Less Than Zero: Amid rising opposition, even from within the Republican Party, President Trump and his administration yesterday defended his “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal immigrants that has resulted in the separation of 2,200 children from their parents.

Trump said of the adults, “They could be murderers and thieves and so much else. We want a safe country, and it starts with the borders, and that’s the way it is.” He continues to falsely claim that the law requires children to be separated from their parents and that congressional Democrats are to blame for what is an administration policy.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said at the White House. “You look at what’s happening in Europe,” he continued, “you look at what’s happening in other places – we can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.”

Trump tweeted without any evidence, “Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country.”

Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions said, “We do not want to separate parents from their children,” although they do. Later at a White House news briefing, Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security said, ‘“Parents who entered illegally are by definition criminals. By entering our country illegally, often in dangerous circumstances, illegal immigrants have put their children at risk.”

Part of the risk is presented by the US government.

Congress is expected this week to take up immigration bills that offer several solutions to family separations.

The Wizard of Odd: The main man behind President Trump’s immigration policy and his Muslim travel ban is the little-known Stephen Miller, 32, a right wing ideologue and race baiter since he was a student at Santa Monica High School.

He was once booed off the stage while in high school delivering a speech in which he said that students shouldn’t have to pick up their own trash because there are “plenty of janitors who are paid to do it” for them.

In high school and college at Duke he managed to get enough attention to be featured on right wing radio and television shows. Just out of college he went to work for Rep. Michelle Bachman, who represented the Stone Age from Minnesota.

But you don’t see much of Miller on television because he is too odious even for the Trump crowd.

On the current immigration crisis, Miller told The NY Times, “The US government has a sacred, solemn, inviolable obligation to enforce the laws of the United States to stop illegal immigration and to secure and protect the borders.” Asked about the separation of children from parents he said, “There is no straying from that mission.”

Miller is as hard as hardliners get. He said, “You have one party that’s in favor of open borders, and you have one party that wants to secure the border. And all day long the American people are going to side with the party that wants to secure the border. And not by a little bit. Not 55-45. 60-40. 70-30. 80-20. I’m talking 90-10 on that.”

Tarrific: In what could become a steep escalation of his trade war with China, President Trump ordered his chief trade negotiator to draw up a list of another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to be hit with a 10 percent tariff if the Chinese don’t bend to his demands about trade policy.

“The trade relationship between the United States and China must be much more equitable,” Trump said. “The United States will no longer be taken advantage of on trade by China and other countries in the world.”

High Water Mark: As many as 300,000 homes along US coasts are at risk of flooding over the next 30 years as global warming makes oceans rise, according to a new study issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Homes worth a total of roughly $120 billion will be at risk of chronic flooding, the report says. It could get extremely wet in Miami, New York’s Long Island, and the San Francisco Bay area.

Nation: Rapper XXXTentacion was shot dead late Monday afternoon in the southern Florida city of Deerfield Beach. He was 20.

His real name was Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy. In 2017 his debut album “17,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and  seven months later his album “?” was No. 1.

According to detectives, XXXTentacion was leaving a motorcycle dealership when two armed men approached, one them shooting the musician as he sat in his BMW.

Danger, Will Robinson!: President Trump said yesterday that he’s going to direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed services, a “space force” to deal with combat and defense in space.

“It is not enough to have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space,” Trump said. The Air Force already has a Space Command, although it has no influence over politicians whose heads are in space.

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