Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
President Donald Trump is addressing a joint session of Congress tonight. We spoke with voters in a key battleground state about how they’re feeling about the opening weeks of the new administration. And Steve Kornacki breaks down the key groups Trump may need to assure with his speech, which starts at 9 p.m. ET. Follow along with coverage on our live blog. (And make sure to scroll down for our pre-speech poll question.)
We’ll be back with a special edition of the newsletter tonight, where we’ll recap and analyze Trump’s address.
Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.
— Adam Wollner
🗣️ We want to hear from you!
Have a question for the NBC News Politics Desk on the flurry of Trump administration moves, Elon Musk and DOGE’s activity or what comes next on Capitol Hill?
Send your questions to politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com, and we may answer them in a future edition of the newsletter.
How battleground Trump voters are viewing the opening weeks of the administration
By Shaquille Brewster, Kailani Koenig and Ben Kamisar
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to Congress tonight, we traveled to crucial Waukesha County — a traditional Republican stronghold in battleground Wisconsin where Democrats have made some inroads in recent elections — to take the pulse of how a group of voters who helped send Trump back to the White House are viewing the opening weeks of his term.
We spoke with three Trump voters: One is a dyed-in-the-wool Trump fan; one was long undecided about the 2024 election before splitting his ticket between Trump and Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin; and one is a swing voter who supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden before switching to Trump.
Here’s what they had to say:
1. Jeff Scrima, the 47-year-old former mayor of Waukesha who now works in real estate, told NBC News he’s “feeling very good” because after years of watching politicians fall short on their promises, “Trump is already doing what he said he’s going to do.”
“The country is in trouble if we don’t change things, at least from a financial standpoint. We’re going to go bankrupt. So I think that Trump and the administration understand the urgency, and they’re taking the necessary steps to sort of right the ship,” he said.
2. Chip Schneider, 53, ultimately cast his ballot for Trump because he thought he had a clearer plan of action. Six weeks in, he told NBC News he feels “great and cautious.” He said that Trump is “delivering what he said,” but warned he still has concerns, tariffs chief among them.
While he added that he’s “willing to suffer a little bit of pain to even out the score” by punishing other countries with reciprocal tariffs, and that he thinks it’s “too early to judge” whether Trump will be able to lower prices, “a year is a fair amount of time to start seeing a bend in the curve.”
While Scrima loved the speed at which Trump is enacting his agenda, Schneider said he wants the president to “slow down to really dig into it deeper.” And while he’s supportive of Trump’s efforts to deport violent criminals in the country illegally, he wants to find a way to help “hard-working” undocumented immigrants find a pathway to citizenship.
3. Zack Lindsay, a 28-year-old who voted for Democrats in 2016 and 2020, showed slightly more skepticism. He praised Trump’s recent executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and said the world feels more stable under Trump than it would have been under Biden or Harris.
But he questioned the decision to slap tariffs on Canada. Lindsay said he thought that Trump’s threats were mostly bluster aimed at securing a better deal for the U.S. and that he “didn’t really think he would go through with it.” He also criticized the “blow up in the Oval Office” during Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which he felt should have been handled behind closed doors.
Even still, he shared Schneider’s belief that it’s too early to judge Trump on key issues, including on prices.
“Things don’t necessarily change in a day. I’d say a year to two years, and then I’ll have a rough assessment of how I really think,” he said, adding that his perception of Biden started to shift one year into his term.
Read more: Polls show Americans are split on Trump ahead of his address to Congress, by Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar
Trump’s speech will provide an opportunity to reassure his coalition
By Steve Kornacki
Donald Trump’s speech to Congress tonight is an opportunity for the president to persuade the voters who elected him that they are getting the kind of change they demanded last November.
Trump’s winning coalition was strikingly blue-collar compared to previous Republican presidential campaigns — less affluent, more racially and ethnically diverse, and overwhelmingly made up of voters without four-year college degrees. Many of his backers were first-time voters, while others hadn’t previously voted Republican. Overall, it was a coalition that prioritized strong leadership in a host of areas, with one towering above all others: the economy.
Here the contrast between Trump’s voters and Kamala Harris’ voters was stark. On the basic question of the state of the economy, there was virtual unanimity among Trump supporters, according to exit polls: Ninety-five percent of them rated it as fair or poor, while a clear majority of Harris backers (59%) said it was in good or excellent shape.
