BRUSSELS — Britain’s top Europe minister defended a decision to keep the U.K. out of the EU’s customs union — despite sounding bullish on a speedy reset of ties with the bloc in the first half of 2026. Speaking to POLITICO in Brussels where he was attending talks with Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade commissioner, Nick Thomas-Symonds said a non-binding British parliamentary vote on Tuesday on rejoining the tariff-free union — pushed by the Liberal Democrats, but supported by more than a dozen Labour MPs — risked reviving bitter arguments about Brexit. Thomas-Symonds described the gambit by the Lib Dems — which had the backing of one of Labour’s most senior backbenchers, Meg Hillier — as “Brexit Redux.” And he accused Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, of wanting “to go back to the arguments of the past.” The Lib Dems have drawn support from disillusioned Labour voters, partly inspired by the party’s more forthright position on moving closer to the EU. But Thomas-Symonds defended Labour’s manifesto commitment to remain outside the single market and the customs union. “The strategy that I and the government have been pursuing is based on our mandate from the general election of 2024, that we would not go back to freedom of movement, we would not go back to the customs union or the single market,” the British minister for European Union relations said. Thomas-Symonds said this remained a “forward-looking, ruthlessly pragmatic approach” that is “rooted in the challenges that Britain has in the mid 2020s.” He pointed out that post-Brexit Britain outside of the customs union has signed trade deals with India and the United States, demonstrating the “advantages of the negotiating freedoms Britain has outside the EU.” ‘GET ON WITH IT’ Speaking to POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy for the “Politics at Sam and Anne’s” podcast, out on Thursday, Thomas-Symonds was optimistic that a grand “reset” of U.K.-EU relations would progress more quickly in the new year. The two sides are trying to make headway on a host of areas including a youth mobility scheme and easing post-Brexit restrictions on food and drink exports. “I think if you look at the balance of the package and what I’m talking about in terms of the objective on the food and drink agreement, I think you can see a general timetable across this whole package,” he said. Pressed on whether this could happen in the first half of 2026,  the U.K. minister sounded upbeat: “I think the message from both of us to our teams will be to get on with it.”  The Brussels visit comes after talks over Britain’s potential entry into a major EU defense program known as SAFE broke down amid disagreement over how much money the U.K. would pay for access to the loans-for-arms scheme. The program is aimed at re-arming Europe more speedily to face the threat from Russia. Asked if the collapse of those talks showed the U.K. had miscalculated its ability to gain support in a crucial area of re-connection, Thomas-Symonds replied: “We do always impose a very strict value for money. What we would not do is contribute at a level that isn’t in our national interest.” The issued had “not affected the forward momentum in terms of the rest of the negotiation,” he stressed. YOUTH MOBILITY STANDOFF Thomas-Symonds is a close ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and has emboldened the under-fire British leader to foreground his pro-Europe credentials. The minister for European relations suggested his own elevation in the British government — he will now attend Cabinet on a permanent basis — was a sign of Starmer’s intent to focus on closer relations with Europe and tap into regret over a post-Brexit loss of business opportunities to the U.K. Fleshing out the details of a “youth mobility” scheme — which would allow young people from the EU and the U.K. to spend time studying, traveling, or working in each other’s countries — has been an insistent demand of EU countries, notably Germany and the Netherlands. Yet progress has foundered over how to prevent the scheme being regarded  as a back-door for immigration to the U.K. — and how exactly any restrictions on numbers might be set and implemented. Speaking to POLITICO, Thomas-Symonds hinted at British impatience to proceed with the program, while stressing: “It has to be capped, time-limited, and  it’ll be a visa-operated scheme. “Those are really important features, but I sometimes think on this you can end up having very dry discussion about the design when actually this is a real opportunity for young Brits and for young Europeans to live, work, study, enjoy other cultures.” The British government is sensitive to the charge that the main beneficiaries of the scheme will be students or better-off youngsters. “I’m actually really excited about this,” Thomas-Symonds said, citing his own working-class background and adding that he would have benefited from a chance to spend time abroad as a young man “And the thing that strikes me as well is making sure this is accessible to people from all different backgrounds,” he said. Details however still appear contentious: The EU’s position remains that the scheme should not be capped but should have a break clause in the event of a surge in numbers. Berlin in particular has been reluctant to accept the Starmer government’s worries that the arrangement might be seen as adding to U.K. immigration figures, arguing that British students who are outside many previous exchange programs would also be net beneficiaries.  Thomas-Symonds did not deny a stand-off, saying: “When there are ongoing talks about particular issues, I very much respect the confidentiality and trust on the ongoing talks.”  Britain’s most senior foreign minister, Yvette Cooper, on Wednesday backed a hard cap on the number of people coming in under a youth mobility scheme. She told POLITICO in a separate interview that such a scheme needs to be “balanced.” “The UK-EU relationship is really important and is being reset, and we’re seeing cooperation around a whole series of different things,” she said. We also, at the same time, need to make sure that issues around migration are always properly managed and controlled.” A U.K. official later clarified that Cooper is keen to see an overall cap on numbers. BOOZY GIFT As negotiations move from the technical to the political level this week, Thomas-Symonds sketched out plans for a fresh Britain-EU summit in Brussels when the time is right. “In terms of the date, I just want to make sure that we have made sufficient progress, to demonstrate that progress in a summit,” Nick Thomas-Symonds said. “I think that the original [post-Brexit] Trade and Cooperation Agreement did not cover services in the way that it should have done,” he added. “We want to move forward on things like mutual recognition of professional qualifications.” Thomas-Symonds, one of the government’s most ardent pro-Europeans, meanwhile told POLITICO he had forged a good relationship with “Maroš” (Šefčovič) – and had even brought him a Christmas present of a bottle of House of Commons whisky. “So there’s no doubt that there is that trajectory of closer U.K.-EU cooperation,” he quipped. Dan Bloom and Esther Webber contributed reporting.

