general, William Barr. Barr will now head the Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and Trump campaign collusion. Barr's history indicates that he may be willing to help Trump put a stop to the inquiry. Barr will take over from Acting AG Matthew Whitaker, who has headed the agency since Trump dismissed Jeff Sessions last year.
In other Mueller news, a federal judge confirmed that Paul Manafort violated the terms of his plea deal by lying to the special counsel's team about his interactions with an individual suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence, as well as funds he received to defray his legal costs and another unspecified Justice Department investigation. The terms of the plea deal remain in place, but Mueller is no longer under any obligation to offer Manafort reduced sentencing. Manafort was convicted last year of eight felonies, ranging from ta fraud to conspiracy.
Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director, has begun talking to the media about his experiences with the Trump administration in the months leading up to his dismissal. He said that unnamed Justice Department officials discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to get Trump out of office after Trump fired James Comey, the ex-FBI head, in May 2017. He also said that Deputy AG suggested wearing a wire to secretly record Trump in the White House in order to reveal the extent of the chaos and misrule; however, another source who was present when Rosenstein made these remarks said Rosenstein appeared to be joking when he made the comment. McCabe was fired in March of 2018, two days before his planned retirement, and stripped of his pension
And to round out all the bad news, the national debt reached a record $22 trillion, up from $19.95 trillion when Trump first took office - in part thanks to Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut in December 2017 and the boost in military spending.