In today’s issue:
- Thune to help Trump ‘understand’ Senate
- Congress formally certifies Trump’s reelection
- Speaker tees up Trump’s preferred ‘big, beautiful bill’
- Biden preps final presidential speeches
© The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite
Senate GOP leader eyes Trump tutorial
President-elect Trump exults in the power he envisions with Republican control of the White House, House and Senate to rapidly deliver an ambitious agenda he described to voters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the GOP’s leadership successor to Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), signaled in interviews broadcast Sunday that sharing the president-elect’s overarching goals is not the same as rubber-stamping his legislative endeavors.
Thune — who told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his relationship with Trump is “evolving” — also told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he wants Trump to see “what’s realistic” because the Senate differs significantly from the House.
“Understanding the unique aspects of how the Senate operates is something that I’m going to have to be able to share and convey to the president and help him understand,” he said.
Bottom line: Trump has a history of chafing at anything short of what he perceives as loyalty, and Thune is approaching his leadership position by arguing that shared objectives require deference and compromise. Republicans now have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. The fractious House GOP majority is wafer-thin.
The senator told CBS he and the incoming president share “the same set of objectives. We want to get to the same destination, but I think, at times, there’ll be differences in how we get there.”
How Thune balances a role he won with support from his Republican colleagues with the demands of a president who years ago bashed him as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) remains to be seen. Thune defends the Senate filibuster, which Trump would like to jettison. The GOP leader says the Senate will hold thorough, fair hearings for Trump’s nominees, not leave town to make way for presidential recess appointments (a notion the president-elect and allies have not abandoned). Thune also won’t publicly commit to supporting all of Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Thune last summer said Trump’s vows to raise tariffs were a “a recipe for increased inflation.” He reacted in 2021 to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 saying, “this kind of thuggery would not keep us from doing the people’s work,” and he denounced Trump’s role as “inexcusable.”
Flash forward four years, and Thune now says Trump’s vows to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters would be the president’s determination to make.
“I think you learn from the past, you remember the past, but you live in the present and the future,” the South Dakota senator told NBC.
The Hill:The legacy of the prosecutions of Jan. 6, 2021, defendants remain in flux.
Separately, in a New York courtroom days before the inauguration, Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 34 felony counts after conviction last year. He will not receive a penalty sentence from the judge.
▪ The Hill: Trump’s political comeback will be complete today.
▪ The Hill: During today’s certification by Congress of Trump’s Electoral College victory, Vice President Harris will preside over an official tally of her defeat.
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN
First off, hello! I’m looking forward to sharing some thoughts, insights and what I’m hearing in this space going forward. With this new year and new-but-familiar (think 2017 setup) Washington, here’s something to keep an eye on: Is less actually more for Republicans?
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told me it takes “an act of God” to get members of Congress to show up on a Saturday, but that’s exactly what happened this weekend in an off-campus retreat. During that meeting, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made clear Trump wants his top legislative priorities done right out of the gate. “I think we’re focused on one package, and that’s what President Trump wants, ultimately wants to get over the finish line,” Gonzales said.
Trump has history here. In 2017, Trump only got one of his two signature promises passed when Republicans controlled Congress (tax reform; repeal and replace ObamaCare didn’t happen). Lessons learned from an experienced incoming president? We’ll see how this plays out.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. The Hill & NewsNation are owned by Nexstar Media Group.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY
▪ Bird flu requires more urgent responses from the outgoing and incoming administrations, a former Food and Drug Administration chief warned Sunday. It’s among infections gaining attention during the “quad-demic.”
▪ The new chief of the Office of Government Ethics will be busy with Trump and his new federal team of employees. If director David Huitema, interviewed by Reuters, does his job well, his tenure in the role could be short, according to Washington watchers.
▪ During Trump’s first term, thousands of companies applied for exemptions from the types of tariffs the president-elect vows to levy. Firms were more likely to get exemptions if they donated to GOP campaigns, according to a July academic study. Conclusion: politics tilted the scales.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | Rick Scuteri
BORDER, TAXES, DEBT LIMIT: Trump wants to pass one budget reconciliation package this year, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told House Republicans on Saturday, a strategy that runs counter to the two-bill effort several other GOP lawmakers have been pushing for.
