Speaker Mike Johnson announced that American flags will fly full-staff for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday after all, “to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President,” Politico reports.

“President Joe Biden ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff for 30 days after former President Jimmy Carter died last month, in keeping with tradition following the death of the president. They will return to half-staff the day after the inauguration.”

New York Times: “The move came after Mr. Trump complained that flags were scheduled to be at half-staff during his inaugural ceremony.”

“Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday,” NBC News reports.

“They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials.”

“President-elect Donald Trump said he would create an ‘External Revenue Service’ tasked with collecting tariffs on foreign imports, the latest indication that the Republican aims to carry out his promises for sweeping trade levies when he retakes office,” Bloomberg reports.

“The president-elect didn’t provide any details of whether he planned to pursue the creation of a new government agency, or if his proposal was largely a branding exercise for existing government functions.”

“Former first lady Michelle Obama will skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the second time in two weeks that she is not attending a gathering of former U.S. leaders and their spouses, but former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will be there,” the AP reports.

Bankers and financiers told the Financial Times that Donald Trump’s victory has emboldened those who chafed at “woke doctrine” and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or disabled people.

Said one banker: “I feel liberated. We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled… it’s a new dawn.”

“Some Wall Streeters also feel able to embrace making money openly, without nodding to any broader social goals.”

Said another banker: “Most of us don’t have to kiss ass because, like Trump, we love America and capitalism.”

Steve Bannon taunted Elon Musk on Tuesday, telling Politico that the president-elect’s billionaire right-hand-man doesn’t have all that much power.

Bannon says Musk doesn’t “have the ability to actually make decisions and inform those decisions and drive those decisions.”

He added: “I think we’ll get Elon there. As soon as I can turn Elon Musk from a techno-futilist to a populist nationalist, we’ll start making real progress.”

Jane Mayer: “As recently as the spring of 2023, according to an account shared last week with The New Yorker, Hegseth ordered three gin-and-tonics at a weekday breakfast meeting with an acquaintance in Manhattan.”

Said the person: “It was an extremely strange experience. We met at Fox News in New York for breakfast, and he suggested we go across the street to a bar. It was, like, ten in the morning. Then he ordered two gin-and-tonics at the same time for himself. To be polite, I ordered one, too. But it was so strong I couldn’t drink it, so I ordered coffee. Then he had a third gin-and-tonic. I don’t know how he could pass a security clearance.”

Tennessean: “Hegseth’s prospective appointment also represents an early return on investment in its yearslong aspiration to create a theocratic state in which traditionalist Christian men lead the military and other essential government institutions.”

“At a minimum, Hegseth’s nomination energizes these Reformed evangelicals to dig in their heels and keep fighting.”

“Donald Trump is expected to appear at this year’s World Economic Forum remotely via video conference,” Semafor reports.

“The WEF, which convenes the global economic elite annually at the Swiss ski resort Davos, will take place during the first week of Trump’s presidency. The president-elect attended twice during his first term, and his administration also plans to send Cabinet members in person this year.”

“Donald Trump is about to become the oldest person ever sworn in as president — but he hopes to have the youngest group of top Cabinet officials and advisers of any president in more than three decades,” Axios reports.

“Even as he’s sought to regain his grip on power, the once and future president has tried to build the next generation of his MAGA movement, as seen in his choice of JD Vance, 40, as his vice president.”

Semafor: “Trump’s arrival in office comes at a tipping point for a Republican Party he’s reshaped in his image. He’s outlined a number of populist economic goals, vowing to get rid of taxes on tips and overtime pay while weighing a ‘significant expansion’ of the child tax credit and new tariffs that he sees as a boon to US manufacturing. His populist allies have gone further: Steve Bannon told Semafor last month that it was time to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations.”

“But Trump is now avidly pursuing new corporate partners and investments that line up with a fiercely pro-business — and conventional — Republican agenda, hosting tech industry chiefs at Mar-a-Lago as he forges a close alliance with Elon Musk and rolls out a $100 billion SoftBank investment. The contrast between Trump’s pro-working class talk and his pro-business actions has some of his own supporters asking whether any of his more populist ideas will end up becoming real administration policies.”

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, is portraying his lack of high-level management experience as an asset, saying in prepared testimony for his confirmation hearing that he’d be a “change agent” with “no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives,” Bloomberg reports.

Jonathan Bernstein: “Trump is basically doing about the best he’s ever done with public opinion, but that’s still quite a bit worse than any other president-elect. Or, for that matter, any president just after winning re-election.”