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In today’s issue:
- Congress: funding and leadership battles ahead
- Fed cuts rates; Powell won’t resign under Trump
- Trump names Susie Wiles to top White House post
- How global leaders prep for Trump 2.0
As the remaining ballots are being counted in House and Senate races, Congress returns to Washington next week for the lame duck period.
Republican electoral wins in the presidential race and the Senate are changing the game when it comes to government funding, as Congress braces for a battle over federal spending, writes The Hill’s Aris Folley. The likelihood of a trifecta of Republican control in Washington is positioning GOP leaders squarely in the driver’s seat in deciding whether to complete their annual funding work this year or punt the current Dec. 20 shutdown deadline into next year, when President-elect Trump is in office.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is stepping down from the leadership post but remaining in the Senate next year, said Wednesday he thinks “deciding how to spend the discretionary money that we have” is “important.”
“And I would hope we would put a greater priority than the current Senate has on doing the basic work of government, which is deciding how much to spend and getting it done as close to regular order as possible,” he said.
A short-term stopgap would allow a potentially GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican president more say over how the government will be funded for much of 2025. But it could also leave the party with a hefty to-do list in the first months of the Trump presidency, as leaders mull spending cuts, reckon with the nation’s debt ceiling, and tie up other first 100-day priorities.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday that Congress should pass a bill this year that covers most of 2025.
“Whether we do it now or wait until next year, no single chamber or political party can act alone to fund the programs and services hardworking Americans depend on,” she said. “Leaving all our work for January is a mistake.”
Also on the GOP agenda: The Senate leadership race to succeed McConnell is scheduled Nov. 13. Senate Republicans are tussling over whether Trump should play a role in the race. Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) said on CNN Wednesday that Trump should stay out of it, comments that his opponents are now highlighting.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), the underdog in the race, is touting his close alliance with Trump — but he’ll need the president-elect to endorse him if he wants to improve his odds of being elected by his colleagues to the job. Falling in the middle is Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who has a better relationship with Trump than Thune, but isn’t as close with the incoming president as Scott.
Allies of Thune’s two rivals in the leadership race said calls for Trump to stay out of the race indicate Thune is nervous that the president-elect would endorse either Cornyn or Scott — which would be a serious setback.
“He’s terrified,” a Senate Republican aide said. “He knows that Trump won’t endorse him. If he knows that, then Trump getting involved hurts him.”
But weeks before the election, Trump privately dismissed Scott’s leadership bid, telling allies it is “not serious,” Axios reports.
Senate races: Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) won reelection in a state Trump captured Tuesday, an example of voters’ split tickets. Nevada backed a Republican presidential nominee for the first time in 20 years. The Hill/Decision Desk HQ has not yet called the Pennsylvania Senate race between Republican David McCormick and three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D).
Control of the House has yet to be determined as several critical races remain too-close-to-call, leaving lawmakers — and voters — waiting to see which party will hold the majority next year. In a recently called race, Trump whistleblower Eugene Vindman (D) won a Virginia House seat in a competitive contest. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) won her House race for another term representing Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.
Here are the uncalled races to watch in the quest for control of the House.
▪ Patch: Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-Va.) on Thursday announced a diagnosis of esophageal cancer. He was reelected Tuesday and says he will undergo chemotherapy immediately.
▪ The Hill: Two House Democrats said they oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory, shifting right of their previous policy positions and deepening fractures within a bruised Democratic Party.
SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL’S BOB CUSACK:
The Trump 2024 transition will be much smoother than it was eight years ago.
Some in the Trump campaign didn’t think they would win in 2016 and as a result, the transition from the Obama era was rocky.
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on NewsNation this week that “Trump Cabinet 2.0 is going to be better than 1.0.” Indeed — they will hit the ground running.
Most of Trump’s nominees are expected to sail through a Senate that will have a healthy Republican majority.
Trump is considering many people for his team, ranging from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to hedge fund manager John Paulson.
The Trump Cabinet is also expected to include a number of Republican lawmakers. Some names that have been floated include Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.).
Passing big ticket items is never easy, so it’s wise for Trump to dip into the Capitol Hill pool because members of Congress know what can get the votes and what can’t.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ “We will take over the horribly run capital”: Trump’s return petrifies local Washington, D.C. The incoming administration won’t just alter the federal workforce. It will touch the lives of everyone who lives in the District.
▪ Traditional media are shrinking in reach and influence. Podcasts are exploding, TikTok, which started as a platform for short videos, is now a news source.
