Obama Warned Trump—But He Didn’t Listen
August is traditionally a slow time in Washington, but this week, President Donald Trump has already notched two major policy changes.
On Monday, the Interior Department announced changes in the way it would apply the Endangered Species Act, the landmark 1973 environmental law, which would, in effect, do less to protect endangered species and more to allow resource extraction. The same day, Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced new rules for legal immigration, which will weight the system toward immigrants who are better off and better educated, while squeezing poorer ones.
As policies, both of these ideas are dubious. As politics, however, they represent notable wins for an administration that has often failed to put its policy priorities into action. Yet,
