Morning Report — Trump’s legislative difficulties mount

In today’s issue:  

• With Congress, Trump has no magic Sharpie
• Officials revise Trump’s Gaza intentions 
• Demonstrators take aim at administration
• Russia, U.S. eye Ukraine war off-ramp

President Trump’s powerful executive pen is not a magic wand in Congress. 

He cannot enlarge House and Senate GOP majorities with his signature. He cannot add days to calendars in March and April as time runs up against a key deadline. He hasn’t resolved deep disagreements within his party over budget legislation he campaigned to deliver. And his actions to stiff-arm Congress by ignoring laws and funding instructions during his 100-day blitz of executive directives have stoked mistrust among Democrats in both chambers. He will need them in a few short weeks. 

Washington’s fast-moving dramas of January and February are hurtling toward a March 14 government default risk. And Republican ambitions hang in the balance to anchor Trump’s “America First” agenda in a mammoth new budget measure they envision as a mashup of tax cuts, higher spending for border security and defense and less spending for thousands of other federal programs. 

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters, “The level of trust is at the lowest I have ever seen it here in Congress, in our ability to work together, find a compromise and get it passed.” 

House Republican frustrations surfaced Wednesday during yet another internal meeting called by GOP leaders to try to move the conference in some direction, any direction that can break a deadlock. Lawmakers are trillions of dollars apart as they search for consensus. The president this morning will gather key Republican lawmakers at the White House to try to nudge a budget resolution into existence.  

Tensions boiled over behind closed doors on Wednesday when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a Trump ally, confronted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“Tensions are rising,” a GOP lawmaker recounted. “S--- or get off the pot. What are we doing? … C’mon, let’s do this.”

Johnson hoped House Republicans would finalize a blueprint for a budget resolution — which unlocks the 50-vote Senate threshold afforded as part of the reconciliation process — during a GOP retreat in Florida last week. He hoped to advance the legislation through the House Budget Committee this week. 

Disagreements over the level of proposed cuts forced Republican leaders to punt a planned bill markup. They put forward an initial budget resolution that featured a $500 billion tax cut floor, which hardline conservatives rejected. That’s well below their stated target of $2 trillion to $5 trillion in budget cuts.

Republicans will get no help from Democrats, who are eager to protest Trump’s executive actions by voting down his legislative agenda.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said a hoped-for budget resolution markup would not take place this week, after all. Johnson had presented a pie-in-the-sky legislative timeline to colleagues last month. Squabbling has complicated decision making for weeks. 

Trump’s coveted tax bill signing ceremony might have to wait until later in the year, suggesting the president will need patience to check off a key economic pledge he presented to voters during his campaign. To win over deficit hawks, another avenue of discussion is whether a tax package’s price tag might need to shrink by extending 2017 tax provisions for five years instead of a decade. 

In an unusual acknowledgement of difficulties, Senate Republicans plan to jump ahead of the House with a budget reconciliation bill, or perhaps two. 

“It’s time for the Senate to move,” Budget Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after a closed-door meeting with the GOP conference Wednesday to walk colleagues through his fiscal blueprint. Republicans are hoping to vote on it in committee next week.

Trump’s legislative difficulties are mounting. 

▪ ABC News: Trump will hold a private dinner with Republican senators at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

▪ The Hill: The full Senate voted 55-44 to confirm former NFL player Scott Turner as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

▪ The Hill: Billionaire former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) was voted out of committee Wednesday on track to get a Senate floor vote to be administrator of the Small Business Administration. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday advanced Howard Lutnick’s nomination to lead the Commerce Department by a vote of 16-12, with all but one Democrat (Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman) in opposition.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 82, the former Senate Republican leader, fell twice Wednesday in the Capitol and was later seen being pushed in a wheelchair. McConnell fell during a GOP lunch in December, spraining his wrist and suffering a cut to his face. 

SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN: 

Amid a flurry of headlines coming out of the White House, here’s one you probably missed on Capitol Hill: There’s agreement among Democrats and Republicans on the issue of debanking.  

“Donald Trump was on to a real problem when he criticized Bank of America for its debanking practices,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing Wednesday.

