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Confusion surrounds what Trump will say about census

President Donald Trump will make an announcement about the census on Thursday afternoon. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
President Donald Trump will make an announcement about the census on Thursday afternoon. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

About the only thing known for sure in an evolving situation about adding a citizenship question to the census is that President Donald Trump will make some sort of announcement Thursday. But even then, White House aides were scurrying late into the afternoon to figure out from which room or garden the president might make his announcement.

According to a source with knowledge of internal discussions, the president was weighing dropping his push to add a citizenship question to the census.

Administration officials previously announced they were ending the effort after the Supreme Court ruled against them on the matter. But Trump reversed that decision, via tweet, saying he would keep the fight going.

The source cited that very court ruling when asked to clarify an ABC News report that Trump intends to use a 5 p.m. media availability to announce he is indeed dropping the effort. Internal White House discussions remain “fluid,” the source said.

The president kept the intrigue simmering about an hour before the census event during a White House social media summit. But he might have tipped his hand when he mentioned the 5 p.m. “census meeting” and criticized the federal and Supreme Court judges who blocked an earlier citizenship question attempt.

“They fight us all the way,” Trump said of those jurists. “They don’t like us that much.”

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