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.
In today’s edition, Adam Edelman looks at the blue states seeking quick action to adjust their budgets following the passage of President Donald Trump’s big domestic policy legislation. Plus, Kristen Welker analyzes the key takeaways from her interview with Trump.
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— Scott Bland
Blue-state leaders weigh new laws to deal with financial fallout from Trump’s big bill
By Adam Edelman
State lawmakers are scrambling to deal with the expected financial fallout from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with many in blue states demanding special legislative sessions they say are necessary to shore up funding for health care and food assistance programs affected by the new law.
Democratic governors in at least five states are weighing such special sessions, and Democratic lawmakers in several more are urging their governors to convene them to address expected funding shortfalls.
In Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ Office of State Planning and Budgeting has projected that the state would receive about $500 million less in revenue yearly — and could see about the same amount in additional costs — because of the new law’s impact on Medicaid and food assistance.
Democratic state Sen. Iman Jodeh said a special session is “absolutely necessary” to deal with the state’s new financial landscape, predicting that it was “imminent” that Polis convenes one.
“We have to do it,” said Jodeh, a member of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “Our budget just cannot absorb the backfill, the shortfall, the cuts.”
Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman said in email that Polis “has previously indicated we may need to reconvene the General Assembly to deal with the terrible impacts from the bill — and we are still reviewing the impacts of this new law to evaluate next steps, including a potential special session.”
Jodeh said that because of Colorado’s unique Taxpayer Bill of Rights — a 1992 measure that effectively limits how much the state can raise taxes — it will be exceedingly difficult for Democrats, despite their control of the governorship and both legislative chambers, to avoid mostly cutting and freezing social programs to address the expected shortfalls.
“We’re all incredibly scared about how we can possibly navigate this,” she said. “What are those programs that we’re going to have to freeze or defund or do away with altogether? Those will be the questions that we’re going to have to answer during the special session.”
y takeaways from my interview with Trump
Analysis by Kristen Welker
I spoke with President Donald Trump yesterday in a wide-ranging 20-minute phone call, where we discussed his approach to tariffs, his response to the devastating floods in Texas, his views of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and more.
One key takeaway from our conversation is that the president signaled he is looking to pivot from policy to politics now that his sweeping tax and spending proposal, which he dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill, has become law.
I asked Trump if he plans to hit the road to talk about the measure and he said “a little bit,” later adding, “But honestly, it’s been received so well I don’t think I have to, but a little bit. And certainly before midterms we’ll be doing a lot but a little bit.”
That focus on next year’s midterm elections underscores the tough fight ahead for the GOP as it tries to hold onto its narrow majorities in both chambers. Democrats need to net just three seats to flip the House and four seats to take control of the Senate — a tougher task given the general lean of the states holding Senate races next year. And Democrats plan to campaign on the sweeping tax and spending measure, emphasizing cuts to Medicaid.
But the president did not seem overly concerned that his party would lose seats in Congress.
“They said that about 2024 too. They said, ‘We’re going to win seats,’” Trump said of Democrats. “They didn’t. They said — we’re going to do great in the presidency, and I won all seven swing states, won the popular vote by millions, etc. So you know, they always say that. They’ve lost their way. They’ve lost their minds, and they’ve lost their way, not necessarily in that order.”
Meanwhile, the president is walking a fine line with his MAGA supporters, who Republicans need to turn out in droves to hold onto control of Congress next year.
These voters have more isolationist views of foreign policy, creating some tension when it comes to assistance to Ukraine. Trump made some news on that front yesterday, when he stressed that NATO, not the U.S., would be covering the cost of additional weapons for Ukraine.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump told me. “So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
“We are not paying for any more weapons,” the president later added.
The details of that agreement with NATO are still unclear, though the president did tease a “major statement” on Russia coming on Monday.
NATO spokesperson Allison Hart responded to Trump’s comments in a statement on Friday. “Allies continue to work to ensure Ukraine has the support they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression. This includes urgent efforts to procure key supplies from the United States, including air defence and ammunition,” she said.
We’ll delve more into all of this on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” where I’ll speak to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Today’s other top stories
- Trump in Texas: Donald and Melania Trump traveled to Texas to meet with first responders and grieving families in the aftermath of last week’s catastrophic flooding that left more than 100 people dead. Read more →
- Layoffs incoming: U.S. diplomats are preparing for cuts to the State Department workforce, with dismissal notices expected to hit inboxes as soon as Friday, according to three State Department officials with knowledge of the plans. Read more →
- Holy rebuke: The Archdiocese of Miami is condemning a controversial migrant detention facility in Florida — which state officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz” — calling it “unbecoming of public officials” and “corrosive of the common good.” Read more →
- Surprise surplus: The U.S. government posted a surplus in June as tariff receipts gave an extra bump to a sharp increase in receipts, the Treasury Department said. Read more →
Mailbag: When do the provisions of Trump’s new law go into effect?
Thanks to everyone who emailed us! This week’s reader question, from Cindy Scruggs, is about how Trump’s big domestic policy law will be implemented.
“Knowing that many of the cuts will be put into effect after the 2026 elections, what parts of the bill or associated fallout (if any) will occur before the midterms?”
One of our Congress experts, senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur, provided an answer:
This is an important and somewhat complicated question.
The short answer is that Republicans backloaded the most significant cuts under Medicaid, SNAP and the Affordable Care Act until after the 2026 election.
That was a deliberate effort to manage political pain — hard-right Republicans wanted the Medicaid work requirements to take effect right away, but the party reached a deal to trigger them on the last day of 2026, just weeks after the midterms.
Some GOP lawmakers have told us they believe (or hope) this will insulate them in the 2026 elections.
Beyond that, many of the law’s cutbacks are phased in over the coming decade. As KFF health policy expert Larry Levitt put it to me, “There’s not going to be a day where we wake up and there are suddenly millions more people without health insurance.”
That said, some effects will still be felt beforehand. There are already reports of at least one hospital in Nebraska shutting down, citing the “anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid,” a huge source of funding for hospitals.
Sometimes, anticipation of an unpopular law taking effect can make for effective politicking: Republicans made Democrats paid a heavy political price in the 2010 midterms for the then-unpopular Affordable Care Act, even though it hadn’t kicked in yet. In 2018, vast swaths of voters barely felt the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump sold as the greatest tax cut in history, and House Democrats won 40 seats in that year’s midterm election.
Finally, the impacts of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will certainly be felt by the 2028 presidential election, and if this law takes effect as designed, Democrats are sure to make that an issue.
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Scott Bland and Dylan Ebs.
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