Soccer may be the world’s most popular pastime, but much about Friday’s lottery draw setting the match schedule for next summer’s World Cup has been programmed with just one fan in mind. Never before has the sports governing body given out a peace prize to a politician eager for one, or booked the Village People and Andrea Bocelli to play alongside. President Donald Trump’s appearance on the Kennedy Center stage will be at least his seventh encounter this year with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who has logged more face time with Trump this year than any world leader. Infantino’s savvy navigation of the American political scene has helped FIFA build institutional support for a tournament facing unprecedented logistical complications. But that success is beginning to weaken Infantino, as the third-term FIFA president faces newfound internal opposition for his over-the-top courtship of Trump. Our interviews with six international soccer officials across three continents reveal widespread frustration with Infantino’s decision to side with Trump even as White House policies cause chaos for World Cup-bound teams, fans and local organizers, clashing with Infantino’s promise to have a tournament that welcomes the world. “[FIFA] has always promoted a very cozy, close relationship with politicians and political actors in a variety of ways, including by having them in their bodies or running the National Football Associations, for example,” said Miguel Maduro, the chairman of FIFA’s governance and review committee between 2016 and 2017. “This said, the extent of this cozy relationship that we’ve seen and and the public character that has been assumed between Mr. Infantino and Mr. Trump is different even from what we saw in the past,” said Maduro. “It’s not that things like that didn’t happen in the past, but it didn’t happen so obviously and so emphatically as they do now.” Our reporting found that Infantino did not inform his 37-member FIFA Council before creating the FIFA Peace Prize this year, three people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Over the past year, at least three of FIFA’s eight vice presidents have publicly or privately expressed their concerns about the lengths Infantino is willing to go to please Trump. While Infantino has won his last two terms unopposed, when he stands next for reelection in 2027 he will likely have to answer to FIFA’s 211 member federations for his willing entanglement in the controversies of American politics. Infantino’s allies say that those opposed to many of his soccer-related initiatives — focused on growing the game in emerging markets and expanding FIFA’s flagship tournaments — are using his Trump ties to exploit differences on unrelated issues. “If a challenger to Gianni for the 2027 election emerges, it will be in the next six to eight months and the World Cup will be a litmus test,” said a person involved with World Cup planning granted anonymity to characterize private conversations with top soccer officials. “If something goes off the rails or somebody decides they want to make a run against him, they’re going to use his relationship with Trump to exploit the cracks.” THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENTS Infantino launched his first campaign for FIFA’s presidency as an underdog. A corruption scandal had toppled much of FIFA’s leadership in 2015, forcing a so-called “extraordinary congress” the next year in which members would vote to decide who would complete the unfinished term vacated by the newly suspended president Sepp Blatter. FIFA, comprised of national soccer federations, picks its president through a secret ballot of those members — one nation, one vote. To win in a multi-candidate field, one must capture two-thirds of the total ballots cast, with rounds of voting until a single candidate locks in a two-way majority. The favorite to succeed Blatter was Sheik Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, a Bahraini royal who headed the Asian Football Confederation and appeared to have stitched together a coalition of Asian and African nations. Infantino, a polyglot Swiss-Italian lawyer who had spent seven years as secretary general of European confederation UEFA, pitched himself as someone who could disperse the organization’s wealth back to member countries. “The money of FIFA is your money,” Infantino said in a speech shortly before the vote. “It is not the money of the FIFA president. It’s your money.” Infantino and Al Khalifa ran neck-in-neck in the first round. With a clear two-person race, the United States — which had been supporting Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, who finished a distant third — switched its vote to Infantino in the second round, triggering a rush of support from the Western Hemisphere that gave Infantino a conclusive 115-vote total. A fourth candidate, former French diplomat Jérome Champagne, credited Infantino’s victory to “a strong alliance between Europe and North America and the Anglo-Saxon world.” “Prepare yourself well but be vigilant,” Blatter warned Infantino upon his election in a public letter. “While everyone supports you and tells you nice words, know that once you are the president, friends become rare.” Once in office, Infantino’s initiatives were focused on expanding FIFA’s most valuable properties. He converted a ten-day, exhibition-like competition among seven regional club champions into the month-long FIFA Club World Cup. He also pushed, with mixed success, to grow the size and scope of the World Cup and increase its frequency. In 2017, Infantino announced that the first World Cup under an