What to Expect From President Trump’s Domestic Agenda This Year

0:04Hey, What's News listeners, it's Sunday, January 11th. I'm Alex Osula for The Wall Street Journal. This is What's New Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world. On today's show, what we can expect this year from the Trump administration's domestic agenda. Protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. President. Since starting his second term, President Trump has been busy.

0:42His policies have upended global trade and relationships with foreign leaders. Trump kicked off the year with an aggressive operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro. But for many Americans, it's Trump's domestic agenda that's top of mind. They're worried about a softening job market and high prices, which could play a major role in this year's midterm elections. So what does 2026 have in store? I chatted with WSJ White House reporter Natalie Andrews and Washington Coverage Chief Damian Paletta about the president's domestic priorities and their political predictions for the year ahead.

1:21Natalie, what was the mood in the White House wrapping up 2025? The White House folks around Donald Trump, they feel like they've had a great year. So they're coming off of the first year and then looking forward to concerns that voters are having about affordability and how they confront that. Damian, what's your sense of the vibe in Washington more broadly and of how voters are feeling? Well, it was an incredibly consequential year for President Trump. He accomplished a tremendous amount. Whether voters supported it or didn't, no one could argue that he didn't have a huge impact, whether it was on tax cuts and tariffs he imposed and immigration changes that he was able to get through without much from Congress.

2:01So what we'll be watching for in 2026 is whether he is going to be able to sell this to voters in the midterms. He's not typically a great midterm election campaigner because he's not on the ballot. It's harder for him to sell other people than it is for him to sell himself. And so we're going to be watching really closely to see whether these kind of poor poll numbers that he has right now can improve in 2026 or whether the way he's been running his presidency turned enough voters off and enough independent the voters off, that Republicans really feel the brunt of it as we get later into 2026.

2:37One of the things that Trump did in 2025 was, of course, tariffs. He made this a key part of his economic policy. And at least so far, it seems like the economic impact has been less than what a lot of people had feared back at Liberation Day in April. Damian, what can we expect from Trump this year on tariffs? Well, he says his favorite word in English language is tariffs. I don't expect that to change in 2026. He might not have all the tools legally that he had in 2025, but he still will find ways to impose tariffs because it just gives him a tremendous amount of leverage over other countries.

3:11The question is, if prices are going up for consumers in 2026, does he feel pressure on his own to kind of dial it back? Otherwise, you know, Republicans could be really in for it in November. Damien, Natalie mentioned affordability. It sounds like it's unsettling voters. And at the end of 2025, Trump made a couple of speeches addressing this. What can he actually do about this issue? Well, making prices lower can feel like putting the toothpaste back in the tube. I mean, it's just really difficult to do. He believes if there's lower rates at the Fed, then that'll bring down the price of homes and other stuff.

3:47But I think he's really finding it difficult to get prices down everywhere. And so affordability is going to be a key theme in 2026. and it's only going to get more intense as we get closer to November. Natalie, has this come up at all in your reporting about the impact of affordability on the midterms? Like, how are voters feeling? Yeah, the party that is in power, voters tend to blame them for anything they feel is wrong. And so as costs rise, the Democrats will ramp up the noise on pointing to Donald Trump's policies and saying, hey, he imposed tariffs that resulted in prices going up, or they'll point to healthcare costs that may go up.

4:27You don't always deserve the credit you get for your wins and your losses, but Democrats are definitely going to make a lot of noise about it this year. Coming up, President Trump's relationship with the private sector and what to expect on immigration this year. That's after the break.

4:52One of the other things that's been really striking about President Trump's second term has been his relationship with the private sector. The administration has taken a stake in companies and Trump himself has taken credit for trillions of dollars in investment in the U.S. and is weighing in on big corporate deals. Natalie, what might we see in the year ahead? Are there any companies or sectors that the White House seems to have its eye on? This is a place where the Trump administration feels as though they've had a lot of success, right, in intervening in corporate deals and in talking to corporations and getting them to move manufacturing back to the U.S.