Warren is worried about American consumers being unfairly locked out of the financial system. Republicans have raised their own concerns, asserting conservatives and industries are being targeted.

"What we need to do is create more transparency around what the regulators are doing," Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) told me. 

It’s fascinating to see the intersection of finance and politics leading to bipartisan concern. Even Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are now calling on the president to back their proposal to cap credit card rates at 10 percent.

Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. 

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ Lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to ban DeepSeek’s chatbot application from government-owned devices, over new security concerns that the app could provide user information to China.

▪ Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a second version of the avian influenza virus that is different from the one rampaging through herds since the spring.

▪ The recent heist of 100,000 eggs valued at $40,000 from the back of a trailer in Pennsylvania has become a whodunit that police have yet to crack.

LEADING THE DAY 

© The Associated Press | Manuel Balce Ceneta

“RIVIERA” IN GAZA?: Not so fast. Trump's proposal that the United States should "take over" Gaza and displace its Palestinian population reverberated around the world Tuesday as more reaction to the extraordinary suggestion poured in. 

The position, outlined during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who on Wednesday met with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon — threatened to upend the framework of U.S. policy in the region, based on the hypothetical possibility of a two-state solution, in which Israel and an independent Palestine would co-exist.

The details of the stunning proposal are scant, and drawing fierce international backlash. In The Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage breaks down what we know, and don’t, about the plans.

Not 24 hours after the press conference, White House officials began walking back the president’s comments. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, told Republican senators on Wednesday that Trump “doesn’t want to put any U.S. troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any U.S. dollars at all” on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Trump was only proposing to clear out and rebuild Gaza, not claim indefinite possession.

“The only thing President Trump has done — very generously, in my view — is offer the United States’s willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction,” Rubio said, “so that then people can move back in.”

The proposal is falling flat among Republicans on Capitol Hill, even as some GOP lawmakers are praising Trump for coming up with “fresh ideas” to address the decades-long conflict.

“I think it’s a really dumb idea to talk about having U.S. troops in Gaza,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). “It’s the last place on Earth I’d send U.S. troops and I won’t support it.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s closest Senate allies, warned that a U.S.-led attempt to remove Palestinians from Gaza would be “very problematic.”

▪ The New York Times: Inside Trump’s hastily written proposal to “own” Gaza. Although he had been talking about the idea for weeks, there had been no meetings on the subject, and senior members of his government were taken by surprise.

▪ Axios: Trump’s declaration surprised many of his own advisers, thrilled right-wing Israelis and deeply alarmed the governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

▪ The Washington Post: Trump’s proposal to displace Gazans draws swift backlash in the Arab world.

OVAL OFFICE MEETINGS: Trump on Wednesday met with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) at the White House, to discuss fire recovery and border security efforts.

The Golden State was recently ravished by wildfires that destroyed Los Angeles homes and challenged local firefighters who combated flames amidst issues obtaining water.

Abbott, one of the president’s biggest allies, met with Trump to discuss border security ideas. The governor said he offered to support the new measures from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

SOLO ACTION: Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in female sports. The measure is the fourth executive order targeting transgender people the president has signed since taking office Jan. 20. At the signing ceremony, Trump said his administration will not allow transgender athletes to compete in the Summer Olympic Games, which are set to take place in Los Angeles in 2028. 

▪ Axios: All of the anti-trans executive orders Trump has signed.

▪ The Hill: Democratic attorneys general pledge to protect gender-affirming care following Trump order.

▪ NBC News: “Read only” access is officially a temporary limitation placed on two special government employees at the Treasury Department while Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team is otherwise barred from access to the department’s payment system after litigation and court intervention prompted Justice Department agreement. 

▪ CNBC: The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will resume accepting inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong, just hours after it suspended service from those regions.

WHERE AND WHEN

• The House will convene at 10 a.m. 
  
• The Senate meets at 10 a.m. after Democrats held the floor overnight until early this morning to protest the president’s nomination of former Project 2025 contributing author Russell Vought to be Office of Management and Budget director. 
  
• The president this morning heads to the Capitol to speak during a National Prayer Breakfast at 8:15 a.m., followed by remarks at the nearby Washington Hilton at 9:15 a.m. Back at the White House, Trump will discuss a pending budget resolution with Republican members of Congress in the Cabinet Room at 11 a.m. Trump will sign executive actions at 2:30 p.m. in the Oval Office.  
  