expanded format — up from 32 countries participating to 48, adding a week of matches to the schedule — would take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Facing the first tournament in which hosting responsibilities would be shared by three countries, Infantino visited Trump to secure assurances of government support. Infantino went on to win subsequent terms in 2019 and 2023, and when Trump returned to the White House for his second, in 2025, their political trajectories became permanently intertwined. Infantino set out to raise his profile in American life and his relationships with the country’s political class, including through a campaign-style tour through many of the American cities hosting matches for the inaugural Club World Cup in 2025 and the World Cup the following summer. Infantino sat next to Trump at the tournament’s final, held at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in July, dragging him onto the winners’ platform as Infantino went to award a trophy and medals to champions Chelsea. Trump lingered awkwardly on stage to the befuddlement of Chelsea’s players, who had not expected they would share the moment with an American politician. Other appearances with Trump placed Infantino squarely between a president intent on solving overseas conflicts and punishing foes, while closing American borders to visitors and trade, and FIFA member nations who may hold starkly different views, or worse. Infantino stood quietly in the Oval Office as he said he would not rule out strikes against fellow World Cup co-host Mexico to target drug cartels, and joined Trump’s entourage on a trip designed to cultivate investment opportunities in the Persian Gulf. When FIFA had to delay the opening of its annual congress in Asuncion, Paraguay, to accommodate Infantino’s travel from a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, two FIFA vice presidents were among those who joined English Football Association chairwoman Debbie Hewitt and other federation heads exiting in protest. European confederation UEFA — with 55 member nations, FIFA’s largest — attacked him with unusually pointed language. “To have the timetable changed at the last minute for what appears to be simply to accommodate private political interests,” UEFA wrote in its statement, “does the game no service and appears to put its interests second.” GIANNI ON THE SPOT In September, Trump said he would try to move scheduled World Cup matches out of Democratic-run jurisdictions that are “even a little bit dangerous.” Infantino, whose organization had spent years vetting and preparing those cities for the tournament, said nothing. But a potential rival to Infantino’s leadership took issue with both the American president’s threat — since repeated but not acted upon — and the FIFA president’s silence. “It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,” FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani, the organization’s leading figure from North America, said at a sports-business conference in London six days later. While president of the Canadian Soccer Association, Montagliani helped to secure his country’s participation in the three-way so-called “United Bid” for next summer’s World Cup. (The Vancouver insurance executive also helped bring the Women’s World Cup to Canada in 2015.) He now serves as president of CONCACAF, the 41-member regional federation encompassing the 41 nations of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Close to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Montagliani has come to believe Infantino has catered too much to Trump for a tournament realized through the cooperation of three nations, according to three of the people familiar with the dynamics of FIFA’s leadership. (Montagliani declined an interview request.) The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada will all participate in a ceremonial ball draw in today’s draw. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans,” Montagliani told an interviewer at the London conference in late September. “That’s the beauty of our game, is that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.” Montagliani’s “FIFA’s jurisdiction” remarks did not land well with Infantino’s inner sanctum. “It is ultimately the government’s responsibility to decide what’s in the best interest of public safety,” FIFA said in a statement to POLITICO in October after Trump’s next round of threats to relocate matches. The relationship between Infantino and Montagliani has further soured in recent months as Trump reignited tensions between Washington and Ottawa over an anti-tariff ad taking aim at U.S. trade policy, according to a person close to Montagliani granted anonymity to candidly characterize his thinking. Montagliani has his own thoughts on how far relationships with government figures should go but respects Infantino’s perspective, that person said, maintaining the two men had a good relationship despite occasional differences. Others around FIFA have their own parochial concerns with Trump. Despite being among the first teams to qualify for the tournament, Iran threatened to boycott Friday’s draw because some members of its delegation were denied visas for travel to Washington. According to a FIFA official, Iran ultimately reversed course and sent Iranian head coach Ardeshir Ghalenoy after FIFA worked closely with the U.S. government and Iran’s soccer federation. Another qualifying team, Haiti, is also covered by the 19-country travel ban that Trump signed in June. The State Department said that while the policy has a specific carveout for World Cup competitors and their