🍇 Plus: Trump threatens tariff on French wine
 

12:30 REPORT

12:30 REPORT

 

Thursday, October 29 | By Cate Martel

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It’s Tuesday. Exactly one year ago now (almost to the minute), President Trump was inaugurated to serve his second term in office. How many Truth Social posts do you think he has published in the past year? Send me your guesses — and keep reading for the answer.

 

In today's issue:

  • Trump ticks off European allies

  • All eyes on Davos meetings

  • President shares texts from world leaders

  • Supreme Court hears gun case

  • Government funding text is out

  • Senate GOP’s strained relationship with Trump

  • Washingtonian’s best DMV restaurants list

 

🎿 IN THE WHITE HOUSE

TBH, I love seeing how world leaders text each other:

AP

President Trump has ramped up his threats to seize Greenland ahead of his trip to Switzerland today — and European allies are not having it.

Trump posted a screenshot of his text messages with French President Emmanuel Macron, in which Macron questioned Trump’s end-game on Greenland. Macron also offered to host a meeting in Paris on Thursday to discuss. 🔎 Read Macron’s text to Trump 

Oh, and Trump also posted a screenshot of a text he received from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Trump says he has agreed to meet with Rutte and other European allies this week in Switzerland to discuss Greenland. 🔎 Read Rutte’s text to Trump

What’s happening in Switzerland?: Roughly 3,000 business and political leaders from more than 130 countries are expected to attend the World Economic Forum this week in Davos. Trump will speak on Wednesday.

There’s another level to Trump’s tensions with France: Trump threatened to raise Champagne tariffs to a whopping 200 percent if Macron denies a seat on the White House Board of Peace, which has been tasked with overseeing the Gaza peace plan. Right now, U.S. tariffs on French products are 10 percent.

 

➤ HOW ARE WORLD LEADERS REACTING?

🌎 Canada: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not mention Trump by name but appeared to blame the U.S. for a “rupture” in world order. “Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry,” he said. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. … Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

🌍 France: Macron appeared to make a subtle jab at the U.S., ending his speech by saying, “We need more growth, we need more stability in this world, but we do prefer respect to bullies,” he said. “We do prefer science to plotism, and we do prefer rule of law to brutality.”

🌍 Greenland: Trump’s Greenland envoy has been disinvited from Greenland’s annual dogsled race.

The stock market dropped today: Stocks dipped this morning amid Trump’s push to take over Greenland.

💬 Follow today’s live blog

 

➤ TIDBIT:

The president linked his Nobel Prize snub in 2025 to his push for Greenland in a new letter to Norway’s prime minister. The letter is getting a lot of attention online. Trump insisted on Monday night that he doesn’t care about the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

➤ DRUMROLL PLEASE — HOW MANY TRUTH SOCIAL POSTS IN THE PAST YEAR?:

Trump has published more than 6,000 posts on Truth Social since retaking office on Jan. 20, 2025, according to a review from The Wall Street Journal.

Breaking that down: “More than half the time, the account simply linked to news articles, shared images or videos, or reshared previous posts by others or the president himself. But of the rest—the more than 2,700 primarily text-based postings that chronicled the president’s thinking—hundreds amounted to clear promises to enact change.”

Read the WSJ reporting: ‘6,000 Truth Social Posts Later, Here Are the Promises Trump Kept—and Broke’

 

🌺 THE SUPREME COURT

Checking several cases off the to-do list:

The Supreme Court ruled in several cases this morning before hearing oral arguments in a case involving gun restrictions in Hawaii.

Today’s rulings:

• The court ruled unanimously on a procedural issue in a medical negligence suit.

• The court unanimously sided with a bank robber in a restitution fight.

• The court unanimously ruled in a low-profile civil procedure case from an auto parts company’s bankruptcy.

