As we head into the political battlefields of 26, President Donald Trump is staring down a slew of politically loaded issues.

The possibility that his signature economic policy might be overturned by the courts, rising health care costs for millions of Americans, and high-stakes

foreign policy negotiations in Ukraine and Gaza.

At the same time, Trump is facing plenty of political distractions from looming government

funding deadlines to the drip-trip release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.

Will it be a good second year in office for the president?

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Monday, January 5, 2026.

Joining me to dig into all of it is USA Today White House correspondent, Joey Garrison. It's good to have you back on

the show, Joey. Hey, thanks for having me on. Let's start with the issue that affects millions of

Americans. That's health care. Costs are set to rise for millions as Obamacare subsidies expired on

December 31st. Politically, how risky is that issue heading into a midterm year? What are the

options on the table for Trump and the GOP and how likely are they to fix this?

Yeah, it's very risky. The health care premiums through the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare

have now doubled for about 20 million Americans with the expiration of those Obamacare subsidies.

There was a proposal from Democrats in Congress to extend those subsidies, but Republicans voted against it.

Republicans have opposed Obamacare for years, so it's been a struggle for many of them to try to embrace those subsidies. And now Congress,

controlled by Republicans, as well as the White House, also with the Republican president, Donald Trump.

I mean, they face a dilemma in terms of figuring out a way to alleviate these costs. Trump has

really struggled to figure out his position on this. Ultimately, what he's come

down to is saying he wants to put money in the hands of Americans rather than an insurance

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