Washington, July 12 -- President Donald Trump abandoned his controversial bid to inject a citizenship question into next year's census Thursday, instead directing federal agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases.

He insisted he was "not backing down," declaring in a Rose Garden announcement that the goal was simple and reasonable: "a clear breakdown of the number of citizens and non-citizens that make up the United States population."

But the decision was clearly a reversal, after the Supreme Court blocked his effort by disputing his administration's rationale for demanding that census respondents declare whether or not they were citizens. Trump had said last week that he was "very seriously" considering an ex...