"So do that thing that you were already doing, but everybody notice now I'm telling you to do it!"

ABC:

President Donald Trump is expected to announce later Thursday he is backing down from his effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, and will instead take executive action that instructs the Commerce Department to obtain an estimate of U.S. citizenship through other means, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

NBC:

President Donald Trump is expected to announce Thursday that he is backing off his effort to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census and will instead direct the Commerce Department to acquire the data by other means, an administration source told NBC News.

“It should come as no surprise to anybody the president wants to know who’s in this country legally and lawfully, and he’s going to do everything within his legal authority to make sure that information is known because the American people have a right to know,” another official said.

And in two cases in New York and Maryland, respectively, the DOJ still doesn't know who's on first.  This does not help clarify matters in court at all.

The question of citizenship is already asked on the American Community Survey.   And there's a lovely website there about how this information is used:

We compile the results from these questions to provide communities with important statistics to help ensure equal opportunity, educate children, and understand change. You can see some of these published statistics here for the nation, states, and your community.

And what, you may even ask, is the difference between this and the Census?  I'm glad you asked that!

The American Community Survey (ACS) is conducted every year to provide up-to-date information about the social and economic needs of your community. The ACS shows how people live--our education, housing, jobs and more. For example, results may be used to decide where new schools, hospitals, and emergency services are needed.

The census is conducted once every 10 years to provide an official count of the entire U.S. population to Congress. 

Which is also a pretty damned good explanation of why we don't need a citizenship question on the census.

Now we just have to wait and see whether ABC and NBC have the right story on this.