Congress
What the Gaetz episode says about Trump’s attempts to control Congress
Donald Trump is making it clear he wants to bend the Republican-led Congress to his will, pushing the limits of what lawmakers will accept on staffing his Cabinet and also on looming questions of federal spending authority.
Round one in that fight — the Matt Gaetz saga — went to Senate Republicans. And it gives early hints of how GOP lawmakers may respond on spending and other controversial nominees.
“The Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent — and in this particular case, I think there was advice offered, rather than consent,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said shortly after Gaetz announced he was withdrawing his name from consideration for attorney general.
In that tumultuous episode, GOP senators pushed back privately, not publicly. Many were hesitant to vocally denounce his efforts, knowing the threat of Trump’s wrath and a potential primary challenge constantly shadow them. But they counseled him behind the scenes, hoping he’d acquiesce before they were forced to either bend or defy him outright.
Gaetz won’t be the last example that tests the strategy. Even with the Florida firebrand out, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has a slew of problems over Trump’s controversial Cabinet nominees — including sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth, who Trump tapped to lead the Department of Defense — as the incoming president leans on Congress to let him circumvent the Senate’s confirmation authority and make recess appointments.
And then there’s spending, arguably Congress’ most important responsibility. Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House in limbo as he defers to Trump on his preferences for a funding deal, and a shutdown deadline is quickly approaching. Johnson and appropriators have a potentially bigger challenge soon, as the incoming president’s out-of-government allies have made it clear they want to go around Congress’ constitutionally guaranteed power to control federal spending.
“I think we should defend Article One. We’re an equal branch of government. I support probably 80 percent or 90 percent of the policies, but it’s going to be in the Article One vs. Article Two framework,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said about the relationship between Trump and Hill Republicans. Those two articles of the Constitution establish the legislative and executive branch, respectively.
Trump’s anticipated return to Washington is poised to look much different than his arrival in 2017, when he knew little of the ways of Congress and struggled with the persuasive tactics required to push through a legislative agenda. The coming months will lay bare whether his now-numerous Capitol Hill allies will be able to more effectively steer his ambitions — or allow him to steer theirs.
“There will be no daylight between us and President Trump on policy, and moving forward with foreign policy, funding or anything else,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a close Trump ally, told reporters in the Capitol recently.
Trump will likely have his greatest influence in the House, particularly with Johnson leading the chamber. Their fates are closely intertwined, since Johnson will need the president-elect’s support to keep his job in leadership.
And even Republicans who have been fiercely public about reforming the spending process are giving Trump the latitude to decide how to handle the upcoming government funding fight, with the deadline backing up straight into the Christmas holiday.
“You just have a very Trump House, because most people that came in came in with him at the top of the ticket,” said one senior GOP House member, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
While lawmakers haven’t explicitly pushed back on efforts to allow the executive branch to make more funding decisions, there are already emerging policy divides between lawmakers and Trump on spending — as well as mass deportations, tariffs and additional aid to Ukraine. Just this week, libertarian-leaning GOP Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued that Trump’s plan to use the military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would be a “huge mistake.” Several Republicans, including Thune, have raised concerns about tariffs.
But how Republicans handle the various battles will be an early litmus test for how far they are willing to bend to Trump’s effort to control their end of Pennsylvania Avenue. While Johnson has tied himself closely to Trump, Thune has worked to repair their relationship — and recently got social media praise from the president-elect — but will have to try to balance Trump’s demands with what can actually get the votes in the Senate.
“It’s just hard for me to fathom or believe that people have changed so much that they’re willing to give up that responsibility,” Alberto Gonzales, who served as attorney general under George W. Bush, a president also accused of executive overreach, said about the Senate’s confirmation powers.
Asked if there was a lesson for Trump to learn from Gaetz’s withdrawal, incoming Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that the only takeaway was that Trump “has the constitutional right to nominate. We have the constitutional responsibility to confirm.
“We each handle our jobs separately,” he said.
