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In today’s issue:
- Trump adds time to some pledges
- Congress inches toward 2024 finish line
- Ahead of ban, TikTok turns to Supreme Court
- Germany’s government collapses
President-elect Trump is making a politician’s pivot from candidate to officeholder while resetting voters’ expectations about time and his sway.
During an hourlong press conference Monday at Mar-a-Lago, Trump amended campaign vows to fix some of the globe’s most intractable problems. He once said he’d end the war between Ukraine and Russia before taking office.
That’s a month away. Forging a lasting deal between Ukraine and Russia to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion will take longer, judging from Trump’s remarks about the scope of the conflict and his reticence to reveal if he’s spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Nov. 5.
“We are trying to get that war stopped, that horrible, horrible war,” he told reporters, apparently referring to his team. “It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one. It’s nasty. People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen.”
The largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides, and Trump described seeing the images of “carnage” left behind in portions of Ukraine where rubble and wasteland are what remain after Russian shelling. Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris this month during the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Trump during his victory speech last month said, “I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people.”
He promised voters he would curb inflated prices for groceries and housing. During a recent interview with Time magazine, he conceded that lowering grocery bills will be “very hard.”
“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” he said. “I think that energy is going to bring them [prices] down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.”
Imposing tariffs on the goods of other countries entering the United States will make America “rich,” he repeated Monday. But plenty of business leaders and economists disagree, arguing the costs are shouldered by U.S. consumers.
The Hill: Trump tariff plan threatens to drive up gas prices.
House and Senate Republicans did not learn from Trump on Monday whether he wants to start the new Congress in 2025 with legislation to cut taxes or instead begin with measures to tackle immigration and energy, which Senate Republicans would prefer. The friction exists between the chambers because enacting tax, border security and energy changes takes time. And a lot can happen the longer Congress gnaws on issues.
Trump — who spent much of his first term promising $1 trillion in infrastructure investments, a solution for so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. as children, and repeal of the Affordable Care Act — left office accomplishing none of those aims.
The president-elect defended some of his more controversial Cabinet choices, such as Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to steer the Health and Human Services Department. Their confirmation hearings, anticipated in January, could be drawn out by witness testimony.
Trump’s defense of Kennedy underscored some of the hurdles in standing up a government with speed during transitions. And the ideological jumble within his Cabinet will slow governing.
“He’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” he told reporters. “I think he’s got a very open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”
The president-elect said Kennedy, a critic of vaccines, will not block the polio vaccine, which Trump said saved lives. On the other hand, Kennedy’s false assertions of scientific correlations in children between vaccines and autism bolster a need for additional research, the president-elect said. Responding to a question, Trump added he opposes vaccine mandates, such as at schools, in place for decades to safeguard public health.
The Hill’s Niall Stanage reports how Trump walked a tightrope Monday.
CNN: Trump threatened to take aim in court at more news organizations. He recently worked out a $15 million defamation settlement and apology with ABC News. He also mentioned targeting for what he called “election interference” CBS’s “60 Minutes,” The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, and journalism’s Pulitzer Prize Board.
SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL’S BOB CUSACK:
In order to win back the Senate in 2026, Democrats are going to have to have a phenomenal recruiting class.
Republicans will be defending more seats than Democrats, but many of those seats are in ruby-red states such as Alabama, Arkansas and Idaho. Democrats also have to defend a number of seats in competitive states, including Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and Minnesota.
It will take a pickup of four seats for Senate Democrats to control the upper chamber in 2027. While the road exists for them to get there, it’s a very narrow path.
But all is not lost for Democrats. History is not kind to second-term presidents in midterms and both parties usually overreach when they have control of Congress and the White House — as the GOP will possess next year. While Republicans should be pleased with the 2026 map, there are GOP incumbents who may have to fend off primaries. And those contests could shake up the overall battle for the Senate.
Still, Democrats are going to have to go into reddish territory and win in places like Kentucky, Texas and/or Iowa. That will not be easy no matter which way the winds are blowing in the fall of 2026.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ The drone drama in New Jersey has amounted to nothing nefarious, according to special detectors, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said Monday. The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department wrote in a lengthy Monday statement, “We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
▪ For the second consecutive year, The Hill’s Changemakers report highlights two dozen pathfinders who are setting the pace and shaking things up at the Capitol and around the world.
