Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.
In today’s issue:
- Trump eyes speed bumps after easy certification
- New Trump chief of staff: Transition is cooperative
- Biden, first lady visit New Orleans after attack
- Trudeau’s exit rocks Canada
With an exceedingly tame 30-minute certification by Congress Monday, President-elect Trump saw his Electoral College victory immortalized inside a Capitol building that was attacked in 2021 by a violent mob determined to keep him in power.
The rioters of Jan. 6 have been followed by process-patient voters: 77 million ballots were cast in November to put Trump back in the Oval Office. Vice President Harris, who warned voters last year that the president-elect was unfit and dangerous, on Monday ceremonially presided in the Capitol over her official defeat.
Lawmakers in the Capitol Monday, gathered in a city shrouded in snow, turned their attention to familiar political skirmishes about what comes next. Can Trump call the legislative shots in Washington? Will voters get the Washington economic and other policy help they seek?
The Hill’s Niall Stanage, The Memo: Echoes of an earlier Jan. 6 reverberate as Trump’s win is certified by Congress.
Trump, whose administration takes the reins in two weeks, is attempting to lead the legislative branch and follow it at the same time. He and his advisers want to move quickly, albeit with narrow House and Senate GOP majorities, to deliver immigration, spending and tax changes that can be signed into law by spring.
It’s a tall order. The president-elect, talking tactics with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over the weekend, said he wanted “one big, beautiful bill” as the budget vehicle to deliver his aspirations. Senate Republicans, including GOP Leader John Thune (S.D.), had been trying to steer Trump toward the wisdom of two uses of budget reconciliation this year. The green-eyeshade strategy has been employed by both parties and requires exacting rules to try to enact policy goals with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually needed to move ahead in the Senate.
By Monday, Trump backtracked, saying he could embrace either one or two bills, acknowledging that members of his party in Congress are split over strategy even before tackling big policy and spending specifics.
It’s an example of the many speed bumps ahead for a party that will ostensibly control all the federal gears after Jan. 20.
Trump, during a Monday appearance on the “Hugh Hewitt Show,” championed a single bill as his preferred vehicle for his campaign promises but later said he was open to two bills this year. “I would prefer one, but I will do whatever needs to be done to get it passed,” he added.
Trump, who continues to roll out appointments and nominations and hopes to see the Senate begin confirmation hearings for his Cabinet picks next week, is expected to meet with Senate Republicans during their closed-door lunch Wednesday. On Saturday, he will host House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago to discuss tax policy.
▪ The Washington Post: Trump aides draft plans for “universal” tariffs, with one key change that would pare back the president-elect’s campaign plans.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Trump is the X factor in Congress’s debt ceiling fight.
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN:
The Supreme Court faces a major decision in the coming days on the future of TikTok, the video app roughly half of Americans are believed to have on their phones.
Last night I spoke with Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame who spoke with Trump recently about his bid to buy the app. O’Leary is teaming up with billionaire Frank McCourt to try to buy TikTok’s U.S. assets and rebuild the social media company in the U.S. with a focus on privacy.
“I went to Mar-a-Lago to say, ‘Listen, we’re going to need your support. And we’re going to need Mike Waltz,’” O’Leary told me, referring to Trump’s incoming national security adviser. “I’ve been talking to [Marco] Rubio about this deal for almost a year. I know him well. He knows me well. Now, Waltz is very important, because we will be under his rule.”
Last year, Congress passed — and President Biden signed — a bipartisan law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the app’s U.S. assets before Jan. 19. If there’s no sale, the platform would be banned in the U.S.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments about the law’s legality on Friday. Trump has asked the court for a delay of the ban. It’s a make-or-break moment for TikTok in the U.S.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. The Hill & NewsNation are owned by Nexstar Media Group.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ The Federal Reserve vice chair for banking supervision announced he will step down from the leadership role but remain on the central bank’s board of governors after Wall Street-allied Trump advisers urged that Michael Barr be demoted, a potential challenge to the Fed’s independence.
