Trump’s unstable week on the economy: 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! In today’s edition, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker digs into Topsitter Bee Week on tariffs, an additional economic pain warning for Trump administration officials, and voter response. Additionally, Sahil Kapur explains why Medicaid emerged as a major sticking point in the Republican budget plan.

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– Adam Walner

How will voters react to Trump’s twist and turn on tariffs?

By Kristen Welker

It was a volatile week for President Donald Trump’s economic and trade policy. It raises new questions about how twists and turns tariffs control the headlines and how voters react.

Trump is well aware that concerns about the economy and high prices have helped him drive him into an oval office.

Here’s what he told me in December: “I won at the border, I won at the groceries. …When I buy apples, when I buy bacon, when I buy eggs, they doubled and tripled the prices in a short period of time and won elections based on that. I’ll cut these prices down much.”

However, there are already some indications that Americans are concerned that Trump is not prioritizing the issue. A CBS News/Yougov poll released earlier this week found that 80% of Americans believe inflation should be the top priority for the administration, but only 29% say Trump is prioritizing “many” on issues.

The Trump administration has admitted that there could be some degree of economic pain ahead.

In a speech to Congress this week, Trump said there was “a bit of a hindrance” when tariffs came into effect. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC this morning that there will be a “detox period” as the economy adapts to declining government spending. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox News this week that “there will be a short period of high prices for certain products” as a result of the tariffs.

My colleague Peter Alexander asked Trump early today how much Americans should expect things to cost more. “There could be some interference, some interference,” the president said. Trump also acknowledged that there could be more tariff changes, saying, “There will always be changes and adjustments.”

So how much time will voters give Trump to lower prices? How would they respond if prices actually rise?

We will delve into the next step in Trump’s economic agenda, and this Sunday we will explore “Meet the Press” with Lutnick and Senators Elissa Slotkin and D-Mich.

Latest economics:

Trump suggested that tariffs could be implemented on Canadian dairy and timber, the latest broadside of his administration in the brewing trade war between the US and Canada. The US added 151,000 jobs in February, with employers from various industries continuing to hire, and the federal government cut the workforce by 10,000, making it unsatisfactory. The S&P 500 regained some ground on Friday, but the index posted the worst week of months when trade policy action salvos laid back investors, CNBC reports.

Other things you need to know from today’s President Trump

Aside from tariffs, it was another busy day at the White House, where Trump created news on issues ranging from foreign policy to education.

This is the top line:

Trump threatened to impose “large” sanctions and tariffs on Russia until he agreed to a peace deal with Ukraine. Trump discussed the possibility of a new nuclear deal between the US and Iran, telling reporters, “There’s going to be an interesting day, that’s all I can tell you.” The administration has announced that it will cancel Columbia University’s approximately $400 million in federal grants. The first-ever Crypto Summit will convene top executives from various digital asset companies to discuss the administration’s commitment to rollback a proactive regulatory stance. However, parts of the crypto world remained disappointed. Trump told cabinet secretary during a meeting Thursday that he told his cabinet secretary that staffing decisions would be left to them, not the efficiency of Elon Musk and his government.

mailbag: What does Medicaid future hold?

Thank you to everyone who emailed us with questions this week! Several have written to ask about the future of Medicaid as Republicans consider budget proposals to move Trump’s agenda forward.

This is Senior National Political Correspondent Sahil Kapoor to explain why the programme has emerged as a major focus and may be in the chopping block.

Medicaid quickly became one of President Trump’s biggest flashpoints. The simple reason is that Republicans have approved a budget plan that requires significant cuts to the program to achieve their goals. Please don’t take my words. That’s according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Mathematics is easy. The House Republican budget, which advances Trump’s agenda, calls for the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut spending by $880 billion. But if you set aside Medicare and Medicaid, the overall jurisdiction of the committee totals $581 billion. The GOP is deeply unstable about cutting off Medicare given its politics with older voters, but Medicaid has been in the party’s crosshairs for years. It’s not so sacred to them. In fact, Republican lawmakers have publicly told us they want to include Medicaid spending cuts in their large party and line bills.

Well, this is where it gets even more interesting. Republicans, including speaker Mike Johnson, say they want to eradicate fraud and waste in the program. However, there is no reason to think that you can find hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid scams. When I ask them to show mathematics, no one can quote evidence of it, including the speaker’s office. If the GOP wants to achieve its goals, it must take risky actions that have been hit politically.

There is another option. They can rewrite their budgets by waving a white flag at a target that reduces that deficit. But in the majority of thin-wafer house GOPs, the number was the product of concessions against conservative hardliners who demanded a sharp cut in spending as the price of the vote.

Conclusion: There is no easy way here. The future of Medicaid is currently shaky.

For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.

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