Johnson made the announcement during a private House GOP meeting at Fort McNair, five sources in the room told The Hill, as the conference gathered to discuss plans for moving legislation through the budget reconciliation process. The Republican trifecta — having taken full control of the White House and both chambers of Congress — is looking to use the process to bypass Democratic opposition and pass many of its priorities.
The House would pass a single reconciliation bill relying on GOP votes as soon as April 3 under a plan conceived by Trump and Johnson. The legislation would incorporate border security, the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit. That would all be coupled with spending cuts, among other things, Johnson said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” The Senate would then clear the package for Trump’s signature by the end of April or “certainly by May.”
Trump’s stance directly contrasts with the preference of many Republicans up on Capitol Hill, including Thune, who laid out a plan last month that includes two reconciliation packages. The first would focus on border security and defense, and the other would center on extending the Trump-era tax cuts, which have some provisions that are set to expire at the end of 2025.
But Johnson made a public case Sunday for a single-bill strategy, which could avoid a Democratic filibuster.
“I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill,” Johnson said. “While no one will like every element of the package, there will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along. So I think keeping it together is how we’ll actually get it done.”
Trump voiced his approval on Truth Social on Sunday, posting that “Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People. Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible.”
▪ The Hill: Trump’s Greenland and Panama Canal ambitions face Republican skepticism in Congress.
▪ The Hill: Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede announced a desire to obtain independence from Denmark in the wake of Trump’s comments about buying the island territory.
BIPARTISANSHIP? For Democrats, one thing is certain: 2025 won’t be 2017, when it comes to the start of the Trump administration. Two months after their disappointing White House loss to Trump and their failure to win back the House or keep the Senate majority, Democrats acknowledge that lawmakers are going to have to find places to work with the president-elect during his second term.
In a stark contrast to the brand of “resistance” politics during Trump’s first term, Democratic strategist Joel Payne said the 2024 results “have had a chastening effect” on the party, forcing Democrats to rethink the way they do business and how to communicate with voters who have soured on Democratic officeholders.
“Smart Democrats right now are listening and processing and taking in the political environment with an open mind,” he said. “You are going to see Democrats go to places that are viewed as unfriendly and partner with people who seem unlikely allies in an attempt to better understand where the electorate is.”
GLOBAL REACH: Elon Musk is seeking to wield the power of his social media network to boost far-right political movements in the United Kingdom and Germany, after becoming a major backer of Trump in November’s election. Musk has in recent days boosted populist and anti-immigrant figures in the major European economies, where he holds significant business investments.
The tech mogul has “this sense of having the world as his stage,” said Jackson Janes, resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and president emeritus of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.
“I think that to some extent, he is thinking that he can inject this, ‘you gotta break things before you can make them new,’ and he represents that,” Janes said.
▪ The Hill: U.K. public health minister Andrew Gwynne knocked Musk: “Focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic.”
▪ The Hill: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shared his approach to dealing with tech mogul Musk, who lately has traded barbs with German politicians, saying it is wise to not “feed the troll.”
WHERE AND WHEN
- ❄️ Washington has snow!Federal offices in D.C. are closed but with teleworking in effect and emergency workers expected to report to their worksites. Roads near the Capitol are closed for security.
- The House is scheduled to meet at noon. The Senate convenes at noon.
- Congress: Members of the 119th Congress meet today, three days after being sworn in, to count Electoral College ballots under the modernized Electoral Count Act, updated in 2022. Objections are possible, but now more difficult than on Jan. 6, 2021. The revised law clarifies that the vice president participates only to serve as president of the Senate in announcing results.
- The president and first lady Jill Biden will fly to New Orleans to pay respects to the community following a deadly truck attack last week, attending a 6 p.m. interfaith prayer service at Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France. The Bidens tonight will fly from Louisiana to Los Angeles, then to Santa Monica, arriving late tonight local time.
- The vice president at 1 p.m. is scheduled to preside over a Joint Session of Congress to certify the 2024 presidential election.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Susan Walsh
FINAL WORDS: Biden plans to deliver two major speeches before leaving office. They will be part of an effort to outline what he sees as key parts of his legacy after more than 50 years in public service, NBC News reports. The first speech, set to focus on foreign policy, is expected to be delivered sometime after Biden returns on Jan. 12 from a trip to Italy and an audience with the Pope. Biden then plans to close out his final days in the White House with a farewell address to the country, the sources said.
The New York Times “The Interview”: On foreign policy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken insists he and Biden made the right calls.
