Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
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Washington Post: “The 226-page Plum Book — so called for the desirable jobs that change hands at the end of a presidential term — lists every patronage position in the executive and legislative branches that could be filled by Trump supporters. They’re the policymaking and support positions that will form the spine of the real estate developer’s new government, and they’ll be vacated by the Obama administration by Jan. 20.”
The publication will be released at 10 a.m. here.
For those interested in political jobs outside the administration, there’s Political Job Hunt.
“Republicans see the same ethically challenged complications lurking in Donald Trump’s business portfolio that Democrats are squawking about. They just think Americans don’t care about these entanglements anymore,” Politico reports.
“Indeed, the GOP is so easily dismissing Democratic threats of investigations and ethicists’ calls for divestment out of a belief that the political landscape has shifted.”
President-elect Donald Trump “is widening the circle of candidates for secretary of state and will interview more prospects this week, transition officials said, a sign that after multiple meetings with high-profile hopefuls he still isn’t sold on whom he wants as the nation’s top diplomat,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Though Mr. Trump’s transition team said last week that the search had narrowed to four finalists, new candidates have emerged, including Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., one transition adviser said.”
“Ben Carson, who took Donald Trump on a tour of blighted neighborhoods in Detroit during the presidential campaign, including his boyhood home, has been chosen by Mr. Trump to oversee one of the government’s main efforts to lift American cities as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump in a statement: “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities. We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities.”
Washington Post: From Trump friend to enemy to outsider to cabinet member
“Donald Trump’s protocol-breaking telephone call with Taiwan’s leader was an intentionally provocative move that establishes the incoming president as a break with the past, according to interviews with people involved in the planning,” the Washington Post reports.
“The historic communication — the first between leaders of the United States and Taiwan since 1979 — was the product of months of quiet preparations and deliberations among Trump’s advisers about a new strategy for engagement with Taiwan that began even before he became the Republican presidential nominee, according to people involved in or briefed on the talks.”
“The call also reflects the views of hard-line advisers urging Trump to take a tough opening line with China, said others familiar with the months of discussion about Taiwan and China.”
First Read: “Our take: Trump is playing with Chinese firecrackers. This could be popular, politically — until it impacts American wallets.”
Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus was asked by CBS News how he handles president-elect Donald Trump’s statement that million of people voted illegally “when you know that that’s not true.”
Said Priebus: “I don’t know if that’s not true,” adding that “there are estimates all over the map” on undocumented immigrants voting in election. “It’s possible.”
He elaborated: “I think the president-elect is someone who has pushed the envelope and caused people to think in this country. He’s not taking conventional thought — on every single issue and has caused people to look at things that maybe they have taken for granted.”
Associated Press: “According to two people close to the transition, Trump is moving away from two of the front-runners for the job, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee. Giuliani’s international business ties and public campaigning for the job are said to have rankled Trump. And while Trump has met twice with Romney, he’s said to be aware of the risks of angering his supporters by tapping a Republican who was among his fiercest critics.”
“Former CIA director David Petraeus is still in the mix, though both people close to the transition said Trump’s prolonged decision-making process has left the door open to other options.”
“One of the sources said Trump was open to expanding his short list of secretary of State prospects. Among the possibilities: Jon Huntsman, a former Republican Utah governor who also served as the ambassador to China and speaks Mandarin.”
Stan Collender: “The Trump administration is seriously thinking about not submitting a budget to Congress next year.”
“Although the Congressional Budget Act requires the president to submit the fiscal 2018 budget to Congress between January 2 and February 6, Trump could easily say that it was the responsibility of the outgoing Obama administration to comply with the law before the new president was sworn in on January 20.”
“But while the new president not sending a budget to Congress might not be illegal, it would clearly be unprecedented.”
New York Times: “When Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, called Donald Trump shortly after the Nov. 8 election, they talked about domestic policy and infrastructure. But when Ms. Pelosi raised the specific subject of women’s issues, the president-elect did something unexpected: He handed the phone over to another person in the room — his 35-year-old daughter, Ivanka.”
“David Petraeus’s performance on a Sunday talk show is shaping up as a high-stakes test of how he’d handle mounting concerns about his prospective nomination to be secretary of state,” Politico reports.
“Trump’s team will closely review Petraeus’s appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos’ to see how he handles questions about his past that are bogging down his prospects for nomination and could prevent his confirmation, said the people with knowledge of the process.”
Playbook: “Bob Gates didn’t think much of Donald Trump during the campaign. He penned an op-ed blasting the candidate as unfit for office. But for the last two days, Trump’s inner circle has met with and consulted Gates, one of the few true bipartisan wise men still around. On Friday, Trump himself spoke to Gates. We don’t expect Gates will take a job in the administration. But crazier things have happened. Gates’ book is called Duty, and service is his kryptonite. Whatever happens, Gates has been in Trump Tower for two days in a row, and the next president’s inner circle is clearly relying on him for critical advice — and that itself is noteworthy.”
“President-elect Donald Trump’s ultra-wealthy Cabinet nominees will be able to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes in the coming weeks when they sell some of their holdings to avoid conflicts of interest in their new positions,” the Washington Post reports.
“The tax advantage will allow Trump officials, forced by ethics laws to sell certain assets, to skip the weighty tax bills they would otherwise owe on the profits from selling stock and other holdings. The benefit is one of the more subtle ways that the millionaires and billionaires of Trump’s White House, which already will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history, could benefit financially from their transition into the nation’s halls of power.”
Sarah Palin called Donald Trump’s deal to save roughly 1,000 jobs at a Carrier plant in Indiana “crony capitalism.”
Wrote Palin: “When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent.”
She added: “Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.”
“Donald Trump risks opening up a major diplomatic dispute with China before he has even been inaugurated after speaking on the phone on Friday with Tsai Ying-wen, the president of Taiwan,” the Financial Times reports.
“The telephone call, confirmed by three people, is believed to be the first between a US president or president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since diplomatic relations between the two were cut in 1979.”
“Although it is not clear if the Trump transition team intended the conversation to signal a broader change in US policy towards Taiwan, the call is likely to infuriate Beijing which regards the island as a renegade province.”
New York Times: “The White House was not told about Mr. Trump’s call until after it happened… But the potential fallout from the conversation was significant.”
Paul Krugman: “Donald Trump won the Electoral College (though not the popular vote) on the strength of overwhelming support from working-class whites, who feel left behind by a changing economy and society. And they’re about to get their reward — the same reward that, throughout Mr. Trump’s career, has come to everyone who trusted his good intentions. Think Trump University.”
“Yes, the white working class is about to be betrayed.”
“The evidence of that coming betrayal is obvious in the choice of an array of pro-corporate, anti-labor figures for key positions. In particular, the most important story of the week — seriously, people, stop focusing on Trump Twitter — was the selection of Tom Price, an ardent opponent of Obamacare and advocate of Medicare privatization, as secretary of health and human services. This choice probably means that the Affordable Care Act is doomed — and Mr. Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters will be among the biggest losers.”
Associated Press: Trump voter lost her home to new Treasury Secretary
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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