A volatile week for Trump on the economy: from the political bureau

Welcome to the online version of Political officeAn evening newsletter that brings you the latest report and analysis of the NBC News Policy team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign campaign.

Happy Friday! In today’s publishing, the “meeting the press”, Kristen Welker, is digging in a week upside down on prices, warnings from Trump administration to come from economic pain – and how voters could react. In addition, Sahil Kapur explains why Medicaid has become a major collision point in the budgetary plans of the Republicans.

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– Adam Wollner

How will voters react to Trump’s twists and turns and turns on the prices?

By Kristen Welker

It was a volatile week for the economic and commercial policies of President Donald Trump, with twists and turns on the prices that dominate the big titles – and raising new questions about how voters will react.

Trump knows that the economy and concerns about high prices have helped to propel him to the oval office.

Here is what he told me back in December: “I won on the border and won at the grocery store. … When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period, and I have won an election according to this. We will lower these prices. »»

But there are already signs that Americans fear that Trump will not give priority to the problem. A CBS News / Yougov Poll Released earlier this week, 80% of Americans think that inflation should be a high priority for administration, but only 29% say that Trump prioritizes the problem “a lot”.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that there may be upcoming economic pain.

Trump noted in his speech at the Congress this week that “there is a little disturbance” when the prices will take effect. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said to CNBC This morning, there will be a “detoxification period” because the economy will adapt to less public spending. And the secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick said on Fox News This week, following prices, “there will be a short period when there will be higher prices on certain products.”

My colleague Peter Alexander asked Trump earlier in the day how long Americans should expect things to cost more. The president said in part: “There could be disturbances, a little disturbance.” Trump has also admitted that there could be more to come to come, noting: “There will always be changes and adjustments.”

So how long will the voters give Trump to lower prices? And how could they react if prices really increase?

We will immerse ourselves in the next stages of Trump’s economic agenda and more on “Meet the press” this Sunday, with Lutnick and Senator Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

The last on the economy:

• Trump suggested that he could implement Canadian dairy and wood prices, The last side of its administration in the trade war between the United States and Canada.
• The United States Adding 151,000 jobs in FebruaryNot expectations as employers in a range of industries has continued to hire, while the federal government has reduced its workforce by 10,000.
• The S&P 500 resumed land on Friday, but the index still displayed its worst week in several months as a salvo of commercial policy actions. CNBC reports.

That knowing others of the Trump presidency today

Aside from the prices, it was another well -filled day in the White House, Trump doing news on questions ranging from foreign to education.

Here are the toplines:

• Trump threatened To impose large -scale sanctions and prices on Russia Until he accepts a peace agreement with Ukraine.
• High administration officials plan to meet With the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Saudi Arabia next week.
• Asset discussed the possibility From a new nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran, telling journalists that “there will be interesting days to come, that’s all I can tell you”.
• The administration announced that it Cancel about $ 400 million in federal subsidies At Columbia University “due to the continuous inaction of school in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
• Trump is should sign a decree To limit eligibility for the public service loan delivery program.
• The White House organized its very first “crypto», Suitable senior executives from various digital asset companies to discuss the administration’s commitment to make an aggressive regulatory posture back down. But some in the world of cryptography have been disappointed.
• Trump said He said to his cabinet secretaries During a meeting on Thursday that personnel decisions will be left to them, not Elon Musk and his government ministry.
• A federal judge judged that the Trump administration must pay several non -profit organizations and help which were affected by the closure of the USAID and the freeze of the administration on foreign aid.
• Trump established a White House working group For the 2026 World Cup.

✉️ Mailbag: What does the future contain for Medicaid?

Thank you to everyone who sent us questions this week! Several of you have written to ask questions about the future of Medicaid while the Republicans are considering a budgetary proposal to advance Trump’s agenda.

Here is the senior national political correspondent Sahil Kapur to explain why the program appeared as a major objective and could be on the blockage:

Medicaid quickly became one of the biggest lightning points in Trump’s presidency. The simple reason is that the Republicans have approved a budgetary plan This would require significant reductions in the program in order to achieve their goals. Don’t believe me. It is According to the Office of the Budget of the Non -Sample Congress.

The calculation is simple: the republican budget of the Chamber to advance Trump’s agenda requires that the energy and trade committee reduces the expenses by $ 880 billion. But when you reserve Medicare and Medicaid, the whole jurisdiction of the committee totals $ 581 billion. The GOP is deeply unhappy to cut health insurance, given the policy with older voters, but Medicaid has been in the party’s reticle for years. It’s less sacred for them. In fact, republican legislators openly told us that they wanted to include cups for Medicaid spending in their major bill of parties.

Now here is where it becomes more interesting. The Republicans, including President Mike Johnson, say they want to eliminate fraud and waste in the program. But there is no reason to think that they can find hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid fraud. No one can cite evidence, including the speaker’s office when I asked them to show their mathematics. If the GOP wants to achieve its objectives, it will have to take measures that risk political return.

There is another option: they could wave the white flag on this deficit reduction target and rewrite the budget. But in the majority of the game of the house, this number was the concessions product made to the conservative puns which required reductions in net expenditure as a price of their vote.

Conclusion: there is no easy way to go out here, and the future of Medicaid is now foggy at the moment.

It’s all of the political bureau for the moment. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.

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