▪ Hurricane Rafael moved into the Gulf of Mexico Thursday but is not expected to pose a U.S. threat as it swirls around over open water into next week.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | Mark Schiefelbein
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, always quick to say the nation’s central bank is “data dependent,” came prepared Thursday with some data of a different kind. He politely sidestepped reporters’ questions about Trump’s victory Tuesday and the potential impact on the economy of the president-elect’s policy agenda.
The New York Times: Trump’s tax proposals face a fiscal reckoning.
But Powell came prepared to answer a statutory question that presents personal ramifications. “No,” he said firmly when asked by reporters if he would resign ahead of the end of his term in 2026, if Trump asked him to leave.
Powell discussed what he called a healthy economy and now-tamed inflation during a press conference after the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point. He said members of the Fed board cannot be demoted or forced to resign because law protects the Fed’s independence.
“Drama,” was the word Wall Street and business analysts used to describe Powell’s unflinching responses to friction with the incoming president.
Trump’s team later said the president-elect is unlikely to try to bounce Powell, as he has threatened.
Reuters: How Trump could influence the makeup of the Fed.
Trump has been critical of the central bank because of its long stretch of inflation-fighting high interest rates. He labeled its pre-election 50-basis-point rate cut “a political maneuver” and said as president he should have influence on the central bank’s decision making because of his experience in business.
Trump nominated Powell in 2017.
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House will convene for a pro forma session at 9:30 a.m. The Senate will hold a pro forma session at noon.
- The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11:45 a.m. Biden will depart the White House this afternoon for Rehoboth Beach, Del.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Alex Brandon
PRESIDENT BIDEN said he wants a “peaceful transfer of power,” adding during remarks in the Rose Garden Thursday that he assured Trump by phone his administration will cooperate with transition planning. Biden, who commended Vice President Harris and her campaign efforts, urged Americans to “accept the choice the country made.” The president and Trump have agreed to meet soon.
“Very nice calls, very respectful both ways,” Trump told NBC News Thursday during a phone interview. Harris, he added in reference to her separate concession call to him, “talked about transition, and she said she’d like it to be smooth as can be, which I agree with, of course.”
Next White House chief of staff: Trump announced Thursday that his chief of staff in January will be Susie Wiles, 67, now his campaign co-chair, and a seasoned political adviser who has long called Florida home. A woman who prefers to work out of the klieg lights, Wiles was widely praised this year for injecting discipline to a Trump campaign buffeted by a candidate widely known for going off-script and resisting being handled by staff. In his first term in the White House, Trump went through four chiefs of staff. The average tenure for that role in presidential history is 18 months. Wiles will be the first woman to hold that post.
Trump’s transition team, co-chaired by former Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, has been in place and preparing to govern for months. (Politico reported some of the team leaders for national security transition efforts.)
While the president-elect campaigned to deliver many government changes, he left details blank, particularly his vow to locate and deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants from this country, including children.
Asked about the cost of that plan, Trump told NBC Thursday, “It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not — really, we have no choice. … They’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
Deportation would be challenged under existing laws and require federal cooperation across numerous agencies and departments, including the Pentagon and the Justice Department. It would also require coordination with other nations.
Trump said his focus on immigration during his campaign helped him win. “They have to come in legally,” he told NBC, referring to migrants. Trump pointed to the gains he made among Latino voters and others since his loss in 2020.
“I started to see realignment could happen because the Democrats are not in line with the thinking of the country,” the president-elect told NBC. “You can’t have, ‘defund the police,’ these kind of things. They don’t want to give up and they don’t work, and the people understand that.”
Trump and his transition team have prepared executive orders, policy papers and regulation reversals to unveil after they take office on Jan. 20 at noon, CNN reports. The jockeying among allies for positions in the new administration has begun.
▪ The Washington Post: The Pentagon anticipates major upheaval under Trump based on his campaign statements.
▪ The Hill: Here’s a look at some of the people talked about for top jobs in Trump’s second administration.
▪ NPR (audio): Meanwhile, here’s how the Biden White House tried to Trump-proof some of its priorities, with three examples: Ukraine support, protecting federal civil service employees from politically-motivated firings and trying to fortify the staying power of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser on his father’s transition team. He said he wants appointees who do not believe “they know better” than the elder Trump.
