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In today’s issue:
- Trump cajoles, pressures GOP to clear appointees
- Congress tees up the next funding fight
- DNC chair vote will shape Democrats’ direction
- Ukraine strikes Russia with U.S. missiles
It helps to have experience hosting television programs, preferably with good ratings.
Telegenic males with money, name recognition, interesting bios and elite degrees are prized. Their established enthusiasm for President-elect Trump and his worldview is required. Bold personalities known for challenging conventions (and critics) are celebrated. From those candidates, a government is poised to get organized next year.
Trump’s appointees, should they be confirmed, are accepting the president-elect’s assignment to show voters they can remake governance, lower consumer prices and interest rates, seal borders and end wars, as Trump promised during his campaign. They vow to cut spending and waste and unravel President Biden’s environmental policies.
Trump on Tuesday announced that his transition co-director Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, is his choice to be Commerce secretary, to “lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,” he said in a statement. One caveat: as created, the U.S. trade representative reports to the president directly.
Lutnick, 63, was reportedly in a candidate pool for the Treasury Department, but Trump has not unveiled that pick and has booked more meetings with potential candidates. The president-elect has been searching for a Treasury secretary who would embrace tariffs but also calm financial markets, where enthusiasm for higher tariffs is spotty.
“He wants somebody who will be deeply loyal, and he wants someone who will be deeply reassuring to markets. Since markets are fearful of the tariff agenda, it’s hard to square both things,” Lawrence Summers, who served as Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, told The New York Times.
The elderly, disabled and the poor: Trump on Tuesday said he will nominate Mehmet Oz, a physician and television personality, to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which has about 6,700 employees and controls more than one-fifth of the total federal outlay. Federal spending on Medicare alone accounts for about 3 percent of GDP. Medicaid is financed by the federal government along with the states.
Oz, 64, who lost a Pennsylvania Senate race in 2022, would serve, if confirmed, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department, “to take on the illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake,” the president-elect said in a statement.
Lessons ahead? Trump told voters he would dismantle the Education Department to cede control to states, but he is expected to nominate Linda McMahon, 76, who was his Small Business administrator during his first term, to be Education secretary. She is serving with Lutnick as a co-chair of his transition.
The Washington Post: Trump’s decision to flout transition rules, law and tradition amounts to a “hostile takeover” of government, says one ally.
Meanwhile, Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and other influencers are lobbying Republican senators personally to confirm former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Defense secretary-designee Pete Hegseth, Kennedy and former House member Tulsi Gabbard, nominated to manage national intelligence. They are among Trump’s most controversial choices to date for roles that historically favor federal management experience.
▪ The Hill: Will a House Ethics Committee report detailing allegations that Gaetz had sex with a minor and used illicit drugs, among other assertions, be released to senators as part of their considerations? The former lawmaker denies all wrongdoing; no charges were brought. Committee members today are expected to weigh whether to release the panel’s findings.
▪ The Washington Post: Damaging information about Gaetz, drawn from lawyer communications in a civil lawsuit, was hacked by a party or parties unknown.
▪ The Hill: If Gaetz is confirmed as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, he could launch a Justice Department crackdown on Big Tech.
▪ The Washington Post: Will Trump heed federal ethics guidelines covering presidents and their wealth while in the White House? Unclear.
SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL’S BOB CUSACK:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) faces a fascinating choice in replacing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump’s choice to lead the State Department.
DeSantis says he will make up his mind in January, but the jockeying for the seat is in full swing.
People in Trump’s orbit and Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), want DeSantis to select Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law.
Lara Trump served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee in the 2024 cycle and drew widespread praise. She said she hasn’t talked to DeSantis about the appointment but has noted she does “know the Make America Great Again, America First agenda better than anyone.”
There are other possibilities, such as James Uthmeier, who is the governor’s chief of staff. The DeSantis appointment would last until a special election in 2026, and the winner of that contest would be up again in 2028.
DeSantis and Trump have had an up-and-down relationship. Not picking Lara Trump would trigger tension with the MAGA movement and could hinder another possible DeSantis bid for the White House.
Of course, DeSantis — who is term limited — could appoint himself. Would such a move help or hurt his political stock? Hard to say. But it’s safe to conclude that the pressure to select Lara Trump will intensify in the coming weeks.