Trump-Vance transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump winning by a “resounding margin” gives him “a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”
During Trump’s first term, he had multiple spending clashes with conservatives on Blue Light News before many began to align with the iron-fisted president. And the reality that he can make or break someone’s career in politics is now widely recognized, though his attempts are not always successful.
One House Republican, granted anonymity to speak frankly, recounted how several members have survived primaries after facing attacks from Trump or his allies: “It was just two years ago that Matt Rosendale pushed away the president’s phone call on the House floor. I mean, like, I understand that there’s this optic that we’re gonna all fall in line. I don’t know, do we seem unified?”
But spending deadlines could be where fiscal hawks clash with Trump, despite both calling for reining in government spending. Trump followed other presidents before him in contributing to the national debt, with his administration adding $7 trillion to the total.
Outside of Congress, Trump’s allies are working to grease the way for his agenda to sidestep congressional approval.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump picked to lead his new so-called Department of Government Efficiency, made the case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday that the Supreme Court could seek to determine whether the 1974 Impoundment Control Act — which restricts the executive branch’s power to alter congressionally appropriated funds — is unconstitutional.
While the discussion, on its own, is a nod to Trump’s pending return to Washington, if the high court sided with them, it would mark a significant shift. And while the idea would likely spark heartburn if enacted, even some Republicans tasked with funding the government aren’t closing the door entirely until they get more information.
“My job is to work with the president, not against the president,” said Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “We wouldn’t be in the majority without him, so we’re certainly going to try to work with the president.”
Ursula Perano contributed to this report.
Tom Cotton made his name in Washington as an outspoken critic of a Democratic president’s deal to check Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Now, with a president of his own party angling toward a similarly structured agreement, the Arkansas Republican is so far using a softer voice.
Cotton, the No. 3 Senate Republican and Intelligence Committee chair, is not alone among GOP defense hawks in finding himself in an awkward position more than a decade after lambasting President Barack Obama’s Iran deal.
But the combination of his prior ferocity toward the Iranian regime and his current leadership responsibilities have put him into an especially tight spot as President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance sell their 14-point “memorandum of understanding” to skeptical Republicans.
Cotton moved toward critiquing that framework in a Fox News interview Thursday, crediting Trump for “making Iran weaker than it’s been in decades” while airing concerns that “certain aspects of this deal are a step in the wrong direction.”
“We need to make sure that we don’t squander the leverage that we’ve built” against Iran, he said.
That is a far cry from the rhetoric Cotton deployed as a freshman senator in 2015, when Obama was moving in concert with other global powers to force Iran to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and other economic favors.
Cotton led a brash effort to undermine the deal — most notably by organizing a public letter signed by 46 other GOP senators to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then the supreme leader of Iran, warning that “anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement” that could be nixed by a future administration.
The letter enraged the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, but it was prescient.
After he was elected in 2016, Trump withdrew from the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, setting the stage for his second-term military campaign against Iran that he is now seeking to end by trading curbs on Iran’s nuclear program for sanctions relief and other economic favors.
If that was the only jam Cotton was facing from Trump this week, it would be plenty. But the discomfiting Iran situation has been compounded by the president’s recent moves to upend Cotton’s careful negotiations aimed at extending a key surveillance program for three years.
After Trump blew up that deal by appointing a political ally to a top intelligence position, Cotton moved quickly to fast-track a permanent replacement through his committee and rekindle the surveillance deal — only to watch Trump blow things up once again.
Majority Leader John Thune, like most Senate Republicans, had nothing but praise this week for the “great job” Cotton was doing amid the tumult over the expired spy law and the director of national intelligence drama.
“He’s a really strong chair on the committee. And he had it all teed up and ready to go,” Thune said in an interview. “Now it’s just … back to the drawing board.”
But Cotton’s moves amid the back-and-forth — particularly his decision to publicly announce a hearing would move forward Wednesday for DNI nominee Jay Clayton even after Trump publicly declared he was “cancelling” it — attracted attention on the right.
Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon voiced blistering criticism of Cotton, calling him “out of control” and suggesting he “should be turfed out” of his safe seat over trying to proceed with the hearing. Cotton is up for reelection and expected to win easily.
