Trump to reportedly announce executive action to get citizenship question on 2020 census

Donald Trump
(Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

President Trump will announce on Thursday afternoon he is taking executive action to have a citizenship question added to the 2020 census, NBC News reports.

Trump on Thursday said he will be holding a news conference in the Rose Garden on "the census and citizenship" in the afternoon, which comes a week after the 2020 census began moving to print without the question. This was initially thought to be the end of the administration's effort until Trump said he would continue the fight and was thinking about a potential executive order.

"We're working on a lot of things, including an executive order," Trump said on July 5.

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The Supreme Court said in June that the Trump administration can't add the citizenship question to the census for now, as its explanation for why the question is needed was not sufficient. Attorney General William Barr earlier this week said, however, that he sees a pathway to having the question added to the census while not offering details about how this would be accomplished.

CNN and CBS News are both also reporting that Trump intends to announce executive action on the citizenship question, although CBS writes that "administration officials inside the Justice Department have expressed skepticism about the viability of an executive order," which is "expected to be instantly challenged in court."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.