New York Times: “Ms. Wiles, the first woman to hold one of the most important and precarious jobs in Washington, will move in less than two weeks into the large West Wing office once inhabited by the powerful James Baker during the Reagan administration — and also the four men defeated in the position in Mr. Trump’s first term.”

“The question is whether Ms. Wiles will be able to handle the combustible Mr. Trump in the White House and survive.”

“Some of President-elect Trump’s most audacious promises — lobbed from the comfort of the campaign trail — will be on a collision course with reality beginning Jan. 20,” Axios reports.

“Trump is at the peak of his influence and popularity, a status he achieved by vowing to detonate the status quo. But he and his allies know — and are starting to acknowledge — that their power will not be absolute.”

William Kristol: “Donald Trump seems to be enjoying his time as president-elect. Why wouldn’t he? He’s a winner. He’s the center of all attention, and the recipient of all capitulation. He’s the biggest man on the biggest campus—and there are no classes yet, and no exams.”

“But there is one thing about being president-elect: You become president. And then you’re in charge. You’re responsible. You have to govern.”

“And there’s no reason to think Trump will be good at governing. He wasn’t the first time, and the second term will be worse. He won’t be constrained this time by some responsible people within the administration, or by elements of the Republican party not yet entirely cowed by him. And he’ll be backed and egged on by an authoritarian movement that is far stronger and more radical than it was at the beginning—or even at the end—of his first term.”

The Economist: “Although America has a history of taking a commercial approach to international relations, purchases are rarely made without controversy.”

“When Thomas Jefferson bought Louisiana in 1803, doubling the size of the country, he had to set aside his zest for constitutional constructivism, which would have ruled out such bold federal action. Sixty-four years later, when William Seward, then secretary of state, purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2m ($162m today), the move was dubbed ‘Seward’s folly’. Today the Alaska deal is seen as a masterstroke and the Louisiana purchase the greatest achievement of one of America’s greatest presidents. In hindsight, both look extraordinarily good value.”

“History will not be as kind to Donald Trump if he gets Greenland from Denmark under duress. On January 7th the president-elect declined to rule out using military might or economic warfare in his pursuit of Greenland (and of the Panama Canal). America will lose friends if it bullies one into ceding territory. But Mr Trump’s provocations are also foolish because an agreement to buy Greenland, made freely and in good will, could indeed be another deal-of-the-century.”

Bob Bauer: “No president has ever attempted to do what Donald Trump now proposes to do—assemble a small team of former personal attorneys and install it at the highest levels of the Department of Justice…”

“The Justice Department’s responsibilities have always been subject to competing expectations: that it would keep politics out of law enforcement but, like other departments, would loyally serve the president in the implementation of his governing program. The results have been uneven, and at times disastrous, as with Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. But when problems arose, they were relatively localized: the product of poor appointments, or the failure of particular presidents in particular situations to respect institutional values and norms.”

“What the DOJ faces now is different in kind: a vision of White House control achieved through the appointments of individuals the president has chosen because they have worked for him and demonstrated their loyalty. The pressing question now is whether these lawyers may be, as the president-elect likely hopes, the “president’s lawyers” in more than one sense.”

Bloomberg: “Trump has always played his unpredictability as key to his leverage, and allies say his threatened wrath sets the US up well for pivotal trade negotiations that could decide the nation’s future. Yet the risk is double-barreled: uncertainty for governments and businesses planning complex, long-term investments, and chaos that breeds acrimony in the West Wing.”

“The dynamic is not unlike his first administration, when public disputes among his key economic personnel led to frequent reversals in policy — including on tariffs and restrictions on Chinese technology firms.”

Semafor: “The annual meeting for heads of state and top corporate voices is slated to take place the week of Trump’s inauguration, and it’s still unclear whether Trump himself, who appeared there twice during his first administration, will show up.”

“The gathering was already set to focus intensely on the new American administration, amid attendees’ longstanding concerns about the president-elect’s ‘America First’ orientation.”

