NBC News: “Incoming administration staffers are being warned to weigh the threat of a pricey legal defense and consider purchasing a form of legal insurance that would provide them a lawyer if needed, a protection that many now consider part of doing business after former Trump aides were hauled before congressional committees and grand juries over the past eight years.”

“In a cautionary move, Trump’s transition has briefed some incoming administration staff members on the need to price and buy professional liability insurance.”

“President-elect Donald Trump is set to hold a victory rally in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, one day before returning back to the White House for a second term,” USA Today reports.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the New York Times reports.

New York Times: “Imagery — and Mr. Trump’s mastery of it — played a vital role in powering his return to the White House. In many ways, Mr. Trump was not just a candidate navigating the 2024 race but the executive producer of his own political comeback…”

“In the 2024 race, Mr. Trump repeatedly used visuals to reframe political vulnerabilities — indictments, a trial, a conviction — as visceral symbols of strength and resilience. He showed remarkable instincts as he rose from being shot by a would-be assassin to pumping his fist in the air, the campaign’s most indelible image. And he manufactured a series of memorable moments that broke through the clutter of the campaign, perhaps none more so than handing out French fries from a McDonald’s drive-through window.”

New York Times: “Even before he takes the oath of office on Monday, cracks in his freshly expanded coalition have emerged. With their divides, the incoming president and his party are being forced to confront a reality that has often tripped up Democrats: A bigger tent means more room for fighting underneath it.”

“Many Americans who otherwise dislike President-elect Donald Trump share his bleak assessment of the country’s problems and support some of his most contentious prescriptions to fix them,” according to a new New York Times/Ipsos poll.

“A little more than half of the country expresses some desire to see Mr. Trump follow through with his harshest threat to deal with illegal immigration: deporting everyone living in the United States without authorization.”

“Americans are more evenly split on whether Mr. Trump should implement tariffs on countries like China and Mexico, which he has vowed to do as a way to reduce reliance on foreign goods. Still, 46 percent say that trade with foreign nations should be subject to increased tariffs.”

“And a large majority is sympathetic to efforts to strictly limit how doctors can treat children struggling with their gender identity — an issue Mr. Trump and other Republicans made central to their campaigns for office.”

“President-elect Donald Trump is returning to Washington triumphant: His legal cases are behind him, corporate executives are flocking to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him, his inaugural committee has raised record sums of money for Monday’s ceremony and the Republican Party is now fully in his control,” the Washington Post reports.

“It’s a stark contrast both to his 2017 inauguration — when Trump came to Washington as a political unknown without close personal relationships to his Cabinet or congressional leaders — and to his departure from the Oval Office in January 2021, when he was widely condemned for the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.”

Wall Street Journal Poll: “Some 53% want Trump to make significant changes in how government is run once he is inaugurated Monday. But more than 60% oppose one of his central ideas for doing so—replacing thousands of career civil-service workers with people chosen by the president.”

“More than 60% also oppose eliminating the Education Department, a marquee Trump proposal for paring the federal government. Only 18% would supersede congressional powers and give Trump more authority over federal spending, as he has proposed.”

“Similarly, the poll finds that, while voters want Trump to build his promised wall along the border with Mexico and address illegal immigration, they also want limits to his plans for sweeping deportations of undocumented immigrants.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to shift his inauguration from the West Front of the Capitol to the Rotunda — and much of the event to Capital One Arena downtown — has set off a chaotic scramble as congressional officials, lawmakers, Trump’s transition team and Trump’s donors and supporters jockey to figure out who can attend,” Punchbowl News reports.

“It’s virtually guaranteed that many lawmakers who want to attend will be unable to do so… We’d also guess that Democrats who were on the fence about going will just skip the event entirely.”

Wall Street Journal: “Their work has been shrouded in secrecy, conducted on Signal and at SpaceX offices a few blocks from the White House. Team members have been dispatched to federal agencies to review them for cuts. And Elon Musk, their leader and the world’s richest man, continues to be at President-elect Donald Trump’s side…”

“DOGE is expected to work closely with the Office of Management and Budget, making recommendations to Congress and the Trump administration on ways to bring down spending and cut regulations. DOGE officials have focused on ways that their goals can be accomplished through executive action as opposed to legislatively.”

President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, disclosed owning more than $3.9 million in stock in Trump’s “Truth Social” platform in December, Business Insider reports.

Her total net worth in December was more than $12.1 million.

“IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said he would resign with nearly three years left in his term, leaving the government Monday rather than waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to remove him,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Werfel’s decision to quit on Inauguration Day sidesteps a looming confrontation between the tax agency chief and the incoming administration. Trump last month announced his plan to replace Werfel with Billy Long, a former Republican congressman. But until now, Werfel hadn’t said whether he would leave or try to stay until Long’s confirmation, at which point Werfel would be forced out.”

The garbage truck that President-elect Donald Trump rode in as a comeback to remarks by President Joe Biden will make an appearance at Monday’s inauguration, WLUC reports.

Back in October, Biden referred to Trump’s supporters as “garbage,” prompting Trump to climb into the passenger seat of a garbage truck.

“Officials involved in President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration may move his swearing-in on Monday inside the Capitol rotunda because of weather concerns,” the New York Times reports.

“Such a change would mean that far fewer people are able to watch the moment when Mr. Trump officially becomes the 47th president, leaving it to those indoors and those watching on television.”

“But the conversation has focused on the extreme cold that is forecast for Monday, when temperatures are projected to hit a low of 11 degrees and a high of only 23 degrees.”

“Some rioters charged or convicted in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol are returning to Washington, DC, for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration,“ CNN reports.

“But some federal judges also recently blocked a handful of other January 6 defendants from attending the inauguration, agreeing with Justice Department prosecutors who argued that letting the rioters ‘return to the scene of the crime’ could put police officers in danger.”