The Closer, Part II, T+27 -- February 16, 2017

The media's response to leaked top secret documents: "this always happens during transitions." So, that makes it "okay" to leak top secret documents"?

Ratings: Trump knows exactly what he is doing. When he hosted "The Apprentice" it was #1 or ranked very high in ratings. Under Arnold Schwarzenegger, "The Apprentice" is dead last. No one denies that the mainstream press has been incredibly (and inappropriately) harsh on Trump. But Trump knows it's all about ratings, and that's what his press conference was all about today. Ratings. And he also knows that the media ranks well down the list among the American public.

• Congress is dead last: only 8% of respondents gave members of Congress a positive rating for honesty and ethical standards
• US Senators: 12%
•  state governors: 18%
• journalists: 23%

Trump: today -- 55% approval rating

SNL: one already knows the skit this weekend. And all it will do is spread the Trump message. 

Nightmare: from The Los Angeles Times --

If the Justice Department determines that DACA is not legal or is no longer a responsible use of prosecutorial discretion, the Department of Homeland Security would be instructed to stop awarding and renewing work permits.

Another possible path involves the courts. A handful of governors are considering a challenge patterned on the 2014 lawsuit filed by several conservative state officials against the Obama administration’s expansion of deportation protections. If they sue, Sessions could instruct his lawyers not to defend the program in court, exposing it to indefinite suspension by a federal judge.

Deportation relief could also be ended “the same way it was begun,” said Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and the architect of multiple state and local laws aimed at immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly could simply instruct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop issuing work permits, much as Obama’s first secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, created DACA with a memo in 2012.

Trump has increasingly indicated he will not end the program, both at Thursday’s news conference and in private conversations over the last three months.