Ivanka and Jared publicly missing in action again amid Trump's 'disloyal' claim

As President Donald Trump has rotated between controversies for the last few days, two of his top advisers have been notably publicly absent -- again.

During a week filled with uncertainty over the economy, retweets of conspiracy theorists, battles for his ear on gun legislation and an unsolicited fight with the prime minister of Denmark over buying Greenland, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have remained under the radar.

The couple was on vacation in Wyoming with their children over the weekend, and, on Monday, participated in a Trump Victory fundraiser alongside his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. They returned to Washington this week but with a limited presence in the West Wing, people familiar with the situation said.

The President's daughter and son-in-law -- who are Modern Orthodox Jews -- stayed silent publicly as Trump caused a firestorm by questioning the loyalty of some Jewish Americans to Israel. Trump has recently decided that branding the Democratic Party as anti-Semitic would be savvy political strategy -- and aides have largely supported the fight, but when he questioned the intelligence and loyalty of Jewish people who support Democrats, some inside the West Wing privately conceded to CNN he had gone too far. The comments prompted criticism from many groups that what he said was anti-Semitic, but Trump dug in during the days that followed.

"I haven't heard anybody say that; it's just the opposite," he claimed to reporters Wednesday. "I think that if you vote for a Democrat, you're very, very disloyal to Israel and to the Jewish people."

The comments followed the President proudly quoting radio host and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root, who claimed Israeli Jews love him as if he were the "King of Israel" and "the second coming of God." He later implied a higher power picked him to fight this trade war with China.

The White House declined to comment on whether Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner have addressed those comments with the President. While Ivanka Trump does not comment publicly on private conversations with him, there have been selective leaks throughout her tenure when she disagrees with her father. This is, so far, not one of those instances.

Additionally, the President has sent mixed signals on background checks in the past week. He had been encouraged by some aides, including Ivanka, to press on background checks in the wake of back-to-back mass shootings. Multiple media organizations reported, citing sources close to the President, that he had told National Rifle Association boss Wayne LaPierre that increased gun background checks were off the table. But on Wednesday, he injected further confusion, saying: "I have an appetite for background checks. We're going to ... be doing background checks."

Even the President expressed his surprise that the couple was off the grid.

"Two incredible people. I can't believe they're not working (few work harder)!" he tweeted Tuesday alongside a photo his daughter posted, posed in a belted denim ensemble alongside her husband as the Wyoming sun set, one of several posts from the trip West on her social media feeds.

Trump's daughter and son-in-law have developed a pattern of being absent amid some of the biggest controversies of his presidency.

They were skiing on the slopes of Aspen in March 2017 during a family vacation as the administration's first attempt to repeal Obamacare collapsed. That April, when leaks of infighting within the administration were on top of the news cycle, they were celebrating Passover at the Four Seasons Whistler in Canada, according to reports. That May, they stayed away from the cameras after the President fired then-FBI Director James Comey. That June, the couple skipped a Rose Garden ceremony when the President announced he was pulling out of the Paris climate agreement that Ivanka had advocated for, observing the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

And they traveled to Florida amid the government shutdown last Christmas, even though the White House insisted Kushner had been actively leading negotiations with lawmakers.

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to specify that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are Modern Orthodox Jews.

Despite Deficit Worries, Senate Gives Final Approval to Spending Increases

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said the budget was “the right deal because it brings predictability and stability through 2020.”CreditCreditAnna Moneymaker/The New York Times

The Senate gave final approval on Thursday to a two-year budget deal that would raise federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars and allow the government to continue borrowing money, sending the measure to President Trump for his expected signature.

Deficit Will Reach $1 Trillion Next Year, Budget Office Predicts

President Trump speaking about manufacturing in Monaca, Penn., last week.CreditCreditAnna Moneymaker/The New York Times

The federal budget deficit is growing faster than expected, even as President Trump openly considers more tax cuts and other ideas that would add to government debt.

