Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Donald Trump picks Missouri’s Billy Long to lead the IRS

Former Missouri U.S. Rep. Billy Long has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Internal Revenue Service.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/12/06/donald-trump-picks-missouris-billy-long-to-lead-the-irs/?

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Hegseth's good news

After backlash back home, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said today she'll give Pete Hegseth a chance as defense secretary nominee.

• "As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources," Ernst said in a statement after meeting with Hegseth again today for what she called "encouraging conversations."

Hegseth committed to Ernst that he would complete a full audit of the Pentagon. The DOD has failed its audit seven years in a row.

• Hegseth also said he would select top officials who "uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women" and would assist her work to prevent sexual assault in the military, according to the statement.

— Stef Kight

 

The silicon swamp

The incoming Trump administration will give Silicon Valley moguls unprecedented federal power, with tech-friendly officials and policies intertwined throughout government, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: The tech economy's most aggressive disrupters want to apply their ethos and thinking to government. AI, crypto and move-fast, break-things thinking will be at the center of the new Washington agenda — with America's technological lead over China in the balance, and vast fortunes at stake.

A stunning alignment of people, power and momentum are all suddenly enlarging tech's tentacles:

• President-elect Trump tapped David Sacks — a member of the "PayPal Mafia" of early executives, who became famous as part of the "All-In" podcast ensemble — for the new position of White House AI & crypto czar, with a mandate of "making America the clear global leader in both areas."
• Elon Musk — who has been living at Mar-a-Lago and accompanied Trump to Paris for his return to the world stage — will be the second most powerful man in the world. He was this election cycle's biggest donor (and the biggest in at least the last four presidential cycles) — and is now co-architect with Trump of the new government, pushing relentlessly for "radical change" in government spending, mission and personnel.
• Trump's NASA will be headed by Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who partnered with Musk's SpaceX to lead the first private spacewalk last September.

Musk will be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, who became a billionaire as a biotech entrepreneur, in launching the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — an advisory body named for a cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

• Marc Andreessen, one of the original internet moguls, and other tech leaders have literally been in the Trump transition offices in West Palm Beach, interviewing potential top appointees for the Pentagon, State Department and HHS, The New York Times reports.
• Peter Thiel — the conservative venture capitalist and PayPal Mafia co-founder who was a mentor to Vice President-elect JD Vance — has allies in top Trump positions, including Jim O'Neill, former CEO of the Thiel Foundation, who has been named to be deputy HHS secretary.
• Vance is a former venture capitalist who began his career working for Thiel. 
• Even Jeff Bezos, Musk's rival in the race to Mars, is sounding Trumpy. Bezos said at last week's New York Times DealBook conference that he's "actually very optimistic" about Trump's plans: "He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. ... If I can help him do that, I'm gonna help him."

What they're saying: Joe Lonsdale — a venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder who advised the Trump transition on job candidates — told us: "This is a very optimistic administration, bringing in the talent that is willing to confront the waste, and figure out solutions — people who believe that despite the typical cynicism and nihilism of so many in D.C. that they can change things and that it matters."

• "[M]any of my friends — some who have exited companies after working hard for years and want to give back more — plan to serve and work hard for free to support the efforts," Lonsdale added.
• "I think a lot of people haven't properly understood that there's a huge difference between 'big tech' and 'the most competent builders in the innovation world.' The legacy [media] line is this is tech or Silicon Valley coming in. But most of these guys don't get along with [the] big tech crowd — these are many of our top builders."

Via Truth Social

Between the lines: Silicon Valley also had tons of influence in the Obama administration, particularly early. But it was a very different crowd, including legendary venture capitalist John Doerr.

• Now, a small but loud group of tech stars is coming to D.C. — with a libertarian ethos that doesn't always reflect the Valley as a whole.

👂 What we're hearing: Trump has promised a "golden age of America." So anything that stokes market metrics will appeal to him — including cryptocurrencies. Oil and gas, financial services, private prisons and crypto are all part of the booming "Trump trade" by investors bullish on the new administration.

• Trump took credit when the price of a single Bitcoin surged to a record high last week, with a Truth Social post saying: "CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU'RE WELCOME!!!"

We're told to expect him to promote crypto-friendly regulations — starting with his choice of a crypto advocate and industry adviser, Paul Atkins, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees U.S. markets.

