Republicans Have No Clue How They’re Going to Pass Trump’s Agenda

Republican leaders in Congress are having a tough time figuring out how to pass Donald Trump’s agenda.

Since Trump’s election, congressional Republicans have been divided over how to proceed: Write one giant, sweeping bill containing more or less everything in Trump’s agenda—immigration and border security, tax reform, and energy policy being three key blocs—or proceed via two or more smaller bills. Speaker Mike Johnson prefered one bill, Politico reports, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune thinks tax policies should be in a separate bill.

Trump, however, told Johnson that he wants “one big beautiful bill,” the speaker told his caucus Saturday, but Republicans in the Senate said that they were still figuring out the right strategy.

“We’re working through all that,” Thune said. “The process issues to me are a lot less important than the results.”

Other Republicans in the House, such as Representative Jason Smith, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, also favor the one-bill approach. Trump said publicly on Sunday that he wanted one large bill, but only hours later confusingly seemed to signal he’d be open to two bills.

Whatever ends up being the final approach, it’s going to divide Republicans in one or both of the chambers. Historically, the one-bill strategy hasn’t worked well for either party, as Democrats who backed the “Build Back Better” bill under Biden remember. That bill was supposed to pass in 2021 but ended up being weakened, only passing in the form of the scaled-down Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022.

There’s also the problem of the looming debt limit, which many Republicans oppose raising. The next budget now has a condition of a $2.5 trillion spending cut thanks to the last budget deal made last month. That will put a lot of Trump’s wishes in jeopardy and could result in another government shutdown if it isn’t prioritized.

Republicans can only afford to lose one vote in the House, and three in the Senate, making the odds of getting full agreement on a big bill pretty slim. Can Trump help everyone iron out their differences to help him get what he wants? History shows that he hasn’t been a unifying leader, even in his own party.

Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt Monday for failing to comply with discovery requirements in his ongoing defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman slammed the disgraced politico for his “blithe disregard” of court orders, and said his behavior during discovery had been “preposterous.” Giuliani had been ordered to pay 2020 election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss $148 million for repeatedly defaming them as part of Donald Trump’s election fraud conspiracies. But the ex-mayor was less than forthcoming in forking over the money and assets that he owed.

Liman said that Giuliani “has testified that he did not respond because he suspected the motives of plaintiff’s counsel. That is not an excuse for violating the court’s orders.”

“More important, as the Court informed the defendant, if there was reason to believe the plaintiff’s counsel misused discovery or would misuse discovery, he could raise that with the court. It was not an excuse to take the law into his own hands,” Liman continued.

It seems that Liman had had enough of Giuliani’s screwing around Monday. At one point during proceedings, Giuliani’s attorney asked if he could “explain whether he violated any court orders,” according to MSNBC’s Adam Klasfeld. When the plaintiffs’ lawyers objected, Liman allowed it, noting that the “witness’s self-serving statement carries limited weight.”

Last week, Giuliani appeared in court to determine whether he needed to hand over his $3.5 million Florida condominium to the plaintiffs. He’d claimed that the condo was his permanent residence, granting it homestead protections from debt collectors, but lawyers for Freeman and Moss argued that he was lying about the property. For his part, Giuliani seemed more worried how his courtroom sketch would turn out.

Trump is taking credit for Justin Trudeau’s resignation—and pitching Canada as the 51st state in the process.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday after a decade of service as the country’s prime minister. Trudeau’s exit comes as his party faces a likely defeat in upcoming elections this year.

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide, competitive process,” Trudeau said in an Ottawa press conference on Monday.

Trump took this opporunity to blast Trudeau for not capitulating to him during their tariff conflict, in which the President-elect promised to enact a massive 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico unless they bent to his absurd demands on trade and immigration. He wrote on Truth Social:

“Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

Trump and Trudeau’s relationship has been antagonistic for years, as the President-elect levied steel and aluminum in 2018. It’s very unlikely that tariffs are what pushed Trudeau out given that his party is sitting around 16 percent among decided voters, the lowest ever in his tenure.

The Canadian parliament will be on break until a new leader is chosen on March 24.

Representative Mike Collins has taken the Republican rewrites of the January 6 riot to new heights.

“On #ThisDayInHistory in 2021, thousands of peaceful grandmothers gathered in Washington, D.C., to take a self-guided, albeit unauthorized, tour of the U.S. Capitol building,” Collins wrote in a particularly stupid post on X Monday. 

“Earlier that day, President Trump held a rally, where supporters walked to the Capitol to peacefully protest the certification of the 2020 election. During this time, some individuals entered the Capitol, took photos, and explored the building before leaving,” Collins continued,  sanewashing the violent siege that led to the deaths of five people, cost taxpayers more than $2 million, and set off a delayed-released coup that finally came to fruition with Trump’s return to the White House. 

The Georgia Republican stayed strapped to the soapbox, lamenting the “peaceful protestors” who’d been tried for their participation in the violent insurrection. 

“Since then, hundreds of peaceful protestors have been hunted down, arrested, held in solitary confinement, and treated unjustly. Countless hours and taxpayer dollars have been spent pursuing innocent grandmothers and raiding President Trump’s home, while terrorists and millions of illegal immigrants continue to cross our nation’s borders, causing havoc in our communities,” Collins wrote. “Thankfully, President Trump has announced that, on day one of his presidency, he will grant pardons to nonviolent defendants.”

Collins has a penchant for pathetic posting. In October, he inexplicably posted a highly-edited “Chad”-ified image of JD Vance that slimmed down his jaw and brought his chin to a point implant-like point. 

Trump has repeatedly vowed to mass-pardon his supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol within his first days in office, a promise that inspired his supporters to try—so far unsuccessfully—to get their sentences delayed until after he officially enters office later this month. 

One of the most dangerous people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots is asking for a pardon from Donald Trump.

Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the fascist Proud Boys organization, was convicted for seditious conspiracy for helping to orchestrate the attack on Congress during the certification of the 2020 presidential election and sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest of any January 6 defendant.

Tarrio made a request for a pardon through his lawyer Nayib Hassan, who wrote a letter to the Department of Justice which was posted to X Monday morning by his mother, Zuny Tarrio.

In 2023, federal prosecutors described Tarrio as the main force behind bringing hundreds of Proud Boys to Washington in 2021 to protest the election results and march to the Capitol building. Several of the organization’s leaders were the first rioters to break into the Capitol, including one lieutenant, Dominic Pezzola.

Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon rioters involved in the attacks, even hiring one for his transition team, but has also said that some rioters were “out of control” and may still face consequences. However, as the leader of the Proud Boys at the time, Tarrio is arguably the most extreme of the defendants, and pardoning him would show that Trump wants to reward the insurrectionists rather than make a token gesture to his supporters.