Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Jonathan Allen and Matt Dixon explore how President Donald Trump is looking for economic policy inspiration from an unlikely source. Plus, Adam Edelman dives into the Minneapolis mayor’s return to the national spotlight.
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— Adam Wollner
Trump turns to progressives for ideas on affordabilityBy Jonathan Allen and Matt Dixon
President Donald Trump is looking for unlikely allies as he rolls out a new agenda to try to address Americans’ concerns about affordability and position Republicans for the midterm elections: progressives.
To the left: In recent days, Trump has renewed a campaign promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10% after having failed to push it in the first year of his term, vowed to ban large investors from buying up housing and directed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to invest $200 billion in mortgage bonds.
Trump has also raised eyebrows among traditional economic conservatives by having the government take ownership stakes in some private companies, threatening to punish others for not complying with his demands and pressuring Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates — in conjunction with the investigation launched by the Justice Department into the central bank.
“These are not limited-government, free-market policies, and it’s also creating a precedent for the next time a Democrat’s in the White House,” said Marc Short, who was director of White House legislative affairs and chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence in Trump’s first term.
Trump’s track record: For most of the first year of his second term, Trump has pursued economic policies that progressives detest: dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, cutting taxes for high earners in the One Big Beautiful Bill and allowing Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies to expire. His plan to offer homebuyers 50-year mortgages landed like a lead balloon and has been abandoned.
Yesterday, Trump called Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., after she delivered a speech excoriating her own party for being too cozy with its wealthy donors.
“I delivered this same message on affordability to him directly,” Warren said. She added that so far, Trump “has done nothing but raise costs for families” and that he needed to “use his leverage and pick up the phone” if he actually wanted to advance some of those economic policies.
Live from Detroit: In a speech at the Detroit Economic Club this afternoon, Trump declined to elaborate on the details of the newer agenda items. Rather, he declared that “the Trump economic boom has officially begun,” just hours after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices continued to tick upward during the first year of his term.
“In the coming weeks, I will be laying out even more plans to help bring back affordability,” Trump said, even as he called the issue a “fake word” generated by Democrats to convince voters that he is at fault for high prices.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey emerges as city’s ’emotional voice’ following ICE shootingBy Adam Edelman
Hours after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, in Minneapolis last week, Mayor Jacob Frey delivered a passionate and expletive-riddled response to the latest tragedy to befall his city.
His remarks — headlined by his calling on ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis” — ricocheted around social media, giving voice to the frustration and anger many around the country were feeling about the incident.
Since then, Frey, 44, who is in his third term, has continued to respond frequently, bluntly and often emotionally to the shooting and the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents to Minnesota through a series of TV interviews, newspaper op-eds and news conferences.
It has thrust him again into the center of a contentious national debate — a position he was in more than five years ago when another Minneapolis resident, George Floyd, died at the hands of law enforcement blocks from where Good was shot.
In the wake of Floyd’s killing, many said Frey struggled to regain control of Minneapolis as it plunged into chaos and rioting. And he faced criticism from progressives for his refusal to commit to “defunding the police.”
This time around, those who’ve closely watched Frey’s mayoralty see growth.
“Leadership is not stagnant. It’s forged under pressure, and from my vantage point, I’ve watched Mayor Frey grow in real time during some of the most painful chapters our city has ever faced. He has not been perfect, but I’ve watched his growth, and I’m proud of that growth,” said PJ Hill, a Democratic businessman who owns several buildings near where Floyd was killed in 2020.
Voters re-elected Frey in November over a crowded field of competitors who included state Sen. Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist. Frey has said he won’t run for a fourth term, prompting some speculation that he will seek a higher office in blue-leaning Minnesota in the near future.
But for the time being, he’s a prominent voice in a broader debate over federal-versus-local authority amid Trump’s mass deportation push.
Related reads:
🗞️ Today’s other top stories
- ⚖️ SCOTUS watch: The Supreme Court appeared likely to uphold state laws that ban transgender athletes from taking part in girls’ and women’s school and college sports. Read more →
- 🇮🇷 Iran unrest: Israeli and Arab officials have told the Trump administration in recent days that they believe the Iranian regime may not yet be weakened to the point where U.S. military strikes would be the decisive blow that topples it. Read more →
- 🇮🇷 Iran unrest, cont.: Trump urged Iranian civilians to keep protesting and said “help is on its way” amid a crackdown on demonstrations that a U.S.-based human rights group says have killed 2,000 people. Read more →
- 🗓️ Mark your calendar: Former special counsel Jack Smith will testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 22 after he sat for a closed-door deposition about his investigations into Trump. Read more →
- 📝 Epstein saga: The House Oversight Committee announced that it will seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress after he failed to appear for a deposition as part of the panel’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein. Read more →
- 📉 Obamacare watch: As open enrollment for Affordable Care Act insurance comes to an end, people are moving to cheaper plans or dropping their coverage entirely, according to state and federal data. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Owen Auston-Babcock.
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