Trump Travels to Phoenix. Expect more anti immigrant bashing

Joe Arpaio and Trump 

TRUMP STORM HEADS TO PHOENIX: President Donald Trump will hold a campaign-style rally at the Phoenix Convention Center tonight. The gathering comes at a politically vulnerable time for the president. Trump "has seen his approval rating plummet to historic lows and is facing mounting criticism from senior Republicans," POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt reports. "[He's] under fire for going easy on white supremacists and has failed to sign a major piece of legislation, while a special counsel is bearing down on his campaign's dealings with Russia."

The event risks deepening the hole in which Trump finds himself, especially if it turns rowdy or violent, as has been known to happen. "We know that there is a strong group of neo-Nazis that would love nothing more than to start fights," Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz) told Slate last week. "And they have nothing better to do, so they'll come do it." Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (D) urged Trump to delay the event; Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) will skip it to monitor law enforcement efforts to keep the peace.

The speech will be a sequel of sorts. A year ago, candidate Trump delivered an address in Phoenix that called for tougher immigration enforcement. He promised to build a wall along the southern border that the Republican Congress hasn't funded yet and to "immediately terminate" the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which remains in place, though the administration won't likely defend it against a legal challenge that nine attorneys general have threatened to file next month. Trump has, though, cranked up immigration enforcement, and he'll likely highlight that.

A possible pardon for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio hangs in the air. Trump recently said he was "seriously considering" pardoning the 85-year-old former lawman, who faces up to six months in for a criminal contempt conviction in a racial profiling case. But there are a couple of signals that it may not happen, or at least may not happen tomorrow. One is that Arpaio told Arizona's 12 News on Monday evening that he won't attend the rally, which takes place at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. local time). Another is that CNN reporter Manu Raju, citing his CNN colleague Laura Jarrett, tweeted Monday that no Arpaio pardon had yet been reviewed by the Justice department, as is customary. Trump is not, of course, a devoted follower of established procedures, and predicting what he will or won't do on any given day is a mug's game, so we'll stop the speculation there. More from POLITICO's Isenstadt here.

Posted from Politico's Morning Edition