🎙️ Listen to the Hawaii gun rights case live

 

🚌 ON CAPITOL HILL 

Beep beep, the minibus has arrived: 

House appropriators unveiled the text of the last four remaining government funding bills that need to be passed by Jan. 30 to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The final four bills: They would fund the departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Defense, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education and other related agencies.

Timing: The House must pass all four bills this week because they are out of town next week during the Jan. 30 deadline. The Senate is out this week but would need to pass the four bills (plus two more that the House has already passed) when it returns to avoid a shutdown.

Funding for DHS will likely be the thorniest to pass because it includes funding for the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which Democrats are threatening to block since the recent incidents in Minneapolis.

🔎 Read the bill text

 

➤ WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING ON CAPITOL HILL THIS WEEK?:

Celebrity Paris Hilton makes an appearance on Thursday. Former special counsel Jack Smith will publicly testify Thursday on his investigations into Trump. And a House committee will take up resolutions to hold the Clintons in contempt for refusing to testify on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

Read more on everything that’s happening this week, via The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi.

 

Senate Republicans’ relationship with Trump is … well, strained:

“President Trump’s slumping job approval numbers and the public controversies swirling around his second term in office are putting a strain on his relationship with GOP senators, who are looking for ways to distance themselves from the president heading into the November midterms,” reports The Hill’s Alexander Bolton.

In just the first *two weeks* of 2026: “Republican lawmakers are pushing back on Trump and his administration on a dizzying range of issues, including the potential deployment of troops to Venezuela, the threat to seize Greenland, the criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, invoking the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis and capping credit card fees.”

What a Republican senator who requested anonymity told Bolton about Trump: “He can’t handle any level of what he considers to be personal criticism. … You have people who don’t like the policy and feel like they have to stand up, but the president makes it so personal they feel like they have nowhere else to go.”

Read more about the Senate GOP-Trump tension: ‘Mounting controversies, midterm fears strain Senate GOP’s relations with Trump’

 

➤ SPEAKING OF TENSIONS...

GOP Rep. Julia Letlow (La.) announced she’s running against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) for his Senate seat. Before she announced, President Trump preemptively endorsed her after he turned on Cassidy.

Remember, Cassidy was one of the seven Republicans senators who voted to convict Trump in 2021 after he was impeached over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Cassidy has tried repairing the relationship, but it hasn’t worked.

 

➤ MORE READS:

Analysis in The New York Times: Trump’s First Year Could Have Lasting Economic Consequences

The New Yorker: Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News

The Atlantic: The Military Is Being Forced to Plan for an Unthinkable Betrayal: Attacking an ally would be a perversion of everything the armed forces have been trained to do.

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. considers rollback of gun regulations as advocates criticize Bondi

NBC News: Trump's pardons forgive financial crimes that came with hundreds of millions in punishments

 

COMING UP

The House is in. The Senate is out. President Trump is in Washington and is leaving for Switzerland tonight. (All times EST)

 

1 p.m. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefs reporters. 💻 Livestream

3 p.m. Trump participates in “signing time.”

6:30 p.m. First and last House votes for the day. 📆 Today’s agenda

10 p.m. Trump interview on "Katie Pavlich Tonight" airs on NewsNation.

This evening: Trump leaves for Davos, Switzerland.

Feb. 6: Opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

🐝 INTERNET BUZZ

🧀 Celebrate: Today is National Cheese Lover’s Day.

 

🍽️ Best restaurants in DC: Washingtonian released its 2026 list of the best restaurants in the D.C. area. Albi topped the list. 🔎 See which restaurants made the list

 

⛷️ Ski resorts are struggling this year: Major ski resorts in the U.S. are struggling this year because of a lack of snow.

 

👋 AND FINALLY…

Because you made it this far, watch this bird attempt to pick up a big pile of crackers in just one trip. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

 

 Stay Engaged 

📺 Catch up on the previous issue of 12:30 Report with a 1-minute video here.

I love hearing from you — send your feedback, tips and favorite cookie recipes to cmartel@thehill.com. Check out more newsletters here. See you next time!

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