Courts: A jury rendered its verdict in May. A judge will respond soon. And in the background are criminal defendant Trump and his attorneys, who want his 34 felony convictions in New York dismissed. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who won convictions against Trump for falsifying business records in a hush money case, urged Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday to freeze the case while Trump is president. Trump was charged in four criminal cases after his first term in office, but only the New York prosecution went to trial before his electoral victory Nov. 5. Sentencing in the hush money case had been scheduled for Nov. 26.
Rocket men: Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday joined other VIPs and special guests from the Senate and elsewhere to view the test launch in Texas of the unmanned SpaceX Starship rocket. As the president-elect assembles a government, Musk has advised on everything from Ukraine and immigration policy to Cabinet picks.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ Not every city is prepared for climate change. Look up how yours fares.
▪ Bird flu infections have spread to other animals and been confirmed in adults, but California health officials on Tuesday reported a positive case in a child who had no known contact with an infected animal and was recovering at home. There have been 53 cases of bird flu in humans so far this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
▪ The Belgian Surrealist painter René Magritte is the latest artist whose work has sold for more than $100 million at auction.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | Matt Rourke
IT’S GOVERNMENT FUNDING SEASON. Congressional Republicans are debating whether to punt government funding into the new year, as lawmakers race toward their next shutdown deadline on Dec. 20. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) this week said lawmakers are running out of time and that passing a funding extension into early 2025 “would be ultimately a good move” because it would give Republicans and Trump “a little more say in what those spending bills are.”
But the idea doesn’t have total buy-in from the conference amid concerns from defense hawks and the party’s top spending negotiators, The Hill’s Aris Folley reports.
“We’ve got to break this cycle, and this kicking it into next year is not good,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Tuesday. “It’s not fair to the new president, it’s not fair to the new members. They’re going to have to vote on this. I’m not okay with any of this, I would like to finish the bills.”
Top Democrats, meanwhile, have expressed a strong preference for completing fiscal 2025 funding work by Dec. 20, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, declined to say if she and Democrats will support a stopgap if the funding talks fall through.
“My job is to fight like hell to get us to Dec. 20,” she said.
JUDICIAL NOMINEES: Senate Republicans aired frustrations Tuesday after Vice President-elect Vance and other party members skipped votes Monday, greasing the skids for Democratic-backed judicial nominees to be greenlighted as part of a final push to fill the bench with lifetime appointees before Trump takes office.
Republicans on Monday attempted to slow down an effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to advance more than a dozen judicial nominees, writes The Hill’s Al Weaver, which Democrats have prioritized before ceding power at year’s end. But Republicans were unable to stop Democrats as a handful of their GOP colleagues did not show up to the Capitol for votes, which stretched until close to midnight.
“If we don’t show up, we lose,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who was visibly frustrated by the lack of attendance and spoke out at a Tuesday GOP senators’ lunch. “I don’t care what the reasons were. We have fewer than 15 scheduled legislative days. You have to show up. Period. End of story. There’s nothing more important.”
▪ The Hill: The House Oversight and Accountability Committee grilled Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell on Tuesday over a since-fired FEMA employee’s directive that staff avoid houses with Trump campaign signage in the wake of Hurricane Milton.
▪ The Hill: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) plans to file legislation that would prohibit trans women from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in all federal buildings. Mace’s new bill — which has gotten support from fellow Republicans — could run afoul of the Biden administration’s latest changes to Title IX, the federal civil rights law preventing sex discrimination in schools and education programs. Mace’s original resolution came just a week after Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) made history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House will meet at 10 a.m. The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.
- The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden is 82 today! 🎂
- Vice President Harris is in Hawaii and has no public events.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Alex Brandon
THE BATTLE OVER who will take the reins of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has begun as the party points fingers and works to refocus after resounding losses on Election Day. Current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison is not expected to seek another term, opening up what could be a highly competitive contest for his leadership role. Whoever takes the national chair will signal where the party’s priorities stand as Trump reenters the Oval Office, writes The Hill’s Julia Mueller, and steer Democrats forward as focus turns toward 2028.
