Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
Dr. Harold Bornstein — who declared during the campaign that Donald Trump would be the healthiest president in history — told Stat he wasn’t particularly worried about what the stress of the job might mean for the nation’s oldest president.
Said Bornstein: “If something happens to him, then it happens to him. It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.”
“The Constitution gives the president of the United States an extraordinarily wide grant of authority to use the power of the pardon. I’m not saying he should. I’m not saying he will. It also allows a president in a national security moment to say to somebody, go do X even if it’s technically against the law and here’s your pardon because I am ordering you as commander-in-chief to go do this.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview with NPR.
“Donald Trump’s aides are considering a business arrangement that critics say would allow him or his appointees to sidestep conflict-of-interest laws governing the incoming administration and large investments in private-sector business,” Politico reports.
“Such an arrangement could allow Trump or his family members to reap some of the legal benefits of a blind trust, but could also give them some insight into how the Trump businesses are faring while also allowing Trump and his family to continue to make money from those investments.”
“The sources said it was unclear whether Trump’s aides were exploring the arrangements for the president-elect, for Trump family members or for a series of wealthy individuals nominated for his Cabinet.”
Newt Gingrich told NPR that Donald Trump had taken a different tone as president-elect and may be leaving behind his “cute” campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”
Said Gingrich: “I’m told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore… Maybe he feels that as president, as the next president of the United States, that he should be marginally more dignified than talking about alligators in swamps.”
“Democrats anxious over the future of their party and despondent over Donald Trump’s victory are pushing for President Obama to more actively wield his status as the liberal standard-bearer to counter Trump’s presidency,” Politico reports.
“Obama’s remarks since the election have given his political base hope that he’s planning to abandon the George W. Bush model of receding completely from politics after Inauguration Day.”
Politico: “Among the key appointments that are expected to be announced in the coming days are political director (a post for which sources say former Chris Christie aide Bill Stepien is considered the favorite) and communications director (sources say senior communications adviser Jason Miller is the leading option). Other appointments expected soon include advance director (campaign advance chief George Gigicos is seen as a lock) and body man (sources say campaign trip director John McEntee is likely to get the post).”
“Republican National Committee chief strategist Sean Spicer is the heavy favorite for the press secretary post.”
Also interesting: “One of Trump’s earliest and most loyal staffers — former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — is not expected to be included in the first wave of prime White House jobs, and the fate of another top campaign aide, David Bossie, also is unclear.”
Gerald Seib: “Mr. Tillerson is hardly a member of the foreign-policy establishment, Republican or Democrat. He is a lifelong businessman, with no government experience and no diplomatic background. He was a surprise choice, and in many quarters a controversial one. Critics cite his company’s extensive business dealings in countries where he would have to execute American foreign policy, and in particular his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“Yet Mr. Tillerson has the most significant figures in the Republican foreign-policy establishment in his corner. His name was suggested to Mr. Trump by Robert Gates, the former defense secretary and director of central intelligence… Together, those figures represent the core of the Republican leadership team that steered American foreign policy through the 12 years of the presidencies of Mr. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush.”
For members: One Issue May Explain the Entire Trump Administration
“Donald Trump is passing over loyalists, defending the people he once pilloried and rethinking central campaign promises as he assembles his administration,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Halfway through a 10-week transition from the election to the inauguration, Mr. Trump is forging a transactional path to the presidency. For the businessman-turned-politician, pragmatism appears to be taking precedence over loyalty to the top aides and advisers who helped get him to the White House.”
“New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were among the few high-profile Republicans who stood by Mr. Trump during his darkest campaign hours, including the day of the release of a videotape in which he bragged about groping women. Yet none of them, so far, are slated to join his administration, prompting grumbling among hard-core Trump backers.”
McClatchy: “Obama is trying to put the people and policies in place that he wants to outlast his presidency in the final weeks before Donald Trump takes over. And his supporters want more, way more.”
“Every president tries to push through last-minute policies before their time in office comes to a close. But this year has a more frantic feel as special interest groups push Obama to do more, not just because the president-elect is of a different party but because few people know what he will do.”
“With six weeks remaining, their to-do list for Obama is long.”
“Because no matter how we felt going into it, it is important for the health of this nation that we support the commander in chief. Wasn’t done when my husband took office, but we’re going high, and this is what’s best for the country. So we are gonna be there for the next president and do whatever we have to do to make sure that he is successful because if he succeeds, we all succeed.”
— Michelle Obama, quoted by Politico.
“In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon. It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by Politico.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 54% of adults saying that they are either uncertain (25%) or pessimistic and worried (29%) about how Trump will perform during his presidency, compared with 45% with either an optimistic and confident view (22%) or a satisfied and hopeful view (23%).
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), who has been tapped by Donald Trump to run the Office of Management and Budget, “recently accepted a speaking invitation from the notorious John Birch Society, an extreme right-wing group known for peddling outlandish conspiracy theories for more than half a century,” Mother Jones reports.
“President-elect Donald Trump has continued employing a private security and intelligence team at his victory rallies, and he is expected to keep at least some members of the team after he becomes president,” Politico reports.
“The arrangement represents a major break from tradition. All modern presidents and presidents-elect have entrusted their personal security entirely to the Secret Service, and their event security mostly to local law enforcement, according to presidential security experts and Secret Service sources.”
“Donald Trump’s top advisers are jousting over control of the new political group they are forming to help press the president-elect’s agenda, as rival camps have formed with repercussions for who ends up as senior staff at the White House,” Politico reports.
“The issue came to a head last Wednesday, in a glass-walled conference room on the 14th floor of Trump Tower, where about a dozen members of Trump’s inner circle gathered to plot the future of the still-unformed nonprofit.”
Washington Post: “The White House may be the nation’s time-honored symbol of power, but Trump is establishing his 58-story colossus at 725 Fifth Avenue as a stage for his new role, potentially nipping at Washington’s reputation as the center of American authority and the stature of its most famous address, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
“On most days, crowds of tourists, rank-and-file New Yorkers and candidates seeking jobs with the new administration endure a maze of checkpoints, barricades and police command posts on the traffic-choked streets that bound Trump Tower.”
Leaked documents show that Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of state, is the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas, The Guardian reports.
“The leaked 2001 document comes from the corporate registry in the Bahamas. It was one of 1.3m files given to the Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The registry is public but details of individual directors are typically incomplete or missing entirely.”
“Presidents often are tested early, by unexpected crises or provocations by foreign adversaries. President-elect Donald Trump’s first test has come even before he is sworn in, and so far, he has responded with denial, equivocation and deflection,” the Washington Post reports.
“The test has come over Russia’s brazen intrusion into the U.S. election process through its hacking of the servers at the Democratic National Committee and the email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.”
“Contrary to what Trump said last week, the Russian intrusion was known long before the election. The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima reported in June that the Russians had penetrated the DNC network. Then on Oct. 7, intelligence officials publicly stated that the hacking had occurred, that the Russians were behind it and that ‘only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.’ That was an obvious reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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