Jeffries on FOD: Dems won't fold

IN THIS EDITION

Jeffries goes hard

Trump’s farm bailout another flashpoint with Dems

N.C. may join the redistricting wars

ICYMI: Moore and others join Punchbowl News HQ conversations

Gallego backs Mendoza in key Arizona House race

THE TOP

Jeffries goes hard

Happy Friday morning.

New: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is in the middle of another government-funding fight.

A clash like this — a major policy disagreement with a government shutdown on the line — is almost a rite of passage for a modern-day congressional leader, a moment that gives definition to a power profile in Washington.

And with just four days until government funding runs out, both Republicans and Democrats seem unnaturally comfortable with their positions in the fight.

During an interview on Fly Out Day from the Punchbowl News Townhouse, Jeffries showed no signs of skittishness or nervousness about the looming shutdown brawl against President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders.

“They spent the whole year telling America they have a massive mandate to do whatever the hell they want, and now they want to act like Democrats are somehow responsible for their continued efforts to destroy the American way of life?” Jeffries said. “No one’s buying that.”

The situation is a bit more complicated than that, as you know from reading our editions over the last few weeks.

House Republicans passed a clean Nov. 21 CR, which Senate Democrats blocked. Democrats are asking to roll back massive Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, restrict future rescissions and permanently extend enhanced premium tax subsidies for Obamacare. Republicans say those demands are far too steep a price for a seven-week CR and blocked the Democrats’ Oct. 31 counter-proposal.

Jeffries puts the Democratic asks this way: “Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save healthcare. Eight words. Not complicated for [Trump] to understand, and that’s the starting point for our conversation.”

Jeffries is digging in, as we’ve noted over the last few days. Jeffries says that any CR needs to include “ironclad” legislative language on the Democrats’ policy demands.

“How can anyone trust these people?” Jeffries said, pointing to December, when Republicans abandoned a funding deal at Trump’s request, as well as the billions of dollars in rescissions the president has enacted since.

On Trump. As usual, Trump has thrust himself into the middle of the funding clash. The president had a meeting scheduled for Thursday with Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, but then backed out, saying that the Democrats’ demands were “unserious and ridiculous.”

Jeffries has absolutely no relationship with Trump. The two have never met. In fact, Democrats say Trump has never even uttered Jeffries’ name.

While Jeffries says he’s happy to sit down with Trump “anytime, anyplace” to solve the shutdown, here’s what the New York Democrat said about the president seemingly ignoring his existence:

Jeffries compared Trump to an “organized crime boss going after all of the things that matter to the American people, which is why we have to push back aggressively.”

On Schumer. One of the more interesting relationships to watch during this crisis is Jeffries and Schumer. The two New York Democrats couldn’t be any more different in personal style, history and temperament.

Jeffries, 55, has been in Congress for 12 years. The 74-year-old Schumer was first elected to Congress in 1980, when Jeffries was only 10. Schumer was a two-time DSCC chair who took over as Democratic leader in 2017 following the retirement of the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In 2023, Jeffries succeeded the iconic former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who still serves in the House.

The two top Democrats saw this year’s first government-funding fight in March very differently. Jeffries was willing to provoke a shutdown in order to confront Trump and GOP leaders, while Schumer thought it was the wrong move that early in 2025.

In private, many House Democrats still worry Schumer is going to fold in the end. Jeffries said he’s “very confident” that Schumer won’t.

“We have been preparing for a government shutdown showdown for months, meeting House and Senate Democratic leaders, appropriators and others, for months and are very confident, as we saw last Friday, that Senate Democrats are holding the line,” Jeffries said.

Since today is Friday and government funding runs out at midnight Tuesday, it’s fair to say that a shutdown is a virtual certainty barring some major reversal, especially considering House Republicans will be out of town until Wednesday.

In the meantime, Jeffries is hosting a House Democratic Caucus call today and an in-person meeting Monday to strategize.

“We’re supposed to be in Washington next week for votes on Monday and Tuesday, in advance of the end of the fiscal year,” Jeffries said. “House Republicans canceled the votes. Now, Democrats are going to be here making it clear to the American people that we’re ready to do our jobs on their behalf and prevent a government shutdown.”

Watch the episode for more, including Jeffries on redistricting and on whether he will endorse Zohran Mamdani. Plus, who does Jeffries think is the top Brooklyn MC: the Notorious B.I.G. or Jay-Z.

– Jake Sherman

TARIFF NATION

Trump’s farm bailout another flashpoint with Dems

President Donald Trump admitted Thursday that his tariffs have been hurting American farmers. His solution — a farm bailout using tariff revenues — requires congressional approval.

But Democrats are in no mood to help Trump mitigate the impacts of his trade war. The solution is even simpler, Democrats say: Drop the tariffs.

“President Trump is desperately trying to find a way out of the mess he’s made with his trade war against the world,” Rep. Angie Craig (Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, told us. “Trump’s tariffs hurt farmers, but they also hurt small businesses, manufacturers and working families by making everything cost more.”

The rising cost of living and stubborn inflation are already potential vulnerabilities for Republicans heading into 2026 — something Craig, who’s running for Senate in Minnesota, knows very well.

But Trump’s comments on Thursday are a sign that he’s aware of the impact his trade war is having on the economy in the form of higher prices. That issue could spell disaster for GOP candidates up and down the ballot in Nov. 2026.

