In the last few days, President Trump met with the Japanese prime minister, data on the number of people from the seven banned countries entering the U.S. was released, and Trump promised to keep cost of the U.S.-Mexico border wall down. The president also got into a Twitter fight with IU alumnus Mark Cuban. Here’s a rundown of what happened and why it matters.
Trump gets into Twitter fight with Mark Cuban
Trump tweeted a jab at IU alumnus and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban Sunday morning.
“I know Mark Cuban well. He backed me big-time but I wasn’t interested in taking all of his calls. He’s not smart enough to run for president!” Trump tweeted in his first tweet about Cuban since Trump was sworn in.
Cuban responded to Trump with two tweets of his own. The first said “Lol.” and the link to Trump’s original tweet about Cuban. The second read, “I don’t know. But isn’t it better for all of us that he is tweeting rather than trying to govern ?”
Though Cuban initially supported Trump’s campaign for president, he publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton at a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in July.
“Trump scares me,” Cuban said after speaking on behalf of Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, her vice presidential nominee, according to CNN. “Donald, initially, I really hoped he would be something different, that as a businessperson, I thought there was an opportunity there, but then he went off the reservation and went batshit crazy.”
Read all of Trump’s tweets about Mark Cuban here.
Trump builds relationship with Japanese leadership
Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the weekend at the White House and at Mar-A-Lago, the president’s estate in Jupiter, Florida.
The two leaders had a press conference Saturday night after reports that North Korea had fired its first ballistic test missile of the year.
Abe called the missile launch “absolutely intolerable,” according to CNN. Trump assured the Japanese prime minister the U.S. stands behind the country.
“The United State of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” Trump said during the joint press conference.
Later that weekend, Trump and Abe were spotted playing golf on one of Trump’s private courses. The media was not allowed to take photos,according to the New York Time. However, one of Trump’s aides took a photo of the two leaders to share on the president’s social media accounts, s.
Travel ban update
Three thousand people from the seven previously banned countries entered the U.S. from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6.
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday the travel ban will continue to be blocked after another court had raised concerns about the ban’s constitutionality.
The 3,000 number does not include lawful permanent residents because they are not within the scope of Trump’s executive order, DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen told CNN.
The White House announced Friday that they will not immediately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court and are working on “possible tweaks” to the executive order, according to CNN. The President is currently examining options to save the ban. He is expected to introduce the changes next week.
Trump vows to keep wall costs down
Trump promised in two tweets Saturday to keep the cost of the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall down.
The first tweet read, “I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the.....”
"...design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!” Trump said in the second tweet.
Trump has not released a specific plan for the wall. During his campaign he said the wall would cost about $10 billion, according to the National Precast Concrete Association. However, Bernstein Research said the wall will more likely cost somewhere between $15 and $25 billion, including labor and the estimated necessary $711 million worth of concrete and $240 million worth of cement, according to The Economist.
