President Trump has helped Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries change the subject from their party's nasty internal feuds.

Why it matters: One week after the 2025 inauguration, it feels more like the winter of 2017.

• Democrats have flipped overnight from retreat to obstruction after Trump fired government watchdogs and froze (some) government spending.

They have no plans to stop unless or until Trump backs down.

• "This is about Trump wanting to seize control of everything," Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told reporters today.

Zoom in: A coherent Democratic counteroffensive is starting to emerge.

• Make noise: Jeffries' messaging arm urged House Dems to hold press conferences and go live on social media. Schumer's Dems audibled today's press conference from Jan. 6 pardons to Trump's spending freeze.
• Block bills: Senate Dems filibustered a GOP bill sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC). Democrats were resigned yesterday that they'd be jammed on the bill. Now they know they can increase their negotiating position if they stay unified.
• Protest votes: Nearly two dozen Senate Democrats voted against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's confirmation, a day after the chamber voted unanimously to advance his nomination.
• Lawsuits: A federal judge blocked Trump's spending freeze plans this afternoon. But all day, Democrats decried Trump's move. The lawsuit will give them time to create a narrative about the real-world impact of the cuts. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers will be hearing from their (potentially) angry constituents.

The bottom line: The all-day rage session was convenient for Schumer, who'd rather talk about Trump than a soon-to-be-open Michigan Senate seat. Gary Peters surprised the Hill today by announcing he won't run for reelection.

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— Stephen Neukam, Andrew Solender and Hans Nichols

House Speaker Mike Johnson is convinced his best path to avoiding a midterm rout runs through Texas' Rio Grande Valley and California's Central Valley.

• Why it matters: That means pumping real resources into a handful of predominantly Hispanic districts.

Behind the scenes: NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and top House GOP super PAC president Chris Winkelman briefed lawmakers on their emerging strategy at the GOP retreat in Doral, Florida.

• This was the first time Hudson and Winkelman together laid out in detail their plans to pick up seats.
• They need both a strategy and the hard-money cash to execute it.

Zoom in: "We are going to defy the historic trend this time," Johnson told reporters tonight.

• "It's a very favorable map for us," he said.
• "House Republicans are already delivering for the American people and have more wins coming soon," Hudson told us.
• "This cycle, the NRCC will be on offense every single day, delivering our message and holding Democrats accountable for their out-of-touch votes," he said.

Zoom out: House Republicans are haunted by their last encounter with voters when they held both the House majority and the White House.

• In the 2018 midterms, Republicans lost 41 House seats and the speaker's gavel. Trump was then impeached twice by the new Democratic majority.
• The GOP plans to avoid the traditional curse by going on offense in seats that both Trump and Democrats won.

The bottom line: In the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans are targeting two Democrats in seats that have gotten redder. That's Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas–28) and Vicente Gonzalez (Texas–34).

• In California's Central Valley, Republicans are eying Democratic Rep. Adam Gray (Calif.–13), in a district Trump narrowly won.
• They are also looking at Democratic Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.–21), who held a seat that Harris won, as a prime target.

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— Hans Nichols

Republicans are "not that close" to a topline number on government spending, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told us.

Why it matters: Republicans have staked out an extraordinarily ambitious timeline to cram through their agenda this year.

Lawmakers still have to ...

• Fund the government for the rest of this year by March 14, pass budget reconciliation shortly after, fund the government for next year by Sept. 30 and raise the debt ceiling by this summer.
• At some point, they'll need to also handle disaster relief and some GOP pet projects.

Zoom in: In the House, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) doesn't think it's a good idea to force a big appropriations package right before Republicans have to rally to pass top Trump's priorities through reconciliation.

• He's pushing a short-term spending stopgap, he told Punchbowl News.

In the Senate, Collins is pushing against a long stopgap for different reasons.

• At today's weekly GOP lunch, she pointed out its impact on defense spending in particular, multiple sources told us.
• "Our leadership is pretty hostile to that idea," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told us about a long-term continuing resolution. "But I don't know what they're going to do otherwise."

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— Stef Kight and Stephen Neukam