“Congress has adjourned for the holidays having made no tangible progress toward funding the government ahead of a shutdown looming less than six weeks away,” Politico reports.
“The most conspicuous sign that Congress faces real obstacles before the Jan. 30 funding deadline came late Thursday, when Senate leaders gave up on passing a spending package and sent members home for two weeks, despite working for more than a month to appease senators who had objections.”
A new Gallup Poll finds 24% of Americans satisfied and 74% dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country.
“China is likely to have loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles across its latest three silo fields and has no desire for arms control talks, according to a draft Pentagon report which highlighted Beijing’s growing military ambitions,” Reuters reports.
“China is expanding and modernizing its weapons stockpile faster than any other nuclear-armed power, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a Chicago-based non-profit.”
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“Freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno has emerged as a prolific fundraiser for the Senate Republican Conference, becoming one of the top donors to the GOP’s Senate campaign arm in his first year in office,” NOTUS reports.
“Moreno, a staunchly conservative senator who’s closely aligned with President Donald Trump, has raised nearly $4.5 million this year. On top of that, he’s raised $2.6 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the most of any freshman and the second most for a member not in leadership. He’s also participated in the most NRSC events outside of the committee’s chair, Sen. Tim Scott. Moreno has donated the maximum allowed amount to each Republican senator running for reelection and several Republicans running in open and competitive seats.”
“Three days after releasing a large tranche of Jeffrey Epstein documents that contained few mentions of President Donald Trump, the Justice Department on Monday disclosed thousands more files that included wide-ranging references to the president,” the Washington Post reports.
“The documents show that a subpoena was sent to Mar-a-Lago in 2021 for records that pertained to the government’s case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice in sex trafficking. They include notes from an assistant U.S. attorney in New York about the number of times Trump flew on Epstein’s plane, including one flight that included just Trump, Epstein and a 20-year-old woman, according to the notes.”
“The newly released documents also include several tips that were collected by the FBI about Trump’s involvement with Epstein and parties at their properties in the early 2000s.”
Politico: New trove of apparent Epstein files posted on DOJ site disappears.
President Trump reasserted that the United States needs Greenland for its national security and said a special envoy he appointed to the Arctic island would “lead the charge,” Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals … If you take a look at Greenland, you look up and down the coast, you have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is going full steam ahead for a second budget reconciliation bill, Semafor reports.
“President Donald Trump’s first year back in office shattered any remaining illusions among European leaders that he can be managed or controlled,” Politico reports.
“His open hostility toward the European Union has strained a transatlantic alliance that’s endured since World War II and deepened rifts between Europe’s national leaders and within the bloc, imperiling its ability to respond to Trump’s threats and taunts with the kind of unity and strength he respects.”
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune rushed to advance a new funding package this month, he faced a familiar roadblock: a trio of conservatives from his conference’s right flank,” Politico reports.
“Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah banded together as they sought to advance key conservative priorities, including an end to spending earmarks — holding out for weeks as Thune strained to keep the 2026 funding process on track and avoid another costly government shutdown on Jan. 30.”
“The tensions between the fiscal hawks, who want to drastically slash spending, and more pragmatic corners of the Senate GOP, including members of leadership and the Appropriations Committee, are nothing new. But these hard-liners have now found a larger pool of allies as the conference’s center of gravity slowly shifts right. They also have new perches of authority that give each a powerful megaphone.”
“President Donald Trump has taken jabs at offshore wind all year. On Monday, he threw a haymaker that threatens to knock the U.S. industry to the mat,” Politico reports.
“The president’s decision to pause construction of five offshore wind projects capable of powering nearly 2.7 million homes along the East Coast marked an escalation of a yearlong effort to shut down the industry, jolting the political debate surrounding rising electricity prices.”
Scientific American: “The five projects affected by the pause are offshore of New York State, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia. Around 5.8 gigawatts of offshore wind was expected to come online in the U.S. between 2025 to 2029—enough to power millions of homes across the Eastern Seaboard. Some $10 billion has been invested in the U.S. wind industry since 2021. The Trump administration decision imperils both that investment and future energy capacity.”
“Archivists have saved and uploaded copies of the 60 Minutes episode new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ordered be shelved as a torrent and multiple file sharing sites after an international distributor aired the episode,” 404 Media reports.
“The moves show how difficult it may be for CBS to stop the episode, which focused on the experience of Venezuelans deported to El Salvadorian mega prison CECOT, from spreading across the internet.”
Prominent anti-Trump critic George Conway filed paperwork Monday to run as a Democrat for the seat being vacated by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), NewsNation reports.
Washington Post: “Conway is a conservative lawyer and commentator who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and gained national attention for his criticism of the president. He was once married to Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.”
Jonathan Chait: “A key goal of Donald Trump’s second term has been to use government power to place important media properties in the hands of loyalists who will bend coverage to the president’s will…”
“Although many of Trump’s goals to reindustrialize the economy or prosecute his enemies have floundered, his plan to corrupt the media is starting to work.”
“During his first term, Trump’s efforts to get the media to do his bidding consisted mostly of endless whining, punctuated by regular threats of nuisance lawsuits and the occasional actual suit. In his second term, he has seized upon a more effective tool. Most large media properties have owners, and those owners have business that relies on the federal government. Trump has made clear that the price of cooperative regulatory policies from his government is giving him friendlier coverage.”
Wall Street Journal: “The State Department in recent days told the ambassadors they need to return to Washington, giving them until mid-January to vacate their posts. Before the directive, the U.S. already had around 80 vacant ambassador spots worldwide, a shortfall that diplomats said leaves a gap in American diplomatic capabilities. ”
“The mass recall a year into the administration, coupled with the numerous top-level overseas posts already sitting empty, is without modern historic precedent.”
A spokesperson for former President Clinton called on the Department of Justice to release any remaining materials involving the former president in files related to Jeffrey Epstein, The Hill reports.
Angel Ureña echoed Democratic lawmakers, saying that what the DOJ “has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected.”
Said Ureña: “We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.”
For members: The Epstein Cover Up Enters a New Phase
A new CBS News/YouGov poll finds more than 61% of people say President Trump is making prices and inflation sound far more rosy than they actually are, with a further 45% saying they expect his policies to leave them financially worse off in 2026.
Trump’s overall approval on the economy is just 37%.
President Trump will announce Monday that the Navy is to build a new “Trump-class” battleship, which will become the centerpiece of the president’s vision for a new “Golden Fleet,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Trump has for years advocated for revamping America’s fleet of warships, which he has said are ‘terrible-looking’ and covered in rust. In his first term, he called for a return to steam-powered catapults to launch jets from aircraft carriers, in a move that wasn’t successful, and complained about the aesthetics of the Navy’s destroyers. He has been personally involved in crafting plans for the Golden Fleet.”
A Russian general was killed Monday after a bomb exploded under his car in Moscow, NBC News reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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