Migrant Families Would Face Indefinite Detention Under New Trump Rule

Migrant families waiting at a bus station last year after being released by immigration authorities in McAllen, Tex. The Flores agreement, a decades-old court settlement, says that the government cannot detain children for more than 20 days.CreditCreditIlana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that imposed a limit on how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and specified the level of care they must receive.

The White House has for more than a year pressed the Department of Homeland Security to replace the agreement, known as the Flores settlement, a shift that the administration says is crucial to halt immigration across the southwestern border.

The new regulation , which requires approval from a federal judge before it can go into effect and was expected to be immediately challenged in court, would establish standards for conditions in detention centers and specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails, a cap that has prompted President Trump to repeatedly complain about the “catch and release” of families from Central America and elsewhere into the United States.

“This rule allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress,” Kevin K. McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, said in a statement. He called it a “critical rule” that would allow the government to detain families and maintain the “integrity of the immigration system.”

Lawmakers slam Trump and Netanyahu at emotional news conference following scrapped Israel trip

The first two Muslim women in Congress sharply criticized President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a trip to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories was canceled once the two lawmakers were denied entry for supporting a boycott of Israel.

At a news conference in Minnesota on Monday, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar -- alongside Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan -- made an emotional plea for her congressional colleagues to also visit the region as part of their role of congressional oversight for $3 billion in foreign aid.

"I would encourage my colleagues to visit, meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear," said Omar, who represents a district in Minnesota. "We cannot let Trump and Netanyahu succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us. So I call on all of you to go. The occupation is real, barring members of Congress from seeing it does not make it go away. We must end it together."

Tlaib, who is the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, was later granted entry to visit the Palestinian territories to visit her grandmother who lives in the West Bank. Tlaib declined to visit citing the conditions placed on her entry by the Israeli government and the trip was canceled.

On Monday, Tlaib spoke about visits she took to Palestine as a young girl to visit her grandmother. When she spoke about her mother and herself having to go through "dehumanizing checkpoints," Tlaib grew visibly emotional.

"As a young girl visiting Palestine to see my grandparents and extended family I watched as my mother had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints, even though she was a United States citizen and proud American," Tlaib said.

Last week, Israel barred Tlaib and Omar, after Trump tweeted that allowing them would show "great weakness." Israel's decision to bar their entry and Trump's encouragement of the move was a remarkable step both by the US President and his ally Netanyahu to punish political opponents.

"Netanyahu's decision to deny us entry might be unprecedented for members of Congress, but it is the policy of his government when it comes to Palestinians," Omar said. "This is the policy of his government when it comes to anyone who holds views that threaten the occupation. A policy that has been edged on and supported by Trump's administration, that's because the only way to preserve unjust policy is to suppress people's freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of movement."

Members of Congress regularly take congressional delegation trips to Israel.

House Democratic lawmakers want answers about Israel's decision to bar the two lawmakers' entry and are considering potential oversight action targeting the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, according to a House Democratic aide.

The aide said there is a potential that Democrats could request the opening of an inspector general investigation into Friedman and some members are even pushing for a congressional oversight inquiry focused on the US ambassador.

Separately, House aides confirm to CNN that there are conversations going on right now about what their next steps should be, and it is an active debate, as one aide described it.

Friedman has publicly supported the decision. He tweeted earlier this month, "Israel properly enacted laws to bar entry of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) activists under the circumstances present here and it has every right to protect its borders against those activists in the same manner as it would bar entrants with more conventional weapons."

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty and Oren Leiberman contributed to this report.

How Greenland explains Donald Trump's entire ,

"Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time," Trump tweeted Tuesday night. "The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!"

It's easy to dismiss this episode as just another Trumpian flight of fancy that didn't work out. But take a minute and you start to realize that the whole Greenland incident, which lasted a total of five days, is broadly emblematic of the entire approach that Trump has taken to being president. The Greenland episode is the Trump presidency.

Consider how we got here:

1) The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday that Trump has repeatedly quizzed aides on the possibility of buying Greenland.

