1/ Trump signed an executive order eliminating some Affordable Care Act insurance rules for small businesses that band together to buy health insurance as an association. The order will also lift limits on limited coverage, short-term insurance, and expand ways workers could use employer-funded accounts to buy their own insurance policies. Critics say that by relaxing standards, Trump would be creating low-cost insurance options for healthier, younger consumers, which would result in higher costs for the sick and potentially destabilize and undermine the ACA insurance marketplace. (New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Trump on NAFTA: “We’ll see what happens.� Justin Trudeau visited the White House yesterday in hopes of seeking a “fairer trade� deal between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The US Chamber of Commerce president said that abandoning the agreement would pose an “existential threat� to the continent’s national and economic security. Trudeau told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he was worried about “poison pills,� proposals the US might make that were designed to kill, not repair, the NAFTA agreement. Trump has called NAFTA a “disaster� and that “NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good. Otherwise, I believe you can’t negotiate a good deal.� (Washington Post)

3/ European allies and Republicans are pressuring Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. Trump is expected to decertify the nuclear deal tomorrow, despite his own cabinet saying that Iran has abided by the deal. Lawmakers have remained largely in the dark about what Trump’s ultimate plan is. Congress, however, will have 60 days to pass legislation to reimpose sanctions on Iran if Trump decertifies the deal. Trump was reportedly “incensed� by the arguments Rex Tillerson and Jim Mattis made when he certified Iran’s compliance in July. “He threw a fit,� said one person familiar with the meeting. “. . . He was furious. Really furious. It’s clear he felt jammed.� (New York Times / Washington Post /

1/ Trump told his highest-ranking military leaders he wanted a tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal during a July 20th meeting at the Pentagon. Shortly after the meeting ended, Rex Tillerson called Trump a “fucking moron� to the officials who remained behind. Any increase in the nuclear arsenal would break with decades of US nuclear doctrine and violate international disarmament treaties signed by every president since Ronald Reagan. (NBC News)

2/ In response to the NBC News story, Trump tweeted that NBC’s broadcast license should be pulled as punishment for reporting what he considers fake news. “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!� Trump tweeted. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!� (Politico / The Hill)

Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!

With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

3/ Homeland Security is exploring how it could transform the immigration system without Congress. The possible changes could limit protections for unaccompanied minors who come to the US illegally, expand the use of quick deportation proceedings, and tighten visa programs that could limit legal immigration to the US. None of the policies have been finalized. (CNN)

4/ The Supreme Court dismissed one of the challenges to Trump’s now-expired travel ban. The justices were not ruling on the merits of the issue, but said that because the executive order “expired by its own terms� on September 24th, “the appeal no longer presents a ‘live case or controversy.’� (Washi...

1/ Trump plans to go around Congress to provide new insurance options for Americans. The White House is finalizing an executive order, which Trump is expected to sign this week, that would expand health care plans offered by associations and allow individuals to pool together to buy insurance outside their states. “Since Congress can’t get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people – FAST,� Trump tweeted. By banding together to buy coverage, associations could join the large group insurance market, which is exempt from the ACA’s requirement that plans cover essential health benefits. (Washington Post / Bloomberg)

Since Congress can't get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people - FAST

2/ The White House blamed Bob Corker for the Twitter tiff with Trump. On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted that Corker “didn’t have the guts� to run for re-election. Corker replied that it’s “a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.� Kellyanne Conway called Corker’s tweet “incredibly irresponsible� with Pence defending Trump against what he called “empty rhetoric and baseless attacks.�

In an interview with the New York Times, Corker said that Trump is acting “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’� and that he could set the nation “on the path to World War III.� As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Corker could block the confirmation of a new secretary of state if Trump pushed out Rex Tillerson and would play a key role on whether to “decertify� the Iran nuclear deal. (New York Times)

3/ Trump gave Bob Corker a nickname as their feud escalates. “The Failing @nytimes set Liddle’ Bob Corker up by recording his conversation,� Trump tweeted. “Was made to sound a fool, and that’s what I am dealing with!� The transcript of the conversation has Corker saying “I understand we’re on the record. I don’t like normally talking to you on the record – I’m kidding you – but I will.� Labeling Corker “liddle� is a reference to the 2016 campaign, when he called Marco Rubio little. “Let me start with Little Marco. He just looked like Little Marco to me. And it’s not Little. It’s Liddle. L-I-D-D-L-E.� The New York Times reporter disputed Trump’s claim that Corker was recorded without his knowledge, tweeting that “Corker had 2 aides on line, also recording, and they mad...

