Redistricting tests Trump's finely tuned influence machine
There are very few exceptions, in part because Trump has made clear the consequences for dissent. Trump and his team have repeatedly threatened primary challenges for GOP lawmakers who do not bend to his will, going as far as standing up a super PAC that's raising millions of dollars to target Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) for voting against the 'big, beautiful bill.' And the White House is vetting potential primary challengers to Massie, including Kentucky state Sen. Aaron Reed, who traveled to Washington for a meeting last month, two people familiar with the trip confirmed to POLITICO.
'Incumbent presidents have broad sway over their party…The only real difference is that Trump will operate with language and threats we haven't seen from other presidents,' said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist who has worked for House Republican leadership. 'He's more YOLO than lame duck.'
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Now Trump and his team are trying their playbook on GOP governors and state lawmakers as they push as many red states as possible into mid-decade redistricting. They are on the cusp of success in Texas, where the Republican-controlled Legislature is imposing a new map designed to net the party five seats.
Missouri Republicans are widely expected to follow suit when they return to Jefferson City in September for their annual veto session — despite still smarting from a knock-down, drag-out redistricting fight just two years ago in which they ultimately rejected drawing an additional GOP district.
While Republicans in the state Legislature are reluctant to revisit the difficult inter-party politics at play, the Trump administration is working to force them to submit anyway, calling up Gov. Mike Kehoe and local lawmakers who have expressed skepticism about the effort.
There's also a less direct form of pressure at play — one that has guided GOP decision-making throughout Trump's time as the party's standard-bearer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jesse Watters' daddy kink is showing (again), and Gavin Newsom is calling him out
Remember that brief moment in time where Tim Walz made waves by calling Republicans weird? It seems it's time to go back to that, considering the way Fox News host Jesse Watters keeps referring to California governor Gavin Newsom as "daddy." On Wednesday, the official X account for Newsom's press office tweeted a brief compilation of Watters dropping the d-word, alongside the caption, "Jesse, he's just not interested." Watters' obsession with "daddies" is well-documented. He frequently discusses politicians in terms of how daddy he thinks they are, including President Donald Trump, who he believes has "dad strength." He's also claimed Europe calls Trump "daddy," expressed his excitement about "dad" Donald Trump enacting mass deportations, and stated that Democrats "need to run a daddy" for president in 2028, among other weird, if not downright creepy, moments. Most recently, Watters had Florida governor Ron DeSantis on to complain about all the time Newsom allegedly spends on social media mocking Trump rather than doing his job, as if none of them are familiar with the concept of social media managers. For some reason, one of the chyrons across the screen at the time read "Dems Look For Big Daddy Energy." Newsom himself (or, you know, a social media manager) hopped on X Thursday morning to chime in, "Jesse, please stop calling me Daddy. It's disturbing." This followed a Trump-style tweet that Newsom's office is becoming known for that elaborated on the obsession Fox News — and Watters specifically — seems to have developed with Newsom. The whole thing is absolutely absurd, but we live in a political climate where absurdity seems to triumph constantly over anything rational, so if Newsom wants to highlight that through this mimicry, then so be it. Trump's nonsense posts definitely deserve the mockery, and maybe it's about time Watters' daddy kink gets called out, too. This article originally appeared on Pride: Jesse Watters' daddy kink is showing (again), and Gavin Newsom is calling him out RELATED 15 of Gavin Newsom's most brutal roasts of Trump that have the left cackling & MAGA melting down 32 things straight people think are totally gay Fox News host Jesse Watters' hot take on husbands going grocery shopping backfires hilariously
CBS News
14 minutes ago
- CBS News
Newsom signs California redistricting plan that could tilt 5 House seats toward Democrats
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law a contentious congressional redistricting plan, as state Democrats seek to counter a Trump-backed effort to add to the GOP's House majority by redrawing Texas' congressional maps. The new map — which still needs to be approved by voters — would shift five of California's Republican U.S. House seats to be more favorable to Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The legislation easily passed the Democratic-led Assembly and Senate on Thursday. After Newsom's signature, it will be added to the ballot on Nov. 4 for the voters' final say. That election is likely to be expensive and unpredictable given how quickly the effort has come together and how little time there is between the legislature's actions and voters starting to have their say. California Democrats insisted they had no choice but to undertake the new maps after President Trump intervened in Texas and asked Republican lawmakers to redraw the districts to preserve the GOP's razor-thin majority in the U.S. House. Following Newsom's declaration that he would redraw California's maps, several other states said they would undertake similar efforts. "They fired the first shot, Texas. We wouldn't be here had Texas not done what they just did," Newsom said at a signing ceremony Thursday. "We're neutralizing what occurred [in Texas] and we're giving the American people a fair chance." Although California Republicans have denounced the redistricting plan as a "tit-for-tat strategy," the state's Democrats on Thursday touted that the effort is different from Texas since it will be ultimately approved by the state's voters. "In California, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that voters, not Donald Trump, will decide the direction of this country," said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. "This is a proud moment in the history of this assembly. Californians, we believe in freedom. We will not let our political system be hijacked by authoritarianism, and today, we give every Californian the power to say no. To say no to Donald Trump's power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy." The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday approved the new congressional maps after a two-week delay when Democrats left the state to deny a quorum to bring the measure to the floor. The measure now goes to the Texas Senate, where it is likely to pass. Shortly after the Texas House passed the maps, Newsom posted to social media: "It's on." When Texas first launched its redistricting effort, Newsom had vowed to redraw the Golden State's congressional districts to counter the Lone Star State's plan and neutralize any potential GOP gains. Newsom — who is widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential contender — sarcastically congratulated Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on X, saying, "you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump's