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Follow Trump’s second term through the lens of business, markets and the economy. Delivered daily.
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This is Washington Edition, the newsletter about money, power and politics in the nation’s capital. Today, senior domestic policy reporter Ted Mann looks at the president’s message to congressional Republicans. Sign up here. Email our editors here.
Presidential Advice
This morning’s edition of the Donald Trump Show — a riffing 84-minute performance for an audience of congressional Republicans at the Kennedy Center – was a recital of the president’s favorite bits in a defensive minor key.
Underneath Trump’s pantomimes of trans weightlifters, jokes about his wife and attacks on Democrats, there was a plaintive appeal to his party’s lawmakers as the 2026 midterm elections loom: Find a way not to lose the House of Representatives, lest his administration’s frenzied agenda to remake the country shudders to a halt.
“If you don’t get elected, we have a country that’s going to go to hell,” he said.
The Trumponomics Podcast
The Trumponomics Podcast
The Trumponomics Podcast
Trump is back. What does that mean for the economy?
Trump is back. What does that mean for the economy?
Trump is back. What does that mean for the economy?
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Trump was addressing a Republican conference that currently clings to just a five-seat House majority after the sudden death yesterday of California Representative Doug LaMalfa. Even with Republican states pushing through new district maps intended to pad their delegations, Trump acknowledged the reality that the incumbent president’s party usually loses seats in midterms — and that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job of holding his ranks together on tough votes is increasingly difficult as those members prepare to face their own voters in the fall.
But even as he boasted of his administration’s first-year performance (“the most successful first year of any president in history,” in his own analysis) and predicted an “epic” victory in November, Trump reflected unusual defensiveness.
“I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public, because we have — we have the right policy,” Trump said.
He protested criticism of his golf-playing. He groused that he wasn’t getting credit for falling prices (including on some commodities that actually have gone up in price). And he complained that he hadn’t gotten points with voters for investments in American businesses, or for revenue generated by his tariffs.
Adding to his woes are signs of disunity within Republican ranks.
First there was the successful push to get the administration to release all the government files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, driven in part by Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has since resigned from the House in a spasm of dissent, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
And on Thursday, the House is poised to override two Trump vetoes, an unusual move in a chamber still run by Republicans who have been almost entirely beholden to Trump.
The president’s remarks were a ramble, but the message was brief, urgent and personal.
“You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midterms,” the president said, “I’ll get impeached.”
Don’t Miss
The Trump administration and Ukraine’s allies converged toward an agreement to offer security guarantees long sought by Kyiv during a meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing.
European leaders closed ranks behind Denmark as Trump amplified threats to seize Greenland, warning that existing borders were nonnegotiable and arguing Arctic security must be achieved through NATO.
The Supreme Court scheduled Friday as an opinion day, indicating that date will be the first chance for a ruling on Trump’s global tariffs, which placed levies of 10-50% on most imports.
The Trump administration is expected to advise Americans to pare back their sugar consumption under new Dietary Guidelines, urging people to eat no more than 10 grams of added sugars per meal.
Lockheed Martin struck a deal with the Pentagon that’s meant to triple production of its Patriot air-defense missile, part of a broader US push to speed up weapons output and meet global demand for the weapons system.
Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said the US central bank will need to cut interest rates by more than a percentage point in 2026, arguing monetary policy is restraining the economy.
The Department of Homeland Security is spending about $85,000 on parkas for what it calls an “urgent enforcement mission” in Minnesota, where federal agents have fanned out for an immigration crackdown in the middle of winter.
Almost all US power grids will lack critical spare capacity by 2030 as data center demand surges, with bottlenecks threatening to hand China an edge in the artificial-intelligence boom, according to a Goldman Sachs analyst.
Watch & Listen
Today on Bloomberg Television’s Balance of Power early edition at 1 p.m., hosts Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall interviewed John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor in Trump’s first term, about the president’s foreign policy from Venezuela to Greenland.
On the program at 5 p.m., they talk with Representatives Chris DeLuzio, a Democrat, and Byron Donalds, a Republican, about the US ouster of Maduro in Venezuela and what comes next, as well as the outlook in Congress.
On the Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Nathan Hager talks with Latin America regional editor Crayton Harrison about the situation on the ground in Venezuela following the US strike and what’s at stake for its citizens, its neighbors in the region and the global economy. Listen on iHeart, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chart of the Day
Despite the tariffs Trump imposed on goods from overseas, including vehicles and parts, Asian car and truck makers gained market share in the US last year. Manufacturers based in Asia increased their share of the light vehicle market to 48.4% in 2025 from 47.9% the year before, according to market analysis firm Omdia. The gain came at the expense of European makers, which saw their sales volume slip by more than 5%. European makers held just a 17.1% slice of the US market from 18.5% the prior year. North American firms increased their share by 0.9 percentage points to 34.5%. Japan-based Toyota had the biggest bump overall, increasing its market share by 0.7 percentage points to 13.2%. — Alex Tanzi
What’s Next
Job openings and layoffs for November will be reported tomorrow.
Factory orders for October also will be reported tomorrow.
The ISM services purchasing managers’ index for December is released tomorrow.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 3 will be reported Thursday.
The nation’s trade balance in October will be released on Thursday.
The December jobs report, including the unemployment rate, will be released on Friday.
Housing starts in October also will be released on Friday.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of consumer sentiment in January will be released Friday.
Seen Elsewhere
* A study found that food allergy rates for children under 3 plummeted after new guidelines were put in place that encouraged parents to introduce infants to peanut products, according to the New York Times.
* The state of Utah is testing letting artificial intelligence systems handle routine prescription renewals for patients with chronic conditions with no involvement by a doctor, Politico reports.
* As data centers put the US power grid under increasing strain, some power providers are asking technology companies to disconnect from the grid when electricity is in short supply, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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