“I’d take George W. back in a minute.”

— Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D), quoted by Politico, on what he expects from Donald Trump as president.

Washington Post: “Trump is a man isolated, increasingly cosseted away from the voters who lifted him to his seemingly improbable victory. He favors his own people and his own places, creating the veneer of accessibility — his tweets reach millions and he still answers his cellphone — while placing himself in almost entirely habitual settings.”

“He spends most of his days in Trump Tower, with few close friends and few meaningful one-on-one interactions beyond the family members, advisers and loyalists who are whisked by gold elevator to his 26th-floor office for private audiences. Trump rarely leaves, not even for a breath of fresh air; nor does he encounter many people he does not already know or who do not work for him.”

Mike Allen: “Republican heads are spinning. They are dumbfounded by a blizzard of mystifying or contradictory messages coming from Trump.”

“The inside take: Republicans who are hoping/praying things will be fine, and even some Trump insiders, tell us that these comments show he is adjusting more slowly to being president-elect than they had hoped. Even if he believes some or all of this, some things are better kept to yourself when you’re on the precipice of the presidency.”

A new Monmouth poll finds Donald Trump will take office with just 34% of Americans holding a favorable view of him and 46% having an unfavorable opinion. Another 20% are withholding judgment for now.

For members: Trump Will Start His Presidency In a Deep Hole

New York Times: “Mr. Trump repeatedly sought business in Russia as far back as 1987, when he traveled there to explore building a hotel. He applied for his trademark in the country as early as 1996. And his children and associates have appeared in Moscow over and over in search of joint ventures, meeting with developers and government officials. During a trip in 2006, Mr. Sater and two of Mr. Trump’s children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, stayed at the historic Hotel National Moscow opposite the Kremlin, connecting with potential partners over the course of several days. As recently as 2013, Mr. Trump himself was in Moscow. He had sold Russian real estate developers the right to host his Miss Universe pageant that year, and he used the visit as a chance to discuss development deals, writing on Twitter at the time: ‘TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next.’”

President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that recent polls showing him with historically low approval as he enters office are rigged against him.

Said Trump: “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.”

“Senate Democrats may not have landed a kill shot when it comes to Trump’s cabinet nominees, but that hasn’t tamped down their overall belief that they are well-positioned going into the second week of appointment hearings — especially after the latest Price and Puzder reports,” Playbook reports.

Said one Democratic aide: “Many of these nominees are at the point where even if they’re confirmed, they have reached the ‘embattled’ status that, at best, erodes any momentum that Trump’s nominees might have offered him, and at worst will get in their way as they try to implement Trump’s agenda.”

James Hohmann: “The conventional wisdom that all of Trump’s cabinet picks will be confirmed by the Senate shifted somewhat over the long weekend, and the odds are increasing that at least one will be stopped. Democrats continue to express some hope about blocking Steve Mnuchin for Treasury of Tom Price for HHS, but secretary of labor-designee Andy Puzder seems like the more vulnerable target.”

“Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Obama.”

“Following a tumultuous transition period, approval ratings for Trump’s handling of the transition are more than 20 points below those for any of his three most recent predecessors. Obama took the oath in 2009 with an 84% approval rating, 67% approved of Clinton’s transition as of late December 1992 and 61% approved of George W. Bush’s transition just before he took office in January 2001.”

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds 40% of Americans “approve of the way Trump has handled the transition, half as many as the 80% who approved of Barack Obama’s preparations to take office. Trump also far trails George W. Bush (72% transition approval), Bill Clinton (81%) and George H.W. Bush (82%) on this measure.”

“When Donald Trump walks into the White House for the first time as president on Jan. 20, his suits will be hanging in his closet, his personal photos will be displayed on perfectly placed tables, and his toothbrush will be near his favorite brand of toothpaste in his bathroom,” USA Today reports.

“And nothing can be touched until the Obamas pull out of the White House driveway for the inauguration ceremony that same day.”

“Donald Trump will take office as one of the most unpopular President-elects in recent history — and even scalpers are feeling the pain,” the New York Daily News reports.

“Some flippers, who acquired tickets to Trump’s inauguration with the intent of reselling them on the secondary market, are striking out in their efforts to peddle them and are now looking at some relatively ‘yuge’ losses.”

Washington Post: “Organizers are also expecting an unusually high number of protesters, given how divisive Trump’s victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was. And as of Monday afternoon, nearly three dozen Democratic lawmakers had said they plan to skip the festivities.”

New York Times: “Just days before he is sworn into office, President-elect Donald Trump has again focused his penchant for unpredictable disruption on the rest of the world. His remarks in a string of discursive and sometimes contradictory interviews have escalated tensions with China while also infuriating allies and institutions critical to America’s traditional leadership of the West.”

“No one knows where exactly he is headed — except that the one country he is not criticizing is Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin. For now. And that he is an enthusiastic cheerleader of Brexit and an unaffiliated Britain. For now.”

“Mr. Trump’s unpredictability is perhaps his most predictable characteristic.”