“We’re going to take some of that tariff money that we made, we’re going to give it to our farmers who are, for a little while, going to be hurt until it kicks in, the tariffs kick in to their benefit,” Trump said. “So we’re going to make sure that our farmers are in great shape because we’re taking in a lot of money.”

Trump and his GOP allies have said the tariff regime is intended to re-balance the U.S. economy in a way that will ultimately benefit working-class Americans. Many economists say the short-term impact is that prices of goods will rise because, in most cases, tariffs are passed on to the consumer.

Trump’s trade war comes as American farmers are facing an especially difficult outlook. The prices for corn and soybeans, the two biggest cash crops, are way down. The costs of pesticides, fertilizers and farm machinery are up. Access to foreign markets is curtailed by retaliatory tariffs, and even getting crops to market is difficult.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, no fan of tariffs, told us on “Fly Out Day” earlier this month that Trump’s trade war has “very direct consequences” on agriculture states like his. The South Dakota Republican noted that 60% of his state’s soybeans are exported, mostly to China, “and that market’s now shut down.”

“There’s an argument that at some point tariff costs do get passed on in the economy,” Thune added. “The administration is arguing vehemently that they’re not going to, and I don’t know at this point who’s going to be right, who’s wrong.”

It’s quite the gamble to take. But Trump allies like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) see an opportunity. Hawley authored legislation to tap into tariff revenue by sending stimulus checks to working-class Americans.

“The whole point of the tariffs is to rebuild our middle-class economy. The president has said that many times,” Hawley said in an interview Thursday. “And I think this is a great way to do it.”

Hawley dismissed the notion that the economic headwinds facing American farmers are caused by tariffs. The Missouri Republican said it’s a “long-standing issue” in his state that has worsened over the years, with costs rising while returns are stagnant.

Unlike his more traditional free-trade GOP colleagues, Hawley has been a consistent booster of Trump’s tariffs and has said Republicans need to, among other things, bolster labor unions as a way to peel off blue-collar voters.

“I’d just say to my Democrat colleagues — they always say they’re the party of the working class,” Hawley said. “Well, fantastic, you know what, let’s compromise and let’s agree to give working people relief. We can start with farmers and go from there.”

— Andrew Desiderio, John Bresnahan and Max Cohen

REDISTRICTING WARS

N.C. may join the redistricting wars

News: North Carolina Republicans are seriously considering redrawing their House map to net an additional seat in 2026, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.

The existing Tarheel State map was redrawn last cycle and is already heavily gerrymandered. The GOP can likely only draw out one Democratic incumbent if they want to avoid making the surrounding Republican seats too vulnerable. The delegation currently has 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.

The most obvious target: Democratic Rep. Don Davis’ eastern North Carolina district that President Donald Trump won by 3 points in 2024. Republican Rep. Greg Murphy could easily give up some GOP voters in his Outer Banks district to Davis.

Republicans could, in theory, also draw a map that shores up Davis and loops Democratic Reps. Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee into one seat.

North Carolina has had a new congressional map nearly every cycle since 2012, thanks to a never-ending cascade of lawsuits and court rulings. Both parties spent heavily in the state’s Supreme Court races in recent years, hoping to secure a more favorable bench for redistricting cases.

Democrats have lost that battle for now. Five of the seven justices are Republicans.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger said Thursday on X that he was open to a redraw.

“I’ve been watching what’s going on in California with Gavin Newsom trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress,” Berger wrote. “If we have to draw one more map this year, we will.”

Berger also strongly denied a local news report that he was pursuing redistricting in exchange for an endorsement from Trump in his own reelection.

After winning a favorable ruling last cycle from a newly elected state Supreme Court, Republicans drew out former Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson. They made Davis’ seat competitive and packed the other remaining Democratic seats.

A 2026 redraw could only slightly improve upon that. But the White House has been leaning on states to redistrict in a brazen attempt to insulate Republicans from what could be an unfavorable midterm.

The state has a Democratic governor, Josh Stein. But in North Carolina, the governor does not have veto power over congressional maps.

– Ally Mutnick

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

ICYMI: Moore and others join Punchbowl News HQ conversations

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joined the Punchbowl News HQ on Thursday as part of our lineup of conversations on the sidelines of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference.

Moore said his state has been in a shutdown mode for months as many Maryland residents feel the pinch of the Trump administration’s gutting of the federal workforce and brace for the effect of other policies.

The full-day activation event featured sit-down conversations with Shara Chang, chief compliance officer at Chime, and D.V. Williams, Match Group’s chief people officer. Both discussed innovation and the implementation of artificial intelligence in their respective industries.

Consumer Reports’ Delicia Hand and Financial Health Network’s Jennifer Tescher joined a separate panel to highlight efforts towards making financial health a national priority.

We closed out with an Ambassadors Roundtable made up of Tasha Cole, senior adviser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Shawn Townsend, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, and Nicole Varner, executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, who all spoke to the importance of the Congressional Black Caucus.

— Shania Shelton and Zach Bradshaw

THE CAMPAIGN

Gallego backs Mendoza in key Arizona House race

News: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is endorsing JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona’s 6th District. Gallego’s backing further solidifies Mendoza as the overwhelming Democratic favorite to face off against GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.) in one of the cycle’s most-watched House races.

Mendoza has already received the endorsements of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC and Kirsten Engel — the party’s 2022 and 2024 nominee in the district.

— Max Cohen

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