“President-elect Donald Trump said in a new interview that he will use the opening hours of his presidency to pardon people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, begin deportations of undocumented immigrants and increase oil production,” the New York Times reports.

“He also said during the interview that he might supporting getting rid of some childhood vaccines if data shows links to autism. He declined to answer a question about whether he had talked with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia since the November election.”

President-elect Donald Trump told Time his presidency would not be a failure if he cannot bring the price of groceries down.

Said Trump: “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

This is quite a reversal from what he promised during the campaign.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has repeatedly criticized policies allowing gay people to serve openly in the US military, calling them part of a “Marxist” agenda to prioritize social justice over combat readiness, CNN reports.

Brian Stelter: “Presidents don’t ordinarily pick the director of Voice of America, an international news broadcaster funded by the US government. But President-elect Donald Trump says he wants his ally Kari Lake to take over VOA.”

Voice of America says it has a “firewall” in place that “prohibits interference by any US government official in the objective, independent reporting of news.”

Jonathan Chait: “Now Trump, preparing for his second term as president, has decided to replace the FBI director again. The figure he picked to replace Comey—the lifelong Republican Christopher Wray—proved unable to meet Trump’s expectations for the position, which are (1) to permit Trump and his allies to violate the law with impunity, and (2) to investigate anybody who interferes with (1). Wray, wrestling with the problem of Trump’s desire to separate him from a job he apparently liked, chose to step down on his own. This raises the likelihood that the media will treat the replacement of Wray as normal administrative turnover rather than as a scandal.”

“But a scandal it most certainly is. By tradition, FBI directors serve 10-year terms, a norm designed to insulate the FBI from pressure to serve the president’s whims. Trump supporters have two philosophical rationalizations for his demand to violate that tradition. The lowbrow, populist version favored by Trump cultists is that Trump is beset by a ‘deep state’ conspiracy that has kneecapped him at every turn because it is loyal to globalists, neoconservatives, or some other corrupt network. The highbrow version, preferred by conservative-movement elites, is that presidents possess an inherent right to control the executive branch from top to bottom, and all norms designed to prevent the president from abusing that power are an affront to the Constitution.”

“Neither theory can explain why Trump continues to go to war with people he appointed himself… The problem that keeps arising is that there is no way to remain in Trump’s favor while following the law.”

New York Times: “President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon was battered by damaging headlines: Drinking. Extramarital affairs. An allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.”

“Republican senators — emboldened after tanking Mr. Trump’s first choice for attorney general, the scandal-ridden Matt Gaetz — were going public with their concerns. Mr. Trump was getting sick of hearing about it all, and he told confidants he was serious about picking Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to replace him.”

“But within 48 hours, Mr. Trump had changed his mind. He was going to see if Mr. Hegseth could survive.”

“People close to the president-elect had been telling him that this was a moment that would test his power as he prepared to return to Washington. It would be catastrophic, they argued, if he allowed Republican senators, like Joni Ernst of Iowa, to obstruct his mandate.”

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, said he supports “all women serving in our military” when asked by CNN about his previous comments on women serving in combat roles.

Said Hegseth: “We support all women serving in our military today who do a fantastic job across the globe in our Pentagon and deliver critical aspects, all aspects, combat included, and they have so for quite some time. So I look forward to being a leader for every single member of this Pentagon, men and women.”

“Meta Platforms has donated $1 million to president-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, the latest step by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to bolster his once-fraught relationship with the incoming president,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The donation, confirmed by the company, is a departure from past practice by Zuckerberg and his company, and comes after an election campaign in which Trump threatened to punish the tech tycoon if he tried to influence the election against him.”

President-elect Donald Trump chose Kari Lake, the former TV news anchor turned election denier who lost races for senator and governor of Arizona, to lead Voice of America, a federally funded broadcaster that aims to offer unbiased news to audiences around the world, the New York Times reports.

The announcement came as Mr. Trump made a flurry of picks for administration positions on Wednesday night.

Politico: “Russell Taylor spent weeks planning for chaos on Jan. 6, 2021. He recruited anti-government activists to join him in Washington, and, when he arrived, surged to the U.S. Capitol with a knife and a tactical vest as a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters overran police lines.”

“Now Republican members of Congress are inviting him back to the Capitol to attend Trump’s second inauguration, an invite that could bring him face to face with the lawmakers and Capitol Police officers who fled the melee he helped unleash that day.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray told bureau employees on Wednesday that he intends to resign in January, bowing to the reality that President-elect Donald Trump had publicly declared his desire to replace him, the New York Times reports.

Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” Politico reports.

“Elon Musk has become the first person to reach $400 billion in net worth, the latest milestone for the world’s richest individual,” Bloomberg reports.

“The most recent catalyst was an insider share sale of his privately held SpaceX, which boosted Musk’s net worth by roughly $50 billion in one fell swoop to $439.2 billion.”

A new CNN poll finds most Americans “expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%) and a majority approves of how he’s handling the presidential transition so far (55%).”

“The findings suggest the president-elect has earned a honeymoon period with the public as he prepares to return to the White House after being voted out four years ago amid broadly negative approval ratings of his own.”

“The incoming Trump administration intends to rescind a long-standing policy that has prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting immigrants at or near so-called sensitive locations, such as houses of worship, schools and hospitals or events like funerals, weddings and public demonstrations without approval from supervisors,” NBC News reports.

“President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind the policy as soon as the first day he is in office.”