“Federal prosecutors prepared an indictment of Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 that would have charged him with sex trafficking, and grand jurors heard months of testimony on the case, records from the Justice Department show,” Bloomberg reports.
“Epstein, three of his employees and two of his companies would have been charged in a draft indictment that accused him of abusing girls as young as 14.”
“Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency said it made more than 29,000 cuts to the federal government — slashing billion-dollar contracts, canceling thousands of grants and pushing out civil servants,” the New York Times reports.
“But the group did not do what Mr. Musk said it would: reduce federal spending by $1 trillion before October. On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up.”
“How is that possible?”
“One big reason, according to a New York Times analysis: Many of the largest savings that DOGE claimed turned out to be wrong.”
“The FBI received a tip in October 2020 that appears to be from an unidentified female who said she had information about a ‘Jeffrey Epstein party’ in 2000. The person’s information is redacted in the FBI’s summary of the tip, which is included in the new files,” CBS News reports.
“The woman alleged that someone named Ghislaine Lisa Villeneuve brought her to the party. Later, someone said that Donald Trump had invited everyone to Mar-A-Lago, according to the tipster.”
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“The Mar-a-Lago club was subpoenaed to produce documents in the case of United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell on Nov. 29, 2021, according to a copy of the subpoena included in the new files,” CBS News reports.
“The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly robust pace in the third quarter, powered by strong consumer spending,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3% annual rate for the July through September quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a shutdown-delayed report.”
President Trump called the New York Times “a serious threat to the national security of our nation” in a late night post.
Wrote Trump: “The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation. Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
“There are photos of me, too. Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly, but he was around.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the Epstein files being released.
“For nearly a decade, MAGA and Donald Trump were synonymous,” Axios reports.
“Today, the movement’s most consequential fights are unfolding beyond the control of its term-limited president — empowering rival factions to shape MAGA in their own image.”
“MAGA entered the year with a sheen of invincibility, riding the high of Trump’s victory and united in his promise of a new ‘Golden Age.’ It’s ending 2025 locked in an existential war over the future of conservatism.”
“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.”
“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.”
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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