3 Trump interview takeaways: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a 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, Kristen Welker runs through the top lines from her interview with President Donald Trump. Plus, we take a detour in the sports world and break down fresh data from the NBC News Decision Desk Poll on how Americans are feeling about the gambling boom.

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— Adam Wollner

🚨 But first: It wouldn’t be a Friday before the holidays without some late-breaking news.

• The Justice Department released thousands of records related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ahead of a deadline imposed by bipartisan legislation Congress passed last month. Follow live updates as NBC News reviews the documents.

• U.S. forces have commenced a large-scale strike against Islamic State group infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria following an attack last week that killed three Americans.

• GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik abruptly dropped out of the race for New York governor, while saying she wouldn’t seek re-election to her House seat next year.
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., announced that she will not run for another term in 2026.

I spoke with President Donald Trump overnight in a wide-ranging interview that covered foreign and domestic policy following his address to the nation this week.

Here are three major takeaways from our conversation:

1. Venezuela: Trump is not taking war with Venezuela off the table, saying, “I don’t rule it out, no.”

Trump said Americans should expect to see more seizures of oil tankers after he ordered a “blockade” on such vessels from the country earlier this week. And he declined to say if the ultimate goal is to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, saying Maduro “knows exactly what I want.”

It’s a notable shift for Trump, who campaigned on withdrawing the U.S. from foreign conflicts. After winning last year’s election, Trump said in a speech that he was “not going to start a war.”

2. Health care: On the domestic front, Trump claimed that he released his health care plan during his national address Wednesday, when he said Americans should be able to “buy their own health insurance.”

“We’re going to pay the money directly to the people,” Trump told me. “They can use health care accounts. They can use — you know, there are many ways of doing it, but we’re going to let them buy their own health care. They’ll get much better health care at a much lower price.”

The White House has yet to release specific details for how this plan could be implemented. But the president also told me that he does not plan to try to repeal Obamacare.

“I don’t have to do anything, because Obamacare would just repeal itself automatically because nobody’s going to want to use it,” he said.

3. Tariffs: Trump also said his tariffs, one the signature moves of his first year in office, will be “permanent.”

“It’s given us a great national security,” Trump said. “It’s given us tremendous wealth, and of course they’re going to stay.”

Trump said tariffs and the “One Big Beautiful Bill” he signed into law will help pay for “warrior dividend” payments to service members that he announced during his national address.

“We’re making so much money with tariffs that we are able to do that and have plenty left over,” the president said. (A senior administration official and a Senate appropriations source said the payments would be drawn from military housing funds in the bill, and the Senate source said tariffs would not fund the payments.)

We’ll delve more into my interview with Trump on “Meet the Press” this Sunday with Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Kaine, D-Va.

A strong majority of Americans fear that the proliferation of sports betting is damaging the integrity of games and could even lead to contests being rigged, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey.

When asked if sports gambling “lessens the integrity of the game,” 70% agreed, with 34% saying they “strongly agree” and another 36% saying they “somewhat agree,” according to the poll.

And when asked if the increasing availability of sports gambling “will lead to games being fixed or rigged,” 29% said they were “very concerned” and another 34% called themselves “somewhat concerned.”

The poll was conducted Nov. 20 to Dec. 8 — within weeks of major sports gambling scandals that have rocked professional basketball and baseball.

A small slice of the American public is responsible for the recent sports gambling boom. In an NBC News Decision Desk Poll conducted in August, 88% of adults said they had not participated in online sports betting in the last 12 months. Men and younger adults were more likely to say they had placed online bets on sports.

There’s some form of legalized sports betting in 40 states and the District of Columbia, after years in which legal sports betting was limited to Nevada.

Old school brick-and-mortar sportsbooks and their legal, online descendants raked in $13.71 billion in revenue in 2024, up from $11.04 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association.

Read more from David →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Owen Auston-Babcock.

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