families, the exception will not be applied to fans or spectators. The president of the Japanese Football Association, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, told POLITICO in an interview last month that he was worried that Trump’s immigration policies could subject Japanese travelers to “deportations happening unnecessarily.” Infantino has stopped short of pressuring Trump to make exceptions to immigration policy for the sake of soccer. FIFA officials have said that when it chooses a tournament location it does not expect that country to significantly alter its immigration laws or vetting standards for the tournament, although many past hosts have chosen to relax visa requirements for World Cup ticketholders. Many European countries’ soccer federations, led by Ireland and Norway, have pushed to ban Israel from international soccer due to its military invasion of Gaza. The movement received an apparent boost from UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, who supported unfurling a banner that read “Stop Killing Children; Stop Killing Civilians” on the field before a UEFA Super Cup match in August. “If such a big thing is going on, such a terrible thing that doesn’t allow me to sleep — not me, all my colleagues,” — nobody in this organization said we shouldn’t do it. No one,” Čeferin told POLITICO in August. “Then you have to do what is the right thing to do.” European countries were set on a collision with Trump, whose State Department indicated it would work to “fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.” UEFA pulled back on a planned vote over Israel’s place as a Trump-negotiated peace agreement took hold. Infantino joined Trump and other heads of state in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for a summit to implement the agreement’s first phase. Nothing threatens to awaken opposition to Infantino as much as his decision to invent a FIFA Peace Prize just as Trump began to complain in October about being passed over for one from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. According to a draft run-of-show for Friday’s draw, Trump is scheduled to speak for two minutes today after receiving the Peace Prize. “He is just implementing what he said he would do,” Infantino said at an American Business Forum in Miami, also attended by Trump, on the day news of the prize was made public. “So I think we should all support what he’s doing because I think it’s looking pretty good.” According to FIFA rules, the organization’s president needs sign-off from the 37-member FIFA council on certain items like the international match calendar, host designations for upcoming FIFA tournaments, and financial matters. FIFA’s charter does not contemplate the creation of a new prize specifically to award a world leader, but those familiar with the organization’s governance say it may violate an ethics policy that requires officers “remain politically neutral.” (In 2019, FIFA honored Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, who previously led venerable club Boca Juniors, with its first-ever Living Football Award.) “Giving this award to someone that is an active political actor, by itself, is, at least in my opinion, likely a violation of the principle of political neutrality,” said Maduro, a Portuguese legal scholar appointed to oversee FIFA’s governance in the wake of the corruption scandal that helped bring Infantino to office. “We need to know two things: how the award was created and who then took the decision to whom the award was to be given. Both of these decisions should not be taken by the president himself.” Infantino fully bypassed the FIFA Council in deciding to create and award the prize to Trump, according to three people familiar with conversations between Infantino and the council’s members. Even the vice presidents who were given a heads-up ahead of time say they were simply being told after the decision was made. FOUR MORE YEARS? Infantino, a quintessential European first elected with support from his home continent, now sees his strongest base of support in Asia, Africa, and the Gulf countries. He won his last two terms by acclamation, after delivering on his promises to disperse the $11 billion FIFA takes in each World Cup cycle. The FIFA Forward program, launched in 2016, sent $2.8 billion back to member federations and regional confederations in its first six years, funding everything from the development of Papua New Guinea’s women’s squad to an air dome for winter training in Mongolia. But Infantino’s political choices may be costing him in Europe, where the sport is more established and national federations are less dependent on FIFA’s largesse. Infantino’s defenders say that European soccer officials, including Čeferin, have turned against him because they see his attempts to expand the World Cup and institute the Club World Cup as a threat to the primacy of their regional competitions. Many in international soccer see Montagliani as the most viable potential challenger, although a person close to him says he has no intention of seeking FIFA’s presidency in 2027 and instead plans to seek reelection that year to what would have to be his final term as CONCACAF’s president. But he fits the profile of someone best positioned to dethrone the incumbent, ironically by stitching together the type of trans-Atlantic alliance that lifted Infantino to his first victory. “Mexico is not happy. Canada is not happy, and that’s because they’re politically not happy with Trump,” said a senior national-federation official, granted anonymity to candidly discuss dynamics within CONCACAF. “There’s that direct tension.”

