WASHINGTON (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed has proposed “TrumpCare,” a golden insurance card providing universal healthcare, dangling the president's name on the ambitious Democratic plan.
James Talarico has suggested Donald Trump could become a man of history like Lyndon B. Johnson, who was seen as a master of congressional dealmaking.
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FILE - White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, listens as President Donald Trump speaks and announces action to help farmers and ranchers, Sept. 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance clap while recognizing veterans in the crowd during a ceremony for Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., discusses his agenda to reverse the policies of President Donald Trump during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, D-Mich., and his wife Sarah Jukaku, left, walk to a gathering at the Capitol as Congress returns to work following the sweeping victory by Democrats in the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
James Talarico, senator-elect of Texas, speaks during a Democratic conference Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
And even Hakeem Jeffries, in line to become the House speaker in January, has left the door open to working with the other side of the aisle “wherever and whenever possible” to deliver for the American people.
Democrats who swept into power by riding voter backlash to Trump are now pitching ways to collaborate with the president, playing to his vanity and his love of making deals to propel their own agenda.
The offers coming from the Democrats carry both practical and political applications — a strategy to show that the party is serious about the hard work of legislating and also an acknowledgment that Trump's signature is needed for new laws.
Trump himself has said he doesn't want to spend the final two years of his presidency simply vetoing bills from the Democrats in control of Congress. It was only a few short years ago, during his first term, that Trump stunned Republicans by cutting deals with the Democratic leaders he called “Chuck and Nancy” — Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Before the next Congress begins in January, Democrats are trying to entice Trump with the prospect of timeless glory to a president fixated on making his mark on Washington.
All he has to do, they say, is work with them to deliver sweeping policies like Medicare for All.
“Donald, this is on the table. Guarantee healthcare for every American, from cradle to grave,” El-Sayed, who won the U.S. Senate race in Michigan after Trump branded him a terrorist sympathizer, wrote on social media.
He attached mock-ups of a gold-colored card, with Trump’s name and signature far more prominent than the small text reading “Medicare for All.”
Universal healthcare has long been anathema to Republicans, although Congress — and even the Republican president himself — will face pressure to deal with rising costs.
About 6 in 10 voters nationally said the federal government should play a bigger role in helping Americans get healthcare than it does now, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters.
The costs of expanding Medicare to cover more people would depend on the scope, and Democrats have considered plans that include dropping the eligibility age to below 65 or including children and young people. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2022 that various so-called single-payer options could increase federal subsidies for health care from $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion by 2030, while the total out-of-pocket costs for patients would decline.
Trump’s willingness to slog through extended negotiations with Democrats is an open question, and his past promises of dealmaking have been hit and miss. He reiterated Thursday he is willing to work with Democrats.
“I’m going to be vetoing a lot of things that they’re going to send me initially that are bad for the country, and I think eventually they’re going to call in, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s make a deal,’ and we’ll be able to make deals on healthcare, on drug prices,” the president told commentator Stephen A. Smith in an interview.
Trump's choice of Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff may foreclose some of those opportunities, however. Jeffries described Miller as a “stone-cold racist” and said he has “zero interest” in working with him.
The pitches from some of Democrats’ most high-profile new arrivals in Washington will help shape the party's approach for the rest of Trump’s presidency.
Talarico, the Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas, described the ways that Johnson is memorialized on Capitol Hill and remembered for shaping civil rights and social services as a senator and president.
“If President Trump wants the same plaques and portraits and busts as LBJ, we can help make that a reality,” Talarico said Thursday at the What’s Next conference in Denver, where many Democrats gathered to plot their way forward.
Talarico made his pitch to Democrats as much as to Trump. After getting the fulsome repudiation of Trump they’ve been seeking for a decade, the party’s base voters may not be eager to see their newly elected leaders standing with him for a bipartisan signing ceremony at the White House Rose Garden that he paved over to create a patio resembling his Mar-a-Lago resort.
However, Talarico said Americans are counting on bold changes before the next president takes office after Trump’s second term ends.
“Some of these reforms may not pass until 2029, but the American people cannot wait two years for change,” he said. “So we must work with President Trump.”
