Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk, an evening email that provides you with the most recent coverage and commentary from the campaign trail, Capitol Hill, and the White House by the NBC News Politics team.
Senior national political writer Sahil Kapur explores how a Senate vote on Thursday might have indicated a Democratic rethink of immigration in today’s edition. Jonathan Allen, a senior national political reporter, also discusses the closest connection between the Monroe Doctrine and Donald Trump’s annexation goal.
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Democrats recalibrate on immigration after bruising defeat to Trump
By Sahil Kapur
In the early days of the new Congress, Democrats are readjusting their stance on immigration after it became a political albatross for them in the previous election.
The Laken Riley Act, named for the 22-year-old Georgia nursing school student who was killed by an illegal immigrant in the United States last year, is the first law to be introduced in both of this year’s GOP-led chambers, and it has the support of a large number of Democrats.
The law would mandate that ICE detain those who are in the country illegally and for crimes involving theft. The law language states that it would target those who are accused, detained, or found guilty of larceny, shoplifting, burglary, or theft.
This week, 48 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, which cleared the House 264-159. And by a vote of 84-9 on Thursday, it advanced in the Senate.
As the party seeks an immigration reset as it enters the second Trump administration, some Democrats are willing to back a plan that failed last year. According to the NBC News exit poll, voters in the 2024 election were nine points more likely to trust Donald Trump than Kamala Harris to handle immigration. Additionally, the exit poll showed that voters who listed immigration as their main concern supported Trump 89% to 9% more than Harris.
Republicans are on the verge of obtaining enough votes to pass the plan as written, but final Senate passage remains questionable if it is not altered.
The bill has received the unqualified support of several Senate Democrats who represent important battleground states or border regions, such as Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev. Others claim they aren’t committed to voting for the bill and are merely casting their votes to start the debate.
The law has drawn harsh criticism from a number of pro-immigration organizations. However, other Democrats claim that they have misled the party and lost touch with voters on the matter.
According to a Senate Democratic official who texted NBC News, “I believe that for a long time, Democrats have allowed the advocacy groups to push them to the left on immigration and border security issues: pushing them to oppose even popular immigration/border security reforms because it could lead to any deportation.” Democrats must make it plain that they are against criminals, even if that means deporting an illegal immigrant who has committed a crime, as the results of the most recent election shown.
Republicans will seek further chances to pressure Democrats into taking difficult votes on immigration, so this will probably be just the first of many tests the party will face on the subject.
Read more about the vote on Thursday.
Related read: P.J. Lechleitner, acting director of ICE, told NBC News that President Joe Biden should have taken immediate action to strengthen border security in order to curb the influx of migrants into the United States.Continue reading
When MAGA meets the Monroe Doctrine
By Jonathan Allen
The new Americas First foreign policy of Donald Trump is reminiscent of the Monroe Doctrine.
Trump’s attempts to resurrect the Manifest Destiny theory of the James Polk period in Greenland and Panama have drawn a lot of attention, and rightfully so. One approach to see Trump’s emerging second-term foreign policy ideology is to compare it to the spirit of American expansionism westward in the 1840s, north, and south today.
In Back to the Future, however, the president-elect might be able to go a bit further back in time to the 1820s.
President James Monroe cautioned Europe to keep its neighbors to itself in his seventh yearly address to Congress in 1823, portraying the US as the leading force in the Western Hemisphere.
Monroe wrote, “We have never participated in the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves, nor does it comport with our policy to do so.” We are inevitably more closely linked to the motions in this hemisphere, and for reasons that should be clear to any objective and knowledgeable observers.
The Monroe Doctrine, which was used to defend American expansionism, is the foundation of the Manifest Destiny policy of the next generation. In his address to Congress, the terms “destiny” and “manifestation” are used in the same line.
The biggest danger to the United States and its zones of influence is no longer Europe. The power struggles in Greenland and the Panama Canal have significant economic and national security ramifications, and China is America’s greatest adversary.
The world today depends on China for a wide range of products, and Greenland is rich in undeveloped rare earth minerals that are essential to these items. Additionally, it is a crucial strategic island for American missile defense and space missions.
Trump is mistaken when he says that China owns the Panama Canal. However, America’s economic adversary benefits from China’s increasing use of the priceless global shipping route. Additionally, China has been increasing its footprint in the canal zone.
His statements regarding Greenland and Panama have been cited by Trump’s detractors as being inconsistent with his America First tenet. It makes more sense, however, when seen as an updated version of 19th-century attempts to strengthen the United States by controlling the Western Hemisphere, as seen through the prism of protecting American interests in the Americas.
Read more about Trump’s recent calls to annex Greenland, retake the Panama Canal, and absorb Canada in their articles by Allan Smith and Carol E. Lee.
Today s top stories
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In memoriam:
Every living former president filed into pews together to honor President Jimmy Carter during his funeral today at the Washington National Cathedral.Read more
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Wildfire response:
Biden canceled a trip to Rome and a meeting with Pope Francis so he can instead focus on the federal response to the rapidly moving wildfires that are tearing through the Los Angeles area.Read more
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In the courts:
New York s highest court rejected Trump s bid to halt his sentencing on Friday, and prosecutors are urging the Supreme Court to do the same.Read more
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Phone a friend:
Justice Samuel Alito confirmed that he took a phone call from Trump one day before the president-elect asked the Supreme Court to halt his upcoming sentencing in his hush money case, but insisted that the case was not discussed.Read more
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Across the aisle:
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said he accepted an invitation to meet with Trump.Read more
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Moving on up:
Vice President-elect JD Vance will resign his Ohio Senate seat at midnight Thursday.Read more
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Can t teach a new DOGE new tricks:
Elon Musk said that his budget-cutting effort on behalf of Trump would most likely not find $2 trillion in savings, backtracking on a goal he set earlier as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency.Read more
For now, that’s all from the Politics Desk. Faith Wardwell and Adam Wollner put together today’s newsletter.
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