"With passage of an enormous budget bill, the GOP-controlled Congress all but wrapped up its legislating for the year," per AP: "In two big ways, Republicans have done what they promised. They passed a long sought tax overhaul bill that slashed tax rates. They've rolled back regulations, in ways they claim are boosting the economy. In the Senate, they confirmed a justice to the Supreme Court."
The state of play: "But there are signs Americans wanted more: immigration reforms, gun control legislation, even an infrastructure plan that President Donald Trump promised voters. Tax cuts, for now, will have to do."
In a Sunday morning tweet, President Trump denied that it's "hard to find a lawyer" that wants to take on his case in the Russia probe, implying instead that his recent difficulty finding representation stems from conflicts of interest.
The big picture: Trump's personal attorney, John Dowd, resigned last week, after news that he'd added "streetfighter" Joe diGenova to his legal team. However, CNN has reported that diGenova's role on Trump's legal team remains in flux — and Trump couldn't lock down renowned GOP lawyer Theodore Olson amid the upheaval.
A delegation of House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is kicking off a trip through the Middle East on Saturday which includes a stop in Jordan, Politico reports.
Why it matters: The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, didn't agree with President Trump's announcement that Jerusalem would be named the capital of Israel. Pelosi said the 10 Democrats' visit to Jordan comes "at a vital time in the U.S. relationship with this key ally." Pelosi's office told Politico the trip will focus on "global and regional security and cooperation issues."
The big picture: Most of Congress didn't really read it; Trump threatened to veto the bill yesterday, and ended up signing it anyway. He said he would never sign a bill like that again, but it was too late: a White House official told Axios' Mike Allen that Trump's signing led to "the hardest I've ever seen the base turn on Trump over anything."
A former White House official tells me that online conservative ire (Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, etc.). about the spending bill President Trump signed yesterday — after a puzzling tweeted veto feint — "is the hardest I've ever seen the base turn on Trump over anything."
Why it matters: "A big reason why people voted for him was because of his apparent willingness to stand up to the entrenched political class in both parties. Voters wanted a fighter who wouldn't back down to 'the swamp' like a 'typical politician," the official told me.
On Jan. 26, just over a year into his presidency, President Trump had a president's dream: peace and prosperity. The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all hitrecord highs.
Where it stands: Since then, Trump has injected multiple new risks into the system.
President Trump tweeted on Friday evening that to avoid having "this omnibus situation from ever happening again," he wants Congress to re-instate "a line-item veto."
Why it matters: This would allow him to veto specific parts of a bill without getting rid of the entire thing. Trump was deeply unhappy with the $1.3 trillion spending bill approved by Congress early Friday morning, but signed it anyway on Friday afternoon.