1/ The Trump administration will roll back the Clean Power Plan. Scott Pruitt will sign the new rule tomorrow, which will override Obama’s policy to curb greenhouse gas from power plants. “The war on coal is over,� Pruitt declared. (Associated Press / New York Times)

2/ The attorney for the Russian billionaire who pushed for the Trump Tower meeting said an email shows the meeting wasn’t about Hillary Clinton. In the newly disclosed email, Natalia Veselnitskaya asked music publicist Rob Goldstone if she could bring a “lobbyist and trusted associate� to the meeting, because of his knowledge of the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that imposed financial sanctions on wealthy Russians as punishment for human rights abuses. The email was disclosed by Scott Balber, who represents Aras and Emin Agalarov, the billionaire real estate developer and his son who requested the June 2016 meeting.

The emails between Goldstone and Trump Jr. tell a different story, however. Goldstone requested the meeting Trump Jr., saying the Russian government wanted to help the Trump campaign by providing documents that “would incriminate Hillary� and “be very useful to your father.� Trump Jr. replied: “If it’s what you say I love it.� (Washington Post / CNN)

3/ Trump is demanding funding for his border wall in exchange for signing legislation to provide legal status for “Dreamers.� The administration’s list of hard-line immigration principles includes overhauling the country’s green-card system, cracking down on unaccompanied minors entering the country, funding his wall along the southern border, and denial of federal grants to “sanctuary cities.� Last month, Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides legal status for 800,000 young immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. (Politico / New York Times / Washington Post)

4/ Trump called Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in an effort to revive a deal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump said he would be open to cutting a one-year or two-year deal with Democrats. “I told the president that’s off the table,� Schumer said in a statement. “If he wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions.� (Reuters / Ne...

1/ Trump’s advisers are floating the idea of replacing Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo after Morongate. Trump was reportedly furious that Tillerson didn’t deny he called the president a “fucking moron,� leaving many to believe their relationship is broken beyond repair. Tillerson praised Trump and insisted he never considered resigning in a public statement he made later that day. (Axios / NBC News)

2/ Surrounded by military leaders, Trump warned that “maybe it’s the calm before the storm.� The unprompted comment came during a photo-op at the White House with the top national security officials. “We have the world’s great military leaders in this room,� Trump said to reporters. When pressed to explain what he meant, he simply said: “You’ll find out.� (Politico)

3/ Robert Mueller’s investigators met with the author of the Trump dossier, Christopher Steele, this past summer in an effort to understand if people associated with the Trump campaign and suspected Russian operatives broke any laws. US intelligence agencies reportedly took the Steele dossier more seriously than previously acknowledged, keeping it out of a publicly-released January report on Russian meddling in order to not divulge which parts of the dossier they had corroborated. Trump and his allies have repeatedly called the dossier “totally made-up stuff� written by a “failed spy.� (CNN / Associated Press)

4/ Christopher Steele is talking with the Senate Intelligence Committee about formally speaking with its leaders. The sticking point for the former British intelligence operative, who authored a 35-page dossier alleging that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia, has been over his unwillingness to discuss who underwrote his work. Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research, which was originally funded by undisclosed Republican opponents of Trump. During the general election, unknown Democrats began picking up the tab. Senators had previously said they have had unable to get traction on the dossier, because Steele had not agreed to meet with investigators or the senators. (NBC News)

5/ White House tech support believes John Kelly’s personal cellphone was compromised. Staff discovered the suspected breach after Kelly turned his phone in to White House tech support this summer complaining that it wasn’t working properly or updating. Kelly now uses a different phone. Yesterday, Rachel Maddow reported the Secret Service will now ban personal mobile devices in the West Wing, according to a memo sent to agents. Other news outlets have not confirmed the authenticity of the memo. (Politico)

