No fewer than 24 hours after President Donald Trump’s Department of Commerce backed off its push to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, the President appeared to yank it back on Twitter.
“I respect the Supreme Court but strongly disagree with its ruling regarding my decision to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census,” Ross said in a statement. “The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question. My focus, and that of the Bureau and the entire Department is to conduct a complete and accurate census.”
But it’s not a simple or easy add … in part because the census is already being printed without that question.
All along, the Trump administration has argued the timing of the census is absolutely crucial — and that it needed to work around a July 1 printing deadline for the massive count undertaking.
The Supreme Court last week ruled that the Trump administration’s argument to include the question was insufficient, and for now, it can’t be included.
The Point: Thanks to Twitter, Trump managed to inject a whole lot of confusion into a hugely important process.