Republicans Have No Clue How They’re Going to Pass Trump’s Agenda

Republican leaders in Congress are having a tough time figuring out how to pass Donald Trump’s agenda.

Since Trump’s election, congressional Republicans have been divided over how to proceed: Write one giant, sweeping bill containing more or less everything in Trump’s agenda—immigration and border security, tax reform, and energy policy being three key blocs—or proceed via two or more smaller bills. Speaker Mike Johnson prefered one bill, Politico reports, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune thinks tax policies should be in a separate bill.

Trump, however, told Johnson that he wants “one big beautiful bill,” the speaker told his caucus Saturday, but Republicans in the Senate said that they were still figuring out the right strategy.

“We’re working through all that,” Thune said. “The process issues to me are a lot less important than the results.”

Other Republicans in the House, such as Representative Jason Smith, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, also favor the one-bill approach. Trump said publicly on Sunday that he wanted one large bill, but only hours later confusingly seemed to signal he’d be open to two bills.

Whatever ends up being the final approach, it’s going to divide Republicans in one or both of the chambers. Historically, the one-bill strategy hasn’t worked well for either party, as Democrats who backed the “Build Back Better” bill under Biden remember. That bill was supposed to pass in 2021 but ended up being weakened, only passing in the form of the scaled-down Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022.

There’s also the problem of the looming debt limit, which many Republicans oppose raising. The next budget now has a condition of a $2.5 trillion spending cut thanks to the last budget deal made last month. That will put a lot of Trump’s wishes in jeopardy and could result in another government shutdown if it isn’t prioritized.

Republicans can only afford to lose one vote in the House, and three in the Senate, making the odds of getting full agreement on a big bill pretty slim. Can Trump help everyone iron out their differences to help him get what he wants? History shows that he hasn’t been a unifying leader, even in his own party.

Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt Monday for failing to comply with discovery requirements in his ongoing defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman slammed the disgraced politico for his “blithe disregard” of court orders, and said his behavior during discovery had been “preposterous.” Giuliani had been ordered to pay 2020 election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss $148 million for repeatedly defaming them as part of Donald Trump’s election fraud conspiracies. But the ex-mayor was less than forthcoming in forking over the money and assets that he owed.

Liman said that Giuliani “has testified that he did not respond because he suspected the motives of plaintiff’s counsel. That is not an excuse for violating the court’s orders.”

“More important, as the Court informed the defendant, if there was reason to believe the plaintiff’s counsel misused discovery or would misuse discovery, he could raise that with the court. It was not an excuse to take the law into his own hands,” Liman continued.

It seems that Liman had had enough of Giuliani’s screwing around Monday. At one point during proceedings, Giuliani’s attorney asked if he could “explain whether he violated any court orders,” according to MSNBC’s Adam Klasfeld. When the plaintiffs’ lawyers objected, Liman allowed it, noting that the “witness’s self-serving statement carries limited weight.”

Last week, Giuliani appeared in court to determine whether he needed to hand over his $3.5 million Florida condominium to the plaintiffs. He’d claimed that the condo was his permanent residence, granting it homestead protections from debt collectors, but lawyers for Freeman and Moss argued that he was lying about the property. For his part, Giuliani seemed more worried how his courtroom sketch would turn out.

Trump is taking credit for Justin Trudeau’s resignation—and pitching Canada as the 51st state in the process.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday after a decade of service as the country’s prime minister. Trudeau’s exit comes as his party faces a likely defeat in upcoming elections this year.

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide, competitive process,” Trudeau said in an Ottawa press conference on Monday.

Trump took this opporunity to blast Trudeau for not capitulating to him during their tariff conflict, in which the President-elect promised to enact a massive 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico unless they bent to his absurd demands on trade and immigration. He wrote on Truth Social:

“Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

Trump and Trudeau’s relationship has been antagonistic for years, as the President-elect levied steel and aluminum in 2018. It’s very unlikely that tariffs are what pushed Trudeau out given that his party is sitting around 16 percent among decided voters, the lowest ever in his tenure.

The Canadian parliament will be on break until a new leader is chosen on March 24.

Representative Mike Collins has taken the Republican rewrites of the January 6 riot to new heights.

“On #ThisDayInHistory in 2021, thousands of peaceful grandmothers gathered in Washington, D.C., to take a self-guided, albeit unauthorized, tour of the U.S. Capitol building,” Collins wrote in a particularly stupid post on X Monday. 

“Earlier that day, President Trump held a rally, where supporters walked to the Capitol to peacefully protest the certification of the 2020 election. During this time, some individuals entered the Capitol, took photos, and explored the building before leaving,” Collins continued,  sanewashing the violent siege that led to the deaths of five people, cost taxpayers more than $2 million, and set off a delayed-released coup that finally came to fruition with Trump’s return to the White House. 

