“Ken Howery is a quiet, unassuming tech investor who prioritizes discretion. And yet, he has ended up in the middle of two of the noisiest story lines of the incoming Trump administration,” the New York Times reports.

“One is the expanding ambition of Elon Musk, Mr. Howery’s close friend and fellow party-scene fixture since the two helped run PayPal 25 years ago.”

“The other is the expansionist ambition of Mr. Musk’s boss, President-elect Donald Trump, who has set his sights on buying Greenland, the world’s largest island.”

“As Mr. Trump’s pick for ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Howery is expected to be central to what Mr. Trump hopes will be a real-estate deal of epic proportions. The only hitch is that Denmark, which counts Greenland as its autonomous territory, says the island is not for sale.”

Elon Musk is among the opening speakers who will precede President-elect Donald Trump at his pre-inaugural rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, NBC News reports.

New York Times: “Mr. Miller was influential in Mr. Trump’s first term but stands to be exponentially more so this time. He holds the positions of deputy chief of staff, with oversight of domestic policy, and homeland security adviser, which gives him range to coordinate among cabinet agencies. He will be a key legislative strategist and is expected to play an important role in crafting Mr. Trump’s speeches, as he has done since he joined the first Trump campaign in 2016.”

“Most significantly, Mr. Miller will be in charge of Mr. Trump’s signature issue and the one that Mr. Miller has been fixated on since childhood: immigration. And he has been working, in secrecy, to oversee the team drafting the dozens of executive orders that Mr. Trump will sign after he takes office on Jan. 20.”

“President-elect Trump sported a familiar stone-faced stare in his official portrait revealed just days before he makes his White House return,” Axios reports.

“The nontraditional portrait is starkly different from his first term pose, where he grins under even lighting. Instead, with the up-shot glow, a raised eyebrow and a tight-lipped mouth, it’s reminiscent of another photo: his historic mug shot.”

“The Trump-Vance transition team, in a release sharing their official portraits, said the photos ‘go hard.'”

“Donald Trump continues to see some of the most positive ratings of his political career, according to a new CNN poll, which finds the president-elect poised to enter his second term with far more positive sentiment behind him than when he last occupied the White House.”

“The public also broadly sees it as likely that he’ll carry out some of the economic and immigration policy promises central to his campaign and believes that he will follow through on threats to use his executive power to go after rivals and pardon people convicted related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.”

“I’m feeling like a kid again with Trump’s invite. I’m fired up. I’m not even taking Viagra anymore.”

— Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonarro, quoted by the New York Times, on being invited to Donald Trump’s inauguration.

However, Bloomberg reports Brazil’s Supreme Court barred Bolsonaro from leaving the country.

“It will be bitterly cold for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday as temperatures dip well below average for this time of year in the D.C. area,” WTOP reports.

“The weather forecast calls for a chance of snow Sunday followed by gusty winds and high temperatures only around 20 degrees.”

“The House Republican leadership has asked the incoming Trump administration to hold off on rolling back several Biden-era policies by executive order so that GOP lawmakers can repeal them in a reconciliation bill instead,” Punchbowl News reports.

“The GOP-run Congress has to find savings as part of any reconciliation package. And if President-elect Donald Trump wipes out big-ticket Biden policies using executive orders, Congress can’t claim them as savings in reconciliation.”

“Donald Trump’s first White House victory caught corporate America flat-footed. This time around, industries that his administration will soon oversee are showering his inaugural committee with record-breaking donations — and making sure both the president-elect and the public notice their largesse,” Politico reports.

“Not only are companies giving far larger amounts than they did to Trump’s first inauguration — when they didn’t have a firm grasp of how to handle misgivings about the mercurial politician — they’re doing so in a far more public fashion, announcing the donations months before they have to be reported to federal regulators.”

CNN: “Trump is returning to the White House after making appeals to working-class voters in last year’s election, but he has assembled one of the wealthiest administrations in history – turning to nearly a dozen people worth at least $1 billion on their own or combined with their spouses’ assets – to oversee the nation’s policies and represent the US overseas as ambassadors.”

“This class of uber-rich officials has begun the process of detailing their vast wealth for public disclosure and developing plans with government ethics officers to unwind holdings that could pose conflicts of interest.”

“The Trump transition is attempting to remove US attorneys immediately by replacing them with interim leaders who’d be aligned with the president-elect’s priorities,“ Bloomberg Law reports.

“Transition staffers have been working to identify existing career prosecutors in many of the nation’s 93 law enforcement districts who they’d feel confident would support the president-elect’s law enforcement priorities—including deportations—once elevated as acting US attorneys, said the attorneys.”

“Google CEO Sundar Pichai will join the growing list of tech executives sitting on the dais as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office on Monday,” Politico reports.

The New York Times reports TikTok’s CEO is also likely to be there.