“The American people gave President Trump a mandate… President Trump isn’t a choirboy either… they’re not asking President Trump to lead their Bible study.”
— Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), discussing Defense Secetary-designate Pete Hegseth.
Pete Buttigieg Weighs Political Future in Michigan
“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has met in recent months with several prominent Michigan Democrats, some of whom believe the former presidential candidate is considering a campaign for governor,” the Detroit News reports.
“Some of the sources said they saw the meetings as an indication Buttigieg was seriously looking at the possibility of a gubernatorial run, while others said they believed Buttigieg’s plans might have been altered by the Nov. 5 presidential election.”
“Because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Republican Donald Trump, Buttigieg will likely have to decide whether to run for governor of Michigan in 2026 or president in 2028.”
Shooter Is the Cousin of Maryland GOP Lawmaker
The man arrested in connection to the murder of a health insurance executive, Luigi Mangione, is related to Maryland House of Delegates member Nino Mangione (R), the Baltimore Sun reports.
Republican-Led States to Aid Trump’s Mass Deportation
“As President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration, Republican governors and lawmakers in some states are already rolling out proposals that could help him carry out his pledge to deport millions of people living in the U.S. illegally,” the AP reports.
“Lawmakers in a growing number of states are proposing to give local law officers the power to arrest people who entered the country illegally, mirroring recent laws in Texas and elsewhere that have been placed on hold while courts weigh whether they unconstitutionally usurp federal authority.”
Mass Deportation Threaten Workforces
“A labor market boosted by immigration after the Covid pandemic faces a threat from President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants,” CNBC reports.
“Foreign-born workers have been taking open positions in sectors from construction and agriculture to technology and health care, fields where hiring companies have struggled to find domestic labor. Immigrant workers made up 18.6% of the workforce last year, a new record, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.”
“The timing and scope of Trump’s plan remains to be seen, but companies and economists are trying to figure out how much the deportations could hurt the U.S. economy.”
Trump’s Justice Department Secretly Obtained Records
“The Justice Department secretly obtained phone records from two members of Congress and 43 staffers – including Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI – during sweeping leak investigations during Trump’s first term, according to a watchdog report released Tuesday,” CNN reports.
“The new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general raises concerns about how the department tried to root out reporters’ sources from a sprawling and bipartisan list of federal employees who had access to classified information because of their job.”
Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong
Rogé Karma: “The election of Donald Trump this year shattered a long-standing piece of conventional wisdom in American politics: that Latinos will vote overwhelmingly for whichever party has the more liberal approach to immigration, making them a reliable Democratic constituency. This view was once so pervasive that the Republican Party’s 2012 post-election autopsy concluded that the party needed to move left on immigration to win over more nonwhite voters.”
“If that analysis were true, then the nomination of the most virulently anti-immigration presidential candidate in modern history for three straight elections should have devastated the GOP’s Latino support. Instead, the opposite happened. Latinos, who make up about a quarter of the electorate, still lean Democratic, but they appear to have shifted toward Republicans by up to 20 points since 2012…”
“For more than a decade, Democrats have struck an implicit electoral bargain: Even if liberal immigration stances alienated some working-class white voters, those policies were essential to holding together the party’s multiracial coalition. That bargain now appears to have been based on a false understanding of the motivations of Latino voters.”
Trump to Pick Regulator of His Own Company
ProPublica: “There have been internal concerns that Trump Media could be misleading investors… But with its largest shareholder about to be president, experts doubt the SEC is up to the job of investigating Truth Social’s parent company.”
Democrats Demand Answers on Medicare Privatization
Key Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his “previous advocacy for Medicare privatization,” referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage, NBC News reports.
Alaska Will Keep Ranked Choice Voting
“Alaska will keep ranked choice voting and open primaries,” Alaska Public Media reports.
“The repeal effort failed by 743 votes, or about a quarter of one percentage point, according to the Division of Elections. That’s almost exactly the margin reflected in official results certified late last month, which showed the measure failing by 737 out of more than 300,000 votes.”
Quote of the Day
“If the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, step aside. But if he impedes us, harbors or conceals illegal aliens, I will prosecute him.”
— Incoming “border czar” Tom Homan, quoted by WLS, on his mass deportation plans.
Wisconsin Governor to Resist Mass Deportations
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) “has pushed back on President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge for mass deportations, casting doubt on whether the plans will be carried out,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
Said Evers: “Everybody knows that, in Wisconsin, undocumented folks are a really important part of our economy, whether it’s dairy, whether it’s agriculture. The idea of deporting folks that are keeping our economy one of the best in the country is irrational. Trying to move them all over the country is irrational. So, we’ll do whatever we can do avoid that.”
LGBTQ+ People Fear Rollback of Their Rights
Washington Post: “As Trump’s inauguration nears, some LGBTQ+ people are anxiously preparing for what they fear will be a rollback of their rights. Some in same-sex relationships are making plans to marry or to adopt children. Others are moving to states that they believe will offer them more protection. Transgender people are stockpiling medications, worried that their access to gender transition care will be cut off.”
College Scramble to Shield Programs
“University leaders are bracing for an onslaught of aggressive legislation and regulations amid growing hostility from an ascendant Republican Party that depends less and less on college-educated voters,” the Washington Post reports.
“For years, conservatives have seen colleges and universities as unwelcoming and disdainful of their values. Tensions between Republicans and higher education have been rising over questions of free speech, the cost of college, diversity, race and more.”
“Now that rift has become a rupture.”
RFK Jr.’s War on Corn Syrup Hits Trump Country
New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s alliance with Mr. Kennedy during the presidential campaign was the ultimate marriage of convenience, uniting a right-wing populist presidential candidate with a scion of the nation’s most famous Democratic family, whose appeal to would-be Trump voters rested mainly with his conspiracy theories on Covid-19 and vaccines. Mr. Kennedy said at the time that Mr. Trump had promised him control of the nation’s public health agencies.”
“Mr. Kennedy’s other track record — on environmental protection and an abiding hatred of America’s unhealthy diet — may have been less of a draw to the fast-food-loving, regulation-hating Mr. Trump, but the former and future president said he would keep Mr. Kennedy’s environmentalism in check while letting him ‘go wild’ on health.”
“Then Mr. Trump nominated him to head the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, which has partial purview over America’s diet through a powerful subsidiary, the Food and Drug Administration, and enormous influence on health through its control of Medicare and Medicaid.”
“Now a brewing battle over corn syrup and vegetable oils is raising the prospect of a fight between Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump’s own voters in farm country.”
Democrats Didn’t Keep Up with How Voters Get Their News
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Trump’s Conflict of Interests Intensify in India
New York Times: “These deals are putting India even more squarely in the Trump Organization’s sights. And with Mr. Trump on his way back to the White House, the country is emerging as center stage for potential conflicts of interest.”
“In Mr. Trump’s first term, it was uncharted territory for a sitting U.S. president to have extensive business interests in foreign countries. During his second term, the Trump Organization aims to issue a more limited ethics plan that is unlikely to significantly curb its growth.”
45 Trump Allies Still Threatened by 2020 Election Charges
“Donald Trump derailed his 2020 election subversion indictments by winning back the White House, but dozens of his allies still face state criminal prosecutions that he, even as president, can’t shut down through his Justice Department or short-circuit with pardons,” CNN reports.
“Since the election, Democratic prosecutors in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin have pledged to move ahead with cases against Trump allies who were involved with the ‘fake electors’ plot, which tried to overturn his 2020 defeat in those states.”
