Closing summary
In a surprise move, the supreme court extended its review of an appeals court ruling reimposing restrictions on abortion drug mifepristone until Friday, meaning there would be no changes to the drug’s availability until then, if at all. The body is dominated by conservative jurors who just last year overturned Roe v Wade, but it’s too soon to tell if they’re ready to crack down on a medication abortion advocates have been hoping would allow people nationwide to continue accessing the procedure. Meanwhile in the Capitol, House Republicans unveiled a proposal to increase the debt ceiling that would also cut spending and stop the White House’s attempts to relieve some student loans debt. Joe Biden did not sound open to the plan.
Here’s what else happened today:
A top House Republican said the party plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
A mother and son were convicted for storming the Capitol on January 6, with zip-ties in hand.
Ron DeSantis went to Washington yesterday, hoping to drum up support for his much-anticipated presidential bid. It did not go well.
Biden will on Monday welcome to the White House the “Tennessee Three”, as the Democratic lawmakers who protested on the floor of the state House of Representatives in favor of gun control are known.
Donald Trump’s indictment is not exactly changing a lot of minds, a new poll found.
Before the supreme court decided to extend its decision until Friday, a ruling in the mifepristone case had been expected today, since the supreme court’s stay on the appeals court’s decision was to expire at midnight. Here’s a story by the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino on the twists and turns in this complex case:
The future of abortion access was once again before the US supreme court on Wednesday, as the justices weighed whether to sharply restrict access to the most common method of ending pregnancies while a lawsuit over the drug proceeds.
An order was expected less than a year after the supreme court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, returning the matter the states. It was the latest development in a legal battle initiated by campaigners seeking to revoke a 23-year-old Food and Drug Administration approval of the pill, mifepristone.
Earlier this month, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas, declared the FDA improperly approved the drug in 2000, effectively saying it should be pulled from the market even where abortion remains legal.
The decision to keep mifepristone available until midnight on Friday while the supreme court weighs its fate was made by conservative justice Samuel Alito, according to the Associated Press.
He’s the author of the decision last June overturning Roe v Wade and ending nationwide abortion access. Earlier this month, Matthew Kacsmaryk, a federal judge in Texas, revoked the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of the medication in response to a lawsuit brought by anti-abortion groups.
The Biden administration appealed that decision, and a three-judge panel partially reversed Kacsmaryk’s decision, allowing the drug to continue to be prescribed but reimposing restrictions that had been repealed in recent years.
That prompted the White House to appeal again to the conservative-dominated supreme court, where the matter awaits a ruling.
This post has been corrected to specify that the supreme court is considering the appeals court’s ruling, not Kacsmaryk’s.
Updated
Supreme court extends abortion medication review till Friday
The supreme court will preserve existing levels of access to abortion medication mifepristone until Friday, while it considers whether to allow restrictions on the drug that were removed in 2016 to be reimposed, the Associated Press reports.
Follow this blog for more on this developing story.
This post has been updated to clarify the content of the supreme court’s order.
Updated
Firing salvos in the ongoing debt ceiling standoff is not all the Republican-controlled House is up to today.
The chamber has started debate on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, which would ban transgender athletes from women’s athletics at schools and universities that receive federal funding. Twenty-one GOP-led states have already passed such measures, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ+ rights think tank.
“The policies of the woke, progressive Left have invaded schools and campuses across America. Allowing biological males on women’s sports teams and in their locker rooms creates an unfair competitive environment for female athletes,” Greg Steube, the Florida Republican who sponsored the bill, said following its passage out of the House education committee.
Progressive House Democrat Maxwell Frost had some particularly pointed remarks about the proposal in a speech on the House floor:
“These are the priorities of the Republican majority, not addressing gun violence, rising rent, or medical bills … They want the government to be in children’s pants.”
— The Recount (@therecount) April 19, 2023
— Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) slams House GOP bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ school sports pic.twitter.com/Huyjhgwi1u
This post was amended on 20 April 2023 to correct the number of states that have already passed bans on transgender athletes in women’s athletics.
Updated
Joe Biden is speaking at a union training facility in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, and he’s not holding back in condemning the Republican proposal to address the debt ceiling.
Here’s the president’s response, as reported by USA Today:
"I was telling you it's going to happen," Biden says, minutes after McCarthy unveiled $4.5 trillion in proposed cuts. "Massive cuts to programs you count on," Biden says. "It would destroy this economy. And who do you think it will hurt the most? You. Hard-working people."
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) April 19, 2023
The comment does not bode well for the president’s negotiations with House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
As expected, the Republican bill to increase the debt ceiling also includes a laundry list of conservative wishes.
