Trump’s Legal Fight and Elon Musk’s Business Duplicate: From the Political Desk

Welcome to the online edition of From The Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that provides the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team’s White House, Capitol Hill and Campaign Trail.

Happy Friday! Today’s newsletter jumps into various Trump administration lawsuits, including some of the judges beginning to get frustrated. We also see how the White House is dealing with Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, taking into account his business interests, and how Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, deals with the swell of democratic anger towards him. And lastly, we’ll use the latest NBC News Poll data to answer questions from another reader. Enjoy our newsletter. Enjoy the weekend.

– Scott Brand

Many Trump administration lawsuits get hot

This week, several federal judges expressed frustration over how President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing his drastic agenda.

Trump sought a bullet each of the judges who temporarily halted deportation under the rarely used alien enemy law, but he blasted jurists as “ancestors” and “grandchildren” on his true social platform.

The Trump administration is currently pending more than 15 appeals from this week’s ruling that curtails Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

More information about these appeals and other cases can be found here. But first, there’s a detailed look at Musk, and how the White House deals with the potential conflict of interest of the “special government officials” who have turned into the world’s wealthiest person.

As the public face of Trump’s government efficiency, Musk has a vast portfolio that spans many levers of the government. And it could intersect with his wide range of business interests, Ben Kamisar reports.

However, unlike another well-known “special government employee” who works at Trump’s White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, there is no evidence that Musk has won a waiver of conflict of interest. Such a waiver outlines the steps he took to avoid overlap between his business interests and government work, and includes explanations from a White House lawyer about why he feels accustomed to the mask arrangement, identifying areas where Musk has an environment in which he weighs despite his business holdings.

Instead, White House press director Karoline Leavitt told NBC News that Musk has already pledged to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

In response to an investigation by NBC News on MUSK’s potential waiver, the White House lawyer’s office responded that “the White House has no disclosure to respond to your request.” Also, while some ethical documents will not be released immediately, instead, only a few weeks after filing, the White House press did not directly address whether the masks were seeking or receiving a waiver of interest that has not yet been made public.

Another special civil servant, Sacks, received a profit dispute that is open to the White House public portal. The 11-page memo, written by White House lawyer David Warrington, provides a roadmap to rules for the types of conflicts of interest that govern special government officials. The memo shows how Sack tried to sell his assets to satisfy White House lawyers, which shows why he was initially receiving the exemption of interest to enable him to participate in “specific specific matters relating to regulations and policies related to the digital asset industry.”

Things you need to know from today’s President Trump

Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday, claiming Trump was focusing on the government efficiency department of technology moguls, disputing the New York Times report, saying the meeting would include discussions on plans for a potential war with China. The Oval Office has announced a Boeing deal to build a new F-47 fighter.

Angry Democrats are targeting Schumer. But is this his “Biden moment”?

By Kristen Welker

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., faces an ongoing call to step down from a left-leaning activist group, and even some of Congress are pissed at his decision to advance Republican spending bills and avoid government shutdowns. However, Schumer is rebellious and continues to assert that he is the highest leader of the Senate party at this time.

When I spoke to him this week in an interview aired on “Meet the Press,” I pushed Schumer about his future with his leadership.

Still, it doesn’t appear to be facing the same level of opposition as Schumer stands up to President Joe Biden when he resigned with the Democratic presidential candidate last summer. At that moment, many of the elected Democrats from both chambers of the House moved forward to calling on Biden to end his campaign. (According to the New York Times, Schumer himself reportedly pushed Biden to drop out of the race.)

At this moment, most of the pushbacks so far come from House Democrats. And some Senate Democrats who were frankly said about Biden are setting Schumer on fire.

D-Colo Sen. Michael Bennett, one of the Congress’ first Democrats, called on Biden to come aside last year, and asked City Hall a recent question at City Hall about whether Schumer should stay in his leadership post. “Let’s say it’s important when dodging your questions that people will go,” Bennett said.

And Sen. Chris Murphy, who has emerged as a key voice urging Democrats to take on Trump more aggressively, said last week that he still supports minority leaders.

“Leader Schumer does a very difficult job. I don’t want the job he has,” Murphy said. “And the question is really for his Democratic Caucus members. Do we hope we’re willing to fight?”

Meanwhile, democratic unrest continued to boil down and simmered at a recent City Hall meeting. And according to the latest NBC News vote, Democrat voters hope their party will launch a fight.

So Schumer makes the same mistakes as Biden and continues his welcome as a Democratic leader? I asked him the question directly, so please adjust it on Sunday to hear his response. Senator John Curtis, R-Utah will also be taking part in “Meet the Press” this week.

✉✉§mailbag: How does the Red State see Trump and Musk’s efforts?

Thank you to everyone who emailed us this week! One reader asked how he views President Donald Trump’s executive order and Elon Musk’s efforts to cut the federal government through government efficiency.

To answer that, we turned to Ben Kamizar, one of the resident voting experts. Here is his response:

That’s a great question. Obviously, not everyone in the Red State votes for Trump or rides on everything he’s doing. But voters in these states are giving Trump more room, given his increasing levels of popularity there.

One way to answer this question is to dig into the voting data and split the respondents from the states that voted for Trump. Next, we can compare the president’s rating with the overall figures.

Trump’s approval rating in the state that voted for him in 2024 is 57%, compared to 47% of voters registered nationwide. Voters in Trump are likely to approve the handling of important issues. But they are effectively divided over his handling of the economy and whether they are approving or disapproving the war between Russia and Ukraine.

As for Doge, Trump’s voters are more likely to have a more positive musk and sector view than registered voters than registered voters (49% of these voters were more aggressive in looking at musk compared to 39% of registered voters nationwide, while 49% of Trump’s national voters looked at Doge more aggressively compared to 41% of Doge). And the majority of Trump national voters, 53%, say Doge is a good idea.

For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Scott Brando and Faith Wardwell.

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