If the Gaza peace plan is in danger of stalling out, it’s not from anything Israel is doing, according to President Donald Trump. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago yesterday, Trump said Israel has “lived up to the plan,” when asked whether the nation is moving quickly enough toward peace.
While the president has emphasized his urgency to keep the process moving forward, he reiterated that Hamas must disarm as part of the agreement. Disarmament is one of the thorniest conditions for moving to the peace plan’s next phase.
“If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do — they agreed to do it — and then there will be hell to pay,” Trump told reporters. The president earlier referred to Gaza as “truly a tough neighborhood,” in a rare moment of understatement.
The administration is tackling the world’s two biggest conflicts in back-to-back meetings. Yesterday morning, Trump talked with Vladimir Putin about a proposal for peace in Ukraine, a day after hosting Volodymyr Zelenskiy at Mar-a-Lago. An agreement between the parties seems further away, after Putin complained Ukraine attacked his residence. Read More
The First Rule of Fed Fight Club
Later today we’ll get the minutes from the last Fed meeting, one of the more contentious in what is now regularly a split board of governors. If the first rule of Fight Club is never to discuss it, the battles — and what are being called “silent dissents” — may spill out into view.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been trying to steer the group through a fractured view of the economy, with inflation still above the 2% target and signs of a weakening labor market. Officials lowered the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point for a third consecutive time earlier this month. (Remember that this meeting came before the boffo GDP figures for the third quarter.)
The differences could foreshadow what’s to come in 2026, when a new leader may struggle even more to marshal consensus. Trump has promised to appoint a new Fed chair early next year. He said yesterday he’s thinking about suing Powell for incompetence over building budget overruns. Trump also floated firing Powell.
Also:
- For those looking for positive economic news, pending-home sales rose to the highest level since February 2023, surpassing estimates. The number of people signing contracts to buy has now increased for four straight months, matching a streak last seen during the frenzied housing market of the pandemic.
- Traders experienced a chaotic ride in 2025, including the market gyrations spurred by Trump’s “Liberation Day.”
Trump’s 2026 Agenda Items
It’s been a whirlwind 2025 for the president, and Mica Soellner is looking at what he may do next year.
In his prime-time address earlier this month, Trump teased some of his upcoming initiatives, including naming the next Federal Reserve chair, lowering mortgage payments, and announcing “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”
Some of the other issues you should expect the president to focus on are health care (a reminder we are now one month away from another potential government shutdown) and tariffs (including any potential pivot from a Supreme Court ruling on his signature economic policy), she reports.
In 2025, we set out to offer a space for lobbyists to tell their story and provide practical advice that any reader — regardless of political party — could find useful. As the saying goes, we built it and you came. Click here for a recap of the pieces we’ve run since launching our Business of Lobbying Insights.
What Else We’re Reading
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Fight Over Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee Moves to Appeals Court
The
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Medicare Payment Parity for Doctor Services Gathers Steam
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Education Department Sued Over Sudden School Grant Cancellations
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Xi Tests Trump on Taiwan With Drills Firing Dozens of Rockets
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Trump’s Mueller Lawyer Is Latest Ex-Partner Suing Kasowitz
Michael Bowe, who was part of President Donald Trump’s legal team during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, is suing his former firm Kasowitz LLP for millions of dollars.
Religious Rows on Pronoun Policy, Weekend Work Loom in New Year
As Covid-19 vaccine exemption lawsuits wane, other religious worker accommodations will drive both private litigation and government enforcement in the year ahead over some employees’ beliefs clashing with protections for their LGBTQ+ colleagues.
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