JD Vance wades into the immigration thicket: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

Happy first day of summer! In today’s edition, Jonathan Allen explores the challenges awaiting Vice President JD Vance as he lands in Los Angeles. Plus, we dive into President Donald Trump’s penchant for a giving a two-week timetable on big issues. And Dylan Ebs answers this week’s reader question on ranked choice voting.

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— Adam Wollner

The challenge facing JD Vance as he enters the immigration fray

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

Vice President JD Vance is wading into the immigration thicket today by traveling to Los Angeles, where Marines and National Guard forces have been deployed to provide backup for federal agents executing raids.

For Vance, it’s tricky territory because President Donald Trump keeps changing his mind — or at least his rhetoric — on immigration enforcement.

On one hand, Trump is anxious to fulfill a campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The MAGA base demands it. And Vance, who hopes to inherit the MAGA base, seldom strays far from its orthodoxy.

But on the other hand, Trump has wavered on parts of his own mass deportation plan. After Trump said that workers in certain sectors — farming, hotels and restaurants — would not be targeted in raids, he quickly reversed that policy.

Vance finds himself taking on a more visible role just as the MAGA movement is feeling the strain of a president torn between ideology and popularity.

It’s nothing new for a vice president to land in the middle of a vexing issue. Kamala Harris had the border portfolio in Joe Biden’s administration.

If Trump’s immigration policies end up being a success, Vance will no doubt profit from it. But if they don’t, he may suffer.

Read more: Appeals court says Trump can keep control of California National Guard troops, by Dennis Romero

Two weeks’ notice: Trump’s deadline on Iran is a familiar one

By Megan Shannon and Dareh Gregorian

President Donald Trump’s two-week timeline to decide on whether the U.S. will strike Iran’s nuclear sites is a familiar one.

“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” he said in a statement issued through White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Since the beginning of May, Trump has promised action on questions or decisions in “two weeks” around 10 times — and he used the same timeline repeatedly during his first term in office.

“We’re going to be announcing something, I would say over the next two or three weeks, that will be phenomenal in terms of tax and developing our aviation infrastructure,” Trump said of tax overhaul plans on Feb. 9, 2017.

He released a one-page outline of the plan 11 weeks later, according to a Bloomberg review that year.

He went on to repeatedly cite the time frame for impending actions on health care and infrastructure that never materialized during his first four years in office.

Trump’s use of the timing prediction has accelerated in recent weeks — and he’s used it on items ranging from trade deals and tariffs to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Much of what he’s predicted hasn’t come to pass, with questions he’s said he’d answer remaining unanswered.

Read more on Trump’s frequent two-week timeline →

Catch up on our latest reporting on the Israel-Iran conflict:

✉️ Mailbag: How does ranked choice voting work?

Thanks to everyone who emailed us! This week’s question comes from Thomas Gysegem:

“Will there be ranked voting in the New York City mayoral primary? Please explain how ranked voting works.”

To answer that, we turned to our intern, Dylan Ebs, who just put together a helpful explainer on the process.

Ranked choice voting, which New York is utilizing for next week’s mayoral primary election, is a system that lets voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than pick just one. The number of candidates voters can rank depends on the specific rules in an area. In New York City, voters can rank up to five in one race.

Voters don’t have to fill their ballots, though. A voter whose heart is set on only one candidate can pick just one. But if that candidate doesn’t get the most votes, that voter won’t have a say in later rounds of counting.

After the votes are tabulated, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Ballots from voters who supported that candidate then have the next choice counted. If no candidate has hit 50%, then counting continues, eliminating another last-place candidate and counting the next-ranked choices on all those ballots in the next round.

The process continues until a candidate reaches majority support and wins.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan Ebs.

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