Democratic leaders are signaling they’re not willing to leverage votes on spending bills in exchange for action on any of the top issues this month — whether it’s military action in Venezuela, health care subsidies or the mass deportation push by federal agents, NOTUS reports.
The tactic marks a departure from last year, when Democrats triggered a shutdown over expiring Obamacare subsidies.
President Trump told Sean Hannity last night that the major oil companies have pledged to invest $100 billion in improving Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, but an industry insider told CNN: “We have no idea where this $100 billion figure is coming from.”
“The top Washington-based diplomats for Greenland and Denmark met with White House officials at the National Security Council on Thursday as Greenland continues to publicly and privately insist it is not for sale,” CNN reports.
Very interesting: “Trump has been proclaiming that he wants to purchase Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, since 2019. But neither he nor anyone in either of his administrations has ever privately broached the idea directly with Danish or Greenlandic officials.”
“Venezuela’s government began to release political prisoners from two notorious prisons on Thursday in the first ostensible gesture of change by the new administration since the United States captured President Nicolás Maduro and said it would control the country,” the New York Times reports.
A previously unreported Christmas Eve meeting in Vatican City was one of many failed attempts to find safe harbor for the Venezuelan leader before the U.S. raid, the Washington Post reports.
The Kennedy Center will host the January 29 premiere of “Melania,” the eponymous documentary focused on First Lady Melania Trump, making it the latest event linked to the president’s interests to make its way to the newly Trump-branded performing arts center, The Wrap reports.
“House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan said in an interview Friday he will invite former special counsel Jack Smith to testify in an open hearing as soon as this month in what would be a politically high-stakes event for members of both parties and the White House,” Politico reports.
“The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t rule on challenges to President Donald Trump’s tariffs Friday, leaving markets in suspense on the fate of the administration’s signature economic policy,” Bloomberg reports.
“The court hasn’t said when it will issue its next opinion but could schedule more releases in the next two weeks.”
President Trump posted a chart on social media Thursday evening that included figures in the yet-to-be released December employment report, Bloomberg reports.
The chart matched figures that were not publicly published until Friday.
Garrett Graff: “One constant theme of conversations I’ve had over the last year has been the physical heaviness people feel in Trump’s America. I certainly felt it yesterday in the wake of that horrific murder — there’s nothing else to call it — of a mother by an out-of-control ICE officer in Minneapolis…”
“To me, there’s actually a simple explanation for that heaviness: It’s the weight of the shift from ‘zero to non-zero.’ There are so many aspects of our daily life that we’d never had to weigh before; so many new possible horrors that we have to carry in our minds each day. We forget how much of the basic fabric of our country has been altered in the space of just a year, how many of our freedoms have been impinged, and how many things we took for granted that now we can’t.”
The Dispatch: “The political result of Trump’s full populism in his second term appears to be largely the same as the political results of his first term: a president with an underwater approval rating and a drubbing in the off-year elections that portends a blue wave in the midterm elections.”
“So how exactly do congressional Republicans answer Trump’s question about why he and Republicans aren’t more popular in the mind of the public? Some Republicans contend the problem is simply one of messaging, while others claim the party needs to be even more populist. While polling shows Trump and the GOP faring poorly on the economy and affordability, few elected Republicans are willing to argue that Trump’s tariffs—at their highest level since the 1930s—are a source of the GOP’s political woes.”
“The core tenet of today’s Republican Party is that Trump cannot fail; he can only be failed. And according to Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, congressional Republicans have failed Trump by not fully implementing a populist agenda.”
New York Times: “As Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York prepares for what could be the most consequential stretch of her career, much will hinge on her relationship with New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a man of a different generation and outlook.”
“Ms. Hochul, 67, watched Mr. Mamdani, 34, come out of relative political obscurity last year and inspire a mass movement of energized New Yorkers.”
“Now, the moderate governor has entered into a pragmatic alliance with the progressive mayor, with both deciding that it represents the best chance of delivering their signature priorities.”
A fifth oil tanker linked to Venezuela was interdicted by U.S. forces in the Caribbean, CBS News reports.
“Senate Republican leaders are kicking off an unofficial road tour Friday to sell voters on their signature legislative win — and play catch-up amid a relentless Democratic messaging effort,” Punchbowl News reports.
“And where else to begin than at the U.S.-Mexico border, a frequent stop for Republicans in recent years amid the chaos of illegal border crossings that have since plummeted to record lows under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.”
“But while border security was a key element of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it’s the economic components that have been the most challenging to tout while affordability remains the top political issue nationally.”
“As an assistant professor at Columbia University, Abdul El-Sayed said he held dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship. El-Sayed is now running for a Michigan Senate seat, and his campaign says that was a mistake—he’s not an Egyptian citizen and never has been,” the Washington Free Beacon reports.
President Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday night that the United States needed a $600 billion increase in military spending next year to address “some real threats out there,” the New York Times reports.
He did not specify the threats.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
