“President Donald Trump announced Thursday the White House will host the ‘Patriot Games,’ a competition with young athletes from across the county, as part of the celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary next year,” CNN reports.

“Democrats have mocked the athletic competition online, comparing it to The Hunger Games, a dystopian young adult novel and popular movie franchise in which children are forced to fight to the death in televised arenas.”

“It all might make more sense if he actually were drinking. By all accounts, President Trump doesn’t touch the stuff. So when his own chief of staff said that he has ‘an alcoholic’s personality,’ she was talking about his larger-than-life nature rather than his consumption,” the New York Times reports.

“Yet in some ways, it may be an apt description for a president who seems even less inhibited than ever in a way that has many in Washington and beyond shaking their heads or even wondering if the leader of the free world has lost it. The word often whispered by Republicans and shouted by Democrats and Never Trumpers is ‘unhinged.'”

“Perhaps the board isn’t aware that the Kennedy Center is the memorial to the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Would they rename the Lincoln memorial? The Jefferson? That would be an insult to great presidents. This too is an insult to a great president. Notwithstanding their short-sighted action, it is and will remain the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”

— Tim Shriver, nephew of President John F. Kennedy, quoted by Deadline.

President Trump is planning to issue an executive order establishing two new federal holidays: Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, Axios reports.

It’s not clear if this would be a one-off move or a longer term shift.

President Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, the AP reports.

Of course, the building is statutorily named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Tom Nichols: “The president of the United States just barged into America’s living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.”

“When a president asks for network time, it’s usually to announce something important. But tonight, Donald Trump did not give anything like a normal speech or address. He was clearly working from a prepared text, but it sounded like one he’d written—or dictated angrily—himself, because it was full of bizarre howlers that even Trump’s second-rate speech-writing shop would probably have avoided…”

“In effect, Trump took to the airwaves, pointed his finger, and said: Quiet, piggy.”

“In years past, it was relatively rare for a federal court to question the Justice Department’s competency or good faith. But such questions are becoming more common, thanks to a growing pattern of legal missteps that have dogged the department since January,” Reuters reports.

Tess Owen: “When I started to listen to the much-hyped new podcast from Katie Miller, I’d hoped to learn something, anything, to justify the many irreplaceable hours of my life I had already committed to it. I wanted a salacious tidbit or quote from one of the nearly 20 episodes that have dropped since August. I wanted moments that might help me understand the kind of person who would be married to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and architect of many of the Trump administration’s harshest and darkest policies.”

“I did not get any of these things. The podcast, I’m afraid, is eye-wateringly boring—void of a single revelatory moment.”

President Trump’s media company Trump Media & Technology agreed to merge with fusion power company TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal worth more than $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The deal intends to combine Trump Media & Technology’s “access to significant capital” and TAE’s “leading fusion technology” to supply power for the artificial-intelligence technology boom.

Jonathan Bernstein: “Donald Trump may have finally killed off the presidential prime time address with his lecture at the American people Wednesday night.”

“For better or worse, it’s a ritual that no longer makes much sense. It worked during the era (roughly from Dwight Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan) when most voters were watching television at night and tuned in to one of the big three networks. Once that eroded, it became essentially impossible to assemble huge audiences – or to signal, via the TV networks breaking into the regular programming that everyone (almost) was watching, that the president’s words were important.”

The final Emerson national survey of 2025 finds President Trump with a 41% job approval rating and 50% job disapproval.

The president’s approval and disapproval numbers have flipped since his inaugural survey, from 41% disapproving to 41% approving, and 49% approving to 50% disapproving.

New York Times: “Mr. Trump, always more comfortable with what he calls his ‘weave’ of free association rather than reading from a teleprompter, raced through his talk as if he was late to an important dinner. There were no digressions, unlike his speech in Pennsylvania a week ago when he repeatedly veered from the topic. At times he seemed to be yelling — almost as if he didn’t believe he had to take the time to convince his audience of how well his first 11 months had gone.”

Washington Post: “Trump crammed his usual 90-minute rally routine into 18 minutes of prime-time broadcast television on Wednesday, perplexing ‘Survivor’ finale viewers and his own allies alike.”

“He spoke more than 2,600 words in that time, markedly faster than his usual plodding pace at the teleprompter. His purpose was to ease concerns about the economy and to persuade Americans that he gets it. Afterward, even his own allies puzzled over whether the president did more harm than good with his rushed delivery and harsh tone.”

“When President Trump ran for re-election in 2024, he and his family already had vast business interests stretching from Manhattan office towers to a golf course in Ireland to hotel deals as far away as Vietnam,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The president’s second term has brought a major expansion of that empire, with forays into cryptocurrency, communications and financial products. Ventures launched since Trump’s re-election generated at least $4 billion in proceeds and paper wealth for the family as of December, according to company statements and securities filings.”

“It’s unprecedented for a president to have such far-reaching business interests while in office, including in areas his administration regulates.”

President Trump will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET from the White House.

Leave your reactions in the comments.

The White House has added text to the Wall of Fame next to the Rose Garden.

FCC chairman Brendan Carr suggested his agency is not an “independent” agency, as the word was scrubbed from its online mission statement, The Guardian reports.

Shortly before Carr spoke, the FCC recorded its status as “an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress” in a mission statement on its website, according to a screenshot captured by Axios. During his testimony, however, the word “independent” was removed.

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino “has quietly told confidants he plans to formally leave his job early in the new year and will not be returning to headquarters to work this month,” MS NOW reports.