NEW ORLEANS: Ahead of the two major addresses, Biden and first lady Jill Biden will fly to New Orleans today to meet with family members of victims and meet with officials on the ground following the city’s New Year’s Day Bourbon Street attack. The deadly truck rampage, which authorities say was carried out by a man radicalized by ISIS, spurred fears of copycats and raised questions about how Trump’s isolationist tendencies will affect the war on terrorism.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on Thuneto schedule security briefings for senators about events in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told CNN on Sunday there will be a briefing this week for members of the Senate Intelligence Committee about what investigators have learned.
MONUMENTS: On Tuesday, Biden will dedicate two new national monuments protecting tribal lands in California, The Hill reports. The president will designate the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California’s Colorado Desert near Joshua Tree National Park, as well as a second site, the Sáttítla National Monument, in the north of the state near the Oregon border.
OFFSHORE DRILLING: Biden, with his environmental and energy goals in mind before leaving office, moved today to block all future oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of federal waters — equivalent to nearly a quarter of the total land area of the United States. Trump, who has described his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill,” is likely to work with congressional Republicans to challenge the decision. Biden issued two memorandums that prohibit future federal oil and gas leasing across large swaths of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Abdel Kareem Hana
Dozens of Israeli strikes hit Gaza over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officials continued indirect ceasefire talks through mediators in Qatar. Pressure is high on both sides to reach a deal that would include the release of hostages held in Gaza before Trump takes office.
Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday accused Hezbollah of failing to meet the terms of their fragile 60-day ceasefire agreement, due to expire on Jan. 26, threatening that it would be “forced to act” if the militant group’s violations continue. Days before, Lebanon reported to the United Nations Security Council that Israel had launched more than 800 “ground and air attacks” after the ceasefire came into effect.
The Biden administration on Friday notified Congress of an $8 billion weapons package for Israel, including thousands of bombs, missiles and artillery shells, in one of the largest new arms sales since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
▪ CNN: Israeli soldiers face growing risk of arrest abroad after Gaza service.
▪ The Washington Post analysis by Dan Balz: A different and more dangerous world awaits Trump.
The Biden administration plans to announce an ease of restrictions on humanitarian aid for Syria, which would speed up delivery of basic supplies without lifting sanctions that block other assistance to the new government in Damascus. The decision underscores the White House’s wariness about removing the broad sanctions on Syria until the direction taken by its new leaders becomes clearer.
▪ Reuters: Plagued by low polling numbers, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce he intends to step down, though he has not made a final decision.
China’s decision to slap several major U.S. defense firms with penalizing trade measures is being viewed as a “shot across the bow” ahead of Trump’s inauguration. The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell reports the move targeting defense contractors adds to U.S.-China tensions heading into Trump’s second term, though experts say it’s unlikely to greatly affect bottom lines. But it could be a sign of a brewing tit-for-tat as the two superpowers jockey for economic and military leverage.
Protesters in South Korea are calling for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to be arrested as a warrant expires at midnight today. The chief of security for Yoon, Park Chong-jun, said Sunday he could not cooperate with the arrest efforts for the impeached leader, citing the legal debate over the warrant. Investigators and police attempted to execute the warrant against Yoon on Friday, but retreated from his residence after a standoff with the president’s security service.
OPINION
■ Trump’s pardon promise for Jan. 6 rioters: Does it include the ex-meth trafficker who brought a metal baton and swung it at police? by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
■ Trump is pondering a shake-up of NASA and its programs, by Mark R. Whittington, opinion contributor, The Hill.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press | Chris Pizzello
And finally … Hollywood gathered to celebrate TV and film Sunday night at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards. With four awards apiece, “Emilia Pérez” and FX’s “Shōgun” dominated the film and TV categories, respectively.
“The Brutalist” won best drama film and “Emilia Pérez” took home the award for best musical or comedy; both are sure to have a busy awards season. For TV, “Shōgun” was named best drama, while HBO’s “Hacks” nabbed best comedy series. Blockbuster “Wicked” took home a statuette in a new category for cinematic and box office achievement.
In the film categories, Demi Moore, 62 won her first Globe — her first major acting award — for her performance in “The Substance.”
“I’ve been doing this for 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor,” she said.
Here’s a full winners list from the 2025 awards. And here are the best red carpet looks.
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