Today’s notice: Murkowski persists. The next House Dem Oversight fight won’t look like the last one. Fallout for Fetterman. Deportation by the numbers. But first: Talking about other things.
Can The White House Flood The Economy Zone, Too?
Reopening Alcatraz. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils.” $1,000 bucks to leave the country. A tariff on foreign movies.
Say a lot, do a lot, do it fast, do it all the time – it’s been the strategy of Donald Trump’s second term, and one that’s helped reset several tough moments for the administration. Now it will be tested against a challenging economic picture for millions of Americans brought on by Trump policies.
Trending
Yesterday, the administration restarted debt collection on student loans, potentially resulting in unexpected financial struggle for millions of people. New tariffs on de minimis imports kicked in, jacking up the prices on stuff like clothes and other newly cheap goods. Meanwhile, the president’s other tariff price hikes are potentially just around the corner. Plus there’s that potentially huge bill cutting government services, as well as taxes.
Democrats, pollsters and other operatives have laughed at the things administration officials have been saying about the economy — they point at consumer confidence numbers, import figures, sliding approval ratings to say that the White House is in for a bumpy ride no matter what it tries to distract people with. Meanwhile, Republicans are ready to stand by his pitch as an argument for the future of the party.
“What it is is a very big shift between Republicans of old that just wanted to cut taxes for rich people, versus a party that wants to look out for working Americans and make sure we have a stable, strong and thriving and upwardly mobile middle class,” Sen. Bernie Moreno told NOTUS’ Helen Huiskes.
Speaker Mike Johnson said something similar yesterday. The flooded zone will need to drown out a lot.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro
How to Keep Friends and Be Respected by People
What if you don’t sound like Moreno and you’re often publicly skeptical of your party’s president? Can you still have influence as a Republican? NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson and Ursula Perano report that for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the answer appears to be “yes.”
“To hear her Republican colleagues tell it, her role in the conference is more important than ever,” they write. They talked to “nearly a dozen GOP senators across the ideological spectrum” and found there was “little interest in alienating” their outspoken colleague.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- JD Vance’s Little Brother Tries His Hand at Politics. It’s Not Going So Well., by Adam Wren for Politico
- National Endowment for the Arts rescinds grants, dazing publishers and theaters, by Sophia Nguyen and Herb Scribner for the Washington Post
- What the Tariffs Have Done to a Fledgling Small Business, by Oliver Whang for The New Yorker
Quotable I
“Can’t say exactly how it’s gonna happen. But I’m optimistic.”
Sen. Rick Scott on the ongoing efforts to find common ground over budget cuts in the reconciliation bill, as lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol hit delays and red lines drawn by different factions of their party.
Read the latest from the NOTUS Hill team.
Quotable II
“I want to check in with him this week. I mean, he’s been through a lot, and what he has to do to maintain his recovery, that’s between him and his doctors. But I’m a friend, and I want to be fully supportive.”
Sen. Peter Welch, one of Sen. John Fetterman’s close friends in the Senate, said he is “concerned” about the Pennsylvania senator following the New York Magazine piece about Fetterman published last week.
Read the story from NOTUS’ Torrence Banks.
What’s Next for House Oversight Dems? Not AOC.
After Rep. Gerry Connolly announced he would retire at the end of his term and immediately step down as ranking member of House Oversight, some wondered if Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would try to win the assignment again. She won’t, she told reporters yesterday.
“The underlying dynamics in the caucus have not shifted with respect to seniority as much as I think would be necessary,“ Ocasio-Cortez said. That clears the way for other Democrats to vie for the job. Rep. Stephen Lynch is the temporary ranking member. Reps. Ro Khanna, Robert Garcia and Maxwell Frost have been floated, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett recently told NOTUS she would run when there is a vacancy.
—Riley Rogerson and Daniella Diaz
Double-Checking the Deportation Numbers
During Joe Biden’s administration, the federal government published Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes Monthly Tables, comprehensive data that experts used to track deportations. The Trump administration stopped making the data public, leaving those experts without a simple way to prove the administration’s claims that around 140,000 people were deported between Inauguration Day and the end of April. NOTUS’ Violet Jira reports on how people are trying to double-check that figure – and why many are skeptical of it.
Wind Power Fight Blows Into Court
The Trump administration has been aggressive in trying to curb the growth of wind power, as NOTUS’ Anna Kramer has reported for months now. Yesterday, 18 states got aggressive back, taking the admin to court, arguing “the president’s attacks on the industry violated a litany of federal laws and are already causing significant economic harm across the country,” Anna writes.
Front Page
- Trump Signed an Executive Order Limiting Infectious Disease Research: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the new limits on “gain-of-function” research. Scientists have warned the move could have a chilling effect.
- ‘It’s a Stupid Idea’: California Lawmakers Aren’t Taking Trump’s Alcatraz Ambition Seriously: “I won’t suggest who should go there first,” Rep. Sam Liccardo said.
- Trump Wants Tariffs on Foreign-Produced Films — Some Democrats Say That Would be Chaos: The White House says “no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made,” as the president pushes the idea on social media.
- Republican Lawmakers Love Trump’s Idea to Pay Immigrants to Self-Deport: A new Trump administration proposal to offer undocumented immigrants $1,000 to “self-deport” quickly gained Republican fans on Capitol Hill.
Be Social
Hot this take is.
Prequels were underrated!
— JD Vance (@JDVance) May 5, 2025
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