House speaker Kevin McCarthy just unveiled the proposal, which would undo the funding increase the Internal Revenues Service won last year to go after tax cheats and improve its operations, prevent Joe Biden from canceling some federal student loans and cut into government spending, among other provisions.
Here’s more, from States Newsroom:
McCarthy says that within divided government, "the House, the Senate and the White House should be negotiating a responsible debt limit increase right now."
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) April 19, 2023
McCarthy says House Rs bill will raise the debt limit into next year and "provide more than $4.5 trillion in savings to the American taxpayer."
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) April 19, 2023
McCarthy says House Rs debt limit bill would
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) April 19, 2023
- set FY24 spending at last year's levels
- limit spending increases to 1% per year
- "claw back billions of dollars of unspent COVID money"
- eliminate IRS funding boost from IRA
McCarthy says the bill would bar the Biden administration from implementing its student loan forgiveness plan.
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) April 19, 2023
It would also require "adults without dependents, earn a paycheck, and learn new skills" in order to get federal aid.
Joe Kennedy III insisted today he will be sticking to the job given to him by Joe Biden in December – US economic envoy to Northern Ireland – even though his uncle, Robert F Kennedy Jr, today formally declared he will stand, in all likelihood against Biden, for the Democratic presidential nomination next year.
Kennedy, scion of the famous political dynasty and a former US congressman from Massachusetts, was asked about his uncle’s decision in Belfast today, while on his first trip as the US envoy.
“I love my uncle, and nothing’s ever going to come between that,” Kennedy told reporters.
“I am honoured that the president selected me for this position. I support the president and look forward to supporting him in the next few years.”
Further reading:
As yet today has brought no new congressional endorsements of Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, but there was plenty of drama yesterday as two Florida Republicans, one formerly a close ally of the governor, threw their support behind Trump, the clear early leader in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Amid reports that DeSantis allies have been calling Florida Republicans to ask them not to abandon the governor, Politico reported that Trump aides also placed calls before the Florida defections.
One unnamed source said: “The amazing part of it is how easy it was.”
There’s more on that here (and below). But perhaps the most dramatic move came from a Republican from Texas, Lance Gooden.
DeSantis was in Washington to meet members of Congress. At least one attendee was evidently not sold on the deal. Emerging from what he called “a positive meeting” with the governor, Gooden swiftly … released his endorsement of Trump.
Full story:
New polling from CNBC tells us 58% of Americans say Donald Trump’s criminal indictment in New York will not effect how they vote.
“For independents, it does lean them a little bit negative, but not overwhelmingly so,” Jay Campbell of Hart Research, the Democratic pollster for the survey, told CNBC.
Around 25% of respondents said the 34 counts of falsification of business records, relating to a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, would make them less likely to vote for Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican nomination for president next year.
Asked if they agreed that the Trump indictment “is a good thing for the country, because it shows that no one is above the law, not even the former president of the United States”, 53% of respondents said they did.
Polling regarding the Republican primary has shown little but good news for Trump since his indictment and arraignment, which happened earlier this month.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has not formally declared a run but is Trump’s closest challenger, has concurrently suffered – also while registering plenty of missteps of his own.
Florida has expanded its ban on classroom lessons about sexual orientation and gender identity to all grades at the request of governor Ron DeSantis, the Associated Press reports.
Decried by critics as the “don’t say gay” law, Florida last year passed the ban on such lessons in kindergarten through third grade. Similar legislation has spread to other conservative-led states, while in Congress, Republicans have proposed a nationwide ban on the instruction.
This year, DeSantis asked the state’s board of education to expand the ban up to the 12th grade, which it did today.
Here’s more on the move, from the AP:
The proposal will take effect after a procedural notice period that lasts about a month, according to an education department spokesman.
The rule change would ban lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity from grades 4-12, unless required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that students can choose not to take. Florida currently bans such lessons in kindergarten through third grade.
The DeSantis administration put forward the proposal last month as part of the Republican’s aggressive conservative agenda, with the governor leaning heavily into cultural divides ahead of his looming White House candidacy.
DeSantis has not commented on the proposal. He previously directed questions to Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., who said it was meant to clarify confusion around the existing law and reinforce that teachers should not deviate from existing curriculums.
“We’re not removing anything here,” Diaz Jr. said on Wednesday. “All we are doing is we are setting the expectations so our teachers are clear: that they are to teach to the standards.”
The prohibition, which began last year with the law banning sexual orientation and gender identity lessons in kindergarten through third grade, has drawn intense backlash from critics who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ+ people and has vague terms that result in self-censorship from teachers. Democratic President Joe Biden has called it “hateful.”
