Trump’s real 2020 weakness: healthcare | Lloyd Green

The Affordable Care Act – AKA Obamacare – is more popular than Trump and the Republican party realize. They’ve opened themselves to an ambush

Unemployment and inflation are low. America growls, but its sword is sheathed. Donald Trump should be preaching peace and prosperity. Instead, the president appears determined to make his re-election bid about healthcare and relitigate the 2018 midterms. If past is prelude, that tale doesn’t come with a happy ending for Trump or his party.

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Trump cancels key services for unaccompanied child migrants – live

Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’

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4.19pm BST

The Trump administration is canceling English classes, legal aid and recreational programs for unaccompanied immigrant minors staying in federal shelters, the Washington Post reports.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is wit...

Trump’s Federal Reserve pick withdraws from consideration – live

Stephen Moore, economist beset by legal and financial issues, pulls out following multiple reports by the Guardian on his past

  • Trump’s Fed pick underpaid ex-wife’s alimony for years – exclusive
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8.26pm BST

While Trump has often claimed to want to provide Americans healthcare, his administration has been pushing to gut the Affordable Care Act, best known as “Obamacare...

Bernie Sanders boosted by Fox News town hall broadcast – live

The 2020 presidential candidate showed his brand of democratic socialism could have traction in Trump country

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1.59pm BST

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of the race to 2020. The political world is marveling this morning at how spectacularly Bernie Sanders upended expectations last night that his appearance in a Fox News town hall would somehow ...

The Hill to Die On review: Trump, Ryan and a Republican dumpster fire

Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer deliver a deeply sourced tale of ineptitude, cowardice and other common political traits

Donald Trump is now going all in for Obamacare repeal. His latest picks for the Federal Reserve include Stephen Moore, a tax-dodging deadbeat dad, and Herman Cain, a guy with a track record of alleged sexual harassment. Apparently, the president has learned little from the Republicans’ 2018 shellacking at the hands of America’s soccer moms.

Related: Trump float...

White House reversed more than 25 security clearance denials, says whistleblower – live

  • Security adviser Tricia Newbold made revelation last month
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Joe Biden’s spokesman hit back at media coverage of the former vice president’s treatment of women, stating photos alleging to show inappropriate behavior on Biden’s part are a smear campaign led by “right wing trolls”.

These smears a...

From victory to vengeance: Trump scents blood in 2020 fight

The president celebrated the Mueller report – but then his latest effort to invalidate Obamacare left some feeling he ‘stepped all over that message’

It felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.

Related: Trump Fed pick was held in contempt for failing to pay ex-wife over $300,000

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Trump’s push to repeal Obamacare prompts Republican turmoil – live

“I’ll take the usual please, Donald”:

The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown,” have ZERO credibility or respect, & must be thinking about going legit. I have learned to live with Fake News, which has never been more corrupt than it is right now. Someday, I will tell you the secret!

Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the day’s political news.

•Republicans are said to be in turmoil over the Donald Trump’s push for Obamacare to be dismantled in the courts. Vice-president Mike Pence and new attorney general Bill Barr are among the skeptics, according to the New York Times, with concerns that scrapping the Affordable Care Act could be a boon for Democrats in 2020. On Wednesday House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly told his colleagues that Trump’s push made no sense. McCarthy is holding his weekly press conference at 11.30am, and may elaborate.

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Trump’s latest healthcare push exasperates Republicans – live

Key party member reportedly tells president renewed plan to scrap Affordable Care Act ‘makes no sense’

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8.45pm GMT

Bringing this to readers just in case – in the unlikely event! – that you have not seen it, an impassioned speech from AOC on the Green New Deal (which, actually, is more popular than Republicans would ...

Remember when Republicans vowed to be the party to protect pre-existing condition coverage?

After the president and Republicans repeatedly promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions, the Trump administration on Monday evening said it supports a federal judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, adding that it will seek to repeal the sweeping health care law in its entirety.

The Justice Department filed a brief letter in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit telling the court that it agrees with Judge Reed O’C...