Trump Hammers Immigration as Midterm Election Approaches
*By Conor White*
Donald Trump may be looking to score points with his base ahead of midterm elections by turning the conversation back to immigration.
With one week to go before Election Day, Trump proposed ending birthright immigration with an executive order during an interview for "Axios on HBO" [released Tuesday morning](https://www.axios.com/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-0cf4285a-16c6-48f2-a933-bd71fd72ea82.html).
"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," the president claimed in the video.
Birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and any effort to end it would come under immediate legal challenge. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan broke with Trump to make a firm statement against his proposal shortly after the interview was released.
"You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order," he said in an interview with Kentucky radio station WVLK.
Trump's birthright proposal came one day after the Pentagon said it would send more than 5,000 U.S. troops to the southern border to prepare for what Trump has called an "invasion" of asylum-seeking migrants slowly making their way through Mexico.
Some observers see the focus on immigration as politically-motivated.
"One gets the sense that he hasn't thought through the details very strongly," David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic, said about Trump's birthright proposal in an interview Tuesday on Cheddar. "What he's really concerned with is the rhetoric and how it plays politically."
"He's remembering 2016 and seeing the magic he got talking about immigration," Graham continued, "Hoping he can recreate that and pull a win out."
However, Shannon Vavra, a political reporter at Axios, noted that Trump has long railed against so-called "anchor babies" and other longstanding immigration policies such a "chain migration," which refers to immigrants sponsoring family members to come to the U.S. She said the timing may just be Trump being Trump.
"The timing of it is definitely questionable at this point," she said, "but President Trump tends to do what he wants to do."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/trump-says-hell-end-birthright-citizenship).
Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, says he's fighting to keep the case out in the open and will renew a motion to depose both the president and his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The governor of Colorado, a state where marijuana is legal, told Cheddar the federal government's negative stance against cannabis has created uncertainty in the space. Gov. Hickenlooper says not only is that "bad for business," but also makes it hard for states to maintain a good relationship with Washington.
Stringer wants Facebook to bring in more independent directors and experts on data protection to provide more oversight at the company. As the comptroller, Stringer manages the city's public pension funds, which have close to $1 billion invested in Facebook.
Jennifer Palmieri, former director of communications for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, says women have to face the question of female ambition and motivation. "That's different than the questions people have for male candidates," she told Cheddar Monday.
The California billionaire says he isn't thinking that far ahead and is just focused on his "Need to Impeach" campaign going into the midterm elections in November.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-man-behind-the-need-to-impeach-campaign).
The California billionaire says Trump "is a lawless president," which is why he's focusing his efforts on a "Need to Impeach" campaign. So far, more than 5 million people signed on, which Steyer says will add pressure on lawmakers to take the drastic step.
President Trump called out Amazon in an early morning tweet Thursday, saying he's concerned the company pays "little or no taxes." This follows reports that the president wants to go after Amazon. Immediately following these reports, Amazon stock tanked, losing billions of dollars in market cap. This is not the first time Trump has attacked Amazon.
Facebook is making changes to its data-sharing practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social media company announced late Wednesday that it would stop sharing user information with third-party data firms. This strategy has been at the core of Facebook's business for the past few years.
Bryan Cranston, star of the hit show "Breaking Bad," joins us to talk about this new project. He's the co-creator of "The Dangerous Book for Boys," a new TV series which will stream on Amazon Prime. Fans won't see him on camera, but they will see actress Erinn Hayes. Cranston and Hayes tell us what to expect from the family-friendly show. It premieres on Amazon this Friday, March 30th.
Facebook is making changes to its data-sharing practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social media company announced late Wednesday that it would stop sharing user information with third-party data firms.
President Trump called out Amazon in an early morning tweet today, saying he's concerned the company pays "little or no taxes." This follows reports that the president wanted to go after Amazon.
Comedian Anthony Atamanuik guesses whether the president has taken to Twitter to discuss sandwiches and nipples. Atamanuik impersonates Trump for Comedy Central's "The President's Show."
The Congressman favors gun control rather than a full-blown repeal of the Constitutional Amendment, including controls on semi-automatic weapons and bump stocks. Early Tuesday, John Paul Stevens, a former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, published an op-ed calling for a repeal of the Amendment.
