What to know today...
- WHITE HOUSE REMARKS: President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he will deliver a live address to the nation from the White House tomorrow night.
- TRUMP RETRIBUTION: White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a Vanity Fair article that the administration’s accusations against New York Attorney General Letitia James “might” be “retribution” and that “when there’s an opportunity” for Trump to take retribution, “he will go for it.”
- BLOCKADE ON VENEZUELA: Trump announced tonight that he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering and leaving Venezuela.
- JOBS REPORT: The Bureau of Labor Statistics released long-awaited employment data this morning that show net job losses overall in October followed by a slight rebound and gains in November.
Trump taps Kristi Noem's deputy for U.S. ambassador to El Salvador
Trump said tonight on Truth Social that he will nominate Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's deputy, Troy Edgar, to be the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador.
Trump wrote that Edgar's "experience, discipline, and deep understanding of Border Security and Western Hemisphere challenges make him the PERFECT choice for this critical post."
"Troy will play a key role in advancing our Western Hemisphere strategy, strengthening cooperation with President Bukele, and ensuring the Safety and Prosperity of BOTH our Nations — A big step toward restoring American Strength across Latin America!," he added.
The Trump administration this year deported Venezuelan immigrants to be held in a notorious prison in El Salvador. More than 200 were later flown to Venezuela.
NBC News previously reported that Edgar was told that Trump planned to nominate him to the ambassador's post.
Moderate GOP ACA subsidy amendments blocked from House floor vote tomorrow
Amendments offered by moderate Republicans to the House GOP health care bill that would extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies with various other provisions attached will not get a floor vote tomorrow.
The amendments were blocked from getting a vote at a meeting of the House Rules Committee this afternoon, when the moderate Republicans argued that failing to vote to extend the subsidies for 22 million people would have consequences.
“There will be consequences if these amendments are not made in order,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said at the hearing before the amendments were blocked. “I think the only thing worse than a clean extension without any income limits and any reforms, because it’s not a perfect system, the only thing worse than that would be expiration.”
Blocking the amendment leaves members of Congress with only one option to force a vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies: coalescing around a discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor. The subsidies are set to expire at the end of the month if Congress fails to act.
Democrats on the Rules Committee urged the moderate Republicans to either vote down the rule tomorrow on the House floor, which would block the GOP health care bill altogether, or join them in their discharge petition for a clean three-year extension of the ACA subsidies.
“I hope my colleagues, my Republican colleagues who testified, including Mr. Fitzpatrick, will understand that negotiating with this committee, at least under the current circumstances, is not a prudent way forward to get this issue resolved,” Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., said at the hearing. “And ultimately, it strikes me that really the only way it gets resolved is a couple of Republican members voting against the rule tomorrow or joining with us on our discharge petition. Because I think if we do that, particularly the latter, we can get a clean extension on its way to the president’s desk.”
The Democrats’ three-year clean extension of the enhanced subsidies has already failed in the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said it would be a nonstarter if it came back over from the House. But Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said he believes passing that bill in the House would force the Senate’s hand.
“I think if something passes here, including the three-year extension, the pressure on the Senate will be so enormous that I think the winds will change,” McGovern said.
Analysis: White House scrambles to address Susie Wiles’ explosive Vanity Fair interviews
Susie Wiles generally helps quietly shape headlines. She is rarely the focus of them.
That changed in dramatic fashion today after Vanity Fair published a deeply reported profile of Wiles, the 68-year-old White House chief of staff, whose decadeslong career in politics has been defined by a measured, steady-the-ship tone, never one that could be construed as undermining her boss.
In the two-part Vanity Fair piece — which included 11 interviews over nearly a year, with the White House’s cooperation — Wiles comes off as far more candid than her public persona. She not only speaks openly about both Trump and those who make up the core of his administration, but she also appears to acknowledge that at times she has been at odds with some of the policies that have been central to Trump’s second term. While it is not unusual for chiefs of staff to disagree with the presidents they serve, those concerns generally remain part of private conversations.
Wiles revealed there had been “huge disagreements” over implementing tariffs, acknowledged that the administration must “look harder” at its process for mass deportation and said she had to “get on board” with Trump’s decision to give blanket pardons to Jan. 6 defendants. She said she initially believed only those who did not commit violent acts should be pardoned.
