WSJ What’s News - Trump’s Got a Friendly Congress. What Does that Mean for His Agenda?

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Donald Trump takes office this week with slim Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. What might we see from Congress once the President-elect begins his term? WSJ congressional reporter Siobhan Hughes discusses the dynamic between Trump and lawmakers as well as what that means for the incoming President’s agenda. Alex Ossola hosts. Further Reading Debt-Ceiling Fight Has New X Factor: Trump   Why the Trumpiest Congress Ever May Not Deliver His Agenda  Mike Johnson Wins Speaker Vote After Trump Twists Arms   Johnson Wins Speaker Battle, but Proves GOP Has Little Room for Error  House and Senate Split on How to Deliver for Trump  Republicans Lean Toward ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ for Trump Agenda  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Companion, only in theaters January 31st. Hey, What's News listeners. It's Sunday, January 19th. I'm Alex Osala for the Wall Street Journal. This is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom

to help explain what's happening in our world. This week, the 119th Congress is officially in session. Though President-elect Donald Trump hasn't taken office yet, he's already having an impact on those legislative chambers. What might we see from Congress once Trump takes office, and what does that mean for Trump's agenda? Congress has been in session for a little over two weeks now, and lawmakers have already set a tone for how they might function as a governing body. Republicans have slim majorities in both the House and the Senate, but they're already

showing they can get stuff done. Trump might be pulling the strings from offstage as president-elect, but how might his dynamic with Congress change once he's actually in office? Here to discuss is Siobhan Hughes, who covers Congress for the Wall Street Journal. So in some ways, Siobhan, this moment is similar to the start of Trump's first presidency. He's coming into office with a Republican-led Senate and House. How is this moment maybe different from 2017 as far as Trump and Congress are concerned? Siobhan Hughes This moment has a lot of differences. You are seeing a more powerful Donald Trump, unlike

in 2016 he comes in having won the popular vote and he knows it. Many of the lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, who have their seats, owe those seats to Donald Trump's popularity in their states. And finally, Donald Trump now has experience. After having governed for four years, he knows the ways that he can get thwarted. He intends for that to not happen again. And furthermore, this is a man with an agenda. In 2016, the Republican Party essentially used him to enact their agenda of tax cuts and a conservative Supreme Court. Donald Trump now has his own ideas for what he wants to accomplish.

Yeah, tell me a little bit more about what is on Trump's agenda, just like bullet points. The border is the big one. Also on his agenda are some pretty significant tariffs that he would like to impose. And then finally, there are the must do things, the expiration of the 2017 tax cuts enacted during his first term and also the increase in the debt ceiling. Gigi Sotelo The government is not a single person or even a single office. Power is divided among the branches of government. So how much is Trump able to accomplish of this agenda just on his own? Emily Mertinko Well, it really depends on how much he wants to use the tools he has and then how much

he wants to test the limits of his power. So, for example, in his first term, he used basically national security law to impose tariffs. And it's pretty clear he wants to try that same approach this time, essentially yanking power into his own hands in the executive branch. In addition, there are some signs he also wants to really push the limits of this constraint on his power, this 1974 law that essentially says the president must spend money appropriated by Congress. He's planning to have in place an official at the Office of Management and Budget

who really disagrees with the limits imposed by that law and is telegraphing that he plans to test in fact whether or not Trump is going to have to spend money the way Congress wants him to. And so you should look for a very muscular presidency, a person who at times has tested the limits of federal law and one, really asserted his power over the power of Congress. How much pushback are we expecting to see if Trump does try to test the limits of his office? Well, right now, this is a very powerful president and it's going to be hard to get a lot of

Republican pushback. And you saw that, for example, in the vote to elect a new Republican speaker earlier this year. When you had the whiff of dissent from a handful of Republicans, Donald Trump picked up that phone, made very clear he had won their districts, and the Republican Party essentially shut up and went along. Now, that said, a lot of this is going to depend upon whether or not Donald Trump is able to sustain his popularity within the Republican base. And a lot of Republicans say that Trump

basically has six months of popularity to accomplish his agenda before the sugar high, the honeymoon starts to wear off. So, he's got six months to really push forward his agenda. How, just sort of on a nuts and bolts level, how does it work for him to get his agenda through Congress or with Congress? Well, there's a lot of communication back and forth and part of it takes place at the staff level. Part of it takes place at the level of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has the phone numbers of many of these Republican lawmakers and it's not uncommon for people to see a phone number pop up on their phone and it turns out it's the president,

