West Wing Xenophobe Stephen Miller Gunning to Make Trump’s Temporary Immigration Curb “Long-Term”

Despite a near-universal consensus by economists and other business leaders that immigrants actually fuel long-term economic growth, and that immigrants contributed to roughly two thirds of U.S. GDP expansion between 2011 and 2018, Miller and Trump insist such individuals take jobs from U.S. workers and hurt their wages. Given that a recession is all but a certainty, it’s not hard to imagine Miller convincing Trump—with little effort!—that the immigration curbs should remain in place indefinitely, if not become more restrictive. (Currently, the executive order applies to people seeking green cards for work, as well as the spouses and children of legal permanent residents, and the parents, siblings, and adult children of U.S. citizens; foreign nationals already in the United States to become green card-holders are unaffected.)

Miller was involved in crafting and selling the executive order, officials said, working quietly without many others in the administration knowing. Senior White House officials said the memo had not been vetted by lawyers or top officials before the president tweeted that he would be signing it.

While hard-right restrictionist groups panned the order as too easy on immigrants, Miller encouraged them on the call to get behind the moves, throwing in a “they took our jobs!” rallying call that he knows the base just loves. “All around the country, Americans of every political stripe will rally behind an initiative to make sure that they, their children, their parents, their husbands, wives, sons, uncles, nephews, cousins can be the first to get a job when it opens up, to get her old job back when they rehire or to keep their job if they already have one,” he said. “Those individuals have a right and an expectation to get their jobs back and not to be replaced by foreign workers. That’s the action the president took, it is historic. It is vital, it is necessary, it is patriotic and it deserves the full-throated support of everybody on this call.” And apparently, if you’re good boys and girls, there’ll be some anti-immigrant treats for you down the road.

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Nothing to see here, just the president bringing 1,000 people into a confined area so he can feel good about himself

To the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, because why not:

For President Trump, who adores the pomp and precision of military ceremonies, this was the year he would finally get one of the special perks of being president—delivering the commencement address at West Point, the only service academy where he has not spoken. But the graduation was postponed because of the coronavirus, the cadets were sent home and officials at the school were not sure when it would be held or even whether it was a good idea to hold it. The Naval Academy, for its part, decided it was too risky to recall its nearly 1,000 graduating midshipmen to Annapolis, Md., for a commencement. Those graduates will have a virtual event. But the Air Force Academy, in contrast to the other schools, sent home its underclassmen, locked down its seniors on campus, moved up graduation, mandated social distancing—and went ahead with plans for Vice President Mike Pence to be its speaker. And so last Friday, the day before Mr. Pence was to speak at the Air Force ceremony in Colorado, Mr. Trump, never one to be upstaged, abruptly announced that he would, in fact, be speaking at West Point.