FDL Review

On Thursday, the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump will sign the bipartisan budget compromise passed by Congress, which includes $1.375 billion for 55 miles of border barriers. The spending bill appropriates $328 billion overall and will fund the government through September 30, 2019, avoiding another shutdown.


However, the president made it clear that his signature will be applied reluctantly. To supplement the bill's $1.375 billion in funding for border barriers, Trump intends to declare a national emergency and tap unused money held by the Defense Department.

The authorization for this course of action is found within the Constitution of the United States and the National Emergencies Act of 1976.

The Constitution states that the president "shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." Accordingly, it is within the purview of the commander-in-chief, in this case Donald Trump, to utilize funds appropriated to the Defense Departm…

The results of a fresh Morning Consult poll show a four-point uptick in President Donald Trump's approval rating, which is now measured at 45%. 51% disapprove of the job that Trump is doing as president.

Morning Consult's results compare to those of Rasmussen Reports, who found that the president has a 50% approval rating and a 49% disapproval rating.


The popularity of the proposed border wall has also improved: 47% of Morning Consult respondents support the wall, while 47% are in opposition.

These findings compare to those of Rasmussen, who showed that "59% of Likely U.S. Voters think border security is a vital national security interest for the United States these days."

However, according to Morning Consult, 76% of voters want the president to sign off on the congressional negotiations that agreed on just $1.38 billion for wall funding.

Regarding presidential impeachment, only 39% see it is as a "top" or "important, but lower" priority. 51% see…

FDL Review sees President Donald Trump’s proposal on border security, with several capitulations to the Democrats, as a good-faith offer. In the interest of alleviating the annoyances of the partial governmental shutdown, it should be passed by the House and Senate immediately.


Taken alone, the president's request for $5.7 billion for the construction of border barriers should be widely agreeable. There are open swaths of the U.S.-Mexico border that present a legitimate public safety hazard, and a decade ago, Democrats understood this.

However, interest in public safety has been sidelined by the Democrats in their never-ending crusade against the Trump administration, which came to fruition after they nominated a beleaguered, wildly corrupt, and stale candidate who ignored the Midwest. Hence the president’s main “sweetener,” three years of protection for DACA recipients, along with a potpourri of other proposals that should be amicable for the left.

If the House and Senate Democra…

On Saturday, President Donald Trump used a presidential address to declare his interest in an end to the partial government shutdown. To that end, the president offered Democratic leadership three years of legislative relief for DACA Dreamers in exchange for $5.7 billion for a network of border barriers.


The president noted that the legislative relief for DACA recipients, illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children, would entail access to work permits and protection from deportation. The proposal does not include a pathway to citizenship from Dreamers, a stated priority for many within the Democratic caucus.

According to the president, the $5.7 billion in funding would not be for a 2,000-mile wall, but instead “steel barriers in high-priority areas.” He pitched the new border security as a method for preventing the entry of drugs, gangs, and human smugglers.

The president also suggested 75 new immigration judges, 2,750 new border agents, $800 million in humanitarian aid, an…

On Thursday, BuzzFeed published an article alleging that President Donald Trump ordered Michael Cohen to lie to Congress regarding a potential Trump Tower in Moscow. The news set off a firestorm in Washington, but in a rare public statement, the special counsel disputed the findings.

Robert Mueller's spokesman, Peter Carr, issued a release stating that "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate."


The fact that the special counsel made this statement is atypical: CNN Politics notes that it is "highly unusual for the special counsel's office to provide a statement to the media -- outside of court filings and judicial hearings -- about any of its ongoing investigative activities."

Incidents like these, however, are typical for BuzzFeed -- they have had a longtime rivalry wit…

A since-disputed report from BuzzFeed News alleges that President Donald Trump ordered his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress regarding a proposed Trump Tower in Russia.


The news outlet cited two anonymous sources, alleged to be "federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter."

These individuals told BuzzFeed that Cohen told Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia probe, that "the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement."

According to the report, the special counsel discovered the president's alleged instruction from "interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents," and then confirmed the story with Cohen.

In addition, BuzzFeed reports that Trump "was pushing the Moscow proj…