Wiretap: Trump’s late night tweet on DACA confuses everything and everyone

This won’t surprise you, but Donald Trump was back at the Twitter machine and was once again undercutting a day’s worth of policy. After Jeff Sessions had announced an end to DACA, crushing the hopes of 800,000 Dreamers, and Trump had given Congress a six-month deadline to fix the problem, Trump tweeted this of Congress: “If they can’t (fix DACA), I will revisit the issue!” Of course, Trump had said earlier in the day he didn’t have the constitutional power to do it alone. And by warning Congress that he’ll fix DACA if they don’t, that sort of takes the pressure off Congress to do anything. That’s what we used to call a mixed message. Now we just call it a Trumpism. Via The New York Times.

When Trump says he wants to make America again, he is presumably thinking back to the Immigration Act of 1924, which was put in place to severely restrict immigration of what were described as “degenerative forces” working to destroy America. That act remained in force until 1965 and the rise of civil rights when racialist immigration quotas were eliminated. Via The New Yorker.

David Leonardt: Many Republicans are talking a good game on the fate of the Dreamers, leading to some optimism that Congress can actually pass a narrow immigration bill. But ignore the talk. Wait for the votes. And given the urgency of the situtation, the votes need to come quickly. Via The New York Times.

You know who opposes the rumored deal that would give Trump a down payment on his border wall in exchange for legal protection for the Dreamers? That’s right. Many, many of the Dreamers themselves. Via The Daily Beast.

James Fallows: Immigration in America has always been disruptive. It has also always been beneficial in the long run. The United States is unique in its ability to absorb different cultures to its advantage. It all starts with E Pluribus Unum. Via The Atlantic.

Why Obama’s opposition to Trump’s move on DACA was so low key: It’s in no one interest other than Donald Trump’s for Obama to be the foil here. Via Politico.

If you’re looking for word from someone who thinks Trump is doing the right thing on DACA, then Rich Lowry’s piece in the National Review is the place to go.

Hurricane Irma may not get to Florida until the weekend, but it is bearing down on American territories before that. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with a string of island in the Caribbean, are already facing down the giant storm. Via The Washington Post.

Former Australian prime minister believes that the chances of a United States war with North Korea, though still small, are growing significantly and that diplomacy, including face-to-face negotiations, is the only workable option to avoid it. Via The Sydney Morning Herald.

Drawing by DonkeyHotey, via Flickr: Creative Commons