1/ Russian hackers stole NSA data about US cyber defense after an employee removed the highly classified material, put it on his home computer, and used an antivirus app made by Russia-based Kaspersky Lab. The US government had previously banned the use of Kaspersky Lab software over concerns of Russian cyberespionage. The stolen material includes details about how the NSA penetrates foreign computer networks, the code it uses, and how it defends networks inside the US. (Wall Street Journal)

Russian propaganda may have been shared hundreds of millions of times on Facebook, new research shows. From the 470 Facebook accounts that have been made public, the content had been “shared� 340 million times. (Washington Post)

The three Russians named in the Trump dossier are suing Fusion GPS for libel. Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan claim that their reputations have been unfairly ruined by the dossier. (Politico)

FBI deputy director on Russian hacking: We “should have seen this coming.� Speaking at the Cambridge Cyber Summit, Andrew McCabe implied that Russian meddling hasn’t stopped, either: “The experience in the 2016 elections allowed us to diagnose the problem. Have we cured it yet? Absolutely not.� (CNN)

2/ Two former CIA chiefs said Russia needed help targeting US voters and districts in the 2016 presidential campaign. “It is not intuitively obvious that they could have done this themselves,� former CIA director Michael Hayden said. Russia either needed someone to help give it information on who to microtarget or it stole the necessary information through hacking. (Bloomberg)

3/ Senate Judiciary Chairman said there is “no way of avoiding� a public hearing for Trump Jr., who has come under scrutiny from multiple committees in Congress for meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016. “Before this is over with,� Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr said, “we will know everything about the Don Jr. meeting.� (CNN)

4/ Trump criticized the Senate Intelligence Committee for continuing its investigation into possible collusion between Russia and his campaign, tweeting: “Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!� Trump tweeted. The tweet comes in response to yesterday’s news that the committee is still investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential race. (The Hill / ABC News)

1/ Rex Tillerson reportedly called Trump a “fucking moron� and nearly resigned this summer. The comment came during a July meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials. Mike Pence reportedly counseled Tillerson on how to ease tensions with Trump, with other top administration officials urging him to remain in the job until the end of the year. (NBC News)

2/ Today, Tillerson denied he considered resigning from his job, but did not address whether he called Trump a “moron.� Minutes before Tillerson’s remarks, Trump tweeted that NBC News was “fake news� and “more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!� Immediately after Tillerson spoke, Trump tweeted, again, that the NBC News “story has just been totally refuted� by Tillerson and that the news network “should issue an apology to AMERICA!� Later in the day Trump called it “a totally phony story� and said he has “total confidence� in Tillerson. (USA Today / CBS News / New York Times)

NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!

The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!

3/ The Senate Intelligence Committee endorsed the conclusions of American intelligence agencies that Putin directed a campaign of hacking and propaganda to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. Richard Burr, chairman of the committee, said they “trust the conclusions� of the Intelligence Community Assessment that Russia was behind the hacking of the John Podesta’s email account and had attempted to exploit public opinion with false information through fake social media accounts. The issue of collusion remains open.

Senators also acknowledged that they have been unable to get traction on the Steele dossier, which contains a series of claims about Trump and Russia. The memos’ author, Christopher Steele, has not agreed to meet with investigators or the senators. Robert Mueller’s special counsel has

1/ Trump said he’ll “be talking about gun laws as time goes by,� echoing what Sarah Huckabee Sanders said yesterday that “there will certainly be a time for that policy discussion to take place, but that’s not the place that we’re in at this moment.� Steve Bannon warned that it “will be the end of everything� if Trump supports gun control legislation, and Roger Stone added that the “base would go insane and he knows it.� (Politico / Washington Post / Axios)

2/ Robert Mueller’s top legal counsel is researching limits on pre-emptive presidential pardons. Michael Dreeben has been researching past pardons to determine if any limits exist as Trump’s current and former advisers come under the special counsel’s scrutiny. Trump previously tweeted that “all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon.� Pardons of a president’s campaign workers, family members, and himself are largely uncharted legal territory. Mueller has a team of 16 seasoned prosecutors investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as any potential collusion between Russian and members of Trump’s campaign. (Bloomberg)