Cotton backtracked, postponing the hearing while noting that it was “regrettable” that Trump directed Clayton not to appear. The White House didn’t respond to questions about Cotton.
Thune defended Cotton, saying he was “operating within his rights and prerogatives” as chair in insisting, however briefly, that the hearing would go on.
Unlike most GOP senators, Cotton is unusually tight-lipped around the Capitol, enforcing a blanket “no comment” policy in the hallways this week as reporters tried several times to ask him about everything from the surveillance program to Clayton to Iran. His office did not respond to an interview request.
Cotton has plenty of supporters within the Senate Republican conference, where he is well-liked and won a contested race for the No. 3 leadership spot. And his quick rise through the party has generated speculation that he could one day become Senate GOP leader or run for president.
It’s not lost on Republicans that even the straight-talking 49-year-old, who was under consideration for a Trump Cabinet position, has found himself crosswise with the administration. That speaks to the larger issues the Senate GOP is facing as the president’s rash decisions complicate their carefully laid plans, they say.
“Senator Cotton is surely, surely a big fan and supporter of the president,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. But, she added, “he’s got a committee to run.”
Cotton is also hardly alone among his GOP colleagues in voicing concerns about the memorandum of understanding signed by Iran and the United States.
Though there are now more senators with MAGA-aligned “America First” foreign policy instincts than a decade ago, Cotton is part of a still-prominent pack of national security hawks that include the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who recruited Cotton to run in 2014.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, went even further than Cotton in a Thursday statement that said the agreement is “completely out of step with the president’s goals.” And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of Cotton’s committee, predicted that the agreement would only be an “intermission” in Iran’s decadeslong conflict with the United States and Israel.
“They get $300 billion — it’s not going to be for constructive or useful purposes,” Cornyn said, a reference to a “reconstruction fund” included in the agreement.
Cotton aired concerns about multiple financial concessions included in the Trump-signed memorandum, including a new allowance for Iran to conduct oil sales that he estimated would provide as much as $6 billion a month
“That money … we know is not going to build new hospitals or day cares,” Cotton said Thursday on KTHV, a Little Rock TV station. “It’s going to go to replenish their drone stockpiles, their missiles, to support terrorists.”
NEW YORK — With just five days to go until the primary election in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a stark warning to members of Congress who believe “incumbency is a substitute for action”: Watch out.
“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said to the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn as he boosted his endorsed congressional candidates. “This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.”
The democratic socialist framed Tuesday’s election as much more than what that means for New York, though. In recounting how people also ask him about the 2028 presidential election, he put it bluntly: “It starts now. It starts on Tuesday.”
“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “That old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday. And frankly, it will lose in South Carolina and New Hampshire. It will fall short of 270 electoral votes, because the party of the past will not be what leads us into the future.”
Mamdani, joined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged his supporters to show up for his endorsed candidates “the way you showed up for me.” They include former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s challenging two-term Rep. Dan Goldman; state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who’s vying for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat; and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who’s trying to unseat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Mamdani’s endorsed slate of legislative candidates were at the rally, too.
The rally featured standard stump speeches from the candidates, highlighting the need to support working class New Yorkers and immigrants. Speakers called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has loomed over many of these primaries — despite no evident spending from its independent expenditure arm. Sanders also emphasized his call to ban super PACs, which have reshaped primaries across the city.
Taking place just hours after the massive ticker-tape parade celebrating the Knicks’ historic championship, there were also Knicks references galore.
“I hate to break it to you, but OG Anunoby is not here to save the day,” said Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit. “The only hands we can count on are ours.”
Sanders, who is wildly popular in New York, previously endorsed Valdez and Lander. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier are members of the Democratic Socialists of America and are backed by the city chapter in their bids. Sanders had not officially endorsed Avila Chevalier prior to the rally.
“Why are progressives and socialist candidates winning elections all across this country?” Sanders asked. “The answer in my view is not complicated. The working class of America understands that our current economic system is rigged, that it is designed to benefit the wealthy and the powerful.”