▪ The U.S. secretly transferred 11 Yemeni prisoners — none charged with crimes after two decades held at Guantánamo Bay — to begin new lives in Oman. Biden, who sought to close the infamous prison, has reduced the number of detainees from 40 at the outset of his term to 15.
▪ Two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted last month by Biden — sparing them from the death penalty — have taken an unusual stance: They refuse to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | Rick Scuteri
TRANSITION: Trump on Monday accused Biden of making the presidential transition difficult, citing recent executive orders on climate and other official acts he has taken in his last weeks as president.
“Biden is doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult [as] possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Biden made the move just two weeks before Trump, who has promised to promote domestic energy production, will be sworn in. Despite the president-elect’s assertion that Biden’s White House has not been helpful, his incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles has said otherwise. She told Axios in an interview published Monday that the White House has been helpful during the transition process. Wiles, who will be the first woman to have the job, said she wants the West Wing to be a no-drama zone for staff.
“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” Wiles, who Trump calls the “Ice Maiden,” told Axios by email. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”
CBS News: The Trump transition had set a goal of bringing on as many as 2,000 political appointees on Jan. 20, Day 1 of the administration, but it’s falling short of that target.
Courts: The New York judge who oversaw the president-elect’s criminal trial this spring declined his request to pause Friday’s sentencing. He could still attempt to have an appeals court step in as his attorneys argue Judge Juan Merchan was wrong to reject Trump’s presidential immunity claims and uphold the conviction in his hush money criminal case.
▪ The Washington Post: Trump’s lawyers have read special counsel Jack Smith’s draft report detailing the findings of his two investigations of the incoming president and are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to fire Smith and block the report’s release.
▪ The Hill: A federal judge held former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in civil contempt on Monday for failing to comply with court orders in two former Georgia election workers’ efforts to collect their $146 million defamation judgment.
Senate Democrats: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) has been tapped by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) to head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democrats’ campaign arm, for the next two years.
Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats to regain the majority in 2026 as long as Trump controls the White House and Vice President-elect JD Vance casts the tiebreaking vote in the Senate. Senate Democrats will have critical races next year in Georgia, Michigan and Maine. They have potential pickup opportunities in Texas and North Carolina.
Special elections in Virginia today will provide a test for Democratic enthusiasm ahead of the state’s gubernatorial race later this year. Democrats are widely expected to hold a state House and state Senate seat in Loudoun County outside of Washington, D.C., while Republicans are expected to hold a Senate seat outside of Richmond.
The Hill’s Julia Manchester breaks down what to watch for in Virginia.
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House is scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. The Senate convenes at 11 a.m.
- As part of state funeral events, former President Carter’s casket will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda today until Thursday morning when his funeral will take place at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral.
- President Biden is in California, where he will fly from Santa Monica to Los Angeles, then to Thermal, Calif., to deliver remarks at 2 p.m. local time to dedicate the Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park. He will return to Santa Monica in the afternoon.
- The vice president is in Washington and will deliver a eulogy for Carter in the Capitol Rotunda at a ceremony at 4:30 p.m. She and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will present a wreath to honor the 39th president on behalf of the executive branch.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Tokyo to meet today with U.S. and Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Stephanie Scarbrough
New Orleans attack: Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Monday attended a prayer service in New Orleans for families of victims and impacted community members following the New Year’s Day attack in the city. Ahead of the service, the Bidens visited a memorial on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street for the victims of the attack and laid a bouquet of flowers.
Biden frequently has taken on the grim role of trying to comfort grieving communities after calamities. The president spoke Thursday from Camp David about the truck attack.
“To all the families of those who were killed, to all those who were injured, to all the people in New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know I grieve with you,” he said. “Our nation grieves with you.”
The Washington Post: Past-due medical debt will be removed from Americans’ credit reports under new rules taking effect today. The change “will reduce the burden of medical debt and ensure that patients are not denied access to credit for home mortgages, car loans, or small business loans due to unpaid medical bills,” the vice president said in a statement.
