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If this week was any indication of congressional Republicans’ skill to cross laws in 2025, it received’t be straightforward. On Wednesday, it seemed like Elon Musk had succeeded in undercutting a bipartisan spending invoice, main the federal government to the sting of a shutdown. Yesterday, Congress put forth a brand new, slimmed-down invoice that Donald Trump and Musk praised—however it didn’t cross, largely due to the inclusion of a suspension of the debt ceiling, which Trump has been loudly asking for. As of this writing, the Home is making ready to vote on a model of the invoice that doesn’t embody a provision to boost the debt ceiling.
I requested my colleague Russell Berman, who covers Congress, to assist me make sense of the chaotic previous few days. We talked about Trump’s relationship with Musk, the place Joe Biden is in all of this, and why the so-called GOP trifecta of Home, Senate, and presidency is probably not as empowering for Republicans because it appears.
Isabel Fattal: The week’s occasions look like an instance of the disparity between the massive, daring strikes that President-Elect Donald Trump (and Elon Musk) care about and the nitty-gritty of what members of Congress really care about.
Russell Berman: Trump has by no means been very within the nitty-gritty. That has at all times prompted battle with Congress, whose job it’s to fret in regards to the particulars of laws. The 430 members of the Home, and definitely the 219 who’re Republicans, all have their very own completely different priorities.
Musk and Trump even have very completely different priorities, although they’re seemingly joined on the hip. Musk has been put in control of this amorphous, Trump-invented Division of Authorities Effectivity with the mandate to chop quite a lot of spending. However Trump has by no means actually been interested by chopping spending. He jumped in on the final minute this week and requested Republicans to extend the debt ceiling—which is at all times a troublesome factor for Congress and particularly for Republicans to do, as a result of rising the debt ceiling is seen as paving the best way for extra spending and extra debt.
Trump desires it off the desk, as a result of he doesn’t wish to must cope with it as soon as he takes workplace. However the slimmed-down invoice didn’t work, as a result of although there was much less direct spending in it, a couple of dozen Republicans and a lot of the Democrats opposed the debt-ceiling enhance that was hooked up. That’s one instance of how Trump probably not caring in regards to the nitty-gritty doesn’t work when coping with Congress.
Isabel: If this week was a preview for a way Congress will work beneath the subsequent Trump presidency, what did we study?
Russell: Come January, Republicans could have a bigger majority within the Senate however a barely smaller majority within the Home. Their bigger majority within the Senate issues for laws provided that they’ll get payments out of the Home. We’ve seen this for your complete previous two years, however this week makes clear as soon as once more that their majority shouldn’t be large enough for them to actually govern. For as a lot discuss as there may be about Republicans having a trifecta subsequent yr with Trump within the White Home and management of each the Home and the Senate, in actuality, they’re going to have quite a lot of bother passing their agenda with out Democratic assist.
Isabel: Trump hopes President Joe Biden will take the blame for this shutdown. Nevertheless it strikes me that some People might already see Trump as the present president. And Biden has been noticeably quiet by means of all of this. Whom do you suppose the American public would finally maintain accountable if the federal government does shut down?
Russell: Biden has virtually disappeared from public view. In the present day, White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pushed on this—Biden hasn’t made any actual public assertion about these negotiations besides by means of her. However this has actually not been his negotiation. This has been a negotiation between the Democratic congressional leaders and the Republican congressional leaders. Trump has inserted himself into it; Biden has not. In order that may even make it troublesome to put this at Biden’s ft.
Isabel: Is it customary observe for a president-elect to get entangled in these types of shutdown negotiations in Congress?
Russell: The president-elect is inevitably seen because the chief of his social gathering, so it’s not unparalleled for negotiations that occur in the course of the transition to contain the president-elect or his group. However Trump has no formal function right here. In some methods, Musk—who, in fact, additionally has no formal place within the authorities—pressured his hand. He began posting about this invoice that Home Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated. Hastily, folks puzzled: Is Elon Musk talking for Trump? He have to be. That pressured Trump and the vp–elect—who continues to be a sitting senator—to weigh in a few days in the past. However once they weighed in, it was virtually anticlimactic, as a result of Musk, along with his distinctive mixture of monumental wealth, management over a significant social-media platform, and affect with Trump, had already spoken out—and Republicans have been already listening.
Isabel: Trump’s spokespeople, and Musk himself, appear to be attempting to dial again the concept Musk was liable for the failure of the unique spending invoice earlier this week. Do you suppose Trump could also be sad that Musk took the reins like this?
Russell: That’s in all probability the hope, curiously sufficient, for each Johnson and Democrats. Even when they received’t say so explicitly, they’re united of their need for Elon Musk to not have a lot energy—and, frankly, to butt out of all this. One of the simplest ways for that to occur, they could assume, is to make Trump consider that Musk is outshining him. Trump famously doesn’t wish to be upstaged or seen as doing anyone’s bidding. In order that they hope that Trump will toss him apart like he’s tossed apart many different individuals who have gotten near him over time. Loyalty goes just one means with Trump.
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In the present day’s Information
- At the least two folks have been killed after a automobile drove right into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, in line with police. Hearth and emergency companies instructed CNN that greater than 60 folks have been injured, and a suspect has been arrested.
- Senior U.S. officers met with the top of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that led the toppling of the Syrian regime, for the primary time since former President Bashar al-Assad fled the nation.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a main reshuffle of his cupboard, together with the addition of eight new members.
Dispatches
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Night Learn
Postpone Your Pleasures
By Arthur C. Brooks
One night, a couple of months earlier than [my father-in-law] died, he learn in his native paper an article of mine about unhappiness. “You will have quite a lot of difficult theories,” he instructed me, “however the true purpose persons are sad may be very easy.” I requested him to elaborate. “They don’t take pleasure in their dinner,” he responded. I requested him what he meant. “Nicely, in the course of the civil warfare, we have been at all times hungry,” he mentioned. “However sooner or later a yr—Christmas—we acquired to eat no matter we needed, and we have been so completely satisfied. In the present day, folks snack all day lengthy, are by no means hungry, don’t take pleasure in their dinners, and aren’t completely satisfied—even on Christmas.”
Extra From The Atlantic
Tradition Break
Watch (or skip). Even the director Barry Jenkins can solely accomplish that a lot with the fabric in Mufasa: The Lion King (out now in theaters), Hannah Giorgis writes.
Have a look. These images of the week present a browsing Santa Claus in Australia, a sundown camel safari in India, a cyclo-cross race in Belgium, and extra.
Stephanie Bai contributed to this text.
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