Trump’s new messenger: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily 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, Megan Brand takes stock of the debut of the new White House press secretary. Plus, Natasha Korecki examines whether Republicans may have a surprise opportunity for a breakthrough in the Midwest.

— Adam Wollner

Trump’s new White House press secretary keeps her first briefing short

By Megan Brand

President Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary Katie Zacharia held an unusually short first briefing with the media today, concluding after less than 15 minutes and calling on just three reporters, all from conservative outlets.

Zacharia spent more than half of that time reading remarks before taking questions from Breitbart, Fox News and the Daily Mail.

In response to one question, she also revealed that the administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign following allegations of misconduct.

Zacharia spent most of her remarks touting the president’s policies and framed her new position as a job to “amplify” the president, something she said she’d done as a conservative commentator. She referred to those appearances, telling reporters that she hopes to “take that into an official capacity.”

Now, Zacharia said, she hopes to “only build on, only amplify, and only multiply, to the extent possible, all of the wins” that Trump is “making for Americans, for Americans to understand how much has changed in this brief period of time, what he’s been able to accomplish.”

“My goal is to be able to communicate that in complete tandem with the president, as he is his own best spokesperson, and will absolutely be leading the way with that,” she added.

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August, leaving Trump without a chief spokesperson for much of the run-up to the midterms. The president said during a recent rally in Oklahoma that the administration is “not doing a good job of public relations.” At a separate event, he said that the administration was “doing an extremely poor job of promotion,” despite doing an “extremely great job of running the country.”

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As Democrats make inroads in red terrain, an unlikely state tightens

Analysis by Natasha Korecki

Amid the run of rosy storylines for Democrats in this midterm election, one state stands out as a potential outlier: blue-leaning Minnesota.

At a time when Senate seats in traditionally Republican states like Texas, Kansas and Alaska appear to be in play for Democrats, Minnesota is surprisingly tight, if recent polls are to be believed.

A KARE 11/Minnesota Star Tribune poll released yesterday shows Democrat Peggy Flanagan with a 4-point lead, 47% to 43%, over Republican Michele Tafoya among likely voters in the Senate race. Another 9% said they were still undecided.

It’s not the sort of edge one would expect from a state that has gone blue in every presidential election since 1972 or in today’s unfavorable political climate toward Republicans.

So what’s different? A few dynamics stand out. First, it’s an open seat, now that Sen. Amy Klobuchar is running for governor. Second, Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster and first-time candidate, has attempted to stake out a more independent stance, calling herself a “pro-choice Republican.”

There is also the unique set of local issues in Minnesota around alleged fraud related to social services and investigations by the Trump administration. Amid that effort, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced he would abandon his political aspirations and not seek re-election. Flanagan, the lieutenant governor, is Walz’s No. 2 in state government.

In June, after the Justice Department first announced fraud charges in the state, one poll showed Minnesota voters cited fraud as one of their top issues, and said they blamed Walz and wanted more done to stamp it out.

This week, federal authorities searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in what sources told NBC News was a federal criminal investigation.

In a post on X, Omar called the search “an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” adding that over the last decade, President Donald Trump “has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns.”

As for the impact on the Senate race, the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC is looking at it through a lens of “Watch what they do, not what they say.”

Lauren French, a spokesperson for the group, noted that national Republicans have not put money into the state. And while Senate Majority PAC has paid for some digital ads in Texas, it has not spent in Minnesota, campaign finance records show.

“If Republicans really thought this race was competitive, you would see them putting the money that they’re putting into Kansas and South Carolina into Minnesota,” French said. “The fact that they are not is very telling.”

Still, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Nick Puglia said that the fraud investigations that have happened under Walz’s and Flanagan’s watch “puts Minnesota in play.”

“Michele Tafoya is the fighter Minnesotans deserve to stop the fraud and reverse years of failed policies pushed by Flanagan,” Puglia said.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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