Social Security: The Hill’s Aris Folley explains what to know after Biden signed legislation over the weekend that will result in higher Social Security benefits for millions of Americans. The measure, dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, repeals two tax rules that proponents say have unfairly reduced benefits for millions of Americans who also receive pensions. But experts warn about its expected price tag and raise questions about fairness.
Biden’s splashy move this week to bar drilling across the U.S.’s east and west coasts may not have significant climate or energy impacts in practice, writes The Hill’s Rachel Frazin. Since very little oil and gas is drilled in these places to begin with, the move is mostly symbolic. Still, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt pushed back on Biden’s anti-oil drilling action Monday.
“This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Jordan Pettitt
CANADA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 53, increasingly unpopular with Canadians and criticized in Parliament, announced Monday he intends to step down after 11 years as leader of the ruling Liberal Party when a new prime minister is chosen March 24.
Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was elected in 2015 and viewed around the world as a leader of the liberal order. He won reelection in 2019 and 2021, but his popularity has cratered over the past year amid a cost-of-living crisis and housing shortage.
“As you all know, I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians,” Trudeau said. “This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I am having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option.”
What happens next? The Hill’s Laura Kelly breaks down five things to know about Canada’s political crisis.
▪ The Hill: Continuing a recent bit, Trump suggested Monday that Canada could avoid U.S. tariffs if it merged with America.
▪ The New York Times: A timeline of Trudeau’s rise and fall.
▪ The Economist: Trudeau leaves behind a wrecked Liberal Party and a divided Canada.
▪ Axios: What to know about Canada’s opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.
CHINA: The United States and China appear destined for a military conflict, and an escalating arms race, with Beijing widely considered the most serious threat to the U.S. since the Cold War. That reality — facing Trump as he enters office this month — has spawned a heated debate over how to forge an alternate path that leads to peace. The Hill’s Brad Dress and Ellen Mitchell report the dominant view in Washington is peace through strength, that only clear military superiority can deter China’s ambitions to subsume Taiwan and exert dominance across the Indo-Pacific.
Lyle Goldstein, a visiting professor at Brown University’s Costs of War Project who studies the U.S.-China relationship, said war with China would incur “incalculable” costs and would at the very least sow mass destruction in Taiwan and the South China Sea region.
“You have two superpowers going at it with immense resources,” he said. “The losses could be horrific.”
CNN: At least 95 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake struck a remote region of Tibet this morning, with tremors felt across the Himalayas in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and parts of northern India.
CEASEFIRE: The Biden administration says it is still hoping to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in its final two weeks in the White House, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. Blinken said that the past weeks have seen a “reintensified engagement, including by Hamas,” but there is not yet an agreement on final terms.
“What I can tell you is this: We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time that we have remaining,” he said. “And we will work every minute of every day of those two weeks to try to get that to happen.”
▪ The New York Times: Hamas approved a list of hostages it would release under a ceasefire deal with Israel.
▪ Reuters: The United Arab Emirates has discussed with Israel and the U.S. participating in a provisional administration of post-war Gaza until a reformed Palestinian Authority is able to take charge.
OPINION
■ Why we should remember Jan. 6, 2025, by Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post.
■ Presidents expect loyalty, Trump demands fealty, by John Bolton, guest essayist, The New York Times.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press | Matt Rourke
And finally … ❄️ Winter weather and freezing temperatures gripped states from the Midwest to the East Coast on Monday. The next round of bitter cold takes aim at the South today.
Half a foot of snow in Washington, D.C., closed schools and federal offices as plows fought to keep up. Roads proved treacherous in Kansas and many other locations and weather-related traffic accidents killed at least three people. Heavy ice downed power lines in Kentucky. Virginia’s capital experienced a boil-water emergency. Thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, including in the nation’s capital.
But two snow enthusiasts at the National Zoo reveled in conditions that sent them rolling in the chill. A pair of young pandas recently arrived from China (and soon to be on public view in Washington) demonstrated some antics. Check out zoo cam sightings HERE.
Stay Engaged
We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@thehill.com). Follow us on social platform X: (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!
