Today’s notice: It’s every aide for themselves in the post-midterms White House. The future of tariffs. Jamie Raskin’s one-man show about Haley Stevens. One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Montana Democrats wanted more. And: Dems continue to argue about how much investigating is too much.
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
Blame game: Getting scary. When the music stops in this game, the last one standing is the designated fall guy (or gal) for Donald Trump’s embarrassing midterms faceplant. “Honestly, it’s the Wild West in there right now. Everyone is looking for someone to blame. And people also see the opportunity to elevate themselves in the process,” one GOP strategist close to the White House told The Washington Sun’s Jasmine Wright. “I’ve had damaging stories shopped to me about nearly half the Cabinet.”
How bad is it? Those who’ve been through it say the current post-midterm fervor nearly matches the nonstop intensity of Trump’s first term. (Reality check from former Mike Pence aide Marc Short, who told us, “I don’t think it’s ever been different” from what it was in Trump 1.0.)
Trending
The Sun asked multiple people close to the White House when the slugfest will end, and the consensus was: when someone loses. “I suspect it gets pretty ugly,” one of those sources said.
The list of would-be fallpeople has so far gone from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (who put out a five minute direct-to-camera video to show he’s not afraid) to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to now even MAGA-beloved Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “I don’t know where these things come from, to be honest with you,” Rubio told The New York Times, referring to speculation that he was leaving.
The hottest parlor game behind the blame game is folks trying to figure out who is pushing which story about which potential blame-ee. Off the record, sources close to the White House will theorize endlessly, but for the most part they are nervous to attach their names.
“I want to know who [told] Caroline Sunshine to go out there and trash Susie Wiles,” said one Republican operative close to the administration, after Sunshine, a former Trump campaign official, went on Fox News and called for Wiles to step down — and said she was speaking for other Trump Republicans. Twelve months ago, that would have felt impossible.
“Somebody who’s an ally of Susie’s is gonna pay the price,” the operative told The Sun’s Ben T.N. Mause, saying it wouldn’t be Wiles because she “keeps her pimp hand strong.”
Gilded age: Trump signed a proclamation yesterday he said would prevent future presidents from undoing his changes to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room.
Post-election tariff watch: “They understand this was a mandate from voters — that voters didn’t like them and that they want to bring them down,” Stephen Moore, a tariff skeptic who speaks to Trump regularly, told The Sun’s Jeff Stein. “There’s always been the pro-tariff camp and the more free trade people within the administration. But the free traders have a louder voice now.”
But loud White House pro-tariff voice Peter Navarro told Jeff that administration officials think the tariffs “have played no role in the inflation and affordability issue” and that the administration will increase tariffs “as long as the world cheats us.”
It’s all your fault: Trump Blames Stock Market Losses on Voters: ‘You Only Have Yourselves to Blame’
But not the Ukrainians: Trump Says He Met With Putin Envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House
Motivated sellers: Companies Sprint to Sell More ICE Detention Centers Before Democrats Take Control
HALEY STEVENS WATCH
Jamie Raskin zings: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) was scheduled to appear at a post-election summit in D.C. at GWU last night, but bailed. The Sun’s Manuela Silva was there, and she reports that Raskin filled in on the panel and proceeded to razz the living crap out of his viral colleague. “I just tried to call her a second ago,” he told the crowd. “She didn’t answer. I think she’s probably busy right now.”
On Stevens’ endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan Senate race: “She pleased her fiancé, clearly, who was very, you know, into the Mike Rogers campaign, and the Republicans were very happy. But she ended up really pleasing us because it caused, you know, a huge boomerang and backfire on them.”
On kicking her out of the Democratic caucus next week: “I don’t know the answer,” Raskin said. “I haven’t thought that through.”
THE MAP
Mississippi: Lawyer time. “Our lead has grown to 1,724,” Gerard Henderson, campaign manager for Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom, posted on X yesterday. Lawyers for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith demanded local officials preserve any provisional midterm ballots as the process continues.
Alaska: Foregone conclusion? Actual ballot counting has a long way to go, but an NYT analysis of available data found Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola “on track to eventually prevail.”
Montana: Bittersweet victory. Rep.-elect Sam Forstag will be the first Democrat elected to represent the state in the House since the mid-90s, but party members here can’t stop thinking about a Democrat who never had a real shot at winning, The Sun’s Anna Kramer reports.
The party’s Senate nominee, Alani Bankhead, refused multiple entreaties to drop out and clear the way for independent Seth Bodnar. Republican Sen.-elect Kurt Alme won the three-way race. “It’s a missed opportunity that quite frankly sets Montana back decades,” former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester told Anna.
Los Angeles: New mayor incoming. Democratic incumbent Karen Bass conceded to her progressive Democratic opponent, Nithya Raman.
FROM THE HILL
First on The Sun: Incoming Congress urged to go big, or be sent home. “This wasn’t an election about the old moderate-versus-progressive divide. It was a rejection of Trumpism and the status quo in search of transformative economic populism,” reads new post-election research from Democratic messaging firm Navigator being sent to party leaders on the Hill today.
Investigations? No end in sight for this argument. “I think there definitely is some pressure for us to have and hold this administration accountable,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) told reporters yesterday. “I think there’s a lot of members that are coming in that won in districts, they’re going to say, ‘Yes, I want to see accountability, but I also need to work to get reelected. And the only way I work to get reelected is if I actually have success.’”
But others say there’s no such thing as too much investigating. “You turn the page by rendering accountability and justice for the people who’ve been victimized,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the likely next House Judiciary chair, told The Sun’s Manuela Silva. “It’s very clear.”
Follow the data: 12 Former FEC Leaders Demand Senate Action on Stalled-Out Agency
Starting with subpoenas and investigations: Democrats Train Sights on AI and Crypto
NOT US
- RFK Jr.’s alliance with Trump is on tenterhooks, by Amanda Chu and Carmen Paun for Politico
- How accurate were the midterm polls? By Scott Clement for The Washington Post
- Virginia House Republican Who Had Seemed Vulnerable Fends Off Democrat, by Reid J. Epstein for The New York Times
- Democrats are fired up on AI. Consensus is harder. By Ashley Gold for Semafor
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
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