These clashing assessments explained why each coalition’s sense of priorities differed widely.
For that matter, 77% of Trump voters last November said that their own economic situation had worsened over the previous four years, while only 16% of Harris voters said the same. And 90% of Trump voters called inflation a hardship for the families, compared to 60% on the Harris side. In Trump, his voters saw a forceful leader and agent of change.
The first six weeks of Trump’s second presidency have certainly been eventful. In his characteristically blunt style, the president has initiated action on multiple fronts. He has also, in characteristic fashion, drawn loud criticism and opposition.
Especially when it comes to the new voters Trump attracted last year, it’s fair to wonder how they are perceiving all of this. Trump’s challenge tonight is to reassure them that what they are witnessing isn’t unfettered chaos but is instead the unavoidable noise that comes from necessary change.
POLL: How long will Trump’s speech be?
Historically speaking, Trump has a penchant for delivering long joint addresses to Congress and State of the Union speeches. According to the University of California-Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project, the average of Trump’s four speeches during his first term was about 80 minutes. That compares to 67 minutes for Joe Biden, 63 minutes for Barack Obama and 53 minutes for George W. Bush.
Bill Clinton was closest to Trump, averaging about 75 minutes during his presidency. But Clinton also holds the record for the longest joint address/State of the Union, going for nearly 89 minutes in 2000. Dating back to 1964, Richard Nixon gave the shortest speeches of this variety, with an average of roughly 35 minutes.
So, how long do you think Trump will speak for tonight? Vote in our poll:
Trump follows through on tariffs threat, risking higher prices — and a trade war
President Donald Trump has moved forward with a plan to put sweeping tariffs on all goods coming into the United States from Canada and Mexico, threatening a trade war with its closest trading partners — and higher prices for Americans on thousands of consumer goods, Shannon Pettypiece reports.
The U.S. was scheduled to begin collecting a 25% tariff on nearly all goods from Mexico and Canada starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, according to a draft public notice of the rules posted Monday. Canadian energy products would be levied at a lower rate of 10%.
On Monday, Trump also added an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China on top of the 10% tariff he put on Chinese goods last month.
Swift responses: As Jennifer Jett and Peter Guo report, China will impose additional tariffs of up to 15% on some U.S. goods, its government said, while Canada vowed tariffs of up to 25%. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced her country would enact countermeasures Sunday in response to the U.S. tariffs, adding that they would include both “tariff and nontariff measures.”
“We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally, and we don’t want to see you hurt either, but your government has chosen to do this to you,” Trudeau said during a press conference Tuesday in remarks directed at the American people.
Then, pivoting to speaking directly to Trump, Trudeau said: “Even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.”
An off-ramp? Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during an appearance on Fox Business that an interim agreement with Canada and Mexico could come as soon as tomorrow that would allow their tariffs to be rolled back to some degree.
“I think he’s going to figure out you do more, and I’ll meet you in the middle some way, and we’re going to probably be announcing that tomorrow,” Lutnick said. “So somewhere in the middle will likely be the outcome the president moving with the Canadians and Mexicans, but not all the way.”
More on the tariffs:
-
🚨 Trump-Zelenskyy fallout: The Trump administration last night paused military aid to Ukraine after last week’s Oval Office clash. Zelenskyy said today that he’s “ready to sign” a minerals deal “at any time and in any convenient format.” Read more →
-
🤝 Second-term adjustments: Trump has taken a more measured approach in his relationships with Republican lawmakers in his second term than his first, seeking to influence them behind the scenes rather than publicly attack them on social media. Read more →
-
➡️ Steering clear: Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, advised members to avoid in-person town halls after a recent series of heated events in their districts. Read more →
-
⬅️ The purge: The head of the FBI’s New York field office was forced out yesterday, a month after he urged his employees to “dig in” after the new administration requested the names of all agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases. Read more →
-
☀️ Sunshine State showdown: The fight to replace Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already sparked intense jockeying among Republicans – and set up a proxy battle between DeSantis and Trump. Read more →
-
👀 Notable quotable: White House adviser Alina Habba said that military veterans affected by the DOGE-led layoffs of federal workers may not be “fit to have a job at this moment.” Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Faith Wardwell.
If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