BRUSSELS — The European Union has approved a proposal to curb trade benefits for developing countries that refuse to take back migrants whose stay in the bloc has been denied. Low-tariff access to the EU’s market will be reviewed in the context of “the readmission of that country’s own nationals” who have been identified as “irregular migrants to the Union,” a document seen by POLITICO confirms. Negotiators from the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed to the draft text late Monday night. The push to link trade measures to migration policy comes amid major advances by far-right parties across Europe and calls for governments to get tougher on enforcing returns. Currently, only a small share of those eligible for removal from the EU are actually deported — many because their home countries refuse to cooperate. “In case of serious and systematic shortcomings related to the international obligation to readmit a beneficiary country’s own nationals, the preferential arrangements … may be withdrawn temporarily, in respect of all or of certain products originating in that beneficiary country, where the Commission considers that an insufficient level of cooperation on readmission persists,” it reads. The readmission clause will be applied with more or less stringent conditions depending on a country’s development level, the document also says. The measures, which would only be invoked after dialog with countries, are being included in an overhaul of the so-called Generalized Scheme of Preferences, a 50-year old program that enables poorer countries to export goods to EU countries at lower tariff rates. The review of the program, which has been under negotiation for over three years, is designed to help these nations build their economies and is tied to the implementation of human rights, labor and environmental reforms. However, the issue of cheap rice imports from Pakistan or Bangladesh threatened to collapse the talks before the eventual agreement on Monday, amid concerns from EU producers like Spain and Italy that want to ensure their own farmers are not outcompeted. EU countries have long been considering the idea of using trade, development and visa policies to ensure third countries agree to take back failed migrants, amid growing public discontent that has driven victories for far-right parties at the ballot box. However, the proposals had faced opposition from the Parliament, as well as the Commission and a handful of capitals that feared this would upend relations with key partner countries. Denmark’s center-left government set its sights on migration as a key issue for its presidency, which ends on Dec. 31. Justice and home affairs ministers will meet next Monday to discuss ways to ensure more people leave the EU after their applications to stay are rejected, including through so-called return hubs in third countries.

PARIS — Foreign pensioners who dream of spending their retirement under the sun in the French Riviera might have to reconsider their plans if their free health care gets axed. France wants non-European Union pensioners who are currently benefitting from the public health care system to start paying for it. It’s a move that would particularly affect American retirees, who have flocked to one of Europe’s most generous welfare states not only for its food, scenery and culture, but also, in some cases, for its world-class free health care. “It is a matter of fairness,” François Gernigon, the lawmaker who put forward the proposal, told POLITICO. “If you are a French citizen and you move to the U.S., you don’t have reciprocity, you don’t benefit from free social security.” Under French law, non-working citizens from outside the EU who have a long-stay visa and can prove they have sufficient pension or capital revenue (more than €23,000 annually) as well as private health care insurance can, after three months, obtain a carte vitale, which gives them free access to public health care. At that point, they can annul their previous private health insurance and benefit from the French one. It’s become a popular choice for U.S. retirees in recent years. But a majority of French lawmakers wants to put an end to that situation and make them pay a minimum contribution. France wants non-European Union pensioners who are currently benefitting from the public health care system to start paying for it. | Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images That idea already passed in two branches of the parliament this month during budgetary discussions, and could see the light as soon as next year as the government has also backed it. Gernigon said that even U.S. expats have told him they don’t find the current situation normal and that they are ready to contribute more. Under the latest version of the proposal, as modified by the French Senate, only non-EU citizens who are not paying taxes or contributing to other welfare programs in France would be required to pay the new minimum contribution. Lawmakers have not fixed the contribution amount as it will be up to the government to do it later. For Gernigon, the value could vary depending on the level of health care coverage, but it would still be cheaper than private insurance in the U.S. or abroad which, he said, costs around €300 to €500 per month. The debate comes as France struggles to cut spending and bring down its budget deficit to 5 percent of gross domestic product next year. Gernigon said he had not yet evaluated how much revenue these new contributions would raise, but acknowledged that his main goal is fairness rather than fixing France’s budget problems. “This is not what is going to fill the hole in the social security budget,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a visa-free travel regime with China, following Beijing’s earlier move to temporarily suspend the visa requirement for Russians.  “It [the no-visa policy] will be a positive boost for the development of our relations,” Putin said Tuesday while hosting Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in the Kremlin. Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists that the visa requirement for Chinese nationals would be dropped “very quickly.”  “The president has said so. All necessary preparations will soon be completed,” Peskov said.  Putin said the regime for Chinese citizens would be “reciprocal,” but didn’t share details. Russian nationals can currently remain in China for up to 30 days without a visa under a year-long trial policy announced by Beijing in September. Putin has been attempting to deepen relations with China since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, aiming to reduce the country’s reliance on the U.S. and Europe. Weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow and Beijing signed a “no-limits” partnership that declared the two powers have “no forbidden areas for cooperation.” Following the deal, Chinese exports to Russia spiked, with mutual trade now four times higher than it was a decade ago. Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the decision of Europe and Japan to halt air traffic with Russia, tourism between Russia and China has also grown, with China now among the top destinations for Russian travelers.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the EU have previously accused China of supporting the Russian war effort in Ukraine, with the Ukrainian leader saying Beijing has supplied weapons. 

