Today’s notice: We are live from the House GOP retreat in Florida, where it’s actually nice to be outside. More on the abortion politics of now. More DOGE, more places. And: How to sell an immigration crackdown.
The TV-Ready Face of Hard-Line Immigration Policies
Immigration in Donald Trump’s first term can be seen as something of a failed PR effort. Family separations at the border became a series of ugly images that led to a policy walk back. NOTUS’ Casey Murray reports on the administration’s fresh PR approach to its hard-line policies toward migrants: embedding Dr. Phil with Tom Homan and ICE officers in Chicago over the weekend.
Opponents of Trump’s policies told Casey they have long expected the administration “to try and make a huge PR stunt out of apprehensions and deportations.” They see it as conservatives learning from what went wrong, which perhaps can also be seen in the early focus on criminals and photos of Air Force jets full of single men.
Trump has the politics of immigration on his side, according to polls. But as family separation showed, that can change quickly without the right spin.
For their part, Trump opponents in Chicago were unimpressed with the TV-friendly immigration raid in their city.
“He’s such a hypocrite piece of shit. Dr. Phil, always telling couples to reconcile, always telling people to look to their greater nature, to be more human with one another,” former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez told Casey.
It’s 77 Degrees and Sunny in Miami
The House GOP retreat this year is nothing like last year’s poorly attended trip to The Greenbrier in West Virginia, where lawmakers openly griped that they’d wished leadership had kept the casino open.
House Republicans are enjoying the high life at Trump’s luxe hotel in Doral, Florida, golfing, sipping cocktails and sporting colorful resort wear. (Let’s just say seeing a congressman in a bathing suit is a little like running into your middle school teacher in the grocery store.)
“I know you guys are really upset to be here and not Washington, D.C.,” Florida Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart told reporters at a kickoff leadership press conference.
There is real work that needs to be done down here, like hammering out a blueprint for Trump’s agenda. We’ll be reporting live when we see it. Lawmakers claim they’re on it…
“Over the next few days, we’ll be indoors,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson insisted.
As for Trump, the guest of honor Monday, his remarks flicked at some policy agenda items, but focused mostly on his campaign victory, grievances and the possibility of a third term.
PS: The Doral playlist includes “Oh Caroline” by The 1975. We did not have Trump down as a Matty Healy guy.
—Riley Rogerson, reporting from Miami | Read the story.
Front Page
- Inside Trump’s Charm Offensive on Capitol Hill: Trump seems to have learned a key lesson from his first term: The carrot can be more effective than the stick.
- Detained Migrant Children Get a Higher Standard of Care. That’s Now in Legal Limbo.: A Biden-era agreement to provide sanitary conditions in detention expires Wednesday.
- Senators From Both Parties Want Trump to Explain Why He Fired 17 Inspectors General: Congress passed legislation in 2022 to insulate the government watchdogs.
A Commitment Test for Trump
Everyone involved in the anti-abortion fight remembers when Trump said the issue should be left up to the states. But when Week 1 of his administration brought executive orders walking back Biden-era initiatives to expand and protect abortion access, NOTUS’ Oriana González found anti-abortion activists with renewed hope — and some skepticism.
“President Trump has signaled that he doesn’t want to abolish abortion. So, you know, he may have a change of heart,” said Lila Rose, the president of the anti-abortion group Live Action. “You know, I would say God spared his life, you know, from an assassination, multiple assassination attempts, and so I would urge him, ‘Hey, spare the life of the unborn.’”
Meet DOGE’s Puppies
Everyone’s getting their own DOGE, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak reports. States are engaged in splashy launches for their own versions of the Dept. of Government Efficiency at a steady clip. An efficient way of doing this, Shifra writes, is to rebrand existing cost-cutting efforts to match the Trump admin meme.
That also means there’s bipartisan buy-in for the DOGElets around the nation. Democrats who Shifra talked to said they “expect the same spending debates under a new name.”
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Trump Stocks E.P.A. With Oil, Gas and Chemical Lobbyists by Lisa Friedman, Hiroko Tabuchi and Coral Davenport for The New York Times
- Trump froze grantmaking for health research. Now Maryland is shivering. By Meredith Cohn for The Baltimore Banner
- Republicans Are Trashing the CBO Before They Have a Tax Bill by Cady Stanton at Tax Notes
Be Social
Have you heard of DeepSeek?
LinkedIn gonna be crazy when they find out about DeepSeek next week
— Turner Novak 🍌🧢 (@TurnerNovak) January 27, 2025
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