BORDER/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump’s senior economic aides are scrambling to impress upon him the potentially dire economic costs of his threat to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both Kevin Hassett and Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic advisers, have shared papers and data with Trump over the last 36 hours, illustrating the way economic growth could slow even if the president shut down the border for just one day — not to mention the effect on the flow of goods, raw materials and the U.S. supply chain. Inside the White House, officials frantically spent the day searching for ways to limit the economic impact of shuttering the border, according to two senior administration officials and one Republican close to the White House. One possibility involved closing the border to cars but allowing commercial trucks to continue to pass through. Officials stressed, however, that no final decisions have been made. Publicly, Republican leaders expressed their own dismay at the threats, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called potentially ‘catastrophic.’ But Trump did not seem swayed.”
–Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia, “Trump’s aides warn him border shutdown would be disastrous,” Politico, April 2, 2019 5:30 pm