most loyal lapdogs. Shredding our nation's founding principles. What a legacy." President Trump late Wednesday congratulated Texas Republicans for advancing the new maps, writing on social media that "Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself." He also encouraged GOP-led Indiana and Florida to take on redistricting. The relatively rare mid-decade redistricting gambit comes as both parties prepare to face off in 2026 and has major implications nationwide. Republicans have a narrow majority at the moment, and Democrats winning back three seats in the 2026 midterms could be enough to flip control of the chamber if the lines used in the 2024 election were still in place. Redistricting in red states could change that dynamic significantly however, and with it the impact of the final two years on Mr. Trump's second term in office. Texas and California are the two biggest redistricting battlegrounds, but Mr. Trump has pushed similar efforts in GOP-led Indiana and Florida, and New York Democrats have floated redrawing their House map. The Republican-led state of Missouri could also try and redraw a Democratic district in the coming weeks, and new maps are also expected in Ohio, where a redraw brought about by state law could impact some of the red state's Democratic members of Congress. Earlier this week, former President Barack Obama acknowledged that he was not a fan of partisan gerrymandering but he backed Newsom's redistricting plan anyway at a fundraiser in Martha's Vineyard and on social media, calling it a "smart, measured approach." Less than 24 hours before California's scheduled vote, Newsom joined a press call with Democratic party leaders, urging support for his state's redistricting effort. "This is about taking back our country," Newsom told reporters. "This is about the Democratic Party now punching back forcefully and very intentionally." A draft congressional map unveiled by California Democrats late last week would heavily impact five of the state's nine Republican U.S. House members. It would redraw Reps. Doug LaMalfa and Kevin Kiley's Northern California districts, tweak Rep. David Valadao's district in the Central Valley and rearrange parts of densely populated Southern California, impacting Reps. Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa. And some more competitive Democrat-held districts could be tilted further from the GOP. There's no guarantee that Democrats will win in all five newly recast districts. Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of California's state legislature. But some legal hurdles still lie ahead, and Republicans in the state have pushed back against the redistricting plans. Unlike Texas, California has an independent redistricting commission that was created by voters earlier this century. To overhaul the current congressional map, a constitutional amendment would need to be passed by a two-thirds vote in California's Assembly and Senate and be approved by voters in the fast-moving fall election. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court denied a GOP attempt to stop the mid-cycle redistricting. California Republicans had legally challenged Democrats' efforts, claiming the state's constitution gives Californians the right to review new legislation for 30 days. But Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said they "failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time." The GOP legislators who filed the legal challenge told CBS News the ruling is "not the end of this fight," vowing to keep fighting the redistricting plan in the courts. In a phone interview with CBS News on Wednesday, California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican, condemned Newsom's redistricting efforts. "This whole process is illegal from the beginning and violates the current California Constitution," Jones said. "The voters spoke with a loud voice in 2008 and 2010 that they were taking this process out of the politicians' hands and putting the responsibility into an independent commission." Democrats faced a flurry of questions from Republican lawmakers during hearings this week on the alleged lack of transparency in the drafting of these maps and the financial implications of the Nov. 4 special election. "If we're talking about the cost of a special election versus the cost of our democracy or the cost that Californians are already paying to subsidize this corrupt administration, those costs seem well worth paying at this moment," said Democratic state Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan. Democratic lawmakers and Newsom have repeatedly emphasized that these redistricting efforts would not get rid of the independent commission and that the new maps he's hoping to put in place will be the lines used through the 2030 election. The commission would go back to drawing the state's congressional maps after the 2030 census, according to Newsom, who says this is only being done as a response to Mr. Trump and Texas' redistricting. That notion was rejected by Jones, who said: "Growing up, I was taught two wrongs don't make a right, so no, it is not justified." Anne Bryson contributed to this report.
New York Times
14 minutes ago
- New York Times
Taking on the Fed, Trump Combines Retribution Tactics With a Power Play
Since taking office again, President Trump has aggressively sought to expand his power, asserting a right to override spending decisions by Congress, dismiss leaders of traditionally independent agencies and push through legal and even constitutional barriers on issues including immigration and birthright citizenship. At the same time, he has used the government to pursue his campaign of retribution against political and personal foes, instigating criminal investigations, demanding big payments, revoking security clearances and dismissing federal employees. But when Mr. Trump called for the resignation of a Federal Reserve governor this week, it marked the merging of those two defining features of his second term. He was using the tactics he has employed in targeting his enemies in the service of an attempt to exert control over the central bank, which by law is structured to maintain substantial independence from political influence. Mr. Trump called for the resignation of the Fed governor, Lisa Cook, after Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a key political ally of the president, said that his office had investigated Ms. Cook and found that she appeared to have falsified bank documents to obtain favorable mortgage loan terms. His agency referred the matter to the Justice Department, which confirmed it received the referral. Mr. Trump's move to push out Ms. Cook, an appointee of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and specialist in international economics, came as he pursues a pressure campaign to install new leaders at the Fed who will heed his demand for lower interest rates. Mr. Trump has relentlessly attacked and threatened to fire the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, and accused Mr. Powell of mismanaging the renovation of the central bank's headquarters in Washington. Mr. Trump has only limited ability to fire an official from the central bank, a protection recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. Policymakers on the Board of Governors can be removed only for 'cause,' which legal experts define as breaking the law or gross misconduct. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
