President-elect Donald Trump said the notion that he has “ceded the presidency” to Elon Musk is a fiction and that even if Musk wanted the job, he couldn’t get it because of the Constitution’s requirement that the U.S. president be a natural-born citizen, NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
A source told CBS News the House Ethics Committee is expected to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday.
Meanwhile, Gaetz floated the prospect of running for senator or governor of Florida — or landing a special counsel spot to go after his former colleagues in Congress.
Playbook: “From floor speeches to hallway chats to post-vote statements, Democrats have spent the past few days portraying Musk as a shadow president — a man perhaps more influential than Trump himself. Musk, you may recall, used his social media platform to start whipping Republicans into tanking the initial, bipartisan funding deal before Trump publicly nuked it.”
“Yes, it’s a transparent play to prey on the incoming president’s insecurities — Trump despises when people outshine him, and one of the most notable elements of his second-term team so far is that it’s filled with people who are unlikely to steal his spotlight. MAGA world is warning not to take the bait, but, nevertheless, Dems are persisting.”
You're reading the free version of Political Wire
Upgrade to a paid membership to unlock full access. The process is quick and easy. You can even use Apple Pay.
“President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the Panama Canal is charging ‘exorbitant prices and rates of passage’ on US naval and merchant ships, and he demanded that fees be lowered or else Panama should return the canal to the U.S.,” Bloomberg reports.
“Private prisons and other companies that provide detention services are getting ready to cash in on what President-elect Donald Trump has billed as “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” That includes scouring for as many detention beds as possible in their networks of facilities, and scouting sites for new buildings to house migrants,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Some executives are considering whether to take up the controversial work of detaining families or unaccompanied children. Others are preparing to hire new staff and snapping up well-connected lobbyists.”
New York Times: “As rebels advanced toward the Syrian capital of Damascus on Dec. 7, the staff in the hilltop Presidential Palace prepared for a speech they hoped would lead to a peaceful end to the 13-year civil war.”
“Aides to President Bashar al-Assad were brainstorming messaging ideas. A film crew had set up cameras and lights nearby. Syria’s state-run television station was ready to broadcast the finished product: an address by Mr. al-Assad announcing a plan to share power with members of the political opposition…”
“They had all been deceived.”
“After dusk, the president slipped out of the capital, flying covertly to a Russian military base in northern Syria and then on a Russian jet to Moscow.”
“For many years, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to sue the press but often didn’t follow through. When he did, he almost always lost,” the Washington Post reports.
“But Trump’s recent settlement with ABC News and a cascade of lawsuits and other complaints against media entities from him and his allies signal a ramped-up campaign from the president-elect. Together, the action has spurred concerns that his efforts could drastically undermine the institutions tasked with reporting on his coming administration, which Trump has promised will take revenge on those he perceives as having wronged him.”
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) has been missing votes in Washington because she’s been living in a nursing home for dementia patients for the past six months, the Daily Mail reports.
The current longest-serving GOP representative had not been on record voting for or against anything since July.
Dallas Express: Where is Kay Granger?
“Lara Trump, President-elect Trump’s daughter-in-law, said Saturday she is removing herself from consideration for Florida Republican Marco Rubio’s seat in the U.S. Senate,” Fox News reports.
Said Trump: “After an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many, I have decided to remove my name from consideration for the United States Senate.”
Donald Trump has appointed television producer Mark Burnett as his special envoy to the United Kingdom, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“After days of threats and demands, Donald Trump had little to show for it once lawmakers passed a budget deal in the early hours of Saturday, narrowly averting a pre-Christmas government shutdown,” the AP reports.
“The president-elect successfully pushed House Republicans to jettison some spending, but he failed to achieve his central goal of raising the debt limit. It demonstrated that despite his decisive election victory and frequent promises of retribution, many members of his party are still willing to openly defy him.”
“Trump’s decision to inject himself into the budget debate a month before his inauguration also showed that he remains more adept at blowing up deals than making them, and it foreshadowed that his second term will likely be marked by the same infighting, chaos and brinksmanship that characterized his first.”
A Republican strategist is lashing out at Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) months after he says he fired her as a client, dubbing the far-right lawmaker a “pitiful embarrassment,” the Daily Beast reports.
Said Wesley Donehue: “I fired Nancy Mace as client a few months back because I’m a political consultant and not a babysitter, a sex therapist or a doctor who can prescribe fixes for chemical imbalances. I don’t have time for her constant egotistical bullshit and drama in my life.”
He added: “I’ve been worried about Nancy Mace for a while now. Mental health is a serious issue. I want her to get better and seek treatment.”
“The 118th Congress ended almost exactly as it began: with chaos in the House of Representatives that threatened to consume its GOP leader and shut down the government,” the Washington Post reports.
“While he avoided the ignominious event of a government shutdown, with just hours to spare, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still faces a daunting vote at the start of the next Congress, on Jan. 3, to win a full term atop the House.”
“Johnson’s dilemma is the same one that bedeviled his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-California), the always-smiling speaker who proved so ineffective he didn’t last nine months in the job. Both found themselves in a predicament in which the House GOP held a majority in principle but in practice could not come together to govern.”
“This cycle of political faceplants threatens to derail president-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, as well as Johnson’s hold on power.”
CNN: Johnson joked about his fate as speaker throughout spending negotiations.
“Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two additional trips from a billionaire patron that had not previously come to light, Senate Democrats revealed on Saturday after conducting a 20-month investigation into ethics practices at the Supreme Court,” the New York Times reports.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he voted against the stopgap spending bill in “protest” of how the government is run, CNN reports.
Said Romney: “While I support keeping government open, I voted no on the CR—a simple protest of the absurd way this is to run government.”
“House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has privately floated embracing the wholesale elimination of the debt limit next year rather than simply raising it,” Axios reports.
“President-elect Trump will almost certainly need Democratic votes when the debt limit’s ‘X-date’ is reached — which experts say could be as soon as mid-June.”
“Republicans have a significant bloc of debt and deficit hawks who will likely vote against raising the debt ceiling under any circumstances.
That gives the Democratic leader considerable leverage to use the debt limit to force concessions.”
Playbook: “The whole saga is a reminder, especially for Republican leadership, of what things will be like with Trump back in office. For the last few years, Congress has gotten used to a fairly hands-off approach from the president in their negotiations.”
“It’s clear that’s all over…”
“At the same time, the spectacle raises new doubts about all the talk of complete GOP unity after the election, as intraparty squabbles burst directly into view. Dozens of GOP lawmakers defied the incoming president, and roughly three dozen House Republicans voted against the bill, which was backed by more Democrats than members of the GOP.”
New York Times: “The episode demonstrated a well-established pattern by Mr. Trump. He often purposely blew up congressional negotiations during his first term, often with a tweet, only to be forced to retreat or give up his position in the face of an angry reaction from both allies and adversaries.”
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.
“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”
— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”
“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”
— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”
— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”
— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
“Political Wire is a great, great site.”
— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”
— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”
— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”
— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.