President Donald Trump’s iron-fisted grip on his party appears to be slipping in ways unseen since the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Back then, he quickly reasserted himself as the singular, dominant force within the Republican Party, and he may do so again. But the extraordinary rebukes and headwinds the president is now facing — much of it from within his own party — are revealing a GOP beginning to reckon with a post-Trump future. That dynamic crystallized after voters surged to the polls to support Democratic candidates for statewide races in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Pennsylvania, shattering expectations of close contests and signaling that even Trump can’t defy political gravity forever. Trump has spent the days since recycling old grievances, berating members of his own party and choosing sides in a burgeoning intra-MAGA debate about antisemitism and bigotry within the GOP coalition. Asked about the momentum shift, a White House spokesperson said Trump had “delivered on many of the promises he was elected to enact” — from border security to ending taxes on tips to “affordability issues.” “As the architect of the MAGA movement, President Trump will always put America First. Every single day he’s working hard to continue fulfilling the many promises he made and he will continue delivering,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said. In addition to the election romp, here’s a look at some recent brush-offs, brushbacks and breakups that have threatened Trump’s aura of invincibility. REPUBLICANS REFUSE TO BACK DOWN ON EPSTEIN VOTE A year ago, the idea that a Republican-led Congress would vote overwhelmingly in favor of anything Trump opposed would have been fanciful. Enter the Epstein files. Trump’s coalition has long viewed the FBI’s trove of records related to the late convicted sex offender and disgraced international power broker to be a holy grail of sorts, one that could shed light on a grander sex trafficking conspiracy implicating world leaders and politicians. But Trump, a longtime associate of Epstein’s until they fell out more than a decade ago, spent the summer leaning on congressional Republicans to cease their search for records. Trump has denied wrongdoing and no evidence has suggested he took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation. What happened next was perhaps the most stinging intra-party rebuke of Trump’s presidency. Trump tried and failed to pressure Republican lawmakers to pull the plug on a vote demanding the Justice Department turn over the full library of Epstein files. An intense pressure campaign against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in particular went nowhere. The fallout also claimed the relationship of Trump and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose refusal to flinch led Trump to brand her a “traitor” and attempt to turn his coalition against her. Greene has responded by saying Trump’s attacks have endangered her life. As a full House vote expected to overwhelming support the release of the Epstein files was just hours away, Trump reversed himself and encouraged Republicans to back the measure, avoiding what looked to be an inevitable black eye. Now White House officials say Trump should get credit for transparency and seeking the release of the files. INDIANA GOP LAWMAKERS DON’T BITE ON REDISTRICTING Trump’s inability to cajole Congress into his preferred course of action on the Epstein files came at virtually the same time the president and his allies failed to move Indiana Republicans to redraw their congressional boundaries to net Republicans another seat in the 2026 midterms. Trump had been pressing for a Hoosier redistricting measure for months, but state GOP leaders signaled they simply lacked the votes to make it a reality, drawing a threat from Trump to endorse some Republicans’ primary challengers. Countermeasures by Democrats in Virginia and California could make Trump’s nationwide push a wash. WARNING SIGNS APPEAR FOR TARIFFS AT THE SUPREME COURT Trump has long proclaimed that wielding tariffs against foreign governments is the key to negotiating favorable trade deals. Never mind that business and Republican orthodoxy has long considered tariffs as a backdoor tax on Americans. But the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Trump’s approach, with justices he appointed sharply questioning whether the president can leverage emergency powers to tariff foreign governments at will. By all accounts, the argument was a drubbing for Trump’s side. And the president seemed to discover that reality when he vented at the court in a pair of Truth Social posts last week. It’s folly to predict how the high court will rule, even when the justices send clear signals during the arguments. But Trump appears to be bracing for defeat that could have devastating consequences for his economic agenda. His administration has repeatedly emphasized the centrality of tariffs to the recent spate of trade deals he’s made around the world. NO LUCK ON THE FILIBUSTER OR THE BLUE SLIP, EITHER Trump has never had much luck telling the Senate how to run itself. But his recent incursions into Senate procedure have underscored his relative powerlessness in this arena. Trump spent the bulk of the record-setting government shutdown pressuring Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster, the Senate rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation. That threshold has vexed presidents for generations but has long been defended by institutional leaders as a way to prevent national whiplash every time the chamber changes. