Trump to deliver prime-time address from White House on Wednesday
This version of Rcrd94629 - Politics and Government | NBC News Clone was adapted by NBC News Clone to help readers digest key facts more efficiently.
A new monthly jobs report this morning showed employment decreased in October followed by a light rebound and gains in November.
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.
Senators react to classified briefing on boat strikes in Carribbean
Speaking to reporters after their classified briefing with Hegseth and Rubio, Democratic senators called for the unedited video of the Sept. 2 "double tap" strike to be released to the entire chamber.
Republican senators, meanwhile, said they were satisfied with what they learned from the briefing.
"There’s no doubt in my mind that we have the legal authority to blow up these boats," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told reporters that he was left with "more questions" after the briefing than when he walked in.
"What I did learn down there is they don’t want to be that transparent with us. There were six briefers that used up about 35 to 40 minutes of the hour that we had, and then we had 20 minutes for questions," Kelly said. "So, of 100 senators in the room, maybe six of us got to ask questions of the group, and then it was over, then they left."
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told reporters that the video will remain classified "because the sensitivity of some of the equipment that were being used in the techniques."
"It’s at a highly classified level. I said that as soon as I came here. It has nothing to do with overclassifying it," Mullin said. "This administration has been highly transparent."
Trump says he will deliver an address from the White House tomorrow night
Trump annouced on Truth Social that he would deliver a live address to the nation from the White House tomorrow night.
"My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an ADDRESS TO THE NATION tomorrow night, LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, at 9 P.M. EST," he said. "I look forward to 'seeing' you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the address would focus on what Trump sees as his biggest accomplishments of the year and preview what's to come next year.
"The best is truly yet to come, as he often says, and so he’ll be addressing the country about all of his historic accomplishments over the past year and maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the new year, as well as we head into this Christmas season," she said.
Vance downplays WH chief of staff calling him a 'conspiracy theorist'
Asked for his response to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles' calling him a "conspiracy theorist," Vance downplayed the remarks, saying he had joked in "public and private" with her about being a conspiracy theorist "for a long time."
The "conspiracy theorist" comments come from a two-part Vanity Fair story, published today, in which Wiles shared thoughts on senior White House staff and Cabinet members. In the article, Wiles said that Vance understood that the Jeffrey Epstein issue would be a big deal because he had long been a conspiracy theorist.
"Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true," Vance said before he listed examples, including masks for toddlers during the pandemic and questioning Joe Biden's ability to serve as president because of his age.
"So at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it," he said.
While Vance said he and Wiles "agree on as much as they disagree," he praised her for her loyalty to Trump.
"And you know why I really love Susie Wiles? It's because Susie is who she is in the president’s presence [and] she’s the same exact person when the president isn’t around," he said. "I’ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the president and then go and counteract him or subvert his will behind the scenes."
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles says Trump ‘will go for it‘ when there’s an ‘opportunity’ for retribution
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said 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,” Vanity Fair reported in a new profile of Wiles.
Vanity Fair published the two-part profile today based on a wide-ranging series of 11 interviews over a year with Wiles, who rarely grants public interviews and generally stays out of the spotlight. The profile provides a rare look into the mindset of one of the most powerful people in the White House.
Reached for comment on Wiles’ remarks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wiles “has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history.”
“President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie,” Leavitt said in the statement. “The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
Vance says congressional Republicans need to 'step up' on health care
Asked about efforts by congressional Republicans to reach a deal to extend ACA subsidies, Vance said it's on those members of Congress to "step up" and fix a "broken" health care system.
"The health insurance system is totally broken. It’s been broken for 15 years," he said. "We think that everything should be on the table, but Democrats and Republicans, they got to work together and put something on the president’s desk to sign."
Vance said the administration was "talking" with Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno, of Ohio, and Susan Collins, of Maine, about health care legislation, as well as some "reasonable Democrats who are putting ideas out there." But he reiterated that it wasn't Trump's sole responsibility to fix health care.
"Congress has got to get us something to lower the cost of health insurance for American citizens; the Obamacare system was broken," Vance said. "Donald J. Trump wants to fix it, but Congress has got to step up here."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said today that he won’t call a vote to extend the enhanced subsidies, effectively guaranteeing they will expire at the end of the month.
Vance says will economic relief will take ' little bit of time'
Vance said at the event that the administration is trying to lower costs but that it won't happen overnight.
Blaming the impact of inflation during the Biden administration for a loss of purchasing power for average Americans, Vance said: "It’s going to take a little bit of time where they really feel like that money has been put back in their pocket. That just takes a lot of time. It’s a lot of work."
"You've got to lower costs," he said. "That’s why we're lowering regulations on American energy to get gas and groceries down. Now, how does energy connect to groceries? Because if the truck that takes the groceries to the grocery store is paying out the wazoo for diesel fuel, then that means every American is going to be paying more at the grocery."
