📝 The Readback: The Trifecta begins

IN THIS EDITION

The Trifecta takes hold

An unconventional inauguration

A new Treasury takes shape

The big picture on impoundment

THE TOP

The Trifecta takes hold

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week – a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

And welcome to The Trifecta, the governing construct that will dictate the next two years in Washington.

All of a sudden, governing is not a theoretical exercise for Republicans. Bills they pass can get signed into law. President Donald Trump, for example, is expected to sign the Laken Riley Act, which passed both chambers already this year.

The vibe and the overall mood in Washington has completely shifted. House Republicans are shuttling in and out of meetings around the Capitol, trying to put together their plan to pass the Trump agenda. We scooped this week a presentation that House Republican committee chairs gave to lawmakers about the cuts they are looking to enact to make budgetary room for massive tax cuts.

Trump, meanwhile, is in the midst of a monthlong effort to meet with every single House Republican.

On the other hand, Democrats on Capitol Hill are a bit of a mess. House Democrats are searching for a leader and a message. And Senate Democrats are similarly in the wilderness.

The next few weeks will be telling. House Republicans will decamp Monday for their annual legislative retreat at the Trump Hotel in Doral, Fla. The GOP has said they will pass a budget in the next month. Senate Republicans have a bunch of work to do on confirming Trump’s Cabinet.

What I’m following: I am spending all my free time on building Enbloc AI, the unbelievable new feature in Punchbowl News’ The Portal. Let me just say this: This will be a massive leap in D.C. data. Register your interest here.

– Jake Sherman

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 8 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to readback@punchbowl.news with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

An unconventional inauguration

When we learned last week that President Donald Trump’s inauguration would be moved indoors to the rotunda, it set off an immediate scramble here inside the Capitol.

Security protocols needed to change. Seating suddenly became extremely limited. The months spent building the inauguration platform on the West Front of the Capitol were all for naught.

Unless you’re Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), you haven’t experienced anything like this before. Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration was also held inside the rotunda 40 years ago.

In order to maximize seating capacity, the press section was unfortunately confined to a tiny sliver of the back of the rotunda. As a result, the standing-room-only press pen could only accommodate around 20 reporters.

Punchbowl News was lucky enough to have one of those spots, and I was grateful to be our eyes and ears for such a historic occasion.

One of the many benefits of having reporters in the room is that it allows you to catch moments that aren’t necessarily broadcast on TV. There were just two camera positions — one on each side — plus a fixed camera above the main stage entrance.

We had to be in position a few hours before the program began, so I got to see all of the VIP entrances and the mingling that came with it. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former Speaker John Boehner. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former President George W. Bush. (We’ll get to him in a moment.) Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Vivek Ramaswamy and Susie Wiles. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Rudy Giuliani.

Oh, and Joe Rogan got a prime seat on the main platform right behind congressional leadership.

During the speech, I was fixated on former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who were sitting just a few feet away from Trump as he was excoriating them — though not by name — and touting the scale of his election victory. Biden smirked at times, including when Trump talked about the Gulf of Mexico. Harris was mostly stone-faced but applauded when Trump mentioned the wildfires in California.

Nobody was having more fun than Bush, who is clearly enjoying his post-Washington life. He was giggling at all points during the proceedings, often exchanging looks with GOP senators.

At the end, Bush and Thune exchanged a big handshake-hug and talked backstage for a bit too. Bush was among those who encouraged Thune to run for Senate in 2004 against then-Democratic Leader Tom Daschle.

What I’m watching: The NFC championship game. Go Birds!

— Andrew Desiderio

A new Treasury takes shape

There have been 78 treasury secretaries so far, and the 79th is on a glide path toward the job right now.

We’ve seen Senate Republicans scrambling to get President Donald Trump’s top Cabinet officials confirmed as quickly as possible. Even nominees that drew a lot of controversy are advancing.

But things have been pretty good and relatively quiet for Scott Bessent as he moves closer to taking over a critical economic role that will also make him fifth in line to the presidency.

Bessent has been around Capitol Hill in recent weeks meeting with senators, going through the Senate Finance Committee’s due diligence processes and testifying before the panel. He has sometimes responded to reporter questions in the halls of congressional office buildings but waved off big scrums at other points.

In his confirmation hearing, Bessent refused to get into details on some questions like credit card interest rates even when senators pressed him. But Bessent laid out some of his views on tariffs, sanctions policy and some other key issues.

Along with seeing how Bessent navigates the spotlight, it’s been interesting to watch how Senate Democrats handle this moment.

Democrats appear aware they’re in a different place in the Trump 2.0 era than they were when the president first won office in 2016. Two Democrats who voted against Trump’s last treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, crossed the aisle to back Bessent in the Finance Committee’s vote. Mnuchin turned out to be a critical negotiator with Democrats in the later part of Trump’s first term.

Still, plenty of Democrats view Bessent, a hedge fund manager and billionaire, as the emblem of Trump tax and tariff plans that they plan to fight. We’ll have our eye on whether they drag out the process during Bessent’s floor vote. Any one of them can.

Meanwhile, Treasury Department staffing is already taking shape. The agency is making a big tax hire from Capitol Hill, bringing on Derek Theurer from the speaker’s office. And we should get a clearer picture of the staff backing up Bessent at a big moment for tax and trade soon.

What I’m watching: Last week’s snowy Eagles game had me nostalgic for one of the coolest football games I’ve ever been to: the “snow bowl” in Philly back in 2013. The highlights always get me, and now we’ve got new ones. To echo Andrew… Go Birds!!!

– Laura Weiss

The big picture on impoundment

A constitutional battle over how President Donald Trump will — or won’t — spend money that Congress appropriates started this week.

This is one of those wonky issues that sounds obscure and complicated but has real implications for how Congress works. Trump and his picks to run the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought and Mark Paoletta, have argued that the president can unilaterally choose not to spend funds appropriated by Congress, a process called impoundment.

In the Portal, Punchbowl News’ policy newsletter, we’ve written a few times over the course of the last few months about impoundment and how it has the potential to both upend the appropriations process and set off major constitutional questions.

That all actually started this week.

It’s rare that we see so much attention over the OMB director nominee, especially when the vote on Pete Hegseth is also happening. But it’s a testament to how seriously lawmakers are taking the issue. Lawmakers, particularly appropriators, don’t like it when the executive branch encroaches on their spending powers.

Vought has been on the Hill over the last two weeks testifying at Senate panels for his confirmation to be OMB director. There was a stark difference this week, though, as Vought had to start defending the president’s actions on impoundment.

Three of Trump’s executive orders issued this week seemingly impounded funds, though Vought called them “delays” not impoundments. This meant that questioning in the confirmation hearings went from being about theory to about reality.

In particular, we saw fireworks from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Van Hollen explicitly asked Vought if he would commit to following the Impoundment Control Act, the law that prevents the president from making his own funding decisions. Vought responded by saying: “The president ran against the Impoundment Control Act.”

Democrats are continuing to sharpen their knives on this issue. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held a press conference this week, where Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sounded the alarm on Vought and the Trump administration’s impoundment plans.

The major question in the months ahead will be how Republicans will respond to these orders. We already saw some Republicans defending Trump’s actions, saying as long as they agree with his cuts they’re OK by them.

We’re watching, though, if any Republican senators come out to more fiercely protect Congress’ spending powers. We’ve seen Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) say she doesn’t want to see the Impoundment Control Act weakened, and other appropriators may feel the same way.

What I’m watching: Season two of “Severance” on Apple TV+. I’ve waited three years for this season to come out and the first episode lived up to the hype.

– Samantha Handler