President-elect Donald Trump promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China starting on the first day of his administration, CNN reports.
The move, Trump said, will be in retaliation for illegal immigration and “crime and drugs” coming across the border.
“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet – yet.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on February 13, 2021, arguing against the need to impeach Donald Trump.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, CBS News reports.
“As Republicans on Capitol Hill lay the groundwork for extending the 2017 tax cuts, cracks are already emerging on one of the biggest questions: how to handle the cost,” CNBC reports.
“Extending the tax provisions is estimated to increase the deficit by $5 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Yet many lawmakers are quick to dismiss or explain away the number, arguing the tax cuts will ultimately help the economy and, subsequently, revenue for the government.”
“The debate over cost is one of the first major ones lawmakers will need to tackle as they look to extend and potentially build upon the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which raised the standard deduction, lowered income tax rate brackets, and created a deduction for small business income. All of those provisions are set to expire at the end of 2025, although some other changes in the bill, including the 21% corporate tax rate, would continue.”
New York Times: “Sitting vice presidents have a poor track record of succeeding their bosses. Over the last century, five have become their party’s presidential nominee. But only one — George H.W. Bush in 1988 — won the White House. Before Bush, the last sitting vice president to be elected to directly succeed the president he served was Martin Van Buren in 1836.”
“Incumbent vice presidents running for president face unique challenges. They must decide when to hug the president and when to hold him at arm’s length. They must claim credit for an administration’s successes even as their opponents blame them for its failures. Despite occupying a subordinate role, they must show they’re ready for the No. 1 job. And they must do it all while their boss, arguably the world’s most powerful person, watches.”
“Attorneys for Donald Trump conducted an internal investigation into allegations that one of his top aides, Boris Epshteyn, has sought to gain financially from his influence with Trump and others in the president-elect’s orbit,” CNN reports.
“The internal investigation has probed multiple instances of Epshteyn allegedly requesting payment in exchange for promoting candidates for administration positions or offering to connect individuals with people in the upcoming administration relevant to their industries.”
Semafor: Trump campaign reviewed influence allegations.
“President-elect Trump is expected to appoint ultra loyalist Kash Patel to a high-profile position at either the FBI or the Justice Department,” Axios reports.
“Patel would be a deeply controversial pick for any leadership role, especially FBI director. Given the hurdles Patel might face winning Senate confirmation, Trump is considering naming him deputy director or to an appointed investigative role within DOJ.”
“A final decision hasn’t been made. Trump still could change his mind, including by elevating Patel all the way to FBI director — a move that would send Gaetz-like shockwaves throughout Washington.”
“Donald Trump is planning an executive order that would lead to the removal of all transgender members of the U.S. military,” the Times of London reports.
“The order could come on his first day back in the White House, January 20. There are believed to be about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. They would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve.”
Special counsel Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases’ dismissal in court filings Monday, CNN reports.
Wrote Smith: “The Justice Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated. This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.”
“If you felt a gust of wind from out of the Northeast, it was the collective sigh of relief coming from New York’s financial district over Donald Trump’s selection of Scott Bessent to lead Treasury,” Politico reports.
“After a series of unorthodox Cabinet picks that shocked the policy world, Trump’s choice of the 62-year-old hedge fund executive is being praised by Wall Street heavyweights who had hoped the president-elect would select a more traditional candidate for his administration’s most powerful economic post. While Bessent — once the chief investor at financier George Soros’ firm — has been a vocal proponent of Trump’s agenda, he’s also viewed as a realist who will understand how policy shifts might ripple across markets and the global economy.”
CNN: “The perception of danger is a hurdle quickly becoming one of the country’s biggest obstacles to uploading a glut of climate-friendly energy onto the grid.”
“Federal officials are pleading with communities to say yes to storing spent fuel. No state has yet raised its hand to store the country’s nuclear energy waste, despite the lucrative deals it could foment.”
“Donald Trump’s transition team is putting together a wide-ranging energy package to roll out within days of his taking office that would approve export permits for new liquefied natural gas projects and increase oil drilling off the U.S. coast and on federal lands,“ Reuters reports.
“The energy checklist largely reflects promises Trump made on the campaign trail, but the plan to roll out the list as early as day one ensures that oil and gas production will rank alongside immigration as a pillar of Trump’s early agenda.”
New York Times: How Trump could upend electric car sales.
New York Times: “When students have protested this fall, administrators have often enforced—to the letter—new rules created in response to last spring’s unrest. The moves have created scenes that would have been hard to imagine previously, particularly at universities that once celebrated their history of student activism…”
“The changes follow federal civil rights complaints, lawsuits and withering congressional scrutiny accusing universities of tolerating antisemitism, after some protesters praised Hamas and called for violence against Israelis.”
New York Times: “Flash displays of hate and white power are happening more frequently in the United States, a trend that experts say is a reaction to changing demographics, political turmoil and social catalysts. More than 750 such incidents have taken place since 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League, with more than half of them occurring in the last 18 months.”
“National experts describe a familiar pattern: Small groups of mostly masked men chant and wave swastika or white power flags in public and yell racial slurs at targets as varied as immigrants, Black people, Jews and L.G.B.T.Q. people. They unfurl offensive banners over highways or post racist fliers in communities. The demonstrations are typically captured on video and ricochet across social media to large audiences.”
“With a motion for civil contempt already looming over him in Washington, D.C., another judge warned Rudy Giuliani that ‘on pain of contempt’ he must comply with requests from the Georgia election workers he defamed to surrender his assets squirreled away in an increasingly controversial storage unit on New York’s Long Island,” the HuffPost reports.
Greg Sargent: “Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration as Donald Trump’s attorney general is unquestionably a big victory for the rule of law. But now that Trump has put forth Pam Bondi—the former Florida attorney general whose loyalty to Trump is almost as slavish as Gaetz’s—it raises a question: Why assume she’ll be any less wedded to his agenda of unleashing the Justice Department on his enemies and otherwise reducing it to a tool of his most corrupt designs and whims?”
“Two in-house investigators at U.S. intelligence agencies recently quit their jobs. There’s growing fear in Washington that they could be the start of an exodus — or a purge — of government watchdogs,” Politico reports.
“A wave of departures by inspectors general would give President-elect Donald Trump the opportunity to nominate or appoint people of his choice to the watchdog posts — leaving dozens of federal departments, agencies and offices subject to oversight by people who would owe their positions to Trump.”
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.
Just for members: A new issue of