President Trump blasted the New York Times for their lead story on his age-related struggles in office.
Trump called it a “hit piece” from a “cheap rag”, which he says is “purposely negative” about him. He also called the reporter “ugly, both inside and out.”
He added: “There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (“That was aced”) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
Russell Berman: “On Monday I spoke with a Republican member of Indiana’s legislature who opposes President Donald Trump’s push for the state to redraw its congressional map to gain two GOP seats and help the party hold its House majority in next year’s midterm elections. Trump, with support from Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, has vowed to back primary challengers against members of the GOP who are, for now, blocking the redistricting plan.”
“The lawmaker I spoke with asked that I not publish his name. He isn’t worried about Trump’s political wrath; he doesn’t plan to run for reelection. His fear of speaking out is much more personal: ‘I’d rather my house not get firebombed,’ he told me by phone.”
“Senior officials from the US, Denmark and Greenland are expected to meet in Nuuk in December to discuss military and civil cooperation, the first formal three-party talks since President Donald Trump stunned his allies by demanding ownership of Greenland,” Bloomberg reports.
“Trump’s repeated suggestions earlier this year that he’d want to take control of the territory caused the Arctic island to become a point of tension in Copenhagen and Nuuk’s diplomatic relations with Washington.”
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“President Donald Trump decamped to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida late Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday with any effort to control spiking health care premiums — a key issue for Republicans whose economic appeal to voters has waned since last year’s election — still very much in flux,” Bloomberg reports.
“We have this joke that I’m not really a speaker of the House. I’m really like a mental health counselor…. And sometimes those are long counseling sessions, but we get that done.”
— Speaker Mike Johnson, on Katie Miller’s podcast.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The state Supreme Court on Nov. 25 appointed two three-judge panels to hear lawsuits from liberal groups challenging Wisconsin’s congressional lines before the 2026 elections, sparking outrage from conservative justices who noted the court has rejected earlier cases.”
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) said he worries his committee’s probe into the Jeffrey Epstein files could be drowned out by conspiracy theories, Politico reports.
Said Comer: “I fear the report will be like the Warren Report. Nobody will ever believe it.”
David Wasserman: “Earlier this year, it looked like Republicans were poised to double or triple the size of their thin cushion in the House by launching a mid-decade redistricting war. But they may have had a blind spot: the extent to which Democrats could push to set aside anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendments in blue states to fight back.”
“Now, if Virginia joins California in adopting a Democratic gerrymander to eliminate GOP seats, Republicans’ push to redraw district lines for 2026 could yield them little to no net benefit — or even backfire, in the event the Supreme Court upholds a three-judge panel’s ruling blocking Texas’s new map from taking effect.”
Playbook: “Enormous questions swirl this morning. Chief among them: Who obtained a recording of this top secret call and leaked the whole thing to the press? (Presumably they’re not a fan of Witkoff’s approach.) Was it a Trump administration rival? The Deep State? And — crucially — could there be more leaked material to come?”
“First things first: If you haven’t read the full transcript, published by Bloomberg yesterday, you really should. Leaks like this are incredibly rare and, as we saw with the Signalgate fiasco, offer an unparalleled view of how government officials operate when they think no one’s listening.”
“But this is not just nose-against-glass voyeurism. This transcript appears to show one of the president’s top negotiators offering help and advice to Moscow on how to handle Trump — and on how to get ahead of a high-stakes meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s meant to be a U.S. ally.”
A new Emerson/The Hill survey of the special election for US Congress in Tennessee’s 7th district finds 48% of voters support Matt Van Epps (R) and 46% support Aftyn Behn (D).
Punchbowl News: “Here’s another precedent that could come back to haunt Hill Republicans one day — President Donald Trump’s administration is launching an investigation into Democratic lawmakers for a critical video posted to X.”
“The video, posted Nov. 18, featured six Democratic lawmakers with national security backgrounds telling military service members they shouldn’t feel compelled to comply with illegal orders. Service members must follow ‘lawful orders’’ under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
“It’s precisely the kind of Democratic video clip we’ve come to expect during the Trump era — veterans, former intelligence officials and others in the defense space taking a whack at the president in a manner that questions his fidelity to the nation’s constitutional order.”
“The Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on Texas’s controversial congressional map, with a decision likely before Dec. 8, the filing deadline for candidates in Texas,” Axios reports.
“An anticipated ruling would mark the high court’s first word on the redistricting wars that have defined the 2026 cycle. It wouldn’t be the last.”
“The court’s more consequential ruling — testing Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the future of minority-majority districts — is expected by next June when the court rules on Louisiana v. Callais.”
“President Donald Trump has argued with the architect he handpicked to design a White House ballroom over the size of the project, reflecting a conflict between architectural norms and Trump’s grandiose aesthetic,“ the Washington Post reports.
“Trump’s desire to go big with the project has put him at odds with architect James McCrery II, the people said, who has counseled restraint over concerns the planned 90,000-square-foot addition could dwarf the 55,000-square-foot mansion in violation of a general architectural rule: don’t build an addition that overshadows the main building.”
New York Times: “Not limiting himself to pursuing his foes through the criminal justice system, his administration is using a whole-of-government approach to imposing some kind of penalty on his foes.”
“Mr. Trump’s political appointees are harnessing a range of departments, obscure agencies and rarely used powers outside the Justice Department to inflict pain.”
“A full year after making a public pledge to do so, President Trump has disclosed a list of donors who helped pay for his transition to power,” the New York Times reports.
“The list of 46 individuals, released by the transition team, includes billionaires like Jeff Yass and Paul Singer as well as several supporters who went on to be appointees in the current administration.”
“President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he doesn’t want to extend expiring subsidies under Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, delivering a major blow to prospects of averting sharp premium hikes next year,” NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “I’d rather not. Somebody said I want to extend them for two years. I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all.”
“White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been personally linked to the brutal ICE raids sweeping America,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Her 11-year-old nephew’s mother, Bruna Ferreira, is now in custody at an ICE facility at Louisiana, facing deportation to Brazil.”
“Indiana Republican leaders said Tuesday that the state legislature would reconvene in December to consider redrawing the state’s congressional map, a reversal amid pressure from President Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“While it was not clear Tuesday whether the Trump-backed push would have the support to succeed, the change in plans was the latest turn in a nationwide fight between Republicans and Democrats to redraw U.S. House maps ahead of next year’s midterm elections.”
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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