2) On Sunday, before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey to head back to Washington, Trump addressed the story for the first time. Here's the key part of what he said (bolding is mine): "Denmark essentially owns it. We're very good allies with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world. So the concept came up and I said, 'Certainly, I'd be. Strategically, it's interesting, and we'd be interested.' But we'll talk to them a little bit. It's not number one on the burner, I can tell you that."

3) Denmark's government freaks out. "Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland," Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, told the newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday. "I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously."

4) Trump cancels the Denmark trip, citing Fredericksen's comments that Greenland isn't for sale.

What a whirlwind!

Now consider the Greenland purchase in the context of Trump's broader presidency. It meets all the criteria that have come to define his "modern-day presidential" approach to the job.

*Come up with a totally off-the-wall idea, with a whiff of America-gets-its-way-no-matter-what in there

*Idea leaks -- or the White House leaks it as a trial balloon -- to the media, with the caveat that his aides aren't sure if he is serious about it

*Downplay idea, insisting the media got it wrong -- even while leaving the door open to doing the deal if the other side is open to it

*Take ball and go home when off-the-wall idea is rejected, jeopardizing relationship with longtime strategic ally

See, the Greenland story really does have it all! It is the Trump presidency in microcosm. He says and does absolutely wild things. Even his top staffers aren't sure how serious he is about it, and, therefore, don't know whether to actually pursue it. The idea leaks to the media and immediately becomes a thing. Trump freelances, making up his views as he goes. A semi-serious conversation about whether any of this is even possible begins even as the intended target starts to freak out. Trump, either spurred or spurned by all of the attention, leans in -- to it all. Then it all unravels because, as we later learn, he was winging it all along. There was never any "there" there -- just Trump saying stuff.

(A quick sidebar on the this-is-all-a-strategic-distraction from gun control or immigration, etc., argument: No, it isn't. Is there anything you have seen in Trump's time in office that would lead you to believe that he is capable of that sort of strategic planning and execution? It's readily apparent at this point that Trump is just saying stuff -- and then reacting to how those things land with the general public. There is no three-dimensional chess. There's not any kind of chess being played.)

Greenland was never for sale. Mexico was never going to pay for the wall. His inauguration crowd was never the largest in history. There was not blame on both sides in the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville. Immigrants were never invading our country in hordes. Background checks were never going to happen.

You get the idea. It's the Trump presidency.

 President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s considering a payroll tax cut as one of several possible ways to stimulate the economy — a comment that comes just a day after the White House dismissed reports that such a move was being considered.

"Payroll tax is something that we think about, and a lot of people would like to see that, and that very much affects the workers of our country," Trump said at the White House when asked about reports that members of his administration were discussing such a tax cut to combat a possible economic slowdown.

On Monday, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that several senior White House officials were weighing a temporary payroll tax cut, among other tax breaks, in a sign of rising concern among the president's economic aides about the strength of the economy. Conversations about cutting the payroll tax were reportedly in the preliminary stage, and officials had not decided whether to formally ask Congress to approve such measures, the Post reported, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

A White House official, however, denied the reporting on Monday, saying that cutting payroll taxes was not being considered at the moment.

“As [National Economic Council Director] Larry Kudlow said yesterday, more tax cuts for the American people are certainly on the table, but cutting payroll taxes is not something under consideration at this time,” the official said.

Trump's apparent support for the idea on Tuesday comes as he has lashed out at the news media for their coverage of growing economic concerns, accusing them of purposefully trying to "crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election."

"I think the word recession is a word that’s inappropriate 'cause it’s a word that the certain people — I’m going to be kind — certain people, and the media, are trying to build up because they’d love to see a recession," he told reporters at the White House. "We’re very far from a recession. In fact, if the Fed would do its job, I think we’d have a tremendous spurt of growth."

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Federal Reserve, writing on Twitter on Monday that the economy "is very strong, despite the horrendous lack of vision by Jay Powell and the Fed."

Pressed on why Trump said he is considering the payroll tax cut just a day after the White House dismissed reports that it was under consideration, a White House official pointed to another of Trump's remarks Tuesday in which he suggested that action on tax cuts wouldn't be imminent: "I'm not talking about doing anything at this moment" related to such cuts, the president said.