3/ The Justice Department overruled memos that concluded presidents cannot appoint their relatives to the White House staff or presidential commissions, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed. The request to rule the earlier opinions erroneous or obsolete came from the incoming Trump administration in January, which cleared the way for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to take roles in the White House. Appointments of family members have been illegal under an anti-nepotism law passed in 1967. (Politico)

4/ Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump used a third private email address for government business. Hundreds of emails were sent from the couple’s White House email addresses to accounts on Kushner’s private domain that they shared with their personal staff. The emails contained nonpublic travel documents, internal White House schedules, and other official White House materials. It was previously reported that Kushner and Ivanka used personal email accounts to conduct some government business. The couple has since moved their personal email accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization. (Politico)

5/ The Senate Foreign Relations Committee wants to know if White House offi...

1/ Trump called the Las Vegas shooting “an act of pure evil.� At least 58 people were killed and more than 500 injured. Police said the gunman was found dead in his Mandalay Bay Hotel room. Trump praised the “miraculous� speed with which local law enforcement responded to the shooting, ordered flags flown at half-staff, and said he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday. Gunmaker stocks, meanwhile, are up nearly 4% after one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. (New York Times / Washington Post / MarketWatch)

My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!

2/ The House could vote on legislation this week that would roll back restrictions on gun silencers. The silencer measure is part of the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, a bill that was delayed in June after House GOP Whip Steve Scalise and two Capitol Hill police officers were shot during a congressional baseball practice. The House is also expected to vote this fall on separate legislation, the Hearing Protection Act, which would allow people to carry their legally concealed weapons across state lines into jurisdictions that restrict weapons concealment. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Sportsmen’s Heritage And Recreational Enhancement Act, H.R.3668. (Congress.gov)

Hearing Protection Act, H.R.367 (Congress.gov)

3/ Trump’s associates had two more previously undisclosed contacts with Russia during the 2016 campaign. The documents were turned over to congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was invited to a conference in Russia that would be attended by Putin; in the other case, Cohen received a second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project during the campaign. Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, low-level foreign policy advisers and, now, Cohen were all contacted by Russians with interests in business and politics in the weeks before or after Trump accepted the nomination. (Washington Post)

4/ Paul Manafort attempted to leverage his role on Trump’s campaign team to curry favor with a Russian oligarch close to Putin during the campaign. Emails turned over to investigators show how the former campaign chair tried to please Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska, one of Russia’s richest me...

1/ Tom Price resigned as Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary after racking up at least $400,000 in private charter flights. Yesterday, in an effort to satisfy Trump, Price offered to reimburse the government $51,887. Price’s resignation came hours after Trump told reporters he considered Price a “fine man� but that he “didn’t like the optics� and would make a decision about his future by the end of the day. Additionally, Politico reported that Price had used a military aircraft to travel to Africa, Europe, and to Asia earlier this year at a cost of more than $500,000 to taxpayers. The overseas trips bring the total cost of Price’s travels to more than $1 million since May. (NBC News / New York Times / Washington Post)

2/ The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says the Republican tax plan would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans and businesses. The report found that the average tax bill for all income groups would decline by $1,600 (2.1%) in 2018. Those earning incomes above $730,000 who would see their after-tax incomes rise by an average of 8.5%, or about $129,000, while those earning an average of $66,960 would see their after-tax income rise by 1.2% or about $660. (New York Times)

3/ Trump could personally save about $1.1 billion in taxes under his proposed plan. The analysis is based on Trump’s 2005 federal tax return and his estimated $2.86 billion net worth. In theory, Trump could save about $1.1 billion from repealing the estate tax, $31 million from repealing the alternative minimum tax, about $16 million from changes to certain types of business income, and about $500k from reducing the highest tax rate from 39.6% to 35%. (New York Times)

4/ Trump’s top economic adviser suggested that a family of four earning $100,000 can expect to save $1,000 a year in taxes – enough to “renovate their kitchen. They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle.� Yesterday, Gary Cohn said he “can’t guarantee� taxes won’t go up for the middle class� and “the wealthy are not getting a tax cut� under Trump’s tax plan. Cohn is worth an estimated $266 million. (HuffPost)

Uh, Gary Cohn (who is worth several hund...