5:30The TrumpRx program is supposed to start in 2026, and they want to see more drug companies sell drugs direct to consumers through this government website. Probably we'll see more if Donald Trump sees a deal. It goes to his inner psyche to want to involve himself on that. So my big question on this is how far does he push the envelope? So far, the business community has gotten out of his way, and they've felt like it's worth giving up some equity or a pound of flesh in order to get his blessing. But the question is, is there a point when the White House goes too far where it becomes actually problematic for the White House to be having this much of a grip over whether it's industrial policy or tech policy or just corporate America?

6:13And we're clearly not there yet, but there's going to be a point when corporate America might push back. And that's what we're going to be watching for really closely in 2026. Shifting now to immigration, it's been a really central focus for the Trump administration with the aggressive tactics in a number of cities across the U.S. and now with the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Damien, will Trump keep forging ahead with these tactics or could this be a moment where he kind of reconsiders some of that? He was very effective in his first year of the second term in sealing off the southern border.

6:45And there has been a real focus in the past few months, as you mentioned, about, you know, increasing deportations in the United States. Mostly, he's been unapologetic, and they've doubled down even in the face of pushback from Democratic mayors and governors saying that these tactics are necessary to deport illegal immigrants to the United States. But there have been incidents, including the one you just mentioned, where there has been quite a lot of public outcry. And so we're still waiting to see how this is going to play out. I think in particular, we need to watch Congress to see if Congress might attach some new restrictions on funding for ICE operations or for deportations, because that might be a sign that they're starting to feel the heat from constituents about the White House's tactics.

7:24Without getting too far into foreign policy, I feel like we'd be remiss to not talk about the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and how that fits into President Trump's approach to immigration. Sure. Obviously, a lot of immigrants to the United States have come from Venezuela because of the horrible economic situation that was there for many years. What happens to Venezuela next, I think, will depend on what happens in the next few months. If there's a lot of chaos there, and because there's not really an existing government, so to speak, there could be more people, more immigrants from Venezuela trying to get in the United States.

7:56However, if what President Trump has done stabilizes the country, creates a better economy, it might make a much more attractive place for Venezuelans to, you know, build businesses and invest. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of debate in Washington and around the world about what President Trump has done in Venezuela and what should happen with oil money and oil resources. is going to be a huge focus of his agenda in 2026. I have one more question, and hopefully it'll be a fun one. All right. 2026, what is on your Donald Trump bingo card? I am watching how much he weighs in on various midterm elections.

8:34Does he make the Trump endorsement? Does he start leaning toward J.D. Vance being his successor? Or does he start talking about other folks? Does he want to open it up completely for 2028? Or does he try to run for a third term, as he sometimes jokes about? Does he take different swings to get some of the voters that he has maybe lost back, such as Latino voters or farmers that are getting frustrated? So what does he do policy-wise there in order to bring some of those folks back to fold that he may have lost? This is going to be a controversial opinion. I think 2026 is going to be fun. The 250th birthday of the United States.

9:13There's going to be parades and parties and festivals. And Trump's going to make the most of it in a way that only he can. And I think Americans are going to love it. And there's going to be red, white, and blue everywhere you look. And what are Democrats going to do? Like say, I don't like parades and flyovers and Uncle Sam. It's going to give him actually a huge advantage because Americans love to have fun. They love distractions from the stresses of their daily life. And so I would anticipate a really theatrical, probably slightly zany 2026 for Americans. And there's going to be one thing after another, and it's going to start, like, pretty much now.

9:47Well, cheers to more parades in 2026. Damien Paletta, Natalie Andrews, thank you both so much. Take care. Thank you. And that's it for What's New Sunday for January 11th. By the way, Damien Paletta has a daily politics newsletter. If you want to check it out or subscribe, we'll leave a link in the show notes. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producers Tali Arbel and Jana Heron. I'm Alex Osula, and we'll be back tomorrow morning with a brand new show. Until then, thanks for listening.