One person was dead and at least seven people were injured after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded and caught fire outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, the New York Times reports.
Videos posted to social media showed a vehicle engulfed in flames outside the lobby’s entrance.
“Detractors and skeptics of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) appear to be only digging in ahead of the House speaker election on Jan. 3,” Axios reports.
“House GOP hardliners’ continued hesitance to coalesce around Johnson suggests that President-elect Trump’s endorsement of the incumbent speaker has had little effect so far.”
“Johnson’s right flank is incensed at him reaching across the aisle to Democrats on government spending and foreign aid. Some are arguing that the House GOP needs a more uncompromising leader coming into the new Trump administration.”
“Donald Trump has appointed Justin Caporale, the man credited with some of his most eye-catching campaign gambits on the path to his second presidential election victory, to a White House role, signalling that high-profile publicity stunts are likely to be a key feature of his second presidential term,” The Guardian reports.
“Pro-Palestinian groups in the U.S. are staring down a new challenge: Donald Trump and Republicans,” Politico reports.
“The movement has tended to focus its efforts on who controls the White House and Democrats, whom its leaders view as more persuadable to soften support for Israel. But 15 months into the war in the Middle East, as the GOP trifecta prepares to control the White House and Congress, leaders in the movement find themselves with far less leverage — and much more to lose.”
“House Republicans on Wednesday released their proposed rules package for the 119th Congress, which includes several notable changes to the rules that governed the lower chamber for the last two years,” Axios reports.
“The most crucial alteration raises the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate — a measure to force a vote on ousting the House speaker.”
“Instead of any single House Republican being able to force such a vote, now the motion will have to have eight additional GOP co-sponsors.”
Politico: House rules would make it harder to oust speaker in next Congress.
“A 42-year-old Texas man with the flag of the Islamic State on his pickup rammed the vehicle into celebrating crowds on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, officials said. The attack killed at least 10 people and injured about 35 others,” the New York Times reports.
“The suspect, who died in a shootout with police officers, was identified by the F.B.I. as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a U.S. citizen.”
Axios: FBI investigating deadly New Orleans vehicle attack as act of terrorism.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) sure sounds like he’s ready to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in a Democratic primary.
Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) is exploring an independent run for Virginia governor or lieutenant governor, the Washington Post reports.
“Look, it’s never easy criticizing the president and the standard bearer of your party, and there’s always that kind of political honeymoon period that happens when you first get elected. But there are already signs of folks that are willing to push back and criticize and say no when they feel like they have to say no. And that should give the American people a big sigh of relief that it’s not the evil dictatorship that the liberal media was telling us it was going to be.”
— New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), quoted by Politico.
Washington Post: “In the days before Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service needed a member of his protective detail to develop a security plan to keep the former president safe as he addressed a crowd of thousands at an open-air fairground. With agents stretched thin by the presidential campaign, the agency turned to a ‘junior’ member of the detail.”
“In the past, the Secret Service would have trained new agents in a field office for a minimum of five years and had them work at least two more in a protective detail before assigning them to oversee such a large public event… The agent put in charge of security at Butler had joined the Secret Service four years earlier and only started in the protective detail in 2023, the panel found.”
Playbook: “How serious is Trump about using state power to go after his political enemies? Unchastened by total control in Washington, what guardrails will constrain him? Will he use the early days of his administration to set the new tone, and what will that tone be? What norms will he bulldoze through? And how will a lame duck Trump administration look different, unconstrained by the need to win reelection?”
“Then there are the practical questions about the new administration. What does opposition to Trump actually look like this time around? Who are the leaders of that movement and how do you balance trying to be the grown ups in the room with being the opposition at the same time? Historically, there’s nothing that brings Democrats together like opposing Trump, which at this point is their best hope of some kind of unity.”
ABC News counts 15 House Republicans who say they are undecided on whether they’ll vote for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as speaker.
Said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to Fox Business: speaker. “I don’t believe that he has the votes on Friday. And I think we need to have the conference get together so we can get united.”
“President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he planned to attend former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington next week, ending speculation about his presence at the memorial for a predecessor whom he had often criticized,” the New York Times reports.
“In wide-ranging remarks to reporters as he entered a flashy New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida estate and club, Mr. Trump also predicted that House Speaker Mike Johnson would retain his post and reiterated his support for visas for high-skilled immigrants, doubling down in a fight that has divided his supporters.”
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned Tuesday of “illegitimate activity” that he said threatened the independence of judges, Axios reports.
“President-elect Donald Trump said he is willing to make calls to lawmakers to drum up support for Mike Johnson should there be a risk to his speakership ahead of a vote expected Friday on Capitol Hill,” Politico reports.
Punchbowl News: “So there are several questions to focus on. The first is obvious: Can Johnson win? The second: Will it take Johnson multiple ballots to secure the speakership? Third: Does Johnson weaken himself so much in his quest to keep the speaker’s gavel that he can’t govern? And lastly but most importantly: Does Trump pull back if he sees Johnson’s weakness?”
“In addition to his Trump endorsement, Johnson’s greatest attribute is that there’s still no obvious alternative to the Louisiana Republican.”
Russell Berman: “Until November 5, Cleveland held the distinction of being the only U.S. president to regain the office after voters turned him out: He won the White House in 1884, lost his reelection bid in 1888, and then won again in 1892. Donald Trump matched Cleveland’s achievement by winning last year’s presidential election, robbing him of his exclusive claim to history but also renewing interest in a president whom time has largely forgotten.”
“The two men share little else in common. Cleveland curtailed government corruption, adhered to a restrictive view of presidential authority, and opposed expansionism; Trump flouts ethical norms left and right, chafes at limits to his power, and wants to buy Greenland. Yet their new bond could reshape Cleveland’s legacy.”
“The flow of natural gas through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe was cut off early Wednesday after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement that allowed for the transit of Russian gas through its territory,” the New York Times reports.
“The move to suspend the flow of gas through a pipeline that had carried Soviet and then Russian gas to Europe for decades is part of a broader campaign by Ukraine and its Western allies to undermine Moscow’s ability to fund its war effort and to limit the Kremlin’s ability to use energy as leverage in Europe.”
May this year be filled with love, laughter and good health.
And thanks for spending time with Political Wire in 2025!
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.