President-elect Donald Trump is beginning to lean on Congress in a big way, but it’s all about next year.<\/p>\n

Trump is focusing his efforts and expending political capital to ensure that Republican lawmakers go along with confirming his Cabinet picks and can ramp up right away on delivering on his campaign pledges in 2025.<\/p>\n

He regularly talks to senators about his nominees, ensuring they\u2019re on a path to confirmation next year, according to a Trump adviser granted anonymity to discuss the conversations. He\u2019s speaking with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson about his legislative priorities, namely how to quickly pass immigration, energy and tax policies in major party-line bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you hear we have another member? We have 221 members,\u201d joked Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.). \u201cTrump’s in the House on every issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s been silent, at least publicly, about his preferences on the end-of-year spending bill and the Dec. 20 government shutdown deadline, despite calls from Republicans to weigh in. In a must-pass defense policy compromise, Republicans dropped certain culture-war provisions with knowledge that Trump will likely take executive action to address the issues. And Trump declined to tip the scales in Senate Republicans\u2019 leadership elections beyond raising the specter of using recess appointments to ram through his Cabinet nominees.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy impression is he\u2019s been very focused on what’s happening next and what he’s about to inherit,\u201d Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, an incoming member of Senate GOP leadership, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

It shows Trump and congressional leaders are focused on moving in lockstep next year, hoping to cut down on party infighting and pass their major policy priorities quickly. Republicans have privately groused that they felt they squandered their majorities in 2017, wasting their previous Washington trifecta on unsuccessful efforts to repeal Obamacare. Intra-party divisions are already cropping up over the party\u2019s strategy over taxes and the border, but GOP leaders are working to get everyone on the same page ahead of next year. In the meantime, they\u2019re mostly putting Congress on autopilot in the lame duck.<\/p>\n

Johnson, especially, has had close ties with Trump as the two GOP leaders plan out the legislative agenda next year. He\u2019s met with the president-elect multiple times at Mar-a-Lago and speaks with Trump or members of his team every day. Johnson told reporters he will talk with Trump this weekend before the Army-Navy game in Maryland about the party\u2019s budget reconciliation strategy, which is sparking early division among House and Senate Republicans as some push to pass border priorities more quickly and take more time to write a sweeping tax bill. The budget reconciliation process allows Republicans to skirt a Senate filibuster and pass priorities on a party-line basis.<\/p>\n

Thune has also traveled to Mar-a-Lago to strategize with Trump and his team about next year’s legislative agenda, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting. And he regularly talks with Trump regarding the status of his nominees, according to another person granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s largely passive attitude toward Congress\u2019 end-of-term business echoes how Trump handled the post-2016 lame duck period, when the president-elect mostly eschewed wading into legislative fights on Capitol Hill before assuming office. And, if past is prologue, his hands-off approach is unlikely to last. Just look at his allies\u2019 current attempts to both pressure Republicans into approving Trump\u2019s most controversial Cabinet picks<\/a> and bully them into going along with<\/a> their federal budget-slashing plans.<\/p>\n

Trump stayed mostly quiet as the 2016 lame-duck Congress passed a short-term government funding patch into April, approved the defense bill, greenlit hundreds of millions of dollars for Flint, Mich. to deal with its water crisis and enacted a sweeping bill meant to speed drugs and medical devices onto the market.<\/p>\n

The president-elect\u2019s team at the time ultimately agreed with the congressional legislative<\/a> maneuvering, though Trump largely avoided using his then near-ubiquitous Twitter account to intervene. He posted on social media just once mentioning Congress from November 2016 until Inauguration Day, questioning a House Republican move<\/a> to eviscerate an ethics office (they abandoned the push). He also urged the cancellation of a contract<\/a> for a new Air Force One.<\/p>\n

But upon taking office, Trump \u2014 often volleying out invectives through social media \u2014 would frequently weigh in on legislative priorities or urge the confirmation of his nominees and judicial picks, sometimes throwing a curveball at lawmakers at the last minute. And a similar pattern could play out next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’ll get involved once he gets in. There’s no reason for him to\u201d before then, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s allies on Blue Light News, members of Republican leadership and GOP strategists defended Trump\u2019s hands-off approach to the lame-duck in interviews. Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and Hill alum, said it\u2019s \u201csmart [for Trump] to stay out\u201d and focus on building his administration in the short window he has before Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he’s pretty busy with nominations and filling out his Cabinet and all that,\u201d echoed Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of Senate GOP leadership.<\/p>\n

And Trump will have a full plate as soon as he comes into office. Congress is only set to patch spending into March, meaning negotiations over new spending levels will begin in earnest once he takes office. He\u2019ll also have to contend with raising the debt limit early next year, in addition to the massive, party-line budget reconciliation bills that Republicans want to pass.<\/p>\n

All of those priorities will test the GOP\u2019s unity \u2014 with any potential fights impeding swift progress on some of Trump\u2019s biggest priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot he’s got to deal with,\u201d Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said. And these early machinations \u201care [a] pretty good exposing of what he’s going to have to deal with [in] the Republican Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Olivia Beavers, Ursula Perano and Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"