The eagerness to work with Trump is notable from El-Sayed and Talarico, who were among the president’s most frequent targets as he hop-scotched the country for Republicans ahead of the midterms. He singled them out for especially personal attacks, questioning El-Sayed’s loyalty to the United States and labeling the Texan as “Talafreako.”
Cooper reported from Phoenix.
FILE - White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, listens as President Donald Trump speaks and announces action to help farmers and ranchers, Sept. 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance clap while recognizing veterans in the crowd during a ceremony for Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., discusses his agenda to reverse the policies of President Donald Trump during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, D-Mich., and his wife Sarah Jukaku, left, walk to a gathering at the Capitol as Congress returns to work following the sweeping victory by Democrats in the midterm elections, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
James Talarico, senator-elect of Texas, speaks during a Democratic conference Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DUBLIN (AP) — Europe will send a team of diplomats from across the continent to Ukraine peace talks, the European Union announced Friday.
European Council President Antonio Costa said the continent would be represented by the EU and five members of the “coalition of the willing” that backs Ukraine: the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
He spoke at the end of a summit of EU leaders in Dublin dominated by how Europe can play a role to bolster Ukraine, and protect its own security, in U.S.-backed negotiations with Moscow and Kyiv on ending the almost five-year war.
European leaders have been concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.
Ukraine is eager for support from its European allies. It's reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow’s views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort.
European leaders also distrust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
“Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday at a meeting of the European Political Community in Dublin. “There is no more U.S. support.”
“At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans,” he said.
After Thursday’s meeting of the EPC, a larger group than the EU with members including the U.K. and Ukraine, Macron's office published what he called a “historic declaration” by 40 European nations affirming support for Ukraine and the continent’s collective security.
It affirmed that “the path to peace in Ukraine should be decided with Ukraine and that any matter affecting European security should be decided with the Europeans.”
European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.
As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended discussions nearby.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after they met in Dublin late Thursday that Europe would be part of the next round of talks. Zelenskyy said Europe would send a negotiating team, adding, “They will have a voice.”
“We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” Kushner said. He said Putin “is willing to give it a try.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Europe must first name a representative. “The Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar.”
Supporters of a single envoy, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argue that the absence of a united European voice has allowed individual countries or small groups to engage in freelance diplomacy.
“There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said.
Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives, including an October call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that she said could undermine European interests.
Martin said that European representation at the negotiations “can't just be European Union.”
“It's a European continentwide issue,” he said, pointing to the role of Norway and Britain in supporting Ukraine.
The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?
That has long frustrated Washington.
After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, Kushner said that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”
That echoes the famous question often misattributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”
France, Germany and the U.K., the region’s top three economies, collectively known as the European trio, or E3, have so far been the most engaged European group in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, the U.K. left the EU in 2020.
An E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller nations, like those bordering Russia and Belarus on the bloc’s eastern flank, which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.
Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however, there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
“European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table,” Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. “That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO.”
Earlier this year, Costa faced criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush back-channel with Moscow.
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, laid claim to the envoy role Friday, saying, “I’m the one who is representing Europe in the foreign and security policy.”
“I know that the Russians don’t want me, but, you know, do we have a say, who is representing Russia?” she said. “We can’t send any person that has no institutional role like the Americans are sending.”
Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo last month with Witkoff and Kushner.
But some leaders deeply distrust the U.S.-brokered talks.
“In my opinion, calling them negotiations is an exaggeration,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday. “We will not build a new security architecture simply because the Russian president, or someone in the United States, wishes it.”
With Trump due to head to Beijing next week to meet Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said European leaders feared another “Anchorage moment,” a reference to the Alaska summit where they were stunned by Trump's overtures to the Russian leader in the absence of Ukrainian or European envoys.
“Please, no surprises,” Merz said. “Continue to play in team Europe and in the team with Ukraine.”
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs noted that Europe is larger than Russia in population, economy and military might.
“We as Europe have to grow some bigger balls," he said.
Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, gesture ahead of the group photo during the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
French President Emmanuel Macron stands next to European Council President Antonio Costa during the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, from left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron chat during the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomes European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff, right, Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, left, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to the media at the airport in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, speaks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a round table meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, left, sits next to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with other European leaders in attendance, during the Ukraine security meeting as part of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP, Pool)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin as they pose for a family photo of all participants during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
