House Republicans are preparing a disaster aid package of $81 billion, almost double the White House request, Politico reports, calling the proposal "staggering."
Why it matters: This proposal would be the biggest single package for disaster relief in U.S. history, Politico reports, and would bring total disaster aid spending for calamities this year to more than $130 billion.
President Trump laid out his "America First" national security strategy in a speech Monday, saying, "Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in a new era of competition."
The bottom line from the Associated Press: Trump's strategy "envisions nations in constant competition, reverses Obama-era warnings on climate change and affirms that the United States will unilaterally defend its sovereignty, even if that means risking existing the agreements with other countries that have dominated the United States' foreign policy since the Cold War."
By the numbers: The conservative Tax Foundation predicts the plan will increase the federal deficit by $1.47 trillion, or $448 billion when you factor in economic growth; while the group of budget hawks say it could end up costing $2.2 trillion, or $1.5 trillion including economic growth.
Matthew Peterson, the Trump judicial nominee who couldn't answer basic legal questions during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, has withdrawn his nomination, a White House official told AP.
The defining moment: A video of Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioning Peterson, who currently serves as a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, went viral after Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tweeted it out to his more than 187k followers.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the GOP tax bill early Tuesday afternoon, Reuters reports, citing Republican congressional aides.
What’s next: The bill is likely to reach Trump's desk after Senate passage later in the week, with holdouts Sens. Bob Corker and Marco Rubio confirming Friday that they'll vote "yes."
Twitter has apparently suspended the account of Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right ultranationalist U.K. political group Britain First. Fransen rose to international notoriety last month when President Trump retweeted three anti-Islam videos that she had originally shared.
The White House will unveil a new national security strategy that, according to multiple reports, will break with the Obama administration by declining to recognize climate change as a threat to national security interests.
Why it matters: The report is the latest sign of how the Trump administration, in addition to unwinding domestic global warming rules, has made a sharp rhetorical break with its predecessor when it comes to the geo-politics of climate change.
"Trump, Real Estate Investors Get Last-Minute Perk in Tax Bill," by Bloomberg's Lynnley Browning and Benjamin Bain report: "Lawmakers scrambling to lock up Republican support for the tax reform bill added a complicated provision late in the process — one that would provide a multimillion-dollar windfall to real estate investors such as President Donald Trump."
"The change, which would allow real estate businesses to take advantage of a new tax break that's planned for partnerships, limited liability companies and other so-called 'pass-through' businesses, combined elements of House and Senate legislation in a new way."
President Trump promised success for the GOP in next year's midterm elections in a morning tweet, glossing over his party's failures in November's Virginia gubernatorial race and last week's Alabama special Senate election:
Don't forget: Trump issued full-throated endorsements of both Gillespie and Moore in their respective races. And Trump's also forgetting a Democratic win in a congressional race — California's 34th district — though it wasn't even contested by the GOP.
Americans would prefer a Democrat-controlled Congress after the 2018 midterm elections, per a new NBC/WSJ poll. Among registered voters surveyed, 50% said they would rather see Democrats as the congressional majority, while 39% said they prefer Republicans in power.
Behind the numbers: Democrats haven't seen such a strong lead since 2008, when voters preferred a blue congress to a red one by 14 points. They lead young voters, ages 18–34 by 48 points and women voters by 20 points. Republicans lead among white voters by 2 points and among white voters without college degrees by 12 points.
Democratic Congressman Ruben Kihuen is not running for reelection, Politico reports, after he was accused of sexual harassment. He has denied the allegations, but told the Las Vegas Review-Journal it's "in the best interest of [his] family and [his] constituents" to finish his term and not seek reelection.
Why it matters: The House Ethics Committee said it would be investigating the claims against Kihuen on Friday.