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear quickly that Trump wasn’t going to get his way. Trump fared no better leaning on Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to scrap the Senate’s 100-year-old tradition of honoring “blue slips,” the power of home-state senators to veto nominees for judgeships and U.S. attorneys they find unacceptable. Grassley has been Trump’s loudest champion on claims that the Justice Department was weaponized against him and has helped unearth records related to those allegations, but Trump has still bristled at Grassley’s refusal to cave on blue slips. Trump has struggled to get some of his preferred nominees across the finish line. TRUMP GETS A ONE-TWO PUNCH AFTER PARDONING 2020 ALLIES Trump announced last week a sweeping pardon of dozens of allies who played roles in his bid to subvert the 2020 election. Though none on the list actually faced federal criminal charges, many had been charged at the state level with seeking to defraud voters or corrupt the election results. Presidents can’t pardon state-level crimes, and within hours of Trump’s sweeping clemency he got a stark reminder. In Nevada, the state Supreme Court revived a criminal case against six of Trump’s pardon recipients who falsely claimed to be legitimate presidential electors. And in Georgia, a supervisory prosecutor reupped the criminal case against Trump himself for seeking to overturn the state’s election results. MAGA REBUKES TRUMP ON 50-YEAR MORTGAGES, H1B VISAS Trump’s feel for his MAGA base has been unerring for most of his decade in presidential politics. And their ardent support has sustained the president through his darkest moments: two impeachments, a slew of criminal indictments and a conviction making him the first former-president-turned-felon to retake the White House. So when his core allies twice sound the alarm that he’s missed the mark on economic policy proposals, it’s worth taking note. That was the case when Trump recently pitched a 50-year mortgage for homeowners, one that was roundly panned by a wide-range of MAGA influencers and created friction between the White House and Trump’s housing czar Bill Pulte. And the reaction from the base was similar when Trump defended issuing H1B visas to foreign workers and proclaimed that U.S. citizens lack “certain talents.” The uproar was swift among some of Trump’s most reliable allies. The administration says Trump’s broader economic agenda has disproportionately benefited U.S.-born workers and is working to weed out abuses in the H1B system.

The Trump administration is creating a new system intended to help expedite visas for fans traveling to the United States for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, an unprecedented move aimed at managing an expected influx of millions attending the tournament. The new system, which President Donald Trump announced on Monday during an event at the White House, will give World Cup ticket holders priority access to U.S. visa interviews beginning in early 2026. “I’ve directed my administration to do everything within their power to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success,” Trump said from the Oval Office, where he was flanked by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and White House World Cup Task Force director Andrew Giuliani. Under the “FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System” — or FIFA PASS — program, people who purchase tickets directly through FIFA will be able to schedule expedited interviews at U.S. consulates around the world. However, Rubio emphasized that holding a ticket does not guarantee visa approval. “It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You’ll still go through the same vetting process as anyone else. The only difference here is that we’re moving you up in line,” Rubio said. Rubio said the State Department has deployed more than 400 additional consular officers worldwide to meet demand, in some countries doubling the size of existing embassy staff. He cited Brazil and Argentina, both soccer powerhouses, where visa appointment wait times have dropped from over a year to less than two months. “In about 80 percent of the world now, you can get an appointment in under 60 days,” Rubio said. According to FIFA’s press release, FIFA PASS is part of a larger collaboration between the organization and the White House’s World Cup Task Force, on which Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro also serves. The administration is dedicating significant resources to ensuring the tournament’s success, and has been intensely focused on security for fans attending matches in the United States, which will host 78 of the tournament’s 104 games. Eleven American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami, will welcome visitors alongside venues in Mexico and Canada. Infantino said between six and seven million tickets are expected to be sold for the expanded, 48-team tournament. “America welcomes the world,” Infantino said. “We have always said that this will be the greatest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup in history — and the FIFA PASS service is a very concrete example of that.”

LONDON — The British government will impose visa bans on countries that refuse to take back migrants who enter the U.K. without authorization, as part of widespread reforms to the immigration system. Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s chief interior minister, will announce Monday afternoon sweeping changes to the asylum system, including making refugee status temporary and requiring claimants to wait 20 years before applying for permanent settlement. She will also bar the entry of people from Angola, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo if their governments do not improve cooperation on removing people who are judged not to have a right to remain in the U.K. The three countries have collectively refused to take back more than 4,000 unauthorized immigrants and foreign criminals from Britain. They will have a month to start cooperating before a sliding scale of penalties is introduced. These would include the removal of fast-track visa services for diplomats and VIPs, and end with a ban on all citizens getting visas. Mahmood said: “In Britain, we play by the rules. When I said there would be penalties for countries that do not take back criminals and illegal immigrants, I meant it. “My message to foreign governments today is clear: Accept the return of your citizens or lose the privilege of entering our country.” The visa bans mirror similar measures introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump in his first term, when he imposed tough measures on some African and Asian nations. British Border Security Minister Alex Norris refused Monday to rule out India being subject to similar penalties despite the free-trade agreement struck between the two nations earlier this year. “We are looking at all of our agreements with every country,” Norris told Times Radio. “If we do not think we’re getting that right engagement, that right commitment, then of course, we reserve all opportunities to escalate that.”

