ELECTION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump is on a mission to show supporters he’s still the same fighter they elected. He pushed back against establishment Washington on Thursday [7-11-19] with a one-two punch — first by giving conservative bloggers a space to air their grievances about anti-conservative media bias, then by announcing an executive order to collect data about immigrants after the courts blocked him from adding a citizenship question to the census. The actions — like so many other policies and events being organized by the Trump White House — aren’t likely to yield substantive policy changes. But they’re designed to appeal to the president’s conservative base as he heads into a tough reelection fight…In 12 hours on Thursday, through speeches and on Twitter, Trump stepped directly onto some of the most volatile fault lines that could rev up his fiercest supporters: immigration, the Pledge of Allegiance, social media bias, unfair trade with China, big banks, Iran, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, impeachment and, of course, individual Democratic candidates for president.”
–Anita Kumar, “In a single day, Trump shows his 2020 cards,” Politico, July 11, 2019 7:58 pm