"We do believe that if we keep on making the right decisions, we keep on investing in the United States of America, we are going to find that the American citizens can afford a good life in their country," he said, but "Rome wasn't built in a day."
Vance says he's 'surprised' when Democrats talk about affordability
Speaking to supporters at a manufacturing plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Vice President JD Vance blamed the Biden administration and Democrats for the affordability strain felt by many Americans.
"I'm a little surprised by when the Democrats talk all the time about affordability," he said. "Democrats say, 'You know, things aren't affordable, this isn't affordable, this has gotten more expensive, drugs have gotten more expensive, housing has gotten more expensive,' and you know what, they're right — and it was because of them."
Vance touted last month's job numbers, saying that thousands of jobs were added to the economy and that wages grew in November. The jobs data the administration released this morning showed that employment declined in October by more than 100,000 jobs before it partially rebounded in November.
"Private-sector wage growth grow at a rate of 4.2%. You know what that means? That means we're seeing the fastest private-sector wage growth that we have seen in this country in many, many years," Vance said.
NBC News reported that wage growth remained sluggish last month, with average hourly earnings rising by just 0.1%. Over the past year, average wages have increased by 3.5%.
Hegseth says no plans to make full boat strike video public
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters today that the video of a second strike on an alleged drug boat in September will be shared with select congressional committees tomorrow, but that he has no plans to make the full video public.
"Of course, we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth said after he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the full Senate on the boat strikes.
Members of Congress have been pushing for more information on the two strikes on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2. The second strike killed the survivors of the initial strike.
Democratic senators complained that they weren't shown the video during the briefing today, but Hegseth said it would be shown to members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees tomorrow.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the full video should at least be shown to the full Senate.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., noted that the Defense Department had already released numerous videos of its strikes on alleged drug boats. "They released all the video that they liked ... ," Kelly said.
U.S. military strikes 3 more alleged drug boats in Pacific, killing 8
The U.S. military says it struck three more alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of eight people. Officials said the strikes targeted “designated terrorist organizations.” The military didn’t provide evidence of the alleged drug trafficking, but posted a video of a boat moving through the water before exploding. The Trump administration’s boat strike campaign has killed at least 95 people since early September.
Already shaky job market weakened in October and November, according to delayed federal data
The United States shed 105,000 jobs in October and added 64,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this morning, lifting a monthslong fog that had shrouded the labor market.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November.
The national employment picture already looked fragile before the report. Jobs reports in June and August showed net job losses, the first time since 2020 that there have been two months of contractions before November.
September’s report, the last one before the government shutdown, showed a more modest increase of 119,000 jobs and a little changed unemployment rate of 4.4%.
Trump’s post on Rob Reiner’s death draws bipartisan criticism
Trump’s response to the death of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, just hours after the murders were announced, drew outrage and swift backlash from both sides of the aisle. In a social media post, the president suggested the director was killed over his political opposition to him, writing that Reiner died “due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome.” NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY" from the White House.
Trump files $10 billion defamation lawsuit against BBC over edited clips of his Jan. 6 speech
The BBC has said it will defend itself against a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump yesterday, which alleges the British public broadcaster defamed him in a documentary before last year’s presidential election by deceptively editing parts of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech.
In a brief statement, the BBC said it would fight the lawsuit, raising the possibility of a legal battle over whether the edit of the speech caused harm to the president’s reputation.
U.S. military says new strikes on 3 suspected drug boats killed 8 on board
Eight alleged “narco-terrorists” were killed yesterday in U.S. strikes on three suspected drug vessels in the eastern Pacific, defense officials announced.
U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that the strikes, among about two dozen conducted in the region since early September, were ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Three people were killed in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third, Southern Command said. The boats were allegedly being operated by U.S-designated terrorist groups in international waters, and Southern Command said they were using known narco-trafficking routes and engaged in narco-trafficking.
Jobs reports to finally lift the fog on a fragile U.S. labor market
An answer is finally coming to a question that economists, consumers and even the chair of the Federal Reserve have been asking for months: What is happening with the nation’s labor market?
Emerging from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release a long-awaited trove of employment data today: October’s payrolls and November’s full jobs report are both set to be published at 8:30 a.m. ET.
After months in a data fog, economists broadly expect to see net job losses overall in October, followed by a slight rebound and gains in November.
Poll: Majority plan to spend less on holiday gifts this year amid broader economic concerns
A majority of U.S. adults, 55%, say they will spend less on holiday gifts this year compared with last year, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey, highlighting how inflation has changed spending habits.
Only 9% say they will spend more on holiday gifts this year, while 36% say they’ll spend about the same. The results are part of broader data showing some concern about the state of the economy.
The poll found deep partisan differences in how Americans view the U.S. economy, with those differences showing up in holiday shopping sentiment, too.