“President-elect Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom clashed Wednesday over fires burning out of control in the Los Angeles area, injecting national politics into a growing crisis in the city that Vice President Kamala Harris calls home and that President Joe Biden was visiting for the birth of his great-grandson,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Trump, on Truth Social: “Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”

“When President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea ‘absurd’ and rebuffed him outright,” CNN reports.

“Now, Danish officials are being warned by Trump allies and advisers that he is serious… And they’re carefully weighing how to respond without sparking a major rupture with a close ally and fellow NATO member.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee is no longer selling tickets for major donors to attend his swearing-in and accompanying private events in Washington,“ the New York Times reports.

“The committee has raised over $170 million… The haul is so big that some seven-figure donors have been placed on wait lists or have been told they probably will not receive V.I.P. tickets at all because the events are at capacity.”

“Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed Wednesday that President-elect Trump invited him to attend the inauguration — but it may be difficult for Bolsonaro to attend amid his ongoing his legal turmoil,” Axios reports.

The leader of the Panama Canal Authority denied President-elect Donald Trump’s claims that China is controlling the vital trade route and said Trump’s suggestion that U.S. ships get preferential rates “will lead to chaos,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

New York Times: “There is no precedent for a situation in which a former president’s criminal defense lawyers go almost overnight from representing him against the federal government to being high-ranking officials in an administration led by that same client — one who has regularly signaled that he wants to use the Justice Department to mete out retribution against his perceived opponents.”

“It is less clear whether seasoned former prosecutors like Mr. Blanche and Mr. Bove would follow instructions to do so, especially when there has been no evidence produced that Mr. Smith has committed an ethical breach, let alone a prosecutable offense.”

David Sanger: “There was a lot of déjà vu in Tuesday’s news conference, recalling scenes from his first presidency. The conspiracy theories, the made-up facts, the burning grievances — all despite the fact that he has pulled off one of the most remarkable political comebacks in history. The vague references to ‘people’ whom he never names. The flat declaration that American national security was threatened now, without defining how the strategic environment has changed in a way that could prompt him to violate the sovereignty of independent nations.”

“But there were also several differences in this version of Mr. Trump that are easy to overlook in a man who can move, in an instant, from the failures of American plumbing to the need to revive the territory-grabbing spirit of President William McKinley.”

“This time, he appears eager to get going in a way he was not in 2017.”

Hunter Walker: “This news conference, which was the first since Trump’s re-election was certified by Congress, was a wild one — even by Trumpian standards.”

Although Donald Trump has decried the state of the nation as “a disaster” and “a mess,” President Biden told USA Today at their private meeting after the election that Trump was impressed with some of the things Biden did.

Said Biden: “He was very complimentary about some of the economic things I had done. And he talked about − he thought I was leaving with a good record.”

“President-elect Donald Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide legal justification for a large swath of universal tariffs on allies and adversaries, as Trump seeks to reset the global balance of trade in his second term,” CNN reports.

“The declaration would allow Trump to construct a new tariff program by using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, known as ‘IEEPA,’ which unilaterally authorizes a president to manage imports during a national emergency.”

Jonathan Chait: “An easier question to answer is why Trump keeps uttering these threats. One reason is that he seems to sincerely believe that strong countries have the right to bully weaker ones. Trump has long insisted that the United States should seize smaller countries’ natural resources, and that American allies should be paying us protection money, as if they were shopkeepers and America were a mob boss.”

“A second reason is that Trump uses his international bullying as fan service for his base. The actual, concrete policy agenda of Trump’s presidency consists largely of boring regulatory and tax favors to wealthy donors and business interests—priorities that most of his voters don’t care about. Trump seems to grasp the need for public dramas to entertain the MAGA base.”

“Spectacles of domination play an important role in Trump’s political style. ‘Build the wall’ is the classic example: Trump never did build his ‘big, beautiful wall’ along the length of the southern border, yet his fans don’t hold that against him, because the physical manifestation of a barrier on the southern border was beside the point. They thrilled instead to the idea of a wall as an expression of strength and defiance.”