“One the parties here is the owner of Pornhub… Is it like the old Playboy magazine, you have essays there by the modern day equivalent of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr?”
— Justice Samuel Alito, at the Supreme Court.
Trump Considers Executive Order to ‘Save TikTok’
“President-elect Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sale-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days, hoping a brief reprieve for the Chinese-owned app will net him an early victory,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump has been mulling ways to save the day for the wildly popular video app, talking through unconventional dealmaking and legal maneuvers; these include the executive order that could unravel the Biden administration’s nationwide ban of the app now scheduled for Sunday.”
Jill Biden Still Upset at Nancy Pelosi
First lady Jill Biden told the Washington Post that it was “disappointing” that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was the one whose decisive intervention pushed President Biden out of the 2024 campaign.
Said Biden: “We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing.”
She added: “Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded. I don’t know. I learned a lot about human nature. I think that’s all I’m going to say.”
Biden and Trump Both Claim Credit for Gaza Ceasefire
“President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are both claiming credit for Israel and Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire deal in Gaza after the White House brought Trump’s Middle East envoy into negotiations that have dragged on for months,” the AP reports.
Tim Cook to Join Tech CEOs at Trump’s Inauguration
“Apple CEO Tim Cook is planning to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump next week, the latest in a wave of Silicon Valley leaders traveling to Washington for the ceremony,” Bloomberg reports.
“Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, who has quickly become one of Trump’s foremost supporters and financial backers, are all also expected to attend.”
It’s an extraordinary show of power by Trump to have them there.
Pence Opposes RFK Jr. Nomination
“Former Vice President Mike Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination for Health and Human Services secretary over his past support for abortion access,” Politico reports.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“A lot of people are going to get brutally scammed… Scamming people like that is what his whole life has been around.”
— Paul Krugman, talking about the incoming Trump administration on The Daily Blast.
Cuomo Still Has Nearly $8 Million in His Warchest
“Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has $7.7 million in his state-level campaign finance account,” Politico reports.
“The warchest looms large over a potential Cuomo comeback. While he hasn’t publicly declared his intentions to run again, polling has found him with a sizable early lead in the New York City mayoral primary scheduled for June.”
DeWine and Ramaswamy Met to Discuss Senate Vacancy
“Two months after taking himself out of the running for an Ohio Senate seat, Vivek Ramaswamy is under consideration for the post,” Politico reports.
“Ramaswamy and Gov. Mike DeWine, who is tasked with appointing someone to the job recently vacated by President-elect JD Vance, met at the governor’s mansion over the weekend to discuss the post.”
Trump Transition Puts Guardrails Around RFK Jr.
Politico: “Transition officials plan to install several longtime GOP allies in senior roles across the health department, filling out key parts of Kennedy’s leadership team well before he could be confirmed…”
“The push aims to surround Kennedy with conservative policymakers who can compensate for his lack of government experience and MAGA credentials — while also ensuring the White House can keep close tabs on an HHS nominee who many Trump aides still don’t fully trust.”
400 Washington Post Staffers Sign Letter to Jeff Bezos
Over 400 Washington Post journalists sent a scathing letter to owner Jeff Bezos urging him to come meet with the paper’s leadership and make a course correction as they fear readers now “question the integrity of this institution.”
Trump Advisers Back Off on Timeline to End Ukraine War
“Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise – to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House,” Reuters reports.
As NOTUS reports, Trump said 33 times he would end the war on his first day as president.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said that Trump didn’t actually mean Day One: “I think you need to understand language.”
Kamala Harris Next Move Is a Book
“Vice President Kamala Harris has a lot of options for her next act — including possible runs for governor of California in 2026 and president in 2028 — but writing a book may be first up,” NBC News reports.
Said literary agent Keith Urbahn: “Kamala Harris is poised to land the biggest book deal of any vice president in history. But the real question isn’t the advance — it’s whether the book can redefine her for 2028.”
An Era of Change, Forever Marked by Trump
Peter Baker: “President Biden ran for the White House promising to be a transitional figure, then once he got there began thinking of himself as a transformational one. But after a tumultuous four years in office, it turns out he was really neither.”
“Instead, Mr. Biden will end up in the history books as an interregnum between two terms of Donald Trump, a break in the middle of a chaotic period of change, for good or ill. Mr. Biden had hoped to make Mr. Trump an asterisk in the American story, soon to be forgotten. Now he will be the one trying to make his case for posterity.”
Pete Hegseth Declines to Answer
Jonathan Chait: “At his confirmation hearing, the defense-secretary nominee looked like a man who understood that the fix was in…”
“Hegseth’s strategy today was to evade these problems altogether. In this, he had the full cooperation of the committee’s Republican majority. If you’ve ever had media training for a television appearance, a common piece of advice is to use the prompt to get to whatever point you wish to make, rather than focus on answering the question. The method generally works on television because the queries are mostly just a way of saying, ‘Now it’s your turn to talk.'”
“It isn’t supposed to work in a Senate hearing, especially one in which lawmakers have serious qualms about the nominee’s record or statements. But Hegseth, a slick and successful television talk-show host, employed it to great effect.”
A Brash Display of Big Tech’s Realignment
Vanity Fair: “All this ring-kissing and public pomp mark a stark departure for Silicon Valley, which has traditionally served as a Democratic stronghold—and largely shunned Trump before his first term.”
“But a lot has changed in the past eight years, for both Trump and corporate America. For one thing, tech CEOs have learned that the president-elect tends to favor companies with whom he has personal relationships, inspiring many to cozy up. For another thing, President Joe Biden alienated some prominent tech leaders with his antitrust and oversight policies, creating an opening for Republicans.”
“Tech executives, business leaders and other big donors have now donated so much money to Trump’s record-breaking inaugural fund that it has literally run out of gala tickets and seats at the inaugural address for VIP donors… And even ahead of the inauguration, a steady stream of business and tech leaders have made pilgrimages to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, to Trump’s apparent glee.”
Biden Leaves Office with Lowest Approval of His Term
A new CNN Poll finds President Biden will leave office with a 36% approval rating, matching his previous low.
“Americans broadly view Biden’s four years in office more as a failure than as a success, with his administration doing little to turn around persistent negativity about the state of the country generally or about its economy.”
For comparison, the FiveThirtyEight polling average also shows Biden at a record low approval rate.
This Associated Press headline says it all: “Biden promised to turn the page on Trump. Now he’s being replaced by him.”
Trump Team Asks 3 Senior Career Diplomats to Resign
“Aides to President-elect Donald Trump have asked three senior career diplomats who oversee the U.S. State Department’s workforce and internal coordination to step down from their roles, in a possible signal of deeper changes ahead for the diplomatic corps,” Reuters reports.
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