Today’s notice: The White House is done worrying about the markets. Mistakes will be made. And they can have unintended consequences. Crypt-no currency. And, someone get the president a NOTUS account, please. But first: Is populism popular?
Has the GOP Populist Moment Finally Arrived?
Donald Trump’s reelection was supposed to put an end to the GOP debate over embracing populism vs. traditional small-c conservative economic policy. And yet in Congress, the populists are not the ones driving the public debate over the reconciliation bill.
Instead, as our Hill team reports, it remains a very standard fight between the “shrink the government”-types and more cautious moderates worried about the electoral implications of that.
NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt got this somewhat dejected quote from noted GOP populist Sen. Josh Hawley, who is watching his party twist itself up over Medicaid cuts. “I don’t understand the argument that says, ‘Yes, congratulations working folks, you voted for Donald Trump, and now we’re going to take away your access to health insurance,’” he told her. “It seems insane to me.”
Donald Trump, meanwhile, is insisting on a populist agenda, posting on TruthSocial on Wednesday that “We are going to do NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON SENIORS’ SOCIAL SECURITY, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and much more.”
So why aren’t those things getting more attention on Capitol Hill, as opposed to, say, proposed cuts to Medicaid?
“That’s because reconciliation isn’t done yet,” Rep Anna Paulina Luna told NOTUS. “You’ll hear it though, without a doubt.”
In other words, you’ll have to trust them. Trump, meanwhile, is moving ahead with his populist desires and not waiting for Congress to figure it out. Politico reported that next week he’ll announce an executive action on Medicare drug prices that Big Pharma hates and his party refused to include in the reconciliation package.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro and Samuel Larreal
What Economic Troubles?
Some more traditional GOP allies of the Republican populist-in-chief are starting to feel “antsy for some tangible sign of progress on trade negotiations or more permanent tariff rollbacks, or at least a clear sign of what to expect in the coming weeks and months,” NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright, Violet Jira and Mark Alfred report from the White House.
“I think it’s more confusion and worry than it is necessarily pessimism,” former commerce secretary Wilbur Ross told them.
Trump has made big, rapid changes to his tariff plan amidst heated, sometimes apocalyptic, criticism. But the NOTUS team reports that the fears from those days (you know, less than a month ago) are, according to one senior administration official, “gone.” The oft-stated populist underpinnings to the trade war are now top of mind in the White House and rising is a view that selling the president’s “vision” of mid- and long-term results is more important than calming skittish CEOs.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read the story.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Why Can’t New York Have Nice Mayors?, by Eric Lach for the New Yorker
- ‘Rolling Thunder’: Inside conservatives’ strategy to curb abortion pill access, by Alice Miranda Ollstein for Politico
- DC-Area Universities Are Offering Trump Classes This Fall, by Jane Godiner for Washingtonian
Mistakes Mean Effectiveness
The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration agenda has sent at least two people who shouldn’t have been deported to El Salvador, drawing strong rebukes. For Republicans, this is a sign the sweeping deportation efforts are working. NOTUS’ Emily Kennard reports GOP lawmakers are dismissing those erroneous deportations as “hiccups.”
“To have only two errors, I think, is outstanding. I think that’s an outstanding record of success,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis told Emily, “and so the fact that there’s only been two should be celebrated, instead of being cause for concern because the mistakes are being corrected.” (The two people mistakenly deported remain deported.)
…Or Maybe Not
Latino voters in Florida are paying close attention to Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, Republicans who represent those voters tell NOTUS’ Casey Murray. And what they are seeing “may threaten his gains” with Venezuelan voters, Rep. Carlos Giménez warned.
He and fellow GOP Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and María Elvira Salazar sent the White House a letter in January as part of a ongoing focus on “lobbying the Trump administration for a more case-by-case solution to addressing Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and others who fled authoritarian regimes and are now set to lose protections,” Casey writes.
On the other hand, other Republicans say the way to keep them onside is to get the kitchen table policy right. “The economy is going to improve dramatically. We have faith in that,” RNC spokesperson Jaime Florez said, adding “people are going to be very happy.”
Tales From The Crypto
Trump’s full-throated support for a bipartisan bill on cryptocurrency has complicated its pathway through Congress. The bill is now stalled, and NOTUS’ Claire Heddles reports on the tide potentially turning for backers “despite the massive amount of crypto industry election cash across both parties last year.”
Quotable
“Well I don’t know yet, I have to see, because you’re just telling me that for the first time. We’ll work something out.”
That’s Trump, when asked about his response to GOP moderates who say they oppose stripping federal funding for Planned Parenthood in the reconciliation bill, as NOTUS first reported. The question came from Audrey Fahlberg of National Review in an Oval Office press gaggle on Wednesday.
Front Page
- Senate Democrats Sharpen Their Spears for Mike Waltz’s Confirmation Hearing: “It’s gonna be a hard one,” Sen. Tim Kaine said.
- DeSantis Wants State Control of Everglades Restoration. Elon Musk Could Help Him Get It.: DeSantis wants to get federal funding for Everglades restoration in the form of a block grant.
- Trump’s Abortion Pill Defense Puts a Fresh Crack In His Relationship With the Anti-Abortion Movement: “I am troubled by the fact that the Justice Department has sided with the Biden administration’s position,” Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to the DOJ.
Be Social
The peak “who among us has not…” moment.
.@RepMaxineWaters: "This is the first time we've met, is that correct?"@SecScottBessent: "No, ma'am. We actually met one New Year's Eve in the Bahamas."
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 7, 2025
Rep. Waters: "Why don't I remember that?"
Sec. Bessent: "You were much better at the electric slide than I was." pic.twitter.com/vwq2CpI3eC
Have a Tip? Email Us.
Reach us at tips@notus.org. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our newsletter at newsletters@notus.org.
Thank you for reading! If you like this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe (it’s free!).