The Georgia Republican stayed strapped to the soapbox, lamenting the “peaceful protestors” who’d been tried for their participation in the violent insurrection. 

“Since then, hundreds of peaceful protestors have been hunted down, arrested, held in solitary confinement, and treated unjustly. Countless hours and taxpayer dollars have been spent pursuing innocent grandmothers and raiding President Trump’s home, while terrorists and millions of illegal immigrants continue to cross our nation’s borders, causing havoc in our communities,” Collins wrote. “Thankfully, President Trump has announced that, on day one of his presidency, he will grant pardons to nonviolent defendants.”

Collins has a penchant for pathetic posting. In October, he inexplicably posted a highly-edited “Chad”-ified image of JD Vance that slimmed down his jaw and brought his chin to a point implant-like point. 

Trump has repeatedly vowed to mass-pardon his supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol within his first days in office, a promise that inspired his supporters to try—so far unsuccessfully—to get their sentences delayed until after he officially enters office later this month. 

One of the most dangerous people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots is asking for a pardon from Donald Trump.

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the fascist Proud Boys organization, was convicted for seditious conspiracy for helping to orchestrate the attack on Congress during the certification of the 2020 presidential election and sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest of any January 6 defendant.

Tarrio made a request for a pardon through his lawyer Nayib Hassan, who wrote a letter to the Department of Justice which was posted to X Monday morning by his mother, Zuny Tarrio.

In 2023, federal prosecutors described Tarrio as the main force behind bringing hundreds of Proud Boys to Washington in 2021 to protest the election results and march to the Capitol building. Several of the organization’s leaders were the first rioters to break into the Capitol, including one lieutenant, Dominic Pezzola.

Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon rioters involved in the attacks, even hiring one for his transition team, but has also said that some rioters were “out of control” and may still face consequences. However, as the leader of the Proud Boys at the time, Tarrio is arguably the most extreme of the defendants, and pardoning him would show that Trump wants to reward the insurrectionists rather than make a token gesture to his supporters.

Elon Musk wants to be the Italian government’s sole telecommunications provider. 

The billionaire’s SpaceX company is closing in on a $1.6 billion security contract after  Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday. The Italian government promises that Meloni didn’t talk to Musk about the deal while she was there. 

If enacted, Musk’s SpaceX would supply Italy with encryption services for government and military use. “Ready to provide Italy the most secure and advanced connectivity!” Musk wrote on his X platform.

Others within the Italian government aren’t as enthusiastic about the potential deal. 

“If 1.5 billion euros of Italian money to use the satellites of an American billionaire in our country is the price to pay for his friendship, we do not agree,” said center-left Democratic Party (PD) lead Elly Schlein. 

Musk’s eagerness to do business with the Italian government is unsurprising considering the right-wing neo-fascist who currently leads it. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni considers Musk a “genius.” Her crusades against immigration, same-sex marriage, reproductive rights, and anything else she considers “woke,” have endeared her to Musk, who has been attaching himself to the European right as of late. 

This telecommunications deal is just the latest installment in Musk’s attempted Eurozone takeover. The CEO has meddled in German elections, singing the praises of it’s own right-wing party (AfD) as German politicians denounce his involvement. And in the U.K. Musk has been calling for the release of Tommy Robinson, a popular far-right, Islamaphobic activist and founding member of the British National Party. He has also railed about how civil war is “inevitable” there. 

The world’s richest man is rapidly expanding his sphere of political influence—and raking in foreign cash in the process. Elon Musk is changing global politics. And he’s getting even richer in the process. 

Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., may receive some support, or at least an open mind, from some Senate Democrats.

The Hill reports that Senators John Fetterman and Bernie Sanders may consider voting to confirm the former presidential candidate’s appointment to Trump’s cabinet, citing Kennedy’s criticism of food additives, as well as corporate control of the U.S. food industry.

“I think Bernie will give him a fair review,” one anonymous source told the publication, and a different pro-Kennedy source said Fetterman is “definitely a swing vote for all of Trump’s nominees.”

Last week, Sanders wrote a column for The Guardian in which he criticized the U.S. health care industry and called for reform to the U.S. food industry, saying “Large food corporations should not make record-breaking profits making children addicted to processed foods, which make them overweight and prone to diabetes and other diseases.”

These criticisms overlap with parts of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Initiative” plan, which includes promises to remove chemical additives from food and reduce federal funding for processed foods. Kennedy has said that Americans have been “mass poisoned by big pharma and big food,” and Trump has pledged to let Kennedy “go wild.”

