Congress
Here’s who’s in the running to be Trump’s White House counsel
Two lawyers who have played key roles in investigations into Donald Trump and his top allies are now under consideration for a crucial gig in his administration: White House counsel.
David Warrington, the general counsel for the Trump campaign; and Stanley Woodward, a defense lawyer who has represented many prominent Trump aides, are both in the mix, according to two people familiar with the transition team’s deliberations. Other candidates are also under consideration.
“President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon,” said Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Both men are also advising the transition on legal matters. Woodward and Warrington did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House counsel represents the presidency as an institution, helming a staff of lawyers who specialize in federal government operations. During the first Trump term, then-White House Counsel Don McGahn prioritized the appointment of young conservatives to the federal judiciary — one of the most enduring parts of Trump’s first four years.
Warrington, a partner at Dhillon Law Group, helped guide the Trump campaign through a maze of unprecedented political and legal challenges.
He represented Trump during the Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation, along with former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former White House personnel adviser Johnny McEntee, and “Stop the Steal” organizers Amy and Kylie Kremer. And Warrington represents Trump in ongoing civil lawsuits brought by members of Congress and police officers over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Previously, he was general counsel for Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign and advised the Trump campaign during the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Woodward, once a big-law denizen specializing in complex civil litigation, has spent the last few years rising to prominence along with his law partner former House counsel Stan Brand. The pair represented Trump aide Dan Scavino before the Jan. 6 select committee and special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ effort to subvert the 2020 election.
Woodward also expanded his client roster to include other prominent Trump allies ensnared in related probes, including former adviser Kash Patel, former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and Trump’s body man Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in the Florida classified documents probe. Woodward played a role in fighting the Justice Department’s effort to access Rep. Scott Perry’s phone as part of the 2020 election probe.
Woodward has also represented several notable defendants who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including Kelly Meggs, a member of the Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy; and Ryan Samsel, who helped instigate the first breach of police lines that day.
Congress
Rep. Dusty Johnson to announce a bid for South Dakota governor Monday
Rep. Dusty Johnson will announce a bid for South Dakota governor Monday, according to two people granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.
Johnson has served as South Dakota’s sole House representative since 2019. He’s been a key player in major deals on Capitol Hill in recent years as the head of the Main Street Caucus of Republicans.
Johnson, long expected to mount a bid for higher office, will make the announcement in Sioux Falls.
Johnson is the eighth House Republican to announce a run for higher office in 2026. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Byron Donalds of Florida, Randy Feenstra of Iowa, John James of Michigan and John Rose of Tennessee are also seeking governor’s offices; Reps. Andy Barr of Kentucky and Buddy Carter of Georgia have announced Senate runs.
Congress
Senate slated to take first vote on megabill Saturday
Senate Republicans are planning to take an initial vote at noon on Saturday to take up the megabill.
Leadership laid out the timeline during a closed-door lunch on Friday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said after the lunch. A person granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling confirmed the noon timeline but cautioned Republicans haven’t locked in the schedule yet.
During the lunch, Speaker Mike Johnson pitched Senate Republicans on the tentative SALT deal, according to three people in the room. He said the deal was as good as Republican can get, according to the people.
Johnson noted he still has “one holdout” — an apparent reference to New York Republican Nick LaLota, who said in a brief interview Friday that if there was a deal, he was not part of it.
Leaving the meeting, Johnson was asked by reporters whether he thought Senate Republicans would accept the SALT deal. “I believe they will,” he replied. “They’re going to digest the final calculations, but I think we’re very, very close to closing that issue.”
In the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Johnson laid out details of the fragile agreement, telling Senate Republicans the House SALT deal would be cut in half, to total roughly $192 billion. They restated it would raise the SALT cap to $40,000 for five years under the current House-negotiated SALT deal, and snap back to the current $10,000 cap after that.
In related matters, Kennedy and Hoeven also said the Senate will keep its provider tax proposal but delay its implementation, which Republicans believe will help it comply with budget rules. and Johnson also told Senate Republicans that he wants to do another reconciliation bill — which senators took to mean they would get another opportunity to secure spending cuts or provisions passed that have been squeezed out of the megabill.
Congress
Trump says July 4 is “not the end all”
President Donald Trump on Friday backed off the July 4 deadline he set for Congress to pass his megabill, acknowledging that the timing could slip as Republicans work through a series of political and logistical hurdles.
“It’s not the end all,” Trump said of the self-imposed Independence Day goal. “It can go longer, but we’d like to get it done by that time if possible.”
The remarks represented a clear softening of the White House’s position from just a day earlier, when Trump administration officials insisted that the GOP lawmakers pass the domestic policy package within a week despite a series of fresh obstacles.
Senate Republican leaders are still struggling to lock down the necessary 51 votes for the bill, amid objections from competing factions over the depth of the legislation’s Medicaid cuts.
The effort has also been hamstrung by a flurry of adverse rulings by the Senate parliamentarian that are now forcing lawmakers to rewrite significant portions of the bill.
The president indicated that he has little interest as of now in trying to directly overrule or even fire the parliamentarian — a step that some close allies in Congress had called for after she disqualified several of the bill’s provisions.
“The parliamentarian’s been a little difficult,” Trump said. “I disagree with the parliamentarian on some things, and on other ways she’s been fine.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed those issues on Thursday, saying Trump still expected Republicans to coalesce in the coming days and put the bill on his desk by July 4.
But asked directly on Friday, Trump took a more ambivalent stance.
“We have a lot of committed people and they feel strongly about a subject, subjects that you’re not even thinking about that are important to Republicans,” he said, appearing to reference the policy divisions within the Senate GOP conference.
Trump also singled out Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) for praise despite his resistance to the bill, complaining instead about the lack of Democratic votes.
“The problem we have is it’s a great bill, it’s a popular bill,” Trump said. “But we’ll get no Democrats.”
If all Republicans vote for the bill, it would not need Democrats’ support to pass.
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