Welcome to the online version of From the policy deskevening bulletin that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News Politics team.
In today’s edition, top national political reporter Jonathan Allen explains why Democrats need to rethink their economic message in Donald Trump’s second term. Plus, top national politics reporter Matt Dixon writes that after four years, the race to succeed Trump is already underway. And “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker asks Trump about his mass deportation plans in an interview.
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How Trump Broke Both Parties — and Where Do Democrats Go From Here
By Jonathan Allen
Over the past decade, President-elect Donald Trump has fractured both national political parties.
He first attacked the 2016 Republican primary with a style that cut sharply against both the agenda and the GOP conventions. Since then, the Democratic Party has been defined more by its opposition than by its values and platform. President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory now looks more than ever like an electoral brake in a race far from the establishment.
For most of the past 20 years, American voters have been crying out that they don’t believe their government is serving them well. Before Trump, the Democrats nominated Barack Obama, who fought leaders who led the country into perpetual wars and a financial and housing crisis that nearly collapsed the economy, and the country was elected twice.
Add to that this nugget: It’s the first time since 1896 that voters have toppled an incumbent party in three straight presidential elections. (They did it four times in a row in the 1880s and 1890s.)
There was no greater symbol of the futility of the old guard of both parties in this election than the embrace of the Cheney family and the Democratic presidential nominee. Their marriage of convenience gave more credence to Trump’s argument that elites serve their own interests first.
Like Obama’s two elections, Trump’s second victory was decisive by modern historical standards. There is no need to count how many thousands of votes he won in the nearest states.
But if there’s one silver lining — or one ray of hope — for Democrats, it’s that the national swing in the electorate can still be measured as a few percentage points. It didn’t take anything but Minnesota and the District of Columbia in 1984 when Ronald Reagan.
Democrats now have time to assess how their party can be more responsive to public sentiment as they look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., he criticized them harshly to alienate white, black, and Latino working-class voters. Given that he is the architect and cheerleader of Biden’s economic agenda, he may be the wrong person to make this claim, but he has a point.
Democrats would be wise to start with the issue that Trump has taken on and that many of his voters are most concerned about: the economy.
For four years, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have tried to convince voters that their plan is working instead of shaping their agenda to respond to the economic pain felt by many Americans. First, they said inflation was not a problem. Then they said it was temporary. Finally, they noted that his speed had slowed. With one minor exception—promises to ban price increases that are difficult to implement—they have been reluctant to acknowledge the toll that cumulative inflation has taken on working families.
They threw out facts and figures to explain why the economy was doing better than its counterparts around the world. Harris’s economic policy proposals were largely extensions of Biden’s proposals, such as more generous homebuyer and child tax credits than he requested. In the political equivalent of Bill Buckner pulling a ground ball in the World Series, Biden failed to warn the public when he took office that the previous year’s pandemic spending could cause inflation.
But another thing Biden and Harris failed to do — despite the president’s reputation for empathy — was listen to the cries for help and shape their agendas around it. If the Democrats don’t figure it out before the next election, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
In the interim, Trump now has the power to reform government—the institutions of democracy—as he has rebuilt the Republican Party around a more populist and protectionist vision for the economy that is persuasive to voters.
To effectively fight for the issues they care most about, from the form of government to abortion rights, Democrats must make sure voters don’t see them as a threat to economic prosperity.
More post-election results
🗳️ After death: Based on more than 35 interviews with operatives and officials from both parties and campaigns, Alex Seitz-Wald, Henry J. Gomez, and Natasha Korecki have the inside story of how Trump won and Harris lost. More →
🔵 Desperate Democrats: Natasha Korecki and Yamiche Alcindor also have more on how Democratic officials are dealing with Harris’ loss and are beginning to blame Biden and incumbent party leaders for messaging decisions. More →
🗣️ Weight of voters: Democratic voters in battleground states said they were disappointed but not surprised by Harris’ eventual defeat and said their party could do more to address economic problems. More →
Trump’s victory preserves his position in the APC. It also sets succession plans in motion.
By Matt Dixon
Donald Trump’s return to the presidency has done something no other political challenger has been able to do: put an end to his time at the helm of the Republican Party.
Well, sort of.
Trump single-handedly rebuilt the party in his own image, not only becoming its undisputed leader, but also rebuilding what the Grand Old Party stood for. Since emerging on the scene in 2015, former party heavyweights who don’t adhere to the new MAGA ethos have either faded into insignificance or become an intense line of attack from Trump and his supporters.
But the fact is that the Constitution prohibits him from running for the presidency again after being elected for a second term. With Trump unable to run for re-election, the process of figuring out who will lead the next party has already begun, featuring ambitious and enthusiastic Republicans who have waited years for their opportunity and now the two will form a fight. – term president.
Many Republican elected officials, donors and advisers said in interviews that it doesn’t matter, at least in the near term, whether Trump runs again. It will still cast an indelible shadow over the GOP, influencing who can ascend, who can descend, and whether the party generally resets to resemble its pre-Trump state or continues down a path more focused on new policy attractions like isolationism. battles fueled by the culture war and economic policies based on tariffs.
“He’s going to hold the party as long as he’s alive,” said one longtime Republican operative.
Trump told NBC News that there is “no price tag” on his mass deportation plan
By Kristen Welker and Alexandra Marquez
On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News that one of his first priorities after taking office in January was to make the border “stronger and stronger.” When questioned about his campaign promise of mass deportations, Trump said his administration had “no choice” but to carry them out.
Trump said he sees his landslide victory over Vice President Kamala Harris as a mandate to “bring common sense” to the country.
“Obviously, we need to make the border strong and strong, and at the same time we want people to come to our country,” he said. “And you know I’m not one to say, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.”
As a candidate, Trump repeatedly promised to fulfill this task “The largest attempted deportation in American history.” Asked about the cost of his plan, he replied: “It’s not about the price tag. It’s not – we really have no choice. When people kill and kill, when drug lords destroy countries, and now they will return to those countries because they are no longer here. There is no price tag.”
It’s unclear how many undocumented immigrants are in the U.S., but ICE Acting Director Patrick J. Lechleitner This was reported by NBC News said in July that a mass deportation effort would be a major logistical and financial challenge. Two former Trump administration officials who worked on immigration in his first term told NBC News that the effort will require cooperation between several federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the Pentagon.
Read more from the interview →
🗞️ The best stories of the day
- 🎤 Biden’s message: In his first public speech since the election, Biden urged Americans to “accept the choice the country has made” while encouraging supporters to “step back.” More →
- ➡️ Cross talk: Susie Wiles, Trump’s co-campaign manager, appears to be the frontrunner to become the next White House chief of staff. More →
- 🔀 On the Hill: Trump’s victory made it difficult in next week’s three-way race to replace Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. More →
- 💻 Convenience: During the election, mostly on the sidelines, tech executives send their congratulations to Trump. More →
- 👀 Boundary bracket: The Biden administration is making contingency plans for a possible increase in border crossings before Trump takes office. More →
- ✂️ Interest discount: The Federal Reserve announced that it cut its key interest rate by a quarter point, signaling continued inflation concerns. More →
- 🔢 According to numbers: Here is a division by precincts A map of how Trump won Pennsylvania. Follow the post-election updates live →
That’s all for the Policy Desk for now. If you have feedback – like it or not – send us an email politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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