Trump’s Legal Woes, McCarthy’s Revolt Make for Tough Times in GOP

This is Washington Edition, the newsletter about money, power and politics in the nation’s capital. Today, White House reporter Josh Wingrove takes on the GOP’s troubles. Sign up here and follow us at @bpolitics. Email our editors 

Woe is the GOP

It’s not easy being a Republican right now. Donald Trump has the Feds on his trail and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s got a revolt on his hands.

Trump, the GOP frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination, is liable to be indicted any time now for stashing classified documents at his Florida estate.

That hasn’t shaken his loyal base, but it’s not winning him any new support. Expect the former president to follow the same playbook as he did after his earlier indictment in New York, which he used as a rallying point for loyalists.

A gaggle of other Republicans, including his former vice president, smell blood in the water and have jumped into the nomination race. Several have shed their fear of Trump, directly attacking him as unfit for office. But it all may end with a circular firing squad that leaves a weakened Trump the last candidate standing.

Meanwhile, McCarthy, the party’s most powerful elected official, has had to put House business on ice because 11 hard-line conservatives staged a rebellion over the deal he cut with President Joe Biden to suspend the federal debt ceiling. 

That was the deal that was supposed to show McCarthy’s mastery of his unruly flock and his party’s ability to govern. Instead, the speaker had to dismiss the House until next week. In the last month, McCarthy couldn’t pass up a microphone or camera, but today he ducked out of the Capitol and avoided reporters.

“There’s a little chaos going on,” McCarthy said yesterday in a succinct summary.

Biden has a tough reelection campaign ahead of him. Many economists expect a recession, inflation won’t go away and his poll numbers are sagging. He’s got one thing going for him: The other guys have their own problems.

Don’t Miss

Democrats continue to bleed support from rural White voters, complicating reelection plans for Biden and a couple key senators.

Ron DeSantis presidedexpansion of Florida’s economy that drew lots of wealthy new residents but left lower-income people behind.

The Biden administration has proposed to trade partners that they extend a freeze on new digital services taxes set to expire at the end of the year.

The Supreme Court, in a surprise 5-4 ruling, strengthened Black political power in Alabama and potentially elsewhere.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen accused crypto exchange Binance of lying to Congress about its business.

Some options traders out there are either really expert prognosticators — or are getting insider info ahead of big policy decisions in Washington.

Deployment of a new ICBM, the Sentinel, is at risk of slipping from 2029 to 2030.

Pat Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a surprisingly competitive GOP presidential candidate, died at 93.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attended a Nationals game but didn’t throw out the first pitch

Watch & Listen

Today on Bloomberg TV’s Balance of Powerat 5 p.m.hosts Annmarie Hordern and Kailey Leinz interview Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat. On yesterday’s show, Representative Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat, said “the Republican caucus is in chaos" after conservatives blocked their own party from conducting routine House business.

On the Odd Lotspodcast, hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway examine the idea of corporate-led inflation — companies exploiting supply-chain bottlenecks and other disruptions to to raise prices. Listen or subscribe on Apple PodcastsGoogle Podcasts

Map of the Day

The cooling US housing market is denting the wealth homeowners accumulated during the pandemic. Home equity saw its first national annual decline since 2012 in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier. It’s a troubling trend, though it’s limited to just 15 states so far, mostly in the West. Owners in six states, including Florida, Connecticut and New Jersey, saw their their equity grow by at least $20,000, on average. Still, the average homeowner today has more than $274,000 in equity, up from $182,000 before Covid-19. — Alex Tanzi

What’s Next

will be in Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday.

DeSantis is in North Carolina Friday and Oklahoma on Saturday.

is also at the state GOP convention in North Carolina on Saturday.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meets with Biden at the White House on Monday, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia appears to be underway.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies on the state of the international financial system to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.

The closely watched consumer price index is out on Tuesday. Economists predict a deceleration of inflation to 4.2% year-over-year, from 4.9% in April.

Seen Elsewhere

• China and Cuba made a secret agreement for Beijing to establish an electronic espionage facility in the Caribbean country in order to eavesdrop on the US, the Wall Street Journal reports. (The White House called the report “not accurate.”)
• The Biden administration will scale back food assistance to Ethiopia after discovering a scheme by government officials in the nation to divert the aid to the military or sell it, the Washington Post reports.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a 28th amendment to the Constitution to restrict gun ownership, in an interview with Politico.

More From Bloomberg

• Balance of Power for the latest political news and analysis from around the globe
• for Bloomberg Washington Correspondent Joe Mathieu’s insight and analysis from the White House and Capitol Hill
• Ballots & Boundaries for a weekly check-in from Bloomberg Government on campaign trends and state voting laws
• CityLab Daily for the latest on America’s municipalities and more
• Five Things to Start Your Day for the most important business and markets news each morning
• Brussels Edition for a daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union

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— With assistance by Alexandre Tanzi