Here's what's making headlines in the political world on Friday, August 3, 2018:
Trump blasts “fake, disgusting news” at rally
-- President Trump came out swinging at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Pennsylvania Thursday night, once again taking aim at the news media.
At the event in Wilkes-Barre, Trump told the audience, “Whatever happened to fair press? Whatever happened to honest reporting? They don’t report it. They only make up stories, but they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake, disgusting news … Only negative stories from the fakers back there.”
Trump said he believes the press refuses to give him credit for his accomplishments, including summits with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier in the day, the president downplayed comments made by his daughter Ivanka, who said she doesn’t think of journalists as “the enemy of the people.”
They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018
Schwarzenegger calls Trump administration's emissions proposal “stupid”
-- Former California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took another jab at President Donald Trump on Thursday, following news that the administration plans to revoke a signature Obama-era environmental regulation.
"For 48 years -- since one of my heroes, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, requested it -- California has had a waiver from the federal government to clean our own air," Schwarzenegger tweeted Thursday. "If the President thinks he can win this fight, he's out of his mind."
The Trump administration wants to freeze a rule mandating that automakers work to make cars substantially more fuel efficient. It called its plan a "50-state fuel economy and tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions standard for passenger cars and light trucks."
The administration also proposed a withdrawal of California's Clean Air Act pre-emption waiver. California and about a dozen states follow its rules account for about a third of all the passenger vehicles sold in the United States.
In his tweet, Schwarzenegger described the proposal as a "stupid, fake-conservative policy announcement that no one asked for."
Trump “would personally prefer” shutdown fight before midterms
-- President Trump said on Thursday that he would rather have a government shutdown fight over his immigration and border security demands before the midterm elections this November than afterward.
"I would personally prefer before, but whether it's before or after, we're either getting it or we're closing down government," Trump said. "We need border security. We need border security."
The President said "a lot of great Republicans" had pointed to the strength of the economy and did not want to "complicate" that as voters prepare to head to the polls in elections that will decide control of Congress.
"I understand it," he said. "I'm a little torn myself."
CNN contributed to this report
