Congress is out this week. President Donald Trump is in Washington. He’s expected to meet with the President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Vice President JD Vance will be in Italy Friday to meet with Meloni.
Some news nuggets for you this morning. We have Speaker Mike Johnson’s first quarter fundraising numbers. And we have some reconciliation news for you below.
News: Johnson’s big first quarter. Johnson raised $32.2 million during the first quarter. The Louisiana Republican’s team says this is his largest quarterly fundraising total ever. Johnson transferred $5 million to the NRCC in the first quarter, as well as $4 million to GOP incumbents.
Johnson will campaign in 10 cities in Texas, Florida, Indiana and Louisiana ahead of the Easter holiday.
House Republicans’ financial position has been the subject of intense discussion on Capitol Hill. The NRCC reported having just under $15 million in the bank at the end of February with $11.2 million in debt. The committee raised $9.2 million in February. The NRCC will file its March report in roughly a week.
The DCCC, meanwhile, had $26 million in the bank and raised more than $11 million during February. The DCCC owes $12.5 million.
House Republicans are apt to say that money doesn’t mean everything. Democrats frequently outraise the GOP, yet Republicans were able to keep their House majority in 2024.
Trump helped raise $35 million last week at an NRCC dinner, a number senior Republicans touted as being far larger than the last time the president appeared at a dinner for the House GOP.
Super PACs have also supplanted the national party committees in a lot of ways as well, although those funds are far more unpredictable.
What to watch this week – world markets and Trump. Trump now has two weeks with Congress gone. He’s been able to exploit congressional absences so far in his return to the White House.
Yet it’s fair to say that Trump’s handling of his trade war has been nothing short of chaotic. While Trump campaigned on remaking U.S. trade policy, no one in Washington was prepared for the speed, scale and sheer unpredictability of his moves so far. It’s rattled the party and country, while Trump’s poll numbers on the economy have slumped.
It’s difficult to get a straight answer from senior administration officials on anything related to trade policy or tariffs, either in public comments or private guidance. This is maddening for House and Senate Republicans who reflexively back the White House only to have the rug pulled out from under them over and over again.
Let’s take two examples from the weekend.
No. 1: The Trump administration has exempted electronics and smartphones from its newest tariffs on China, a massive carveout that will help settle some nerves on Capitol Hill, Wall Street and in Cupertino, Calif. at Apple’s headquarters. Trump criticized media coverage of the exemptions as “fake news.”
But then Trump told reporters on Sunday night as he returned from a Mar-a-Lago weekend that “we have to talk to the companies.”
More from Trump, per the pool report: “You know, you have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid. You have to show a certain flexibility.”
Earlier in the day, during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had insisted that the exemptions are temporary.
“What [Trump is] doing is he’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said. “So these are coming soon.”
Lutnick added:
“We can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption.”
OK, so is this reprieve temporary? Maybe. Maybe not.
No. 2: The White House and Trump said that the administration would be levying tariffs on pharmaceutical products soon. This would have a huge impact on millions of Americans, especially seniors.
Yet on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, USTR Jamieson Greer said the Trump administration must conduct an “investigation” before levying such tariffs. CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Greer if the administration has already “decided the outcome” of the investigation.
“No, we have not. We have not. That’s why they’re exempt. That’s why they’re – you know, they don’t have a tariff covered right now, because you have to go through the investigation to determine the outcome.”
So a tariff on pharmaceuticals? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s daily whiplash from the Trump administration as markets continue to seesaw.
With economists now having shifted their predictions on the likelihood of a U.S. recession, Trump insists that everything is going great and to not worry about what you’re seeing or hearing otherwise.
“We have a country that is much richer than it was a few months ago,” Trump said. “We have a financial system that’s very respected.”