The current law is also the root of an ongoing feud with Disney, one of the state’s largest employers and political donors.
“Let’s put it plainly: This is part of the governor’s assault on freedom,” Joe Saunders, senior political director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, said in a statement, adding the policy will “further stigmatize and isolate a population of young people who need our support now more than ever.”
The day so far
Fox may have avoided a potentially embarrassing trial by agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5m to settle its defamation lawsuit, but the reckoning for its airing of Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories is far from over. Election equipment firm Smartmatic has vowed to press ahead with its lawsuit, while Fox’s shareholders are reportedly angry about the payout. Meanwhile in Washington, the long-running debt ceiling battle is heating up, with the House GOP set to unveil their proposal to up the borrowing limit – but only through next March.
Here’s what else has happened so far today:
A top House Republican said the party plans to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
A mother and son were convicted for storming the Capitol on January 6, with zip-ties in hand.
Ron DeSantis went to Washington yesterday, hoping to drum up support for his much-anticipated presidential bid. It did not go well.
Biden to meet 'Tennessee Three' on Monday
Joe Biden will meet on Monday with the three Democratic lawmakers who faced expulsion votes in the Tennessee House of Representatives after they protested in favor of gun control, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“I am pleased to share that the president looks forward to welcoming Tennessee state representative Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson to the White House this coming Monday,” Jean-Pierre said at her daily briefing, which is ongoing.
The Republican-dominated chamber expelled Jones and Pearson, both of whom are Black, after they participated in a protest on the House chamber floor calling for tighter gun laws following a Nashville mass shooting. Johnson, who also participated and is white, narrowly survived her expulsion vote. Within days, authorities in their districts reappointed Jones and Pearson back to their seats, though they will have to win upcoming special elections to keep them.
The saga won the trio of lawmakers a new moniker: the “Tennessee Three”.
House Republicans want debt limit fight during 2024 election
CNN reports that Republicans in the House of Representatives are proposing legislation that would put the US government in a position to again hit its debt limit at the end of March 2024 – right as the presidential election is heating up:
House Republicans are planning to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until March 31 of next year, whichever comes first, the sources said
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) April 19, 2023
The news comes as House Republicans are reported to today release the text of their proposal to increase the borrowing limit, which is expected to include spending cuts and other concessions from Democrats. The US government could default by about June if the limit is not raised.
As CNN report, the increase would not last long, and lawmakers would again have to reach a deal to raise it months before voters head to the polls in the 2024 presidential election, which very likely could see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Zip-tie wielding mother, son convicted over January 6 insurrection
A mother and son who brought zip ties with them when they stormed the Senate gallery during the January 6 insurrection have been found guilty by a federal judge, the Associated Press reports.
Lisa Eisenhart and her son Eric Munchel face an 8 September sentencing after their conviction on 10 counts related to the attack, one of which was obstructing Congress. Here’s more on their case, from the AP:
Lamberth decided the case without a jury after a “stipulated bench trial,” an unusual legal proceeding in which defendants do not admit guilt to charges but agree with prosecutors that certain facts are true. At least three dozen Capitol riot defendants have resolved their cases that way — which allows defendants to preserve their right to an appeal — rather than opting for a traditional trial or pleading guilty.
A jury trial for the pair had been scheduled to start last week.
“Our goal at the end of the day was to show the court that (Munchel) is accepting responsibility for what occurred on Jan. 6,” his attorney, Joe Allen, said after the proceedings ended.
A lawyer for Eisenhart didn’t immediately respond on Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
Munchel, 32, of Nashville, Tennessee, worked at a restaurant. Eisenhart, 59, of Woodstock, Georgia, has worked as a traveling nurse.
On Jan. 6, they attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally before joining the crowd that marched to the Capitol. Both of them were wearing tactical vests. Munchel had a stun gun holstered to his right hip.
After grabbing plastic handcuffs that they found inside the Capitol, Munchel and Eisenhart entered the gallery above the Senate chamber and stepped over a railing that separated portions of the gallery. Eisenhart chanted, “Treason! Treason!”
Munchel “gleefully” entered the Capitol during a riot while carrying a dangerous weapon, the stun gun, the judge said in a February 2021 ruling.
“By word and deed, Munchel has supported the violent overthrow of the United States government. He poses a clear danger to our republic,” Lamberth wrote.
A top House Republican has signaled that the party will indeed try to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the New York Times reports.
