Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
President Donald Trump’s second week in office brought another flood of news that at times felt very similar to his original go-round in the White House, as Kristen Welker writes. But first, we shift gears to what’s next for the Democrats, with Ben Kamisar previewing this weekend’s race to chair the national party.
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— Adam Wollner
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👀 Weekend outlook: The White House said that Trump would impose a 25% tariff on goods coming to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on those from China on Saturday, a move that could drive up prices for products coming into the U.S. from those countries. Read more →
Democrats are set to make their first big post-election decision
By Ben Kamisar
Democrats are still without a leader after a bruising 2024 election loss. But this weekend they will take their first tangible step to drag themselves forward by choosing the next chairman of the party’s national committee.
Democratic National Committee members will meet Saturday in National Harbor, Maryland, to vote on a replacement for outgoing chair Jaime Harrison, whom Joe Biden tapped to helm the party during his time in office.
The incoming DNC chair will take the reins of the fundraising, spending and staffing plans for an organization that spent just shy of $1 billion the last four years. While the committee helps set the Democrats’ message and can serve as a home base for a party out of the White House, whoever wins Saturday’s vote will be more in charge of laying groundwork for a Democratic renaissance than leading the party back to power himself.
That’s why the DNC race has become less of a battle for the soul of the party and more a nuanced debate between front-runners who agree on a lot — and understand that the next chair will need to wade into the nitty-gritty of party-building instead of grabbing headlines.
The front-runners: Two Democratic state party chairs from the Midwest are touting the most support from DNC members: Minnesota’s Ken Martin and Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler.
Martin regularly touts how his party-building in Minnesota has coincided with an uninterrupted streak of statewide wins for Democrats since he took over, amid GOP victories in some other Midwestern “blue wall” states. Wikler has built up permanent campaign infrastructure in battleground Wisconsin and promoted it as a model for the party nationwide.
The other contenders: Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who ran for president in 2016, is the only other candidate to tout significant support from DNC members. He’s the only major candidate who has been elected to public office. And Faiz Shakir, a longtime adviser to Bernie Sanders, jumped into the race just a few weeks before the election.
The process: DNC members’ votes aren’t made public until after the election, giving ample room for members to change their mind ahead of time. And if no candidate walks into the first ballot with the majority, a multitude of dynamics could determine the eventual winner as the race goes to several rounds of voting.
🔵 Resistance 2.0: Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is offering some of the most direct Democratic pushback yet to the start of Trump’s term. Natasha Korecki scoops that he is blocking those who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol from working in state jobs, rejecting Trump’s attempt to offer them a clean slate last week in a wave of pardons.
How Trump’s second week was reminiscent of his first term
By Kristen Welker
President Donald Trump faced the first national tragedy of his second term and caused widespread confusion with a major policy move this week. Both instances were reminiscent of his first term in office.
On Thursday, with the investigation into the deadly collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter still in its early stages, Trump took to the White House briefing room to blame the crash on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Asked if he had evidence to support his claims, Trump said, “It just could have been.” He later also said that he came to that conclusion “because I have common sense.”
The response hearkened back to Trump’s first stint in the Oval Office, as he responded to the Covid pandemic. Trump frequently addressed the country at length from the briefing room about his administration’s response to the virus, at times contradicting public health officials. In late March 2020, for example, Trump initially said he disagreed with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the effectiveness of a drug that could treat the virus. When my colleague Peter Alexander pressed him on those comments, Trump said his assessment was “just a feeling.”
This week also saw confusion around the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze most federal grants and loans. The move prompted questions from agencies and officials, pushback from lawmakers, and legal challenges. The administration eventually rescinded the order.
The episode brought to mind another Trump administration order that was issued almost exactly eight years earlier: the so-called travel ban, Trump’s executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. That order also sparked widespread confusion and pushback. A legal battle ensued, and the Trump administration revised the order. The legal fight eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the travel restriction.
We’ll delve more into Trump’s response to the tragic crash and the attempted spending freeze on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” where I’ll speak to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
🗞️ Today’s top stories
- 🗓️ DEI crackdown: The Defense Intelligence Agency has ordered a pause of all activities and events related to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and other “special observances” in compliance with Trump’s executive order. Read more →
- 🖥️ DEI crackdown, cont.: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scrubbing a swath of HIV-related content from the agency’s website as a part of the broader effort to wipe out DEI initiatives. Read more →
- ⬅️ The purge: David Sundberg, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, was forced out of his job . The move comes as several top FBI executives promoted by former Director Christopher Wray were told to resign or retire or they would be fired. Read more →
- ⏪ In reverse: The Pentagon has rescinded a Biden administration policy that reimbursed service members and dependents for travel to states where abortions and other reproductive health procedures are legal. Read more →
- 🛑 Pushback: An order sidelining almost 60 senior career leaders at the U.S. Agency for International Development was temporarily rescinded by one of the few remaining senior career civil servants with the authority to do so. Hours later, the same employee was also placed on administrative leave. Read more →
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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner, Bridget Bowman Faith Wardwell.
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