But Kennedy’s longstanding opposition to vaccines and pledge to ban water fluoridation has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, and he’ll have a tough time selling those parts of his ideology to the Senate. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor, said on Fox News Sunday that Kennedy was “wrong” on vaccines, but still planned to meet with the nominee this week.

Kennedy has met with many senators in recent days to bolster his cabinet bid, including Republicans John Barrasso, Shelley Moore Capito, and Marsha Blackburn. But, in addition to concerns about his medical views, Kennedy also faces from the GOP over his support for abortion, which means his confirmation is far from a done deal.

Donald Trump is (unsurprisingly) trying to get out of his sentencing hearing for the 34 felony counts in his hush-money case.

In a 17-page filing Monday, Trump’s lawyers announced that the president-elect would seek an automatic stay on his sentencing, challenging New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s rejection of presidential immunity claims.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States required a stay of all trial proceedings, as Trump had been granted presidential immunity for official acts. They also argued that Merchan had wrongly denied Trump’s request to have the verdict dismissed on those same grounds.

“Due to the fact that further criminal proceedings are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law, the Court will lack authority to proceed with sentencing, must therefore immediately vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all proceedings in the case until the conclusion of President Trump’s appeal on Presidential immunity,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

The lawyers requested a response from the court on whether they intend to proceed with the sentencing by the end of Monday.

Last week, Merchan ordered that Trump attend a sentencing hearing on January 10, a little more than a week before his inauguration. Merchan made clear in his order that he did not plan to levy a sentence of jail time, fines, or probation against the president-elect. Instead, Merchan said he plans to sentence Trump with “unconditional discharge,” which means he will receive no punishment.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg responded Monday in a 16-page filing, urging the judge not to postpone Trump’s sentencing. Bragg’s office argued that Trump’s claim that presidential immunity should spare him from trial proceedings was moot, considering that the trial itself ended several months ago, and emphasized Merchan’s intention to give an “unconditional discharge.”

“There is no risk here of an ‘extended proceeding’ that impairs the discharge of defendant’s official duties—duties he does not possess before January 20, 2025 in any event,” Bragg wrote.

Over the weekend, Trump published several angry posts ranting against the “RIGGED” case and claiming his innocence—to which a jury of his peers did not agree.

“I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent, ME!” Trump wrote.

Lodged within Trump’s diatribes, the president-elect signaled his hopes to use his conviction as the pretext for a new authoritarian rule.

This story has been updated.

Trump’s promise to “drill baby drill” may be easier said than done. 

On Monday Joe Biden announced a buzzer-beater ban on new offshore drilling for oil and gas in 625 million acres of ocean. President-elect Trump wants to undo it immediately. 

“Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risks,” the Biden White House said in a statement. “As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.”

This move left Trump and his team predictably incensed, as confirmed by his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on X. 

“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,” Leavitt wrote. “Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”

But Trump may not be able to overturn this ban at all, at least not immediately. 

Biden passed this action using the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which grants presidents sweeping privileges to save federal waters from being used for future oil and gas development. The act does not allow a president to overturn said law alone, meaning President-elect Trump would have to turn to an already fractured and tumultuous Congress to allow drilling to begin.  

In a bizarre move, Elon Musk has locked out a journalist from his X platform—after she published a story that seemed to exonerate him.

On Sunday, Jacqueline Sweet, a journalist writing for The Spectator, had her X account suspended after she posted an article claiming that Musk wasn’t using a burner account under the name “Adrian Dittman,” after she traced it to a German Musk fan in Fiji.

Responding to her post, Musk replied “I am Adrian Dittmann. It’s time the world knew,” before suspending her account for 30 days. The Dittman account has frequently responded to Musk’s posts and supported his political positions, and in videos and audio recordings, seemed to sound remarkably similar to Musk, complete with the tech mogul’s accent and unorthodox speaking cadence.

Sweet’s article has also been flagged on X, with users seeing a warning that the link “may be unsafe” if they click on it. Musk supporters have defended the move by claiming Sweet’s article included Dittman’s personal information—even though it contained no private identifying information whatsoever like his address or phone number—while critics have pointed out the irony of the self-proclaimed “free speech champion” Musk censoring an article that he doesn’t like, pointing out how the tech CEO complained about Twitter censoring stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop. The episode is only more bizarre because it’s not clear why Musk wants to bury this largely anodyne news story.

This is the latest absurd chapter in Musk’s ownership of the social media platform. It is, by recent standards, which include arguing with his far-right ex-supporters over immigration policy and subsequently penalizing their X accounts after they began to attack him, less destructive but it nevertheless underscores the dangers of having one very rich, deranged person in charge of content moderation on a social media platform used by millions.