The race officially kicked off this week when former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) entered the ring on Monday. Minnesota state Democratic Party head Ken Martin jumped in on Tuesday, and multiple other names are being floated for the slot. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel is reportedly weighing a bid, but former Obama adviser David Axelrod and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) publicly clashed over the suggestion last week.
“Just like the presidential election was a change election, the DNC chair election will be a change election,” said Todd Belt, the director of the political management program at George Washington University. “People want a break from the past.”
The DNC chair election is expected to take place in the early months of 2025.
The Washington Post: The Democratic National Committee workers’ union on Monday condemned layoffs by the organization, saying permanent employees were terminated last week with one day’s notice and no severance.
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Oleg Petrasiuk, Ukrainian 24th Mechanized Brigade
UKRAINE: Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon its plan to join NATO, Reuters reports. Five current and former Russian officials said the Kremlin could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines.
Meanwhile, Ukraine hit a Russian weapons arsenal with U.S.-made missiles that it fired across the border for the first time — a major escalation on the 1,000th day of war. The attack comes just two days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light to use the longer-range American weapons against targets inside Russia.
“The fact that ATACMS were used repeatedly in the Bryansk region overnight is, of course, a signal that they want escalation,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Rio de Janeiro, told reporters. “Without the Americans, it is impossible to use these high-tech missiles, as Putin has repeatedly said.”
Republicans and Democrats agree with Biden’s decision to approve Ukraine’s use of U.S.-made long-range missile strikes into Russia, but are cautious about the impact it might have on escalation, writes The Hill’s Brad Dress. Republicans have also expressed concern that the decision to authorize ATACMS missiles within Russia has also come too late, with Biden lifting the policy restriction after months of intense requests from Ukrainian officials and GOP lawmakers.
“Better late than never, but it was late,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I’ve been urging the administration to untie their hands for two years, and every weapons system they drag their feet and then they finally approve it. … Let them use everything we’re giving them. Stop putting restrictions on them.”
▪ The Washington Post: Biden approved antipersonnel mines for Ukraine, undoing his own policy.
▪ The New York Times: Russia has suffered colossal losses in Ukraine. Is its army depleted?
TWO UNDERSEA INTERNET CABLES in the Baltic Sea were suddenly disrupted amid fresh warnings of possible Russian interference with global undersea infrastructure. Sweden has opened a probe into suspected sabotage of one cable, which links to Lithuania. An underwater communications cable connecting Finland and Germany was cut on Monday morning. Germany’s defense minister said the cutting of the cables appeared to be deliberate acts of “sabotage.”
MIDDLE EAST: As Israeli troops advance in southern Lebanon, they are finding large troves of Russian weapons, confirming long-standing suspicions that Hezbollah is enhancing its fighting capacity with the help of sophisticated Russian arms.
Amos Hochstein, a top U.S. envoy to the Middle East, said Tuesday there was progress in negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah on a cease-fire proposal.
“We have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein said, adding that outcome is “within our grasp.”
▪ CBS News: Trump’s win is fueling discussion of Israel annexing the occupied West Bank. Here’s what that means.
▪ Times of Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s judgment and policies at major junctions in Israel’s ongoing war against Iran and its proxies.
OPINION
■ Democrats can become the party of insurgency again, by Thomas B. Edsall, columnist, The New York Times.
■ Trump promised to be a dictator on Day 1: Here’s why the Insurrection Act blocks him, by Julien Berman and Laura Dickinson, opinion contributors, The Hill.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press | M. Spencer Green
And finally … 🔎 “It’s bird CSI!” enthused a forensic ornithologist who helps solve some of the unknowns involved in airstrikes between birds and jets. The work takes place in a national lab at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington.
The Smithsonian’s “Feather Identification Lab” pinpoints species of birds that were hit by aircraft. It’s an effort to improve aviation and bird migration safety, and the lab’s research is built into just about every daily plane trip, WTOP reports (check out video and audio).
The Federal Aviation Administration boasts of the safety research, which draws on the expertise of museum specialists who can identify species of accidentally slain birds after examining tail feathers and the scant remains that have been sent to the specialists for study.
The museum has one of the largest bird collections in the world, housing more than 600,000 specimens, large and small, common and extinct. The collection, arranged in silent, feathery repose in drawers and cabinets, was created more than 200 years ago and is still growing (Science Insider video).
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