Mark Green, the chair of the House homeland security committee, told donors this weekend that the effort would kick off this week when the secretary testifies before his committee, which happened Tuesday. The Times, citing a recording of a House Freedom Caucus fundraiser it obtained, said the case would focus on Mayorkas’s “dereliction of duty and his intentional destruction of our country through the open southern border.”
Green said his committee would “put together a packet, and we will hand it to Jim Jordan and let Jim do what Jim does best.” Jim Jordan is the chair of the House judiciary committee.
Republicans have used a sharp uptick in migrant arrivals at the US southern border to criticize Joe Biden’s administration, and Mayorkas in particular. The most conservative corners of the party have said they want to impeach the homeland security chief, which is an exceedingly rare step to take against a cabinet secretary. On Tuesday, Republicans grilled Mayorkas during his appearance before the homeland security committee, but have yet to make the impeachment push formal.
As bad as Ron DeSantis’s day in Washington was yesterday, he does have some supporters in Congress.
Here’s conservative Texas representative Chip Roy’s view. He has endorsed DeSantis over Donald Trump, arguing in a Fox News interview that the Republican party needs new blood:
“It’s time to have someone who’s not a baby boomer.”
— The Recount (@therecount) April 19, 2023
— Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) explains his decision to endorse Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee pic.twitter.com/otoG0Bx5Cz
It wouldn’t be a day in Washington without some news about the debt ceiling.
Jack Lew, who was Treasury secretary under Barack Obama in 2011 when the nation came so close to defaulting that one of the major ratings agencies downgraded the United States’s debt for the first time ever, spoke to House Democrats today about the ongoing standoff with Republicans, Politico reports:
Jack Lew, who ran Obama's OMB during '11 debt standoff, tells House Dems in whips this am:
— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) April 19, 2023
Lew: "This topic is a combination of Groundhog Day and PTSD for me. But it’s more dangerous than in the past because of the political environment," per person attending
Lew, a former Treasury sec, also said he worries about "accidental" default on debt, with Biden and McCarthy in standoff
— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) April 19, 2023
He called it "just as dangerous", per person attending
Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy is looking to make the most of the impasse between the two parties ahead of a projected early June deadline for Congress to raise the US government’s borrowing limit or face a default. The GOP is demanding spending cuts and the enactment of some of its legislative priorities in exchange for its votes to raise the limit, while Democrats want an increase without preconditions.
Here’s what McCarthy had to say today:
For 77 days, President Biden has ignored the impending debt ceiling crisis.
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) April 19, 2023
Instead of leaving town today to give a speech, Biden should sit down with me, find agreement, and avoid the prospect of his administration bumbling into the first default in our nation’s history.
Following Dominion’s settlement with Fox yesterday, voting systems firm Smartmatic vowed to push on with its own defamation lawsuit, Semafor reported:
Statement from Smartmatic lawyer Erik Connolly: “Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest. 1/2
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) April 18, 2023
Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.” 2/2
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) April 18, 2023
Today, Fox responded defiantly, saying they were ready to fight Smartmatic’s claim:
1/2 Remarkable statement from Fox to me just now in response to Smartmatic’s lawyers saying they are ready to pick up where Dominion left off.
— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) April 19, 2023
"There is nothing more newsworthy than covering the president of the United States and his lawyers making allegations of voter fraud.” https://t.co/0j7tDdsATb
2/2
— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) April 19, 2023
(cont) “Freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported, and not rooted in sound financial analysis."
Fox isn’t alone in facing legal consequences for its embrace of Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies.
Dominion Voting Systems also filed a lawsuit against the conservative Newsmax network, which gave wide coverage to Trump’s conspiracy theories after the presidential vote. Following Fox’s settlement yesterday, CNN reports Newsmax released a statement in which it attempts to draw a line between its coverage and Fox News’s:
Newsmax, which also faces a major lawsuit from Dominion, issues statement saying it "stands by its coverage and analysis of the 2020 election" pic.twitter.com/KvPJP1ik4E
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 19, 2023
Donald Trump has, of course, already announced his bid for the White House, but is doing so among a swirl of legal troubles. The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports on a new and curious development in the complex investigation of his and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia:
A new legal filing has exposed a potentially major fracture among a group of so-called “fake electors” in Georgia, who sought to aid Donald Trump in overturning the 2020 election results in a scheme now under criminal investigation.
According to a court document filed on Tuesday, a group of people involved in the scheme recently told state prosecutors that another one of the fake electors committed crimes that they were not involved in.
The finger pointing, included in a document submitted by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, exposes a rift within the group as prosecutors near the end of the investigation and consider bringing charges against the former president and dozens of allies.
