WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is insisting that he is not dropping efforts to include a citizenship question on the upcoming 2020 census, even as the U.S. Census Bureau has started the process of printing the questionnaire without the controversial query.
Trump says in a tweet Wednesday that, “News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!” He says, “We are absolutely moving forward.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about what he meant.
The Supreme Court halted the question’s inclusion and Trump administration attorneys notified parties in lawsuits challenging the question they were standing down.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement the forms were being printed without the question.
The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019
