The table is all but set for President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
On Friday, New York Justice Juan Merchan ruled that “the only lawful sentence” for Trump after his criminal conviction was an unconditional discharge, allowing him to avoid prison time.
Trump and his party scored another win on Thursday, when Senate Democrats helped pave the way for debate to begin on the Laken Riley Act, legislation that would allow for immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft.
Not long ago, Democrats excoriated Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric as racist and xenophobic, and the Laken Riley legislation stalled out in the Senate last year when that party still had control. Many civil liberties and left-wing organizations have excoriated Democrats for moving forward a bill that they say will violate civil liberties and help allow for Trump’s mass deportation operation.
But Democrats feel that they largely lost the argument on immigration this past election, especially when heavily Latino counties that have been overwhelmed by the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border voted Republican.
In Arizona, Ruben Gallego, who is Latino and a former member of the House’s Congressional Progressive Caucus, used to excoriate Republican anti-immigrant rhetoric. Now, as Arizona’s junior senator, he co-sponsored the Laken Riley Act, telling The Independent that, “We're here to see if we could come to a common agreement when it comes to the border, border policies and border security in general.”
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose wife Gisele was once an undocumented immigrant, told The Independent he is “very pro-immigration” but “that doesn’t mean we are ‘pro-for-every immigrant.’” Fetterman will also head to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the president-elect this weekend, Politico reported.
On Monday, Trump notched another win as Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he defeated, presided over the certification of the 2024 election results with zero Democratic objections. He then returned to Capitol Hill to lay out his agenda, finding plenty of support from Republicans for his desire to incorporate Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal into the United States, to say nothing of his plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America.”
Trump further exerted his authority last Friday when Mike Johnson became House speaker after one round, avoiding another circus of 15 votes like in 2023.
But all of these victories paper over the internal divisions within his conference that might make Trump’s life more difficult when he takes the oath of office a week from Monday.
For one, yes, Johnson got the votes he needed on the first round, but the fact remains that Republicans have a four-seat majority in the House, meaning any one defection could sink Trump’s plans. Republicans got Democrats to cave on the Laken Riley Act — but they’ll face significant roadblocks with any sweeping legislation.
As Democrats did during Joe Biden’s first two years in office, Republicans will be looking to take on major initiatives at the start of Trump’s term, like boosting energy production and spending at the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as extending Trump’s 2017 tax cut law via reconciliation, which would allow them to sidestep a filibuster.
Thin margins will make near-unanimity on many issues difficult — and Republicans can’t even agree how to go about pushing their legislative agenda through. Trump told a conservative talk radio host that he wanted “one big, beautiful bill.” But some in the Senate prefer a two-step approach, which might give Republicans an early win on border funding while they continue to hash out a tax plan.
Before his meeting with Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he was “resigned to whatever it takes to get the job done,” a philosophy the president-elect seemed to share during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers.
Meanwhile, John Cornyn of Texas, whom Thune beat to lead Republicans, told reporters on Thursday that two bills could set the GOP up for failure.
“We need to pass a budget resolution, and then we need to get reconciliation instructions for the various committees to report back where they are raising revenue, where they're cutting spending, you can't do any of that until we pass a budget,” he told reporters.
But when asked which approach he preferred, Cornyn said, “I’m agnostic.”
