Week In The News: Trump Immigration Cuts, White House Shake-Up, Foreign Tensions

Published August 4, 2017 at 9:00 AM CDT

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. (Evan Vucci/APP)

Trump’s immigration revamp. Scaramucci sacked. North Korea’s missiles. Russia tensions. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

White House shake-up this week. Scaramucci, out after ten days. Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly in as chief of staff. Will it bring order? We’ll see. On the Russia investigation front, Robert Mueller has a grand jury now. Subpeonas. On immigration, the president and Senate Republicans want to slash legal immigration by half. Venezuela tips toward dictatorship. Putin is kicking out U.S. diplomats. Trump tells cops to go rough. The Boy Scouts say the president what? Lied? This hour On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Colin Woodard, state and national affairs writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. ( @WoodardColin)

Janet Hook, national political reporter for The Wall Street Journal. ( @hookjan)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. ( @JackBeattyNPR)

From Tom’s Reading List

Washington Post: Trump, GOP senators introduce bill to slash legal immigration levels — “The legislation seeks to reduce the annual distribution of green cards awarding permanent legal residence to just over 500,000 from more than 1 million. Trump promised on the campaign trail to take a harder line on immigration, arguing that the growth in new arrivals had harmed job opportunities for American workers.”

NBC News: What Really Happened to Anthony Scaramucci — “Some of the same forces that propelled Anthony Scaramucci to power also hastened his just-as-fast descent, with the now-ex communications director resigning Monday in another sudden staff shakeup. Two sources close to President Donald Trump said Scaramucci’s profane remarks last week to The New Yorker magazine ‘disgusted’ and ‘offended’ some close to the president, including Melania Trump, and — crucially — Ivanka Trump, who had initially advocated for Scaramucci’s hiring.”

BBC News: Venezuela vote: Turnout figure ‘tampered with’ — “Turnout numbers for Sunday’s controversial vote in Venezuela have been “tampered with”, the company that provided the voting system alleges. Venezuela’s electoral authorities said more than eight million people, or 41.5% of the electorate, had voted for a new constituent assembly. But the CEO of Smartmatic, Antonio Mugica, said the actual turnout was inflated by at least one million. Venezuela’s electoral council dismissed the allegations as ‘baseless.'”