In today’s newsletter: Senate Democrats reach a shutdown agreement with the president as negotiations continue over guardrails on immigration enforcement. Trump taps Kevin Warsh to chair the Federal Reserve. And Melania Trump’s big-screen moment is already facing skepticism.
Democrats and Trump strike a deal to avoid a prolonged government shutdown
President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats struck a deal to avert a prolonged shutdown for most of the federal government, according to the president and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office.
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The agreement will fund all of the government except for the Department of Homeland Security through next September. DHS will operate on a short-term funding bill for two weeks while lawmakers negotiate changes after public outrage over the Minneapolis shootings, sources said.
“If Republicans don’t do s— for two weeks, DHS shuts down and there’s little incentive for us to reopen without the guardrails on ICE,” said one Democratic aide.
The Senate is aiming to vote today. The House, which returns to Washington on Monday, would then need to pass the legislation and send it to Trump’s desk for his signature.
Until the deal is finalized by both chambers, funding will temporarily lapse for multiple agencies starting tomorrow. The impact is expected to be minimal since most federal employees don’t work on the weekend.
More politics news:
- Trump sued the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion over his leaked tax records.
- The Justice Department filed charges against a man who allegedly tried to spray Rep. Ilhan Omar with a substance during a town hall in Minneapolis.
Trump taps Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve
Trump plans to nominate Kevin Warsh to the board of the Federal Reserve as a governor and the next chair of the central bank. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh would succeed Jerome Powell, whose tenure as chair ends in May.
Trump announced the nomination in a post on social media Friday morning.
For most of its existence, the Fed has operated largely free from interference or pressure from the White House. Trump, however, has rejected that model. Ever since his first term in office, he has looked for new and increasingly heavy-handed ways to pressure Fed governors to vote for lower interest rates, which he believes will fuel the U.S. economy.
The nomination comes at a fraught moment for the economy, with the U.S. labor market slowing since the summer and inflation remaining stubbornly high.
Read more about Warsh’s background here.
Tulsi Gabbard under scrutiny for showing up at FBI raid of Georgia election hub
National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has been on the sidelines for much of Trump’s second term. But there she was on Wednesday, at an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, as FBI agents conducted a raid seeking ballots from the 2020 presidential election.
Gabbard’s presence baffled national security experts and raised questions about whether she is seeking new relevancy in the eyes of a president who had soured on her. Accompanying FBI agents on a raid is also unprecedented for the chief of U.S. intelligence, whose job is to track threats from foreign adversaries. Gabbard is prohibited by law from taking part in domestic law enforcement.
Fulton County has long been a focal point of unfounded fraud claims from Trump and his allies. And election officials across the country are warning that the administration’s combative approach is making their jobs harder and undermining Americans’ faith in the electoral process.
Read more about Gabbard’s role in the raid here.
Melania Trump’s big-screen moment is here
It’s a first for a first lady.
Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania: Twenty Days to History,” has few precedents. As a movie, it is one of the few political documentaries to receive a wide release — premiering in a lavish D.C. presentation at the Kennedy Center last night. As a political object, it’s the first time a sitting first lady has had her life featured in what is ostensibly a film backed by the White House.
And as a pop-culture curiosity, it has already become a totem for the Trump administration’s pursuit of an aggressive media strategy that has at times been backed by powerful figures in entertainment and tech.
The president and first lady spoke to NBC News at the event, where Melania said the documentary “belongs to everybody.”
But her big-screen moment is already facing skepticism, with some critics calling Amazon’s $40 million acquisition of the film a way to curry favor with the White House.
Read All About It
- Lindsey Vonn, who was expected to be one of the stars of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, crashed in her final downhill before the start of next week’s Games and was left limping. She was airlifted from the course.
- A man was charged with impersonating an FBI agent after he showed up at a New York prison in an alleged attempt to spring Luigi Mangione from prison, according to a law enforcement source.
- Sha’Carri Richardson, an Olympic gold medalist and one of the world’s fastest women on the track, has been arrested on a charge of speeding over 100 mph.
- Another winter storm, with possible blizzard conditions, is forecast for the Southeast. A Kentucky family battling extreme cold temperatures on their farm went viral after they posted photos of them opening their home to a newborn calf that was struggling in the deep freeze.
- Former sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson was sentenced to 20 years for the 2024 fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in her Illinois home.
- A person’s genes play a far greater role in expected lifespan than previously thought, according to new research.
- In Australia, Carlos Alcaraz overcame cramps and injury to fend off Alexander Zverev in an epic, momentum-swinging five-setter Friday to become the youngest man in the Open era to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam events.
Staff Pick: A new institute is funding millions in research to prevent injuries in female athletes
Idolizing the legendary Mia Hamm as a girl, I grew up to be a somewhat obsessive fan of female athletes. And though I’ve watched some of my all-time favorite players undergo devastating anterior cruciate ligament injuries in their knees, it wasn’t until last year that I learned women are two to eight times more likely to tear their ACLs than men are.
Less than 10% of research has been dedicated to studying female athletes, leaving women in sports without answers on how some of the most basic physiological differences leave them open to injury or longer recoveries.
But I spoke to Dr. Kate Ackerman, a former Team USA rower, who is leading a new Women’s Health, Sports & Performance Institute that hopes to study and treat female athletes from young girls to those who are post-menopausal. The institute is backed by a more than $50 million investment by a group seeking to revolutionize women’s sports by keeping female athletes in the game longer and healthier.
— Doha Madani, senior breaking news reporter
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
Not only did this week see some of the coldest winter temps so far, there was a massive recall on popular coffee pods. There was also a sale on our editor-loved Uniqlo’s Heattech, and Apple launched AirTag (2nd Generation), which has a few upgrades you’ll want to know about.
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Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Kayla Hayempour, Marissa Martinez and David Hickey, with contributions from Rufina Chow.
