BORDER/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump invited some Senate Republicans to the White House on Wednesday [3-13-19] afternoon for a two-hour conversation about trade. But the president couldn’t quite get the looming GOP rebuke of his national emergency declaration off his mind…After more than two years of keeping his veto pen capped, Trump is going to have to put it to use — twice — courtesy of Republicans. In a remarkable bit of timing, the Senate will hold two votes this week placing GOP senators at odds with the president on foreign and domestic policy, likely forcing the first vetoes of his presidency. On the border resolution in particular, Trump has painted the vote as Republicans either standing with him on the border wall or supporting Democrats. But Senate Republicans claim the double-barreled veto fights, on legislation to curtail the U.S. role in Yemen’s civil war and block Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border, aren’t intended to be a personal condemnation of Trump. The White House has sent mixed and, at times, dueling messages about how it will handle an emboldened Republican Conference increasingly willing to defy the president.”
–Burgess Everett, Eliana Johnson and John Bresnahan, “’Extraordinary’: GOP heads for unprecedented clash with Trump,” Politico, March 13, 2019 9:49 pm