Today’s notice: Have affordability politics been boxed out? Republicans say they can multitask on the campaign trail. Will taxpayers have to foot the bill for Venezuelan oil infrastructure? Plus: Some big House votes on the schedule for today.
THE LATEST
On tenterhooks, again: Will Donald Trump escalate in Minneapolis after Democratic leaders called on DHS to abandon its immigration surge in the city?
After yesterday’s altercation, in which 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent, Gov. Tim Walz and the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, condemned the massive deployment there of thousands of federal agents overseen by Kristi Noem. “To ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” Frey said at a firey press conference. “We do not want you here.”
Many conservatives called that line incitement to riot. For his part, Walz put the state’s National Guard on standby while appealing to protesters to remain peaceful.
This situation is very ugly, and is the kind of moment that often used to result in close coordination between elected leaders in the hopes that things remained calm. That coordination is not likely in this case. And so we wait and see.
Open tabs: Trump Admin Endorses ‘Real Food’ — And Saturated Fats — In New Dietary Guidelines (NOTUS); U.S. reduces number of warships near Venezuela after Maduro raid (WaPo); Steny Hoyer Announces His Retirement From Congress (NOTUS); Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ownership announces it’s shutting down the paper (NBC)
From the campaign trail
Bumpy start to the Year of Affordability: Republicans have said they need a reset with voters on economic issues. For the next little while at least, it seems Trump’s foreign policy moves may drown out that effort.
“We can walk and chew gum,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson and Oriana González. “The reason we maintained the majority last time is Republicans were laser focused on cost of living, on issues that people care about — and we’re going to continue to focus on those but we can do foreign policy at the same time.”
The Democratic candidate trying to leverage data center backlash: Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed is running to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan on a platform that includes more forceful opposition to the construction of new data centers, NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal reports. El-Sayed released an eight-point document this morning on the topic that he hopes will become the basis for legislation if he is elected.
“The problem is that too often — and this has been my big structural critique of the Democratic Party — Democrats are bought off by the same corporations that are buying off Republicans, and so they conveniently avoid talking about issues that arise in local communities,” El-Sayed told Sam.
From the White House
Venezuelan oil gets stickier: The Trump administration is “indefinitely” taking control of Venezuelan oil sales, which will require rolling back some sanctions, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports. The revenues will be in accounts controlled by Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday. Wright acknowledged that private companies are unlikely to invest in Venezuela yet, but that the U.S. aims to “create the conditions” for them to do so.
The big political question: What does “create the conditions” mean?
Cue the disagreement: To Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as interior secretary in the first Trump administration, it means every American will be investing in Venezuelan oil. “I don’t think the burden is gonna be borne by just American companies. I think some of the burden is going to have to be done by American taxpayers, too, whether it’s a loan, but it’s going to require, I think, congressional approval,” Zinke told Emily on Tuesday.
This is not what the administration says. “While multiple options are being considered, there are no plans to use taxpayer dollars to reimburse infrastructure investments in Venezuela,” a White House official told Jasmine.
Meanwhile, they’re also trying to walk and chew gum. Even as the ongoing foreign policy moves continue to dominate the conversation, Trump tried to keep some focus on affordability politics, announcing a new housing proposal that would bar “large institutional investors” from buying single-family homes en masse.
“People live in homes, not corporations,” he posted, a campaign trail-ready line. Trump said he’d reveal more of his plan in Davos later this month.
But it’s hard for affordability to get a word in edge-wise at the moment. In a memo to executive branch agencies last night, Trump withdrew the U.S. from more than 60 international organizations, including the U.N.’s population agency and its treaty that establishes international climate negotiations.
He also laid out a list of new rules for defense contractors. Among his priorities: lower executive pay, no stock buybacks or dividends and a plan to reinvest those dollars into increased production.
From the Hill
National Prayer Breakfast details: Reps. Ben Cline and Jonathan Jackson, respectively the Republican and Democratic co-chairs of the 74th National Prayer Breakfast, announced that the event will be held at the Washington Hilton on Feb. 5. NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports that Trump is slated to be in attendance, along with members of Congress.
Big votes today: The House is expected to take up two efforts to override Trump’s vetoes of broadly bipartisan bills — one about tribal recognition and another that funds a major water project in Colorado. The Discharge Petition Era has taught us that the House can pretty easily defy the president when it gets a mind to, but unless the Senate is ready to do it, too, the whole thing can be anticlimactic.
Possibly climactic: Health care talks in the Senate, NOTUS’ Avani Kalra and Ursula Perano report. “We’re in the red zone, but that doesn’t mean a touchdown,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, one of the Republican senators taking part in the bipartisan dealmaking over those expired Affordable Care Act subsidies, told reporters. “It could be a 95-yard fumble. So we’re right there.”
NEW ON NOTUS
Info dumped? The “exquisite intelligence” about the internal goings-on in Venezuela’s government that U.S. officials said they relied on before the military operation there may be hard to maintain in the aftermath, intel experts and members of Congress tell NOTUS’ Helen Huiskes.
“How does that change when something like the taking of [Nicolás] Maduro and the chaos that ensues? How does that change?” Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said. “The answer is, it can absolutely change.”
Blown off: Wind developers allege in new legal filings that the Trump administration didn’t inform them of immediate “national security” concerns before pausing in December all offshore wind projects for 90 days. In one lawsuit, developer Orsted said it had met with the administration just six days prior to the stop-work orders being issued.
The administration “never raised any national security concerns” during that meeting or other recent routine meetings, Orsted said in the filing, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak reports.
More: Ex-Reality TV Star Announces Bid for Los Angeles Mayor, by Amelia Benavides-Colón
Tim Walz Isn’t Running for Reelection. That Complicates Republicans’ Plans. By Christa Dutton
Dem Congresswoman Announces Impeachment Effort Against Noem, by Amelia Benavides-Colón
NOT US
- The Cuba-born Harvard economist behind Trump’s immigration crackdown, by Lauren Kaori Gurley for The Washington Post
- As Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Pushes Into High Schools, Dissension Follows, by Pooja Salhotra for The New York Times
- The Wrath of Stephen Miller, by Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Nick Miroff for The Atlantic
BE SOCIAL
Spotted outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building this week, after the Trump administration modeled its vaccine schedule for kids after Denmark.
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