Today’s notice: Big day for Pete Hegseth. Big deadline for Kamala Harris. Trump’s election conspiracizing falls on deaf ears. Democrats’ promise-keeping problem on Medicaid expansion. Trump family meme coins take a dive. The latest on the outstanding Senate map. And: Will data center builders get to claim opportunity zone tax benefits?
THE LATEST
Pete Hegseth: Hot seat getting hotter. The secretary of defense (or of war, as he prefers) will hold his first press conference at the Pentagon today in more than 180 days. The presser comes a day after Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican vanquished by MAGA in the primaries, filed a privileged motion in the House to force a vote on impeaching Hegseth. That vote could come as early as today.
Kamala Harris: Deadline time. Advisers and friends in Harris’ orbit have told the former vice president that she should decide by the end of this year whether to make another run at the White House, The Sun’s Jasmine Wright reports. Those close to her say she’s conflicted about running again, though a robust 2026 travel schedule and the large crowds across battleground states that came out to greet her may make the decision easier. Donors remain skeptical, however. “When you’re a Democrat, you lose the general election, it’s time to move on,” one donor told Jasmine.
Trending
Republicans: House leadership drama. The race to be the minority leader in the next Congress is a “true toss-up” between House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, The Sun’s Reese Gorman tells us. Majority Whip Tom Emmer is expected to keep that No. 2 position in the minority. But the role of conference chair is wide open. A secret-ballot vote for the new minority leadership is expected this afternoon.
Election denial: Fewer takers this time. The president mused on Truth Social yesterday about vote rigging in the midterms: “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter,” Donald Trump wrote in a familiar refrain. We asked around to see if calling the midterm results B.S. was catching on widely in Trumpworld.
“If by B.S., you mean ‘Blue Supernova,’ then yeah,” one operative told The Sun’s Ben T.N. Mause. “Instead of groping through the wreckage for the last dose of cope, the GOP needs to take an honest assessment of how and why this reckoning came about. Everyone responsible for running these campaigns needs to be marked and avoided, not permitted to fail upward again.”
Democrats: Medicaid expansion pickle. “I think David Crowley was pretty clear-eyed that while we want to expand Medicaid, that may not be the expansion that has often been talked about previously,” Devin Remiker, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told The Sun of his party’s freshly minted governor-elect. Our Paige Huffman reports on Democrats’ reality-meeting rhetoric on welfare programs in a post-One Big Beautiful Bill world, where Republican policies will complicate efforts to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin, Georgia and Texas.
Trump crypto: Coinpocalypse. It has not been a great run for Trump family digital assets in the week since the midterms, The Sun’s Jeff Stein writes. $WLFI, the “governance token” of the Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial, sank to $1.11 after hitting $40 last year. MELANIA, the first lady’s meme coin, was not worth much before the election, but its value was nearly halved again after the midterms.
Last year, the cost of admission for an exclusive dinner with Trump for investors in his meme coin would have cost around $59,000. After recent declines, the required coin purchase for the dinner (one is scheduled for later this month) would run about $700.
“Five things” is back: Some Federal Workers Are Being Required to Email What They Do Again
Presidential guidance: Trump Tells Nvidia’s CEO He Shouldn’t Worry About the FBI Investigation Into His Affair
The votes are counted: California Rejects a Wealth Tax in a Hit to the Progressive Movement
FROM THE HILL
Permitting reform: Still breathing. Fifty-one Republicans, 21 Democrats and one independent voted in the Senate last night to advance the environmental red tape-cutting bill supported by Trump, much of the YIMBY movement, some prominent climate change groups and The Heritage Foundation. Opposition on the left is growing, however, The Sun’s Mara Hoplamazian reports. Next up: a full Senate vote and then the House, where — you guessed it! — passage is in no way assured.
Mike Johnson: Eyeing the exits. The soon-to-be former House speaker dodged questions about whether he plans to remain in Congress next year, The Sun’s Stephen Neukam reports. Johnson told reporters in the Capitol that he’s “focused on finishing the 119th strong.”
“After that, my commitment and my objective is to help my team ensure that the Republican Party has a very successful 120th Congress,” he said. “We’ll see how that develops, and that’s my commitment.”
Haley Stevens watch: Out of sight. The outgoing Democratic representative from Michigan cast votes in the first day of the lame-duck session yesterday, but she spent much of her time in the Republican cloakroom, our Hill team learned. Sun reporters stopped by her Hill office three times yesterday and found the door locked. No one answered when they knocked. Stevens famously/infamously saw much of her staff quit when she endorsed Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers the weekend before he lost to now-Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed.
A big list: Republicans Face a Legislative Pileup With Just Weeks Left in Power
Luxury items not included: Congressional Probe Finds Rep. Gooden May Have Misused Taxpayer Money
Manifesting: Jeffries Says He’s ‘Confident’ He Will Be Speaker of the House
A head start: One New Senator Will Get Sworn In Early — And Gain Seniority
THE MAP
Mississippi: Hurry up and wait. “We still sit at 75 of 82 counties with unofficial results uploaded,” Michael Watson, the Republican secretary of state, posted to X yesterday as the ballot process in the Senate race grinds on. Counties must receive properly postmarked absentee ballots by today (around 2,700 ballots were outstanding yesterday, Watson wrote), and certified results are due statewide on Friday.
Alaska: Courts and counting. Voting rights groups asked a federal appeals court not to reinstate the Justice Department effort to halt certification of Senate race results. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s campaign asked a state court not to hear a lawsuit from Democratic nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign over absentee ballots, KTUU reports. It’s unlikely the race will be called soon.
NEW ON THE SUN
Data centers: Opportunity (zone) knocks. Data center operators can use opportunity zones to cut down their tax bills like any other business. For now, anyway. The Sun’s Jade Lozada reports on new political fault lines emerging over whether data center projects fulfill the purpose of the tax break, which is designed to improve economic conditions in neglected places.
You may have heard a thing or two recently about the changing political fortunes for data center operators — this new question of whether the industry’s value is a job creator in poor communities is coming just as the Treasury prepares to field applications from states for the second round of opportunity zones.
A win for the administration: Supreme Court Allows Big Bend Border Wall Construction
NOT US
- The Downballot’s live tracker of every uncalled race in the 2026 midterms, by Daniel Donner for The Downballot
- Inside the Democrats’ secret strategy to flood the internet with clips, by Max Tani for Semafor
- Democrats Promised to Fix the Economy. What Can They Really Do? By Matt Grossman, Jeanne Whalen and Gavin Bade for The Wall Street Journal
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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