Public health: Former Democrat (now independent) lawyer and vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Trump transition adviser who recommends an overhaul of the federal National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He told NBC News he “won’t take away” anyone’s vaccines. Kennedy dropped out of the presidential contest to endorse Trump after approaching his campaign for an agreement to join the administration, if Trump won.
Pentagon changes: Trump says he will slash Pentagon spending, eliminate perceived bloat in the top ranks and roll back efforts to make the military more inclusive to transgender and women soldiers. While Trump has not laid out clear policies for the Defense Department or yet named a nominee to head the Pentagon, his allies and former administration officials have crafted a blueprint for changes.
Pardons and pleas: Trump vowed to pardon the rioters accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. With his election, some defendants are asking the president-elect to make good on his campaign promises.
MORE ELECTION NEWS:
How to rebuild a party in crisis: Democrats, who will need a new leader come 2026 and 2028 — and a vision for the future that’s not predominantly anti-Trump, say a comeback from Tuesday’s election rout will need major work. “We have to burn the house down and begin anew,” said one prominent Democratic strategist.
What stance should Democrats take about the economy in the months ahead?
Members are debating that question as they absorb the shock that working-class voters, including Latinos, filled out ballots for Trump in once-reliably Democratic districts and across swing states.
Ten Democratic thinkers talk about what their party needs right now. After a crushing defeat, here are a few pathways out of the wilderness.
▪ The New York Times: How Trump won and how Harris lost.
▪ The New York Times: After Harris’s loss, devastated Democrats play the blame game.
▪ The Hill’s The Memo: Niall Stanage examines exit polling and Trump’s surge of support from Latino men nationwide and Harris’s bet that she could lock in a winning boost Tuesday from female voters who chafe at state restrictions on abortion and reproductive health care.
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Oded Balilty
TRUMP WILL LIKELY GIVE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly setting the stage for all-out war between Israel and Iran, said Leon Panetta, the former CIA director and secretary of Defense.
“With regards to the Middle East, I think he’s basically going to give Netanyahu a blank check,” Panetta said of Trump. “‘Whatever you do, whatever you want to do, whoever you want to go after, you have my blessing.’ I mean, he basically said that [before the election].”
A majority of Jewish Israelis view Trump as a better option for Israel’s interests than Harris. They assume that he will go easier on Israel than the Biden administration, which has supported Israel’s war effort in Gaza over the past year, but criticized its humanitarian aspects, especially the high civilian death toll. Now, Netanyahu may feel emboldened as he continues to insist on total victory in Israel’s wars.
The Wall Street Journal: Israel said it was sending planes to the Netherlands to evacuate its citizens after street violence following a soccer game in Amsterdam, where Israeli fans were chased down and beaten in what leaders of both countries called antisemitic attacks.
Trump’s comeback has created an opening for Russia to shatter Western unity on Ukraine and redraw the global power map, The Washington Post reports. In his first remarks since the election, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the post Cold War monopoly on global power by the West was “irrevocably disappearing” and added Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine. Now he must decide how.
▪ The New York Times: Trump’s reelection will test the ability of America’s European allies to maintain solidarity, do more to build up their own militaries and defend their economic interests.
▪ The Washington Post: “This is awkward”: World leaders are contending with their past insults about Trump.
OPINION
■ How could Trump and abortion rights both win? by Jill Filipovic, guest essayist, The New York Times.
■ Will this election change our pattern of political paralysis? by Don Wolfensberger, opinion contributor, The Hill.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press
And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to history-savvy Morning Report Quiz winners! We puzzled over some U.S. election precedents and invited readers to join in.
Here’s who went 4/4 (nearly two dozen readers were really close): William Chittam, Jason Greenberg, Rick Schmidtke, Harry Strulovici, Stan Wasser, Pam Manges, Sari Wisch, Mark R. Williamson, Phil Kirstein, John Trombetti, David A. Crockett, Glenn Warshaw, Robert Bradley, Jack Barshay, Lynn Gardner, Steve James, Savannah Petracca, Carmine Petracca and Peter Sprofera.
They knew that Victoria Claflin Woodhull is credited by historians as the first woman to seek the U.S. presidency, in 1872.
Trump is the rare Republican presidential aspirant who won both the popular vote and Electoral College tally. Before him, George W. Bush in 2004 was the last GOP candidate to accomplish the feat.
John Adams won election to the presidency while serving as vice president — unusual in American history.
Before Trump, Grover Cleveland was the last president to win reelection following a period out of office.
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