Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday launched a full-throated attack on post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy, castigating former presidents and generals by name while declaring the age of American “utopian idealism” over, Politico reports.
Abortion a Major Obstacle in the GOP Healthcare Fight
“As congressional Republicans weighed how to approach the fight over extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, powerful antiabortion groups saw an opportunity,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Led by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, antiabortion activists began to pressure Republicans during the fall government shutdown to further restrict abortion coverage from insurance plans made cheaper by ACA subsidies at the heart of the dispute.”
“The activists’ warning was simple: Extending subsidies without such limits was a line Republicans must not cross to keep social conservative support in next year’s midterm elections.”
Trump’s Advisers Try to Shift His Focus to High Prices
Wall Street Journal: “In conversations in recent weeks, Trump’s advisers have encouraged the president to talk more about what the administration is doing to increase wages, lower the cost of housing and reduce inflation.”
“So far, Trump has largely avoided any ‘I feel your pain’ messaging, telling aides that the economy is strong. And he has dismissed Washington’s focus on affordability as a trap set by Democrats intent on papering over the administration’s economic achievements. In many of the private conversations, Trump has argued that former President Joe Biden was responsible for inflation, not him.”
Financial Times: America’s affordability crunch is real — and worse under Trump.
How Biden Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration
“In the weeks after Joe Biden was elected president, advisers delivered a warning: His approach to immigration could prove disastrous,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Biden had pledged to treat unauthorized immigrants more humanely than President Donald Trump, who generated widespread backlash by separating migrant children from their parents.”
“But Mr. Biden was now president-elect, and his positions threatened to drastically increase border crossings, experts advising his transition team warned in a Zoom briefing in the final weeks of 2020…. That jump, they said, could provoke a political crisis.”
Echoes of a 1930s Supreme Court Battle
“A new president with a bold agenda, determined to exert control over government agencies to carry it out. An agency head who refused to quit, rejecting the president’s demand that he resign and insisting Congress had protected his job to keep it independent from politics,” the New York Times reports.
“Long before President Trump declared he had the power to fire independent agency leaders, the United States experienced a nearly identical test of presidential power.”
“The president then was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wanted to oust a member of the Federal Trade Commission he believed was an obstacle to his sweeping plan to pull the nation out of the Great Depression.”
Justices Could Topple Another Campaign Finance Limit
“The Supreme Court could eliminate one of the remaining checks on money in politics in a case that worries advocates fighting the influence of deep-pocketed donors,” USA Today reports.
“In a challenge involving Vice President JD Vance, the court will consider on Dec. 9 the Republican Party’s argument for overturning a 2001 decision that upheld a rule aimed at preventing wealthy donors from bypassing limits on what they can give candidates by funneling money through political parties.”
Have Trump’s Tariffs Hit the ‘High-Water Mark’?
New York Times: “Since Mr. Trump’s exemptions, a wave of companies have begun petitioning officials in Washington for similar relief. Businesses that depend on foreign materials — from factories that import machinery to retailers selling artificial Christmas trees — argue that tariffs on their products are simply raising consumer prices and adding to Americans’ dissatisfaction with the economy, rather than encouraging more manufacturing in the United States.”
“The petitions have raised questions about the strategic direction the president’s trade policy will take in the months to come. Mr. Trump has spent the past year introducing, pausing and then reinstating more tariffs than the United States had seen in nearly a century.”
Greene Says Trump Was ‘Furious’ Over Epstein Files
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said President Trump was furious with her after she signed a House petition compelling the release of all government files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, The Hill reports.
Said Greene: “We did talk about the Epstein files and he was extremely angry at me that I signed the discharge petition to release the files.”
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Republicans Are Facing a Blow Out in the Midterms
Charlie Cook: “It is pretty clear that Trump’s mid-decade gerrymandering play is not going to build the cushion Republicans wanted in red states to help them retain their House majority. While it’s conceivable that it could backfire and cost them seats, it’s more likely to make little difference at all. Each party will simply have the chance to elect its own rubber-stamp members, making an already dysfunctional House even more so, no matter who ends up in charge.”
