How to Spend It: Political Capital Edition

A frank conversation with Bill Stepien, Trump’s former White House political director, about what exactly political capital is—and why Donald Trump never seems to run out.

During Trump’s first term, Stepien fed the president polling information on his legislative agenda and, especially, on midterm races—even if Trump often followed his own gut instincts. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Tara Palmeri

December 20, 2024

Donald Trump is heading into his second presidency at the height of his political powers, a reality evidenced once again this week after he sent Capitol Hill into a tizzy by nuking Mike Johnson’s stop-gap bill. Of course, earlier today, he subsequently endorsed Johnson’s refurbished and slimmed-down C.R. plan—but the initial episode was instructive in that, despite potentially sending the government into a shutdown, he somehow looked like a renegade hero within parts of his party.