▪ A New York judge upheld a jury’s verdict that made Trump a felon, ruling his conviction in the hush money case is not voided by the Supreme Court’s new test for presidential immunity.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite
GOVERNMENT FUNDING: Top Republicans are signaling some movement in government funding talks ahead of a looming Friday deadline. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters Monday that the “differences are narrowing” between all sides as they try to hash out the last significant funding deal in the divided Congress, but roadblocks remain.
Lawmakers were expected to roll out legislative text over the weekend. But those hopes were dashed as economic assistance for farmers emerged as a key sticking point in talks. Both sides traded blame over the weekend as negotiations over help for farmers appeared to flounder. While Cole said Monday that discussions are “moving in the right direction,” he acknowledged the aid as a “substantial” factor in talks.
“It’s both between the House and the Senate and Republicans and Democrats. So, they’re both institutional differences, and there are partisan differences,” Cole said. But he added “there are a lot fewer of them than there were 24 hours ago.”
Lawmakers widely expect Congress to clear their roadblocks: A government shutdown ahead of the holidays — and Trump’s inauguration — would have reverberating consequences in the House leadership races. Still, Congress will have another fast-approaching government funding deadline next year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to process all 12 annual appropriations bills when the stopgap expires in March.
The Senate is on track to vote on the country’s massive annual defense spending bill Wednesday, with signs that it will pass smoothly despite Democratic objections to language involving transgender care for minors and its massive $895.2 billion top line. Despite opposition from liberal Democrats and some apprehension from Republicans, the National Defense Authorization Act passed out of the House last week in a bipartisan 281-140 vote, with 81 Democrats voting in favor of it.
▪ The Washington Post: House Republicans filed a brief in a Maine lawsuit over transgender medical care coverage for U.S. service members’ dependents, citing a transgender-care-related provision in a defense policy bill that was passed last week.
▪ NBC News: The FBI has held classified briefings warning a handful of U.S. lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party is working to create fake stories to portray them in a negative light because of their hawkish views of Beijing and support for Taiwan.
Tax lobbyists are worried the next Congress could endanger highly anticipated tax reform if it uses the first reconciliation bill to shore up immigration and border security funding. Tax cuts and credits enshrined in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s signature reform, are set to expire at the end of next year. Lobbyists already believe it will likely take longer to pass tax reform than the GOP originally hoped, and it could take even longer if Republicans opt to hold the tax package for a second reconciliation.
“To delay is to kill,” warned Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, which opposes any and all tax increases. “And all it takes is one bad car accident or an interesting scandal, and the Republicans don’t have the majority in the House anymore.”
The Hill: Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is calling on Trump to reject isolationists in the Republican Party who will argue for the United States to focus on China at the expense of Ukraine and other areas of the world.
TRANSITION: Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) weekend announcement that Hegseth will release a woman who accused him of sexual assault from a non-disclosure agreement sets the stage for a media circus that Senate Republicans are calling Kavanaugh 2.0, a reference to the Senate fight over sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Hegseth, however, has the strong support of Trump, who appeared with his embattled nominee, and director of national intelligence nominee at the Army-Navy football game on Saturday.
Other Trump diplomatic choices: The president-elect late Monday announced picks for ambassadors to five countries: George Glass as his pick to be U.S. ambassador to Japan; businessman Lou Rinaldi to be U.S. ambassador to Uruguay; Stacey Feinberg, a former sports and entertainment agent in her father’s business and founder of the Women Founders Network, to be U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg; Leah Francis Campos, a former House committee adviser, former CIA case analyst and relative of Trump’s pick to be Transportation secretary, to be U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic; and Arthur Fisher, president of Fisher Realty in North Carolina, to be U.S. ambassador to Austria.
CIA: Trump has decided to pass over Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for the No. 2 position at the CIA in the wake of pushback by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), according to advisers close to the president-elect. Cotton, a military and intel hawk, is expected to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2025.
Senate: Trump said Monday that he doesn’t expect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to appoint his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to the Senate to fill Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) seat if he is confirmed as secretary of State.
The Hill: Four factors influence the race to pick a new Democratic National Committee leader.
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House will meet at noon. The Senate will meet at 10 a.m.
- The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 2 p.m. The Bidens will depart the White House at 9:10 p.m. for Wilmington, Del.