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis popped by Washington DC yesterday to meet with Republican congressmen… who turned around and endorsed Donald Trump. Not a good sign for the Florida governor’s potential bid for president. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly has more:
In a blow to Ron DeSantis, a prominent ally of the rightwing governor was on Tuesday one of two Florida Republicans in Congress to back Donald Trump for president, the latest in a string of defections.
The news came amid reports that DeSantis’s team has pressured US representatives from his state not to endorse Trump.
Brian Mast told CNN he planned to endorse the former president and would chair a veterans committee in support of his re-election bid.
Peter Schorsch, publisher of FloridaPolitics.com, said: “Brian Mast has been DeSantis’s ally on environment and water issues in South Florida. Mast is at DeSantis’s hip during press conferences. They’re both veterans, too. Wow.”
Fox may have to pay up big time to settle Dominion’s lawsuit, but it won’t have to publicly apologize or otherwise own up to its long record of falsehoods. The Guardian’s Sam Levine took a closer look at the settlement’s finer points, from Wilmington, Delaware – the city where the case almost went to trial:
The staggering $787.5m settlement between Fox and the voting equipment company Dominion marked the end of one of the most aggressive efforts to hold someone accountable for spreading misinformation after the 2020 election.
Dominion sued Fox for $1.6bn in damages for knowingly broadcasting false information about the company after the election. The money from the settlement, one of the largest libel payouts in media history, was just the icing on a cake Dominion had, in many ways, already won.
And yet, while Fox doled out an unprecedented sum, they were able to avoid something priceless: the public humiliation of a trial and an apology.
From Smartmatic to Crikey, here's a rundown of Fox's legal troubles
If there’s one takeaway from the US$787.5m settlement Fox agreed to cough up in exchange for Dominion Voting Systems’ dropping its defamation lawsuit, it’s this: it pays to be a lawyer in Rupert Murdoch’s employ. It also pays to be a lawyer suing Fox.
And there are plenty of both groups, since the media empire and in particular its conservative Fox News network remain in deep legal hot water for their enthusiastic promotion of Donald Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories. Below is a rundown of the outstanding cases that could wrack up the legal fees and potentially imperil outlet’s finances:
In a last-minute settlement on Tuesday, Fox agreed to pay voting equipment company Dominion US$787.5m, ending a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election.
According to analysts, while the settlement amount is incredibly costly, Fox has avoided the more damaging spectacle of a trial and a public apology.
But it still faces a number of legal challenges over the coming months.
Smartmatic
A global election technology company headquartered in London, Smartmatic, lodged a defamation suit against Fox in February 2021. The complaint’s striking opening sentence read: “The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election … ”
Like Dominion, Smartmatic is suing Fox for defamation related to its coverage of Donald Trump’s stolen-election lie, but the company’s lawsuit has so far attracted only a fraction of the attention.
On paper, Smartmatic’s suit could be the more dangerous: it is demanding damages of $2.7bn compared with Dominion’s claim for $1.6bn.
In March, the New York state supreme court in Manhattan gave the green light for the case to proceed against Fox News, the Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, the former business anchor Lou Dobbs and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The company argues that that Fox News broadcast a series of blatant lies in support of Trump’s stolen election conspiracy theory and that hosts and guests broadcast 100 false statements: among them, that Smartmatic was involved in 2020 election counts in six battleground states when in fact it was present only at the count in Los Angeles county.
Claims broadcast on Fox described Smartmatic as having been founded in Venezuela at the behest of corrupt dictators. In fact, it was founded by Antonio Mugica and Roger Piñate in 2000 in Boca Raton, Florida, in the wake of the “hanging chad” fiasco, with the aim of using technology to restore people’s faith in election results.
Fox's legal troubles are far from over
Good morning, US politics readers. Fox may have yesterday forestalled a lengthy trial by agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5m to settle its defamation lawsuit, but its lawyers will remain plenty busy for the time being. The media empire remains in legal peril over Fox News’s enthusiastic promotion of various lies regarding the 2020 election, with another defamation lawsuit from global election firm Smartmatic still pending and even the company’s shareholders reportedly pondering a trip to the courts. We’ll be keeping an eye out for any developments in these cases today.
Here’s more of what to expect:
Joe Biden is heading to a union training facility in Maryland where he’ll contrast “his vision for the economy with Maga House Republicans’ vision”, according to the White House. This comes as negotiations over raising the US debt limit heat up.
House Republicans are going after Washington DC again, this time with a disapproval resolution targeting a police reform bill the city recently enacted.
Mike Pence, who sure seems like he wants to run for president, is expected to again criticize (obliquely) Donald Trump in a speech today, Politico reports.
