Rick Klein: “Welcome to unified government – Trump style. The new Congress wasn’t even sworn in before a Donald Trump crashed through the Republican conference – forcing a hasty retreat on an ill-timed ethics maneuver. And you don’t have to look far beneath the surface to see other cracks in party unity trying to make themselves seen. Trump’s near-mockery of intelligence agencies, along with his alignment with both Russia and Wikileaks, is testing the ability of Republicans in Congress to hold their tongues on foreign policy and national security.”

“Even on healthcare, where the goal of eliminating Obamacare has galvanized the GOP, the togetherness may not be what it seems. Slamming Chuck Schumer is easy enough for Republicans to agree on. But Trump’s Thursday morning Twitter call for ‘Republicans & Democrats to get together’ on a replacement for Obamacare is precisely what Hill leaders are preparing to avoid. The Trump brand, as always, is distinct from the Republican one – and his leadership shows few signs of respecting traditional party lines.”

Donald Trump “is being forced to take a big time-out from his frenzied planning for the White House, sitting down as soon as Thursday for a sworn, videotaped deposition in Trump Tower that could stretch for as long as seven hours.” Politico reports.

“It’s an extraordinary circumstance for any president or president-elect. The last president to be deposed was Bill Clinton in 1998, in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit. Ulysses Grant, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter are the only other sitting presidents to face a deposition.”

“And it’s hardly Trump’s only legal headache. With Trump’s swearing-in just days away, many of the high-profile lawsuits that entangled him during the campaign are all but certain to carry on through his inauguration and into his tenure at the White House — and he will even inherit some new ones.”

Rick Klein: “Careful what you wish for – and for what you can’t see coming. Donald Trump appears to have bailed out House leadership on day one of the new Congress, convincing rank-and-file members to roll back an ill-timed gutting of the House ethics process. But how it went down should serve as a warning to anyone prepared to do business with – or against – Trump. His Tweets, though mild by Trump standard – it’s still not clear that he opposes the ethics reforms, or just the timing – scrambled Capitol Hill, making a likely undoing of the changes inevitable.”

“This time, Trump was working on the same side as House Republican leaders. But what about next time? Tweets twisting arms represent a new dynamic for lawmakers to adjust to. With vice-president-elect Mike Pence on the Hill Wednesday to strategize opposite President Obama, it may not be just Democrats who are nostalgic for those good old days.”

President-elect Donald Trump rang in the new year together with Joseph “Joey No Socks” Cinque — a convicted felon with ties to notorious Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, the New York Daily News reports.

“Cinque can be seen in a video obtained by the Palm Beach Daily News, cheering loudly as a tuxedo-clad Trump runs through a number of campaign promises before the hundreds of guests attending the New Year’s Eve bash the President-elect threw at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday.”