The EU confirmed Friday it is toughening visa rules for Russian citizens and banning multi-entry permits in most cases. Effective immediately, Russians will no longer be granted multiple-entry visas, meaning they will have to apply for a new, single-entry permit every time they want to travel to the bloc, as POLITICO reported Wednesday. The measure will allow for “close and frequent scrutiny of applicants to mitigate any potential security risk,” the European Commission said in a statement.  Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, wrote on social media, “Starting a war and expecting to move freely in Europe is hard to justify.” She linked the new, stricter rules to “continued drone disruptions and sabotage on European soil.” “Travelling to the EU is a privilege, not a given,” she added. Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said in a statement the EU will also introduce “enhanced verification procedures and elevated levels of scrutiny” for Russians applying for visas.  The EU has dramatically reduced the number of visas it has granted to Russians since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, suspending a key visa facilitation agreement and bringing the figure down from 4 million a year to about 500,000.  But the number of Russians entering the bloc actually increased by around 10 percent in 2024 from 2023, with Hungary, France, Spain and Italy continuing to approve visas in large numbers. Visa issuance is a national competence, meaning the Commission cannot unilaterally ban Russians from the bloc, and the new rules will be left up to member countries to enforce. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Commission Spokesperson Markus Lammert said the rules would not affect Russians already in the EU on multiple-entry visas, and added “limited exceptions” existed for Russians with close family members in the EU, who can still receive a multiple-entry permit valid for up to one year, along with Russians “whose reliability and integrity are without doubt,” such as dissidents and independent journalists. As part of its 19th package of sanctions, the EU also plans to restrict the movements of Russian diplomats, requiring them to inform nations in advance if they travel across the Schengen Area, as a way to counter the Kremlin’s “increasingly hostile intelligence activities.”  The measures have attracted criticism from Russia’s exiled opposition.  Yulia Navalnaya, widow of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a key figure in the movement against Russian President Vladimir Putin, wrote to Kallas in September urging her to “make a clear distinction between … the regime” and Russian citizens.  In an email interview with POLITICO following her letter, Navalnaya expressed frustration that the EU was targeting “ordinary Russians.”  “The last thing I would ever want is to act as a defender of Russian diplomats in Europe,” she said. “But frankly, I do not understand how such measures could influence Putin, his regime, or the end of the war in Ukraine … Only a small fraction of Russians actually visit European countries.”  Former oil magnate-turned-Kremlin-critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Western countries should focus on policies to help broaden the rift between the Kremlin and Russian society. For anti-Putin Russians, Khodorkovsky told POLITICO, “the most demoralizing message possible is that the West sees every Russian as an enemy.” Eva Hartog contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — The EU is preparing to further tighten visa rules for Russian citizens, effectively ending the issuance of multi-entry Schengen permits in most cases, three European officials told POLITICO. The move, which represents another step in the bloc’s efforts to punish Moscow for its ongoing war in Ukraine, will mean that Russians generally only receive single-entry visas, with some exceptions for humanitarian reasons or for individuals who also hold EU citizenship. Brussels had already made it harder and more expensive for Russians to obtain visas, suspending its visa facilitation agreement with Moscow in late 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some member countries, such as the Baltic states, have gone even further by banning or severely restricting Russians from stepping onto their soil altogether. However, visa issuance remains a national competence, meaning that while the European Commission can make the process harder, it cannot impose a total, sweeping ban on Russian visitors. In 2024, more than half a million Russians received Schengen visas, according to data from the Commission — a marked increase from 2023, though still far below prewar levels, with more than 4 million issued in 2019. Hungary, France, Spain and Italy continue to liberally grant tourist visas to Russian nationals. The new, stricter rules, part of a package of measures intended to reduce the number of Russians entering the bloc, are expected to be formally adopted and implemented this week. Separately and as part of its 19th package of sanctions, the EU plans to restrict the movements of Russian diplomats, requiring them to inform states in advance if they travel across the Schengen Area as a way to counter the Kremlin’s “increasingly hostile intelligence activities.” The Commission is also set to unveil its new bloc-wide visa strategy next month, which will set out common recommendations, including encouraging member countries to better leverage their visa policy against hostile countries and implement stricter criteria for Russians and other nationals.