Cruz vs. the White House

Today’s notice: Ted Cruz is giving Trumpworld a headache. The health care policy quagmire has returned. An exclusive look at just how deep a quagmire it is. And: The most important school board race you’ve never heard of.

THE LATEST

Big mad? The White House has its naughty list of Republicans, and it’s growing longer by the day. Sen. Ted Cruz has been critical of the Trump administration on several occasions — most notably when he criticized FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s effort to push Jimmy Kimmel off the airwaves — and Donald Trump’s allies think they know why.

They believe Cruz has been posturing ahead of 2028 for months now, NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports. And they have a long list of grievances over the way Cruz has handled his position as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee.

One example: Possible 2028 rival JD Vance wants Jared Isaacman (the guy Elon Musk also wants) to head NASA. He is the official nominee again, after being withdrawn once before (because Musk wanted him). But Reese reports Cruz was bullish on Sean Duffy keeping the job, and the White House sees Cruz slow-walking the nomination to mess with Vance.

What Cruz says: His office declined to comment.

How Trump allies see him: “Ted is quickly going the way of MTG, and I can only imagine what fresh nickname Trump comes up with now to end Ted’s career for the second time,” a source close to Trump told Reese.

The silver lining for Cruz: Few in the House Republican Conference think Trump’s currently rocky relationship with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will stay rocky for long. “They’re very much aligned ideologically, so I don’t see a separation forever,” Rep. Clay Higgins told NOTUS’ Avani Kalra.

“John Adams and Thomas Jefferson fought, and then they were friends,” Rep. Chip Roy said.

Open tabs: Larry Summers resigns OpenAI board seat after Epstein email furor (CNBC); House Democrat Accused of Stealing $5M in Disaster Funds (NOTUS); George Conway, a Vocal Foe of Trump, Eyes Congressional Run (NYT); Nvidia Profits Soar, Countering Investor Jitters on AI Boom (WSJ)

From the Hill

Health care déjà vu: The Affordable Care Act subsidies are still set to expire on Dec. 31. There are not a lot of legislative days between now and then. Republicans want to do something different, but they cannot say what that is because they don’t know.

“There’s a recognition that we need to address the health care premium issue in the individual market,” Rep. Jeff Hurd told the NOTUS Hill team. But that’s about all there is. Hurd has proposed his own plan for the ACA subsidies: extend them with an income cap between $200,000 and $400,000. But that plan has no better chance than any of the others floating around.

Trump instructed Congress this week not to “waste your time and energy” on anything other than sending money directly to individuals. Different plans being kicked around by vulnerable Republicans are seen as politically toxic.

“We’re just going to put everyone’s ideas on the table and see where people are,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told the Hill team ahead of a Problem Solvers Caucus meeting today where health care will be discussed.

First on NOTUS: New data compiled by progressive group Protect Our Care show just how politically crucial finding a health care fix is for Republicans. By browsing marketplaces in 46 states, the group gamed out out-of-pocket health care cost increases if the ACA subsidies expire. They are jaw-dropping: A 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year in Carbondale, Illinois, would pay $5,020 more a month for the same coverage, reads one example.

From the White House

“I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump declared last night, more than 24 hours after the bill passed the Senate and was sent over to the White House. Reporters (including our own) asked officials all day when the president would do the promised deed, that he absolutely wanted to do the entire time and was not forced to in a rebuke by his own party… to near radio silence.

Trump sought to rewrite history, casting his last-hour approval as the reason it passed, demonizing those who sought to use the issue to distract against Republican wins and predicting it would “backfire” on Democrats — and not him.

But that’s not all from the Truth Social machine. Just minutes later, the president, not trying to change the conversation at all, announced he would be meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday, calling him a communist in the process.

From the campaign trail

“You’ve never had the wholesale flip of a school board like this,” Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democratic National Committee vice chair and Pennsylvania state representative, told NOTUS’ Avani Kalra.

A little-noticed race for school board in the Central Bucks School District, which is in a county that voted for Rep. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, and Trump, is giving Democrats hope for better days in 2026. It wasn’t the only school board race Democrats flipped earlier this month. Does that mean they are winning on culture war issues that have defined the education discourse of late?

Or… “This is the cyclical nature of politics,” Fitzpatrick said. “Anytime there’s an overreach, the pendulum swings back in the other direction. That has and always will be the case.”

NEW ON NOTUS

Slow to fix: NOTUS has done a ton of reporting on how toothless the STOCK Act is. Yet, a hearing on the act and potential reforms — including a ban on individual stock trading by sitting members — basically didn’t go anywhere yesterday, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports.

No one can agree on the best way to build back public trust while also letting members earn investment income. Repeated violations of the rules that face no censure will likely continue as that conversation goes on.

Slower to a fix: “I don’t want these people having to hide underneath a trailer when Immigration shows up,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden told NOTUS’ Manuela Silva and Jade Lozada of undocumented workers on American farms. Farmers are facing labor strains from the administration’s deportation push. Republicans in Congress have acknowledged that, but policy fixes look far from settled debate.

Quiet SNAP cuts? The Trump administration is considering new restrictions on SNAP that it says would create a “more consistent nationwide policy,” according to a proposed rule NOTUS’ Violet Jira spotted. It wants to restrict who automatically receives SNAP benefits in a way welfare advocates say could make it harder for millions to receive the aid.

More: Legal Experts Say Lindsey Halligan’s Inexperience Could Tank the DOJ’s Comey Case, by Jose Pagliery

Trump Nominates New CFPB Boss in Apparent Bid to Extend Vought’s Time at the Helm, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

Federal Judge Puts DOJ Back in the Crosshairs Over ‘Alien Enemy’ Deportation Flights, by Jose Pagliery

NOT US

• Wall Street Is Paywalling Your Kids’ Sports, by Luke Goldstein for The Lever
  
• The Charlie Kirk purge: How 600 Americans were punished in a pro-Trump crackdown, by Raphael Satter and A.J. Vicens for Reuters
  
• Inside the dawn patrols where San Diego teachers track ICE, by Amanda Ulrich for The Guardian

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! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.org. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@notus.org.