Thune’s power move to advance Trump’s agenda
CNN
Senate Republicans announced Wednesday they are muscling ahead with their preferred legislative strategy to jumpstart Donald Trump’s agenda — just hours after the president himself backed a much different approach.
Senate Republicans announced Wednesday they are muscling ahead with their preferred legislative strategy to jumpstart Donald Trump’s agenda — just hours after the president himself backed a much different approach. That power move by Senate Majority Leader John Thune is setting up a dramatic clash with House Speaker Mike Johnson when the House returns next week, and possibly with Trump himself, as party leaders attempt to deliver the White House’s ambitious policy goals despite a historically narrow margin in Congress. And it comes with high stakes: Both chambers must agree on an identical approach to unlock the special powers that allow Trump to pass his agenda without the threat of the Senate filibuster — all while facing critical looming deadlines, such as the expiration of Trump’s tax cuts later this year. “President Trump prefers one big, beautiful bill. So do I, but you always have a plan B around here,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “I am pulling for the House to pull it together and get one big, beautiful bill, but it’s gotta be consistent with President Trump’s tax agenda. Right now the tax agenda is to make the tax cuts permanent, and the House bill doesn’t do that.” Thune declared Wednesday he plans to move ahead this week with plans to complete part one of Trump’s agenda — a budget that directs the Senate to pass border security and energy production — even as Trump himself weighed in to back the House GOP’s far more sweeping approach, which has a slew of plans to pass tax breaks, a temporary debt limit hike and trillions in cuts to federal programs. House Republicans have said they need to cram everything into a single bill or risk missing key deadlines, like the one for tax reform or the spring debt limit. But Senate GOP leaders have said the priority should be to deliver Trump a win and money for his priorities quickly. The internal GOP dispute, which has been raging for months now, is over more than just tactics: It’s a sign of the anxiety by many Republicans, particularly in the Senate, that Trump’s full agenda may not pass the famously-erratic House. And it’s becoming an early test of how the Hill GOP’s relatively green leadership — Thune and Johnson — can corral their razor-thin majorities to work with an emboldened Trump and his aggressive plans to transform Washington.
The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname — a small South American country east of Venezuela – the admiral who oversaw the operation told lawmakers on Thursday according to two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks.
The first week of testimony in Brian Walshe’s murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts, has come to an end. The jury heard from about two dozen witnesses called by the commonwealth in its case against Walshe as prosecutors work to prove he killed his wife, Ana Walshe, around New Year’s Day in 2023.
The US Army officially stood up a new command on Friday to oversee the Army’s activities in the Western Hemisphere in the latest signal of increasing focus on homeland defense.
A former high-level Drug Enforcement agent was indicted on charges of conspiring to traffic drugs and launder millions of dollars for a Mexican cartel.
A federal judge in Florida ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts and other records in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein granting the Justice Department’s request.
The Indiana House approved new congressional maps designed to hand Republicans all nine of the state’s US House seats on Friday, setting the stage for a showdown next week in the state Senate.
Honduran presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla said last-minute interference from US President Donald Trump in the country’s closely fought election had damaged his chances of winning and left him trailing as vote counting dragged on.
Vice President JD Vance said he and second lady Usha Vance are largely amused by the online chatter dissecting their marriage, including a recent spate of headlines over photos of her without a wedding ring.
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter said.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning
The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.