Polling has shown Lander with a lead over Goldman, and a tight race for Velázquez’s seat. Public polling is scarce in the Espaillat race, but recent internal surveys suggest Avila Chevalier is posing a real challenge to the incumbent. Mamdani endorsed her just weeks ago, much later than Lander and Valdez, but his engagement in the race has significantly elevated its profile.
“Six months ago, they told us this race was over before it started,” Avila Chevalier said at the rally. “They told us Adriano was untouchable, that he was an institution, that you don’t run against someone like him and win. That this district was his, and that we should wait our turn. And they said it with such confidence, like the outcome had already been written. Look around. Look at what we’ve built.”
Mamdani’s decision to get involved in congressional races is stress-testing how the new mayor navigates relations with powerful, well-respected party figures — many of whom he’s on the opposite side of.
Mamdani’s endorsement is expected to be a significant asset for his picks; he had dominant performances across these districts in last year’s mayoral primary. And that shine doesn’t seem to have dulled. Recent polling has shown that Mamdani has high approval ratings.
Goldman did not support Mamdani during last year’s mayoral primary or the general election, as Lander has often pointed out. Espaillat backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but supported Mamdani in the general election. Valdez’s opponents, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and city Council Member Julie Won, both supported Mamdani in the primary.
The mayor has been active on the trail for his congressional candidates of choice in the closing stretch of the campaign. And he touted them all in an advertisement that ran during the first game of the Knicks’ finals run.
Still, Lander has tried to keep some distance. When asked at a recent press conference why he would appear in that ad with Avila Chevalier, who attended a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in 2023 — the same rally Lander said he left the DSA over — he said it was an “opportunity to show New Yorkers that politics can be a team sport.” He also clarified that he has not endorsed candidates in any other congressional primaries.
Avila Chevalier told reporters that she went to that rally to “stand against” Israel engaging in “a response that is often disproportionate and creates a greater loss of life.” She added that she has “condemned Hamas” and does “not believe that celebrating the loss of anybody’s life is OK.”
Kings Theatre isn’t located in any of the districts these congressional hopefuls are trying to represent — though it neighbors the seats that Lander and Valdez have their eyes on.
It’s especially far from Espaillat’s district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
While handing out campaign literature to people walking out of the subway in Hamilton Heights, Blue Light News asked Espaillat if he had thoughts about Avila Chevalier appearing at the rally.
“I’m rallying right here in my district with my constituents — not in Brooklyn,” he replied.
Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.
Retirement groups are calling on Congress to investigate Meta over a wave of social media scams targeting older Americans.
In a letter sent Thursday to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the groups alleged Meta has been slow to take down fraudulent ads, leaving seniors vulnerable to financial loss. The letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was signed by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Postal Workers Union Retirees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.
“Fraudulent Medicare ads have proliferated on Meta platforms and too many seniors are getting scammed while Meta profits,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “We are calling on Congress to investigate how these scams are allowed to spread, what Meta knew about them, and why stronger protections are not in place. Seniors should not be left vulnerable while scammers and tech companies cash in.”
The letter’s demands follow a report published last month by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit advocacy group, which alleged that Meta has profited by leaving up fraudulent ads, many of which target Medicare recipients.
“Scammers are determined criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics to defraud people and evade detection,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “We aggressively fight scams on and off our platforms because they’re not good for us or the people and businesses that rely on our services and for years we’ve been one of law enforcement’s strongest partners in the fight against this type of online crime — identifying criminals, disrupting their crimes and helping bring them to justice.”
Stone pointed to several examples of Meta’s efforts to combat scams on its platform, including a recent collaboration with U.S. and Thai law enforcement to disrupt online scams.
It’s not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over the scams: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the company in November after Reuters reported that Meta in internal documents projected 10 percent of its 2024 revenue would come from fraudulent ads. And in February, a group of bipartisan lawmakers pressed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over its plans to prevent and combat fraud on its platforms.
Reps. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) also introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year to combat predatory scam ads.
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