now the president-elect. Is there any other X factor that could tell us how some of that influence might work? Personalities. Donald Trump is a transactional president, but part of what's embedded in his transactions are his relationships with people, essentially who he likes and who he doesn't like. And right now he seems to like how Speaker Mike Johnson or feel warmer towards him than he feels towards Senate Majority Leader John Thune. And so that's going to be a factor. And then another factor is a lot of policy could hinge on whoever Donald Trump makes

that last phone call to. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, we get a little more into the nuts and bolts of how some of this legislation might get passed, including one measure that's been in the news a lot. Stay with us. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach

out to TD Direct Investing. Katie Kuznicki Johnson has said his party hopes to pass some bills through a process called budget reconciliation. Can you explain what that is? Katie Sands Yeah, so budget reconciliation is this muscular tool that essentially sets up an exception to the filibuster. It allows Republicans to shove bills through the Senate without meeting the 60 vote super majority threshold for passing most legislation. It's a very complicated process. It requires going through a gatekeeper known

as the parliamentarian. You can think of her as the referee who says whether or not certain provisions can or cannot be included on the playing field. But at the end of the day, it's the tool you use to crush democratic dissent and assert the Republican Party's will in its purest form. SONIA DARA GARRETT I guess this technique assumes that Republicans are all in line, right?

KATE BOWEN Given the narrow margins in this Congress, particularly in the House, yes. Okay, so it sounds like border is going to be something that maybe this will work for. But what are some issues that have the potential to divide Republicans in Congress? And maybe, you know, this technique wouldn't work as well. Well, even border, for example, is going to be a little bit tricky because if deportation is a big part of the agenda, Republicans are going to have to contend with members from agricultural districts that do tend to rely a lot on migrant labor. In the tax fight that's already taking place, you're already starting to see Republicans from states like New York and California say, hey, we remember when

you set a cap on deductions for state and local taxes, and that $10,000 cap is way too low for our constituents. We need to increase that limit. Lauren Henry Johnson has laid out a plan for not keeping all of these different agenda items as separate bills, but rolling them all up into a single package, which Trump has called one big, beautiful bill. What is the advantage for Republicans of trying to do this all in a single bill? Dr. Kirsten Krofman Well, the way Mike Johnson sees it is that because different elements of a large bill are likely to be controversial and turn off

some constituencies, the upside is that a big bill will have something for everybody. And therefore, if there's a piece of the bill you don't like, maybe you can set aside those frustrations and embrace the component of the bill that is really important to you and calculate that as a win. Lauren Henry If there is a Republican lawmaker who isn't necessarily on board with Trump's agenda and wants to kind of kneecap some of this movement. How successful could they be? Katie S

Well, it depends on whether or not that Republican would like to invite a primary challenge or wishes to have their job when they come up for election again. They could be successful, but they will pay a price or at least run the risk of paying a price. Gigi Could some Democratic lawmakers potentially help out the Republican agenda? Jennifer Cooke So I sat down with Democratic Senator John Federman from Pennsylvania and I asked him this and he indicated he was not shutting the door to working with Republicans on reconciliation.

He sounded most optimistic in fact about providing a vote for border spending if that moved as part of a separate package. But he also indicated he wasn't necessarily going to be a no vote on a larger package. Katie- Wow, that is interesting. How about stuff like debt ceiling, which has been in the conversation a lot? Katie- So Republicans have indicated they do want to try to increase the debt ceiling in the conversation a lot. Katie S couple of Republicans peel off and there is a pretty significant fiscally conservative wing in that party, then Donald Trump and Republicans will be forced into the arms of Democrats, which could mean they will have to make compromises that they don't like.

We've been talking about the kinds of topics and agenda items that we might hear about in the first six months of Trump's presidency. What are some items that might be a little further down Republicans' list that maybe we'll be talking about one year from now? I mean, right now, the game plan is really to get it all done this year. If they don't get it done this year, we're talking about pushing that agenda out until next year. And that's really going to be politically challenging. So is there a middle ground in this Congress? This Congress is a very interesting Congress

in that it pits the Republican Party, which increasingly is the party of Donald Trump against everybody else. That middle has been hollowed out, and it's not really clear if that's going to be a vacuum that's going to suck more players into the middle or if everybody is going to retreat to their partisan corners. Shavon Hughes is a congressional reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Shavon, thank you so much. Always good to be here. Thank you too. And that's it for What's New Sunday for January 19th. Today's show was produced by Charlotte Gartenberg with supervising producer Michael Cosmitis. We got help from Deputy deputy editors Scott Salloway and Chris Inslee. I'm Alex Osila.

We'll be back on Monday morning with a new show. Thanks for listening.