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in the Dominican Republic where he meets this morning with the U.S. Embassy personnel in Santo Domingo before meeting with Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez and an hour later, with President Luis Abinader. The secretary is scheduled to hold a working lunch with Abinader followed by their joint press conference at 2:30 p.m. local time. Rubio will participate this afternoon in a “law enforcement engagement” in Santo Domingo.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press | Manuel Balce Ceneta

50 STATES, 50 PROTESTS: In cities across the U.S., demonstrators on Wednesday protested the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying policies ranging from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians out of Gaza.

They also denounced Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency working group; and Project 2025, the hard-right blueprint for American government and society. The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501 — or 50 protests, 50 states, one day. 

“We need to show strength,” Laura Wilde, a former public school occupational therapist in Austin, told The Associated Press. “I think we’re in a state of shock.”

▪ The Hill: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) says that Trump has empowered Musk “far beyond what I think is appropriate.”

▪ The Hill: The AFL-CIO and several of its affiliated government employee unions sued Wednesday over fears that DOGE is on the cusp of unlawfully gaining access to the Labor Department.

▪ The Hill: The CIA sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force.

BUYOUTS: The White House and federal employee unions are in a head-to-head lobbying battle as workers face a Feb. 6 deadline to decide whether they want to participate in a government buyout. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has led the charge in offering eight months of pay and benefits to workers who decide to leave the federal service as Trump forges ahead with a return to office mandate.

But the offer comes with plenty of legal and logistical challenges — details that have led unions and lawmakers representing districts with large numbers of federal employees to warn them against accepting the offer.

On Monday, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, cautioned workers about being “tricked” into taking the deal. Other emails from the union have called it “legally dubious [and] financially reckless.”

The Hill’s Taylor Giorno and Miranda Nazzarro have five things to watch ahead of today’s deadline.

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: A federal judge Wednesday extended a block of Trump’s executive order preventing the children of migrants without legal status from receiving birthright citizenship. At the conclusion of a hearing in Greenbelt, Md., U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said Trump’s order “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth” and likely violates an 1898 Supreme Court decision on the issue.

“The United States Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the president’s interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment,” Boardman said. “In fact, no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation. This court will not be the first.” 

A separate federal judge in Seattle previously put Trump’s executive order on hold. But that ruling will expire Thursday, when that judge will hold another hearing. 

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press | Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo

UKRAINE: U.S. allies expect the Trump administration to present a long-awaited plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference in Germany next week. The blueprint would be presented to allies by Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg. Bloomberg News reports that sources declined to say how detailed they expect the discussions to be or what format they will take.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday it has established contact with the Trump administration, as discussions begin about the possibility of holding peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. The last time the two sides held peace talks to end the war was in 2022, and they fell apart over key disagreements.

And while Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has noticeably fizzled in his new term, Trump has yet to reveal the extent to which he’ll pressure Russia to end its grinding war with Ukraine.

The Hill: A special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Ukraine wins backing from European institutions.

CANADIAN BUSINESS AND LABOR LEADERS will meet in Toronto this Friday to discuss diversifying trade and boosting the economy in the wake of U.S. threats to impose tariffs, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Wednesday. The summit comes after Trump on Monday said he would delay 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports by 30 days in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement.

The situation put in the spotlight long-standing calls to reduce Canadian reliance on the U.S., which takes 75 percent of Canada's goods and services exports.

▪ CBC: Behind the scenes of Canada's push to avoid Trump's punishing tariffs.

▪ Al Jazeera: Could Canada really stop oil flow to the U.S. in response to Trump’s tariffs?

In France, the government lived to see another day on Wednesday, surviving a no-confidence vote in Parliament that gave recently appointed Prime Minister François Bayrou a temporary reprieve from months of political turmoil — and the country a 2025 budget bill.

OPINION 

■ Trump shouldn’t push his luck on tariffs, editorial, The Detroit News.

■ Four ways Trump and Elon Musk are shattering the basic rules of American government, by Kimberly Wehle, opinion contributor, The Hill. 

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press | AJ Mast

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