Evan Turnage (D), who is 33 years old, announced that he would challenge 77-year old Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) in a primary, a decision that sets up yet another battle between a senior incumbent and a younger opponent, Mississippi Today reports.
Said Turnage: “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country. It was that way when I was 1-year old, when Congressman Thompson was first elected, and it remains that way today. We need real plans for real change.”
President Trump’s media company Trump Media & Technology agreed to merge with fusion power company TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal worth more than $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The deal intends to combine Trump Media & Technology’s “access to significant capital” and TAE’s “leading fusion technology” to supply power for the artificial-intelligence technology boom.
“Those members need not ask me for any help in their campaigns whatsoever.”
— Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), quoted by Axios, after several Republican colleagues signed a discharge petition to force a House vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies.
Jonathan Bernstein: “Donald Trump may have finally killed off the presidential prime time address with his lecture at the American people Wednesday night.”
“For better or worse, it’s a ritual that no longer makes much sense. It worked during the era (roughly from Dwight Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan) when most voters were watching television at night and tuned in to one of the big three networks. Once that eroded, it became essentially impossible to assemble huge audiences – or to signal, via the TV networks breaking into the regular programming that everyone (almost) was watching, that the president’s words were important.”
“A fiery President Trump — addressing Americans from a holiday-decked White House — insisted the economy is stronger than people think it is and any problems are all Democrats’ fault,” Axios reports.
“It’s a message that poll after poll says most voters don’t believe.”
“Trump’s speech was closer to a Festivus airing of grievances than a Christmas message of hope, as he ran through a litany of problems — inflation, wage growth, the border, crime — that he said were entirely the fault of the Biden administration, and that he insisted he’d already fixed.”
“One of the sponsors of the law requiring the release of the investigative files relating to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said he’s giving the Justice Department the ‘benefit of the doubt’ that it will make the files public by Friday — warning that there would be repercussions if it doesn’t,” NBC News reports.
New York Times: “The two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits.”
“Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other’s closest friend, The Times found. Mr. Epstein was then a little-known financier who cultivated mystery around the scope and source of his self-made wealth. Mr. Trump, six years older, was a real estate scion who relished publicity and exaggerated his successes. Neither man drank or did drugs. They pursued women in a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.”
“Over nearly two decades, as Mr. Trump cut a swath through the party circuits of New York and Florida, Mr. Epstein was perhaps his most reliable wingman.”
The final Emerson national survey of 2025 finds President Trump with a 41% job approval rating and 50% job disapproval.
The president’s approval and disapproval numbers have flipped since his inaugural survey, from 41% disapproving to 41% approving, and 49% approving to 50% disapproving.
New York Times: “Mr. Trump, always more comfortable with what he calls his ‘weave’ of free association rather than reading from a teleprompter, raced through his talk as if he was late to an important dinner. There were no digressions, unlike his speech in Pennsylvania a week ago when he repeatedly veered from the topic. At times he seemed to be yelling — almost as if he didn’t believe he had to take the time to convince his audience of how well his first 11 months had gone.”
Washington Post: “Trump crammed his usual 90-minute rally routine into 18 minutes of prime-time broadcast television on Wednesday, perplexing ‘Survivor’ finale viewers and his own allies alike.”
“He spoke more than 2,600 words in that time, markedly faster than his usual plodding pace at the teleprompter. His purpose was to ease concerns about the economy and to persuade Americans that he gets it. Afterward, even his own allies puzzled over whether the president did more harm than good with his rushed delivery and harsh tone.”
“The affordability crisis that upended global politics last year continues to ripple across some of the world’s biggest democracies — punishing incumbents and undermining longstanding political alliances,” Politico reports.
NOTUS: “Rumors are swirling around Capitol Hill about an impending mass exodus of House Republicans following a number of surprise retirement announcements over the past few months.”
“With estimates about the number of Republicans ready to leave the House hovering around two dozen, NOTUS asked more than half of the House Republican Conference — over 120 members — whether they were considering another run for Congress or a run for the exits. While most lawmakers emphatically declared their intentions to run again, several mysteriously declined to commit to seeking reelection.”
Punchbowl News: “So in less than two weeks, millions of Americans will see a huge spike in their premiums or they’ll lose coverage as Congress goes over the Obamacare cliff.”
“This plays into the growing economic fears felt by many Americans. President Donald Trump spoke to this issue in his Wednesday night address from the White House, although it’s clear Republicans are going to have to go a lot further than he did if they want to turn things around.”
“In fact, if you zoom out right now, congressional battles are being played, in large part, on Democrats’ turf. They have Republicans talking about health care. Johnson says House Republicans will spend a good chunk of next year on the issue, a topic on which the GOP is typically weak. Next month also will be about government funding and social programs, which again favor Democrats.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she would coast to victory if she were ever to square off against Vice President JD Vance in a presidential election, Mediaite reports.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “Listen, these polls, like three years out are, you know, they are what they are. But let the record show I would stomp him. I would stomp him!”
“When President Trump ran for re-election in 2024, he and his family already had vast business interests stretching from Manhattan office towers to a golf course in Ireland to hotel deals as far away as Vietnam,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The president’s second term has brought a major expansion of that empire, with forays into cryptocurrency, communications and financial products. Ventures launched since Trump’s re-election generated at least $4 billion in proceeds and paper wealth for the family as of December, according to company statements and securities filings.”
“It’s unprecedented for a president to have such far-reaching business interests while in office, including in areas his administration regulates.”
President Trump will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET from the White House.
Leave your reactions in the comments.
“The Trump administration plans to ramp up efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, marking an aggressive new phase in President Trump’s immigration crackdown,” the New York Times reports.
“Under federal law, people may be denaturalized only if they committed fraud while applying for citizenship, or in a few other narrow circumstances.”
“But the Trump administration has shown a zeal for using every tool at its disposal to target legal and illegal immigrants, leading activists to warn that such a campaign could sweep up people who had made honest mistakes on their citizenship paperwork and sow fear among law-abiding Americans.”
“President Trump on Tuesday received and discussed a draft copy of a book by lawyer Alan Dershowitz that studies whether Trump could constitutionally serve a third term as commander in chief,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Dershowitz said he told Trump the Constitution wasn’t clear on the issue.”
Said Dershowitz: “He found it interesting as an intellectual issue. Do I think he’s going to run for a third term? No, I don’t think he will run for a third term.”
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.
