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.
In today’s edition, senior political reporter Jonathan Allen writes that the government shutdown battle shows Donald Trump is bringing chaos back to Washington before he even takes office. Plus, we have the latest on House Republicans’ plan to avert a shutdown.
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Trump endorses new Republican plan to avoid a government shutdown
By Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin and Syedah Asghar
House Republicans on Thursday released a new spending bill to avoid a looming government shutdown, just hours after the original bipartisan agreement was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump.
The new bill put together by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republican leaders has Trump’s endorsement but appears to face opposition from Democrats who have not signed off on it. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the new proposal “laughable.”
The 116-page bill would fund the government through March 14, averting a shutdown that is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. It would also extend the nation’s debt limit through Jan. 30, 2027, in response to a key request from Trump. It also includes disaster relief money for recovery from hurricanes Helene and Milton and an extension of the farm bill.
Absent are provisions that had infuriated Trump and his right-wing allies, including cost of living increases for lawmakers and giving Washington, D.C., control over a stadium site that could be used by the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., said he expected a vote on the bill later Thursday. If the measure passes the House, it’s unclear how the Democratic-led Senate will handle it.
Read the latest on the looming shutdown here →
📊 Survey says: An NBC News review of historical polling data shows that lawmakers have not paid a steep political price in past government shutdowns. Read more →
The chaos agent in chief is back
By Jonathan Allen
Donald Trump is a month away from inauguration, but he is already turning Capitol Hill into a mosh pit.
There are, of course, a handful of Cabinet picks who will test Senate Republicans’ fealty to him. They drew the line at former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who withdrew from consideration for attorney general and will nonetheless see an ethics report on his alleged misconduct released publicly.
More telling, Trump hurtled the government toward a shutdown by instructing Republicans on Wednesday not to vote for a temporary funding bill backed by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
The truth is the original bill was already in deep trouble, with MAGA-aligned conservatives clamoring to vote it down. Billionaire Elon Musk, who funded his own super PAC to help Trump win, stomped on the bill by threatening electoral retaliation against any Republican who dared to back it. Only then, with its defeat fast becoming a foregone conclusion, did Trump stick a fork in it and credit himself with cooking dinner.
Then, Thursday afternoon, he endorsed a revised framework. It remains to be seen if the new plan will secure the necessary votes in the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, but Trump’s stamp of approval is an important step. He has been far more prominent in the discussions than the sitting president, Joe Biden, and certainly a more mercurial character.
However it resolves, the episode is a reminder of the chaos Trump courts. To win a second term, he did not campaign on creating crises. He promised to roll back inflation, crack down on illegal immigration, impose tariffs, cut taxes and regulations, and spend less of Americans’ money on foreign wars.
Some of his plans might invite systemic disruptions — the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, for example — but he leaned away from selling himself as an agent who seeks chaos for its own benefit.
Now, second-term Trump looks a little more like first-term Trump.
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who watched him operate in the presidency the first time. Where others see dysfunction and danger in crisis, Trump sees an opportunity to gain the upper hand.
In Trump’s book, the risks of chaos seldom outweigh the potential rewards. So, buckle up, Washington.
🗞️ Today’s top stories
- 🛡️Bracing for Trump 2.0: Lawyers and pro-democracy advocates are beginning to build a national network to help defend and protect people who may be targeted by the Trump administration. Read more →
- ✅ How he did it: Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick was the only GOP candidate for senator or governor to defeat a Democrat in a battleground state this year. In an interview with NBC News’ Allan Smith, he reflects on his win and his next steps in the Senate. Read more →
- 🗣️ Q&A: Politico spoke with Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio, two architects of Trump’s winning 2024 campaign, about what their data showed in the closing weeks of the race, why JD Vance was chosen as the No. 2 for the GOP ticket, and how voters view the president-elect more as a celebrity than a politician. Read more →
- 🚓 Inside ICE operations: NBC News’ Gabe Guteirrez and Olympia Sonnier were given access to a “targeted enforcement operation” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, revealing the sizable resources needed to arrest a single undocumented immigrant, and raising questions about how those efforts could scale up in the Trump administration. Read more →
- 🍑 Another legal win for Trump: An appeals court in Georgia disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and removed her from prosecuting Trump and co-defendants in a case she brought over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Read more →
- ⚖️ Indicted: Former Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was indicted for allegedly working as a foreign agent, participating in a bribery scheme and laundering funds. Read more →
- 🗳️The never-ending election: The Republican candidate in the North Carolina Supreme Court race is asking that court to toss out 60,000 ballots from the November election as he trails the Democratic incumbent by just 734 votes. Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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