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The White House • May 9, 2019 Border Patrol chief: Our national security is at risk If there was ever a moment for a sense of urgency from Washington about America’s border crisis, that time is now. “As of Sunday, only seven months into the year, we have now surpassed the total southwest border apprehensions of every fiscal year since 2009,” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost told members of a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee yesterday.   🎬 Watch: Border Patrol chief explains our immigration crisis in 6 minutes   Because of dangerous loopholes in American immigration laws, today “family units” and unaccompanied children account for 64 percent of all apprehensions at the southern border. Illegal immigrants and human smugglers “have received the message loud and clear,” Provost says. “Bring a child—you will be released.” That policy creates an unmitigated humanitarian and security disaster. One problem is that illegal immigration is dangerous and often relies on criminal smugglers to breach the border. Bringing young children along in that journey puts them at grave risk. An even more pressing danger comes from “fake families”—a growing phenomenon where children are unwillingly paired with nonparent adults to game U.S. asylum laws. Once entry is granted, those children become expendable, sometimes being appallingly “recycled” back across the border for use by another asylum-seeker. Congress needs to take action—and that doesn’t simply mean building more temporary facilities, Provost said. “It’s like holding a bucket under a faucet. It doesn't matter how many buckets you give me if we can't turn off the flow.” President Trump is calling on Congress to respond to this humanitarian crisis. More: Feds released 168,000 illegal immigrant family members into communities President Trump hosts the 2018 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox A time-honored tradition took place at the White House today as President Trump welcomed last year’s World Series baseball champions, the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox have been one of America’s most storied franchises. In 2004, they captivated the Nation by rallying for the biggest playoff comeback in baseball history, defeating the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. A near-century long championship drought ended as they went on to win the title that year. And in 2013, the Red Sox brought unity and joy to a Boston community still healing after the tragic events of the Boston Marathon bombing that April, winning the organization’s eighth championship that fall. Watch President Trump welcome the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox. Photo of the Day Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead President Donald J. Trump welcomes the 2018 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox to the White House | May 9, 2019 First Lady Melania Trump Announces Expansion of Her ‘Be Best’ Initiative with Focus on Child Welfare and Drug Abuse “First Lady Melania Trump marked the anniversary of her ‘Be Best’ campaign on Tuesday by announcing the expansion of the initiative and another international trip,” Andrew O’Reilly reports for Fox News. The First Lady’s “Be Best” initiative “will now include children of all ages, not just babies born dependent on opioids and other addictive substances, and young mothers. The social media pillar will broaden to add online safety to the emphasis on bullying and good citizenship online.” Click here to read more. 🎬 First Lady: “Be Best” has one goal—to educate children and parents Today, President Donald J. Trump travels to Panama City, Florida, where he will receive a briefing on ongoing recovery efforts at Tyndall Air Force Base, the News Herald reports. “The eye of Hurricane Michael passed directly over Tyndall Air Force Base, leaving the structures devastated and the base’s capabilities compromised”—but the U.S. Air Force intends to rebuild Tyndall into a “base of the future” once Congressional Democrats stop obstructing the funding.   “House Democrats are escalating their campaign against the Trump Administration with complaints that its resistance to Congressional requests for documents is a threat to democracy . . . The real offense against the Constitution here is by Democrats,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes. “The current pseudo-impeachment is a fraud on the Constitution and the American public.” “President Trump on Sunday announced additional incoming tariffs on China, reminding Beijing that its days of negotiating with weak counterparts are over, at least as far as it concerns the United States,” Christian Whiton writes in Fox Business. “Rather than cave in or walk away, Trump has cranked up the pressure on China . . . Either they shape up or face the consequences of more economic pain, as they help fill the coffers of the U.S. Treasury through higher tariffs.” “The Department of Veterans Affairs is achieving record levels of transparency, which is a vital step to improving care for veterans at VA nursing home facilities,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie writes in The Hill. “These unprecedented improvements, and the many strides we are making to hold ourselves accountable and put our Veterans first, are all part of enacting President Trump’s promise to correct the problems of the past.” President Trump’s Tariff Tactic is the Best Way to Finally Make China Stop Cheating President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs are the best way to finally make China stop cheating in international trade, Steven Mosher writes in the New York Post. “The president held off raising tariffs on Chinese-made goods to 25 percent on March 1, as he had promised. The hope was that China, after decades of cheating on trade in every way imaginable, would finally agree to play by the rules . . . Then, [last] Friday, China attempted to rewrite a whole host of provisions it had previously agreed to,” Mosher explains. “Unless China stops cheating, no deal may be the best deal of all. Trump understands this.” Click here to read more.