Trump orders blockade of all 'sanctioned oil tankers' entering and leaving Venezuela
Trump wrote tonight on Truth Social that he is ordering a blockade of all "sanctioned oil tankers" entering and leaving Venezuela.
"Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us," he wrote.
"The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping," he claimed.
Trump is ramping up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has sanctioned three of Maduro's nephews and repeatedly conducted military strikes against boats from the Caribbean that it alleges are carrying drugs.
Trump expected to sign an order moving to reclassify cannabis and open up medical potential
Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that would fast-track the reclassification of cannabis and acknowledge its medical benefits for the first time at the federal level, four people with direct knowledge of the plans told NBC News.
Cannabis is classified in the same category as heroin and LSD under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Moving the drug from Schedule I to Schedule III would ease regulatory hurdles and allow the Food and Drug Administration to study cannabis for medical purposes, potentially opening it up for wider medical use by seniors, veterans and others as a pharmaceutical, irrespective of state laws.
The executive order would not make cannabis legal at the federal level, however.
Trump said yesterday his administration is “considering” the move. “We are considering that because a lot of people want to see it — the reclassification — because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify. So we are looking at that very strongly,” Trump told reporters.
Federal judge allows Trump’s White House ballroom construction to move forward
A federal judge is allowing construction of the White House ballroom to move forward, rejecting a request by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to temporarily halt Trump’s $300 million project.
The preservation group sued the Trump administration last week in a bid to halt an expansive revamp of the White House property that has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats. The lawsuit alleges the administration broke ground before plans were submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission and without approval from Congress, as required for construction on federal park land in Washington.
The Trump administration told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today that within the next “two weeks” it expects to meet with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts to review plans that Justice Department attorney Adam Gustafson told the court were not yet finalized.
Tad Heuer, the national trust’s attorney, quipped that with this administration, “it’s always going to happen in the next two weeks.”
Nonprofit groups offer legal assistance to U.S. troops amid debate over boat strikes
Two nonprofit groups launched an ad campaign today offering legal information and confidential advice to help U.S. troops who believe they may have received unlawful orders.
The effort will include billboards saying “Obey Only Lawful Orders” and online messages providing links to organizations and information to ensure troops are aware of their rights and informed about their options, organizers told NBC News.
The move comes amid intense debate over the legality of the Trump administration’s military strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in Latin America, which some lawmakers and legal experts say violate U.S. and international law.
“If you believe you’ve received a ‘manifestly unlawful order,’ you are protected by law and you are not alone,” reads one online message, addressed to “every U.S. service member.”
Trump will travel to Delaware for dignified transfer of U.S. service members killed in Syria
The White House said today that Trump will be in Delaware tomorrow to meet with families of the two American service members who were killed in Syria over the weekend.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Trump's travel plans in a Fox News interview this afternoon.
Trump will be heading to Dover Air Force Base "to meet with the families of the fallen and to receive their bodies here at home," Leavitt said.
Two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter were killed in Syria, and other personnel were injured, in an incident that the Defense Department described as a counterterrorism engagement. Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social that “there will be very serious retaliation" following the attack.
Top takeaways from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’s interviews with Vanity Fair
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reflected on Trump’s second term in a series of interviews for a two-part profile published today by Vanity Fair, speaking candidly about key players in the administration who have influence over Trump and some of the administration’s more controversial policies.
Wiles, 68, spoke to Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple, an expert on White House chiefs of staff, 11 times over the past year about a range of issues, including the administration’s Venezuela strategy and efforts to slash the size of the federal government.
She also said Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality,” despite the fact that Trump does not drink alcohol, making a comparison with her father, television sportscaster Pat Summerall, who she said suffered from alcoholism.
“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink,” Wiles said. “And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” She added that Trump “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”
Trump expands travel ban, adding 5 countries and imposing new limits on others
The Trump administration is expanding its travel ban to include five more countries and impose new limits on others.
The move is part of ongoing efforts to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration. The decision follows the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.
In June, Trump announced that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and that those from seven others would face restrictions. The decision resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term.
At the time, the ban cover Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
