As the Trump administration continues to double down on its policy of separating parents from their children at the border and placing said children in cages, the president and his attorney general, who ordered the strategy in April, have told traumatized parents, the outraged public, and factions of Congress that there’s one surefire way to put a stop to this mess: comply with their ransom demand. On Monday, Jeff “We’re only Nazi Germany–esque” Sessions told the National Sheriffs’ Association, “If we build a the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices,” echoing a report from Axios that Trump views the breaking up of families “as leverage for a border wall.” But because the president of the United States doesn’t understand how the government works, he and his bloodthirsty Chihuahua Stephen Miller will not be satisfied by mere congressional approval of and partial funding for a pointless, ineffective border wall. No—for Trump to even think about ending a policy that will undoubtedly leave thousands of children scarred for life—something that’s fully in his power to do—he wants the full $25 billion, and he wants it now. Per Politico:

In a private meeting regarding the wall Monday, Trump fumed to senators and his own staff about the $1.6 billion the Senate is planning to send him this fall, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Trump wants the full $25 billion up-front and doesn’t understand why Congress is going to supply him funds in a piecemeal fashion—even though that’s how the spending process typically works.

And what’s President Mc-Tweets-a-Lot going to do if he doesn’t get the cash A.S.A.P.? According to Politico, Trump said during the meeting that if Congress doesn’t essentially fill a bunch of trash bags with unmarked twenties and deliver them to the White House, he’ll shut down the government in September—a mere two months before midterms. Never mind the fact that the $1.6 billion figure came from his own Office of Management and Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, who requested it from Congress earlier this year. Or the fact that Democrats actually offered to give him the $25 billion in funding in exchange for granting the 1.8 million undocumented immigrants whose fates are tied to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program a path to citizenship. Those facts, as usual, are lost on Big Orange:

On Monday, G.O.P. Senators Shelley Moore Capito . . . and [Richard] Shelby both tried to explain to Trump that the Senate is merely meeting Mulvaney’s request and has to cut a bipartisan deal with Democrats. The Senate needs 60 votes to pass a spending bill, so Republicans would have to find at least 9 Democratic votes. . . . But Trump has not been mollified. He raised his voice several times in Monday’s meeting with Mulvaney, White House staffers, and the senators, insisting he needs the full $25 billion—an unlikely outcome in the narrowly divided Senate.

As if to underscore the fact that they’re working with a complete imbecile, on Tuesday, as children sat in detention centers and the federal government was put on notice, this happened:

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Business leaders, like other people with souls, condemn family separation policy

“Thousands of children are being forcibly removed from their parents by our government. There is no other way to say it, this is not who we are and it must end now,” Thomas Donahue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. “Policymakers in Washington are accustomed to hearing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opine about the economics of particular policies. But public policy is often also a reflection of a nation’s values. . . . One of those values is that children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents. Yet, today, government policy is running in direct contradiction to that value.”

Meanwhile, the Business Roundtable, which represents top U.S. chief executive officers, said in a statement that the current “practice is cruel and contrary to American values.” Even renowned cyborg Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook that the government needs “to stop this policy right now,” and told readers to donate to organizations “doing great work helping families at the U.S. border get legal advice and translation services, as well as documenting what is happening on the ground.”

Trump trade advisers remain confident melee with China will work out in U.S.’s favor

“Our view is that these actions are necessary to defend this country, and that they are ultimately bullish for Corporate America, for the working men and women of America, and for the global trading system,” Peter Navarro said on Tuesday, shortly before the Dow dropped 300 points before ending the day down by 287. He went on:

Navarro [insisted] that China has more to lose from a trade fight than the United States. He also declared that Mr. Trump would not allow Beijing to simply buy its way out of an economic dispute by promising to import more American goods.

Speaking of China . . .

Congress remains unmoved by the president’s decision to ride to the rescue of a Chinese telecom company sanctioned by the Commerce Department for doing business with North Korea and Iran less than two months ago. Per Politico:

The Senate voted Monday to reimpose the U.S. ban on Chinese telecom giant ZTE, in a rebuke to President Donald Trump and his efforts to keep the company in business.

The provision targeting ZTE was part of the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass defense spending bill that cleared the Senate by a vote of 85-10. It must now be reconciled with the House version of the measure, which takes a narrower approach to ZTE.

The vote raises the stakes in Congress' brewing confrontation with Trump over the Chinese company, which lawmakers of both parties consider a national security threat to U.S. networks.

“I hope our Republican colleagues will let the president know that they’re going to remain firm on this,” Senator Chris Van Hollen told Politico. “They cannot allow ZTE off the hook the way the administration’s let them off the hook.”

Wilbur Ross: I wasn’t trying to make money when I shorted a stock after learning about an impending negative story involving the company

Nothing to see here!

The transaction, valued between $100,000 and $250,000, took place last fall after Mr. Ross became aware that journalists investigating offshore finances were looking at his investments in the shipper Navigator Holdings, whose major clients included a Russian energy company. The New York Times e-mailed a list of questions about Navigator to Mr. Ross on Oct. 26.

Three business days later, Mr. Ross, a wealthy investor, opened a short position in Navigator, according to filings released on Monday by the Office of Government Ethics. The company’s stock price slid about 4 percent before Mr. Ross closed his position on Nov. 16, eleven days after the articles were published by the Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as part of the “Paradise Papers” project.

In a statement Tuesday, Ross said that the reporter who contacted him simply mentioned writing “about my personal financial holdings and not about Navigator Holdings or its prospects,” so it wasn’t like Ross had “market-moving information” when he shorted the stock. In a separate statement, he claimed he’d been in the process of divesting his holdings when he learned he had shares he hadn’t known about in “electronic form,” and that shorting them was the only way to get rid of them. (As The New York Times notes, “It is not clear how a short sale would have accomplished Mr. Ross’s objective of divestment.”)

Elsewhere!

China Rout Has 1,023 Stocks Plunging 10% in One Day (Bloomberg)

Market Correlations Like 2016 Suggest Dominoes Are Lining Up to Fall (Bloomberg)

Nouriel Roubini: Trade war will only make fragile economic conditions worse (CNBC)

Buyers tied to Russia, former Soviet republics paid $109 million cash for Trump properties (McClatchy)

The summer interns are here: “I expect to work from 9 A.M. to 2 A.M." (eFinancialCareers)

Exclusive: Zinke linked to real-estate deal with Halliburton chairman (Politico)

Warren announces hold on C.F.P.B. nomination, citing border policy (Politico)

Man with Gun Tattooed on His Forehead Is Busted on Weapons-Possession Charge (TSG)