“Jerry Nadler has declared a constitutional crisis. The proximate cause is a couple of redacted lines, including one footnote, in a 400-page report. Let’s be glad for the sake of the republic that an entire page wasn’t withheld,” the National Review editorial board writes. “Nothing in the regulations required Attorney General Bill Barr to release any of the report, let alone release it in its entirety. He did anyway with minimal, entirely defensible redactions that the DOJ worked through with Mueller.”

“China is a clear challenge to much the U.S. holds dear, and that gives Trump momentum to keep the pressure on China,” national security expert Rebecca Grant writes in Fox News. America also has the upper hand, she says. “Trump picked the right moment for this showdown. The U.S. economy is growing and unemployment is at a 50-year low. In contrast, China’s economy isn’t booming. It's growing, but at the slowest rate in years.”

Back in 2012, “Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder had refused to comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents in the Fast and Furious investigation, Republicans argued at the time that Democrats should stand with us in defending our Congressional subpoena power. They refused,” former Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) writes in Fox News. “America should not mistake this charade by the Democrats for a principled stand. Not when the principles shift with the political fortunes of the Democratic Party.”

“Pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences will donate the anti-HIV drug Truvada to the federal government so it can move toward its goal to eliminate HIV transmission in a decade,” Kimberly Leonard reports for the Washington Examiner. “Great news today: My administration just secured a historic donation of HIV prevention drugs from Gilead to help expand access” for those at risk, President Trump wrote on Twitter yesterday. Mueller Cleared President Trump — Now Get Over It “It’s now been more than six weeks since special counsel Bob Mueller, the former FBI director, concluded his investigation into Russia’s interference in our 2016 election . . . It’s been two weeks since Attorney General William Barr made the 450-page report public. This investigation went on for two years. It’s finally over,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) writes in the New York Post. “For two years, the Democratic Party held out hope that the legal system would undo their loss in 2016. They refused to make peace with the American people’s choice. But the American people elected this president. They did. The American people voted for change.” Click here to read more. “Democrats are angry the special counsel’s report did not produce the material or conclusions they expected to pave their path to impeaching President Trump. You can’t help but notice the phrase ‘Russian collusion’ has vanished from Democratic talking points and left a void in their narrative,” Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), the top Republican lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee, writes in Fox News. “So Democrats have resolved to neutralize Barr by attacking his integrity . . . What a cynical, mean-spirited, counterproductive and irresponsible step it is.” “China is up to its old tricks on trade, but it’s learning the hard way that there’s a new sheriff in town: President Trump,” the New York Post editorial board writes. “China has operated in bad faith not only in negotiations, but in its actual trade policies, time and again breaking promises to stop stealing intellectual property and trade secrets. Let’s be honest: It was Beijing that started this war. Yet until Trump, America declined to fight back.” “There may be light at the end of the tunnel for the beleaguered town of Lordstown. President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that General Motors has agreed to sell the shuttered Chevrolet plant to an electric truck manufacturer,” Drew Scofield reports for News 5 Cleveland. “During a visit to the Lima in March, Trump called for the plant to be sold so local workers could be employed again.” “Nearly 100,000 people were taken into custody along the southern border in April after illegally crossing from Mexico into the United States, marking the highest number in one month since April 2007, according to new federal data,” Anna Giaritelli reports for the Washington Examiner. “Department of Homeland Security numbers show U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California apprehended 98,977 people who crossed between ports of entry in areas that do and do not have barriers.” “With this being National Small Business Week across our country, let’s remember that America’s new era of economic prosperity is due to finally having a businessman like President Trump in the White House,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) writes in Fox Business. “The economic numbers speak for themselves”—5.4 million new jobs, wages up 2.7 percent, and the unemployment rate now at a historically low 3.6 percent.