Supreme Court weighs an expansion of Trump’s power: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the political officea newsletter bringing you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Lawrence Hurley recaps the oral arguments in an important Supreme Court case concerning presidential power. Plus, Allan Smith looks at Zohran Mamdani’s unique campaign operation – and what Democrats can get from it. And be sure to scroll to the end for our latest reader survey.

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—Adam Wollner

Supreme Court appears poised to rule in Trump’s favor on independent agency firings

By Lawrence Hurley

The Supreme Court appeared poised to side with President Donald Trump and allow him to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause, a provocative move aimed at upending the long-standing concept of independent federal agencies.

In a landmark case about the structure of the federal government, the conservative-majority court today heard oral arguments on whether Trump had the authority to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter despite a law Congress passed to protect the agency from political pressure.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has already signaled, with strong opposition from the three liberal justices, that Trump is likely to win the case by allowing Slaughter, a Democrat, to be removed from office while the litigation continues.

A ruling in favor of Trump would have broad implications, not only for the FTC, but also for a host of other federal agencies created by Congress with similar referral restrictions, giving presidents greater authority over them.

In addition to allowing Trump to fire Slaughter, the Supreme Court also allowed the firing of some of the other affected agencies, signaling that the majority favors Trump’s position.

During today’s oral argument, there was little indication that the conservative majority would change course, although some justices suggested some limits on the president’s impeachment powers, including with respect to the Federal Reserve, which is the subject of separate litigation.

What the Conservatives Say: By ruling in Trump’s favor, the court could overturn a 1935 Supreme Court decision titled Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which maintained these restrictions on the president’s power to fire members of the FTC.

In one exchange, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said the Humphrey decision was “poorly reasoned” and suggested he would vote to overturn it.

“In our constitutional order, there is no quasi-judicial, quasi-legislative fourth branch,” he said, referring to the idea that independent agencies do not fit into any of the three branches of government defined in the Constitution: the executive, Congress and the courts.

What the Liberals Say: The liberal justices all defended longstanding protections afforded to independent agency members.

“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and strip Congress of its ability to protect its idea that government is better structured with some independent agencies,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

Read more from Laurent →

What Democrats can learn from Zohran Mamdani’s 2026 outreach efforts

By Allan Smith

A strong field operation – which includes volunteers knocking on doors and speaking to voters in their homes – can tip the scales in close elections. But Zohran Mamdani and his aides say their high-intensity canvassing efforts made the difference, both in defeating Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and then preventing the former governor from making a comeback in the New York mayoral general election last month, which Mamdani won by about 9 points.

Mamdani’s field operation embraced risk and downplayed the importance of storylines in its strategy to reach voters directly, eight campaign officials, volunteers and political observers said, offering a potential road map for Democratic canvassing efforts in the midterm elections and beyond.

Mamdani and his campaign focused his volunteers not only on increasing turnout in favorable neighborhoods along the East River in Brooklyn and Queens, but also on winning over voters in majority-Black precincts who were seen as more skeptical of his upstart candidacy, as well as New Yorkers who supported Donald Trump in 2024 after, in many cases, previously supporting Democrats.

And while canvassers were armed with scripts detailing how to approach the conversations, the campaign told volunteers they should feel free to share their personal stories with voters about why they were willing to educate voters on behalf of Mamdani, the 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist.

In total, more than 100,000 people volunteered for Mamdani’s campaign, knocking on more than 3.1 million doors, making 4.6 million calls and sending 2.7 million text messages to New Yorkers, according to his campaign.

“When I was preparing to run for mayor, many told me that mayoral races were not contested through field programs,” Mamdani said in an interview. “And we believed differently from the beginning that we could build a program on a scale the city had never seen before and focusing on the belief that our most effective messengers were New Yorkers themselves.”

Yasmin Radjy, executive director of Swing Left, a Democratic voter outreach group, said Mamdani’s team made three strategic decisions that she said should inform Democratic campaigns in the midterms: investing heavily in a ground operation, allowing canvassers to go off-script and spending time connecting with voters who may not be part of the so-called targeted groups. She said Mamdani’s campaign showed that “risk is the least risky option” for voter contact.

Read more from Allan →

📊Poll: Will Indiana Republicans approve a new congressional map?

After the Indiana House last week approved a new congressional map that could bring two seats to Republicans, the state Senate is expected to vote on the map in the coming days. But despite Trump’s relentless pressure, it remains unclear whether the map garners enough GOP votes to pass.

What do you think will happen? Vote in our reader poll below!