- Vice President Harris is in Washington and will speak at 11:35 a.m. in Prince Georges County, Md., at an event featuring young leaders from local communities.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Damian Dovarganes
TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block a law that would effectively ban the video-sharing app in the U.S. in a matter of weeks. Arguing the ban violates both its First Amendment rights and the rights of its 170 million American users, TikTok, which is controlled by a Chinese parent company, urged the justices to maintain the status quo while they decide whether to hear an appeal.
President Biden signed the ban into law this spring with wide bipartisan support. Lawmakers said the app’s ownership represented a risk because the Chinese government’s oversight of private companies would allow it to retrieve sensitive information about Americans or to spread propaganda, though no such actions have been proven. To avoid a ban, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, would have to sell the app.
Trump has sent mixed signals about his approach to TikTok. He previously advocated for a prohibition of the app, but more recently has promised to “save” it from a U.S. ban.
▪ The Hill: When asked if he would work to stop the TikTok ban from going into effect, Trump said he will “take a look,” saying he attributes his win in part to TikTok.
▪ ABC News: Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
The new front lines for the fight around affirmative action are at military academies after the Supreme Court banned the practice at most universities back in 2023, writes The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran. Those fighting to end race-conscious admissions at all higher education institutions are seeing losses at the lower courts regarding military schools, teeing up another showdown at the conservative-majority high court.
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Markus Schreiber
GOVERNMENT COLLAPSE: Following the November splintering of Germany’s three-party ruling coalition, the government collapsed Monday after Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for — and lost — a parliamentary confidence vote. Scholz, who has governed since 2021, announced plans to hold elections next year. A caretaker government will rule in the interim.
The unusual move to hold a confidence vote comes after months of internal squabbling that left Scholz and his government without a parliamentary majority to pass laws or a budget. Scholz had expected to lose in order to pave the way for new elections. Germany’s vote comes weeks after the French government fell, deepening a crisis of leadership in Europe at a time of mounting economic and security challenges, The New York Times reports.
Europe’s largest economy is now in flux as the war in Ukraine enters a pivotal moment. Trump, who favors a negotiated agreement between Kyiv and Moscow and withdrawal of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, will take office soon. The president-elect on Monday expressed confidence that he could settle the war between Russia and Ukraine but also stressed that it would be difficult and possibly harder to solve than the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Trump, speaking at a surprise news conference in Florida, called the war in Ukraine “carnage” and stressed it has to stop.
▪ The Washington Post: North Korean troops suffer heavy casualties in Russia, Ukraine says.
▪ CBS News: Ukraine claims it’s behind the Moscow blast that killed the head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces.
SYRIA: Ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad said he had planned to keep fighting rebel forces in the country before Russia evacuated him. “My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” Assad, 59, said on his Telegram account. Assad left the country Dec. 8, when rebel forces took the capital, Damascus. Syrians across the country celebrated the fall of Assad’s brutal regime as rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took control of the country. And the celebrations have continued in the days since, with mass demonstrations across Syria on Friday marking the end to the Assad family’s 50 years of brutal rule.
Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of the rebel coalition that toppled Assad, called for governments to remove terrorism designations from HTS, saying that all constraints needed to be lifted so that Syria could rebuild.
▪ Politico: Turkey controls the militants that ousted Assad, Trump alleged during a wide-ranging press conference Monday.
▪ CNN: The Russian military has begun a large-scale withdrawal from Syria.
▪ The New York Times: Hezbollah acknowledged that its supply route through Syria had been cut off by rebels who toppled the government last weekend, dealing another blow to Hezbollah and its patron, Iran.
▪ NBC News: Israel plans to double its population in the occupied Golan Heights amid intensive airstrikes in Syria.
OPINION
■ How a long-ago fight over a dormant constitutional weapon echoes today, by Jason Willick and Philip Huff, columnist and guest essayist, The Washington Post.
■ The Germany we knew is gone, by Anna Sauerbrey, guest essayist, The New York Times.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press | Library of Congress, John T. Daniels
And finally … On this day in 1903, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made history when they took the first powered flight in their airplane. After building three glider planes, the Wrights’ first powered airplane flew successfully at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
The first recorded flight lasted 12 seconds and 120 feet, with Orville piloting. The best flight of the day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.
The Wright brothers made their first public flights in Europe and America in 1908, and airplane companies soon began to field teams to demonstrate the flying machines they produced — setting in motion a revolution of travel and transportation.
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