Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, our Capitol Hill team has the latest on Congress’ last-ditch effort to avoid a government shutdown before the holidays. Plus, senior White House reporter Pete Nicholas files a dispatch from a conference of conservative activists in Phoenix. And chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell reports on the concerns around tech billionaire Elon Musk’s recent interactions with foreign leaders.
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The Republican-controlled House on Friday evening passed a short-term bill to avert a government shutdown, just hours ahead of a deadline that would force U.S. troops, Border Patrol agents, air traffic controllers and millions of other federal workers to work without pay during the holidays.
The vote was 366-34, capping a tumultuous week in the House that foreshadowed how the new Congress in January might deal with Donald Trump back in the White House. A two-thirds vote was needed because the bill came to the floor under a fast-track process.
The legislation now heads to the Senate, which must pass it before 12:01 a.m. to avert a shutdown.
The package funds the government at current levels through March 14, and includes disaster aid and a farm bill — while stripping out a debt limit extension demanded by Trump earlier in the week.
Just three days ago, bipartisan House and Senate leaders struck an agreement to keep the government’s lights on, but Trump and his billionaire confidant Elon Musk killed the deal, insisting at the eleventh hour it needed to extend or abolish the debt limit to make way for Trump’s agenda next year.
A backup plan — slimmed down from the original deal and endorsed by Trump and Musk — then went down in flames on the House floor, tanked by Democrats as well as 38 Republicans who objected to the debt extension.
That left Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is fighting to keep his leadership job, with few good options. After privately huddling with rank-and-file Republicans for more than two hours, Johnson told his party he was pressing forward with Plan C: the same package brought to the floor a day earlier but without Trump’s debt increase.
Johnson said he spoke to both Trump and Musk on Friday. “I’ve talked to President Trump, in detail, and he knows exactly what we’re doing,” the speaker said.
Musk appeared to endorse the plan as the House was voting, writing on his social media site X that Johnson “did a good job here, given the circumstances.”
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PHOENIX — Amid the struggle in Congress over a deal to keep the government open, the message coming from the beating heart of MAGA world is clear-cut: Don’t compromise.
Speakers at a conference of conservative activists here this week said that Donald Trump’s election victory should be a warning to those who try to block his agenda — Republicans and Democrats alike — that they need to give way.
“We don’t need partisanship now; we need hyperpartisanship now,” Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House senior adviser, told a raucous audience gathered at the Phoenix Convention Center for AmericaFest.
Another speaker, Donald Trump Jr., took aim at the 38 House Republicans who voted against a spending measure Thursday that aligned with his father’s priorities. He urged the grassroots activists to “primary the hell out of” Republican lawmakers who impede the president-elect’s policy goals.
In Washington, the younger Trump said, “it’s not just the Democrats that are our foes. It’s a vast majority of the Republicans.”
“Just because they have the ‘R’ next to their name doesn’t mean anything anymore,” he added. “Honestly, the Republican Party of a few years ago is gone. This is now the America First party. Donald Trump is in charge!”
Elon Musk has been a constant companion to Donald Trump as the president-elect meets with foreign leaders — an ever-present personality at Mar-a-Lago since November, even accompanying Trump to Paris on his first foreign trip since winning the election.
Musk’s proximity to the incoming president has given him invaluable access to heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron at the ceremonial reopening of Notre Dame and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in New York, referring to her as a “precious genius” and “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside” in introductory remarks at a black-tie gathering.
More notably, Musk joined Trump’s pivotal first call after the election with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Musk’s interactions with world leaders alongside Trump are raising questions about the tech leader’s potential influence on U.S. foreign policy over the next four years and the potential for conflicts of interest, Washington insiders say. Musk maintains extensive worldwide investments, especially in China, America’s most powerful adversary, and has openly supported far-right political movements around the world.
“It’s on a level that is so foreign to me, I can’t get my head around it,” a former national security official in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet said. “Being in these meetings alone or with Trump, who knows what ethics violations are taking place.”
More Musk: The tech billionaire waded into Germany’s election on Friday, expressing his support for a far-right, anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party that’s being monitored by the country’s domestic intelligence agency. Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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