“If Republicans can keep their net losses under 15 seats, they will be lucky, but that’s only because the battlefield is now so narrow. If the playing field of competitive districts were anything like it was 20 or 30 years ago, they would be staring at losses potentially three times that. The worst-case scenario for Republicans now would probably be losses in the 20-to-25-seat range.”
“Just remember, when a party is having a bad night in the House, it almost always gets bigger and goes deeper than expected, and the individual race count often underestimates what can happen when a party has a very unpopular president.”
Democrats Call Trump’s Bluff on Boat Strike Video
“Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are pressing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to release video of U.S. military strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat that have inflamed tensions on Capitol Hill,” Axios reports.
“The lawmakers are seizing on to President Trump’s own comments this week that he would have ‘no problem’ releasing the footage to the public.”
Trump Struggles to Persuade Americans on Affordability
Washington Post: “Trump also vows that good times are coming. He has predicted that gas prices, which now hover around $3 a gallon, will plummet to $2. He has promised Americans $2,000 refund checks from the revenue raised by tariffs. He has suggested that ‘in the not-too-distant future,’ no one will have to pay income tax.”
“This flurry of sometimes extravagant claims comes amid a growing Republican fear, fueled by recent election results, that high prices could set the stage for a Democratic sweep in next year’s midterms. So far, there is little evidence that Trump’s urgent attempt to shift the economic storyline is working.”
Republicans Still Divided on Health Care
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are both considering votes on GOP health care priorities next week — if they can figure out what those priorities are,” Axios reports.
“Democrats are unified in their demand for a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies, which expire Dec. 31. Republicans are still divided and debating their counter offers.”
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The Supreme Court Goes All In on Gerrymandering
“Only two decades ago, all nine Supreme Court justices agreed that extreme partisan gerrymandering could violate the Constitution, though they differed on what courts should do about it,” the New York Times reports.
“On Thursday, by contrast, the court’s conservative majority allowed Texas to use voting maps made to disadvantage Democrats in the 2026 election, without a hint of constitutional difficulty. To the contrary, the majority chastised a lower court for not taking the state at its word that politics, not race, motivated the maps. The court, it said, had ‘failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith.’”
Hegseth Is Seriously Testing Trump’s ‘No Scalps’ Rule
The Atlantic: “So far, Trump continues to profess support. But he, too, is starting to tire of the scandals surrounding Hegseth and does not push back when others suggest Hegseth is not up for the job, an outside adviser to the White House and a former senior administration official told us.”
“Trump has not been happy that a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are using Hegseth’s record as a reason to stand up to the White House, a further sign of cracks in what had until recently been unwavering GOP fealty to Trump.”
Trump’s Security Strategy Focuses on Profit
New York Times: “President Trump has shown all year that his second term would make it a priority to squeeze less powerful countries to benefit American companies. But late Thursday, his administration made that profit-driven approach a core element of its official foreign policy, publishing its long-anticipated update to U.S. national security aims around the world.”
“The document, known as the National Security Strategy, describes a world in which American interests are far narrower than how prior administrations — even in Mr. Trump’s first term — had portrayed them. Gone is the long-familiar picture of the United States as a global force for freedom, replaced by a country that is focused on reducing migration while avoiding passing judgment on authoritarians, instead seeing them as sources of cash.”
Trump Takes to Campaigning for His Economic Agenda
“Donald Trump is going on the road next week as he tries to break through Americans’ gloom about the economy,” Bloomberg reports.
“The president is heading Tuesday to Pennsylvania — a key swing state he beat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election but lost to Joe Biden in 2020 — to talk up his economic record and what his administration is doing to tame inflation.”
“Since returning to office in January, Trump has made few of the campaign-style domestic trips that marked his first term, instead focusing more on his foreign policy agenda.”
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