When campaign politics and Cabinet confirmation fights collide

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, campaign embed Alex Tabet and national political reporters Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar examine the pressure Sen. Joni Ernst is feeling from the right in Iowa over Pete Hegseth’s defense secretary bid. Plus, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker breaks down a few of the below-the-radar answers Donald Trump gave during their interview.

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Joni Ernst’s re-election looms as she weighs Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary

By Alex Tabet, Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst faces some intraparty unrest in her home state as she weighs whether to support President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, fueling speculation that she could face a challenge from the right as she runs for re-election in 2026.

Ernst’s allies are not worried about a potential primary challenge, noting that she remains popular among Republicans in the state and that she boasts strong conservative credentials. But conversations with a dozen Iowa GOP leaders and strategists revealed anger toward Ernst among grassroots conservatives who want members of the party to back Trump’s Cabinet selections — and eye-rolling from others who say rank-and-file Republicans are not worked up about Ernst to the degree some activists are saying.

The episode illustrates the pressures Republican members of Congress have faced throughout the Trump years — pressures that are redoubling as he prepares to retake office with the party more firmly in his grasp than ever. Elected officials are fully aware of Trump’s penchant for seeking revenge against perceived disloyalty, and so are activists who can use high-profile situations as pressure points against those politicians.

And all of this is happening in an era when voter anger and anti-establishment sentiment have made primaries much more dangerous for incumbents.

“This is my issue: She’s not fully supportive of President Trump and his agenda and the selection of his team,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an evangelical power broker in Iowa.

No prominent Republican has stepped forward to oppose Ernst, who is in her second term, but conservative talk radio host Steve Deace recently suggested he could jump into the race. 

Deace, however, said he would need Trump’s support.

“Donald Trump is king of the Republican Party; he conquered it, and he earned it,” Deace told NBC News. “If he doesn’t want Joni Ernst to be a senator anymore, she won’t be.”

Trump has not suggested he would back a challenger to Ernst if she opposes Hegseth. And a person familiar with the Trump transition team’s view of Ernst’s role in the confirmation process said any threats or discussions of mounting a primary challenge against her in 2026 are premature. 

But some of Trump’s allies, such as Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, have said senators like Ernst should face primary challengers if they do not support his nominees. 

Those threats have drawn pushback from Ernst supporters.

“A lot of this is driven by gaslighting and attention-seeking — what can we say today to get more clicks? Let’s attack a U.S. senator for not doing what we demand her to do right now at this exact second,” former Polk County GOP Chair Will Rogers said.

“Charlie Kirk didn’t elect Joni Ernst to office,” Rogers added. “The people of Iowa did.”  

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Trump is open to raising the minimum wage — plus three other things he told me

By Kristen Welker

In my interview with Donald Trump last week, the president-elect said he would deport millions of undocumented immigrants, reiterated his desire to pardon those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and said he’ll work to extend the tax cuts passed during his first term. 

But Trump told me some other revealing things during our 80-minute conversation that didn’t end up airing on our hour-long “Meet the Press” program last Sunday. And I wanted to highlight those newsy tidbits before Trump takes office next month.  

1. He told his children and family not to work in his administration — unlike in his first term. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll miss them, and they are really competent. But I say, ‘Just go have fun, do your business, do whatever you want to do. But don’t come in.’ Because no matter what they did, they did such a great job. Although I have to say, [daughter-in-law] Lara [Trump] did a phenomenal job as the head of the Republican National Committee, along with Michael [Whatley].”

2. He said he wouldn’t — or couldn’t — divest from his companies, like the parent company of his social media site Truth Social. “Well I don’t know how I can divest? What does that mean? I’m not allowed to open it and use it? I mean, all I do is — I — I don’t openly look at the — the company. I’m not even on the board of the company. I didn’t want to be on the board. I have other people, and they run it, and they run it very well because Truth has become a very, very successful platform.” 

3. He responded to a federal court’s ruling that could result in TikTok being banned. “And I used TikTok, so I can’t really, you know, I can’t totally hate it. It was very effective. But I will say this, if you do do that, something else is going to come along and take its place. And maybe that’s not fair. And really, what the judge actually said was that you can’t have Chinese companies. In other words, they have the right to ban it if you can prove that Chinese companies own it. That’s what the judge actually said.” 

When I pressed Trump if he would intervene to protect TikTok, he responded, “I’m going to try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly.”

4. And he said he’d consider raising the federal minimum wage, which currently stands at $7.25 an hour. “It’s a very low number. I will agree, it’s a very low number. Let me give you the down side, though. In California they raised it up to a very high number. And your restaurants are going out of business all over the place. The population is shrinking. It’s had a very negative impact. But there is a level at which you could do it, absolutely.”

How will Democrats and progressives react to Trump’s willingness to raise the federal minimum wage? Tune into “Meet the Press” this Sunday, when I interview Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as well as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]

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