• Part of Trump's charge to Sacks as emerging tech czar is to work on a "legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for."

The bottom line: Andreessen — co-founder of the iconic venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — tweeted Sunday that "political power >> financial power every day of the week."

• Dan Primack contributed reporting.

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Trump promises to end birthright citizenship President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American. But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles, including a legal challenge that it violates the Constitution. Read more.

Key points: Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen. It’s been in place for decades and includes children born to someone in the country illegally or in the U.S. on a tourist or student visa. It’s not the practice of every country, and Trump and his supporters have argued that the system is being abused and that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen. But others say this is a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which protects the rights of citizens. It would be extremely difficult to overturn and even if it’s possible, it’s a bad idea, they say.    Asked how he could get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action, Trump said: “Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.” He gave many more details in a 2023 post on his campaign website where he said he would issue an executive order the first day of his presidency, making it clear that federal agencies “require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children to become automatic U.S. citizens.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Republican-led states are rolling out plans that could aid Trump’s mass deportation effort   New Jersey becomes latest state to prohibit bans on books in school, public libraries   Trump has flip-flopped on abortion policy. His appointees may offer clues to what happens next   Trudeau says Americans are realizing Trump’s tariffs on Canada would make life a lot more expensive   Trump’s Cabinet picks set off political chain reaction in Florida congressional races   Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his

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Donald Trump Controls a Publicly Traded Company. Now He Will Pick Its Regulator.

Last month a major shareholder of a publicly traded company took to social media to complain that people — perhaps short sellers — were spreading lies that could hurt his firm’s stock price.

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-media-truth-social-sec-securities-exchange-commission?

Despite doubts on legality, Trump pledges to sign order revoking birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump vowed to sign an executive order on his first day in office to end the constitutional right to U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, during an extensive Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/12/09/dc/despite-doubts-on-legality-trump-pledges-to-sign-order-revoking-birthright-citizenship/?

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Trump's investment pitch

President-elect Trump today promised an expedited pathway to permits and project approvals for anyone investing $1 billion in the U.S.

• It's not clear who would be eligible, or for what kind of projects, or how the federal government would do away with the usual labyrinth of regulatory hurdles, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

Transition spokespeople didn't immediately return requests for comment on who or what would be eligible.

Screenshot: Truth Social

💰 By the numbers: The U.S. already receives more than $177 billion a year in new foreign direct investment, per Commerce Department data. But that's declining.

• The intrigue: Trump's specific mention of quick environmental approvals will put the spotlight on Lee Zeldin, Trump's pick to lead the EPA.

Elon Musk tweeted: "This is awesome 🚀🇺🇸."

ps:I guess money talks!! What does the Bible say about that??

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Trump's Cabinet

Some of Donald Trump's Cabinet picks met again with lawmakers Tuesday as key GOP senators appeared to be falling in line on the president-elect's nominees. Top Republican senators have signaled support for Trump's plan to oust the current FBI director in favor of loyalist Kash Patel, while keeping the door open for his defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, who faces a slate of misconduct allegations. It is still early in the vetting process for Trump’s Cabinet nominees and confirmation votes won't occur until next year. But in the meantime, it is clear that many GOP senators are being cautious about how they approach and criticize the president-elect's selections.

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Wall Street Is Banking On Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

Private equity firms now hold contracts at nearly two-thirds of the country’s 90 federally designated immigration detention facilities, according to new research shared with The Lever — meaning opaque, unaccountable, and profit-gouging Wall Street interests are set to make hundreds of millions of dollars detaining and surveilling the country’s immigrants.

https://www.levernews.com/wall-street-is-banking-on-trumps-immigration-crackdown/

The Trump and Biden teams insist they’re working hand in glove on foreign crises

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump doesn’t think much of Joe Biden’s foreign policy record. The Republican president-elect frequently casts the outgoing Democratic president as a feckless leader who shredded American credibility around the world during his four-year term.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-foreign-policy-ukraine-syria-mideast-d9bdefb745fc3a54b9f32e8e690bf04c?

Trump taps immigration hard-liner Kari Lake as head of Voice of America

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-kari-lake-voice-of-america-ambassadors-e894cf2e84791b35528baa0cbdd66b22?

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The Great Upheaval

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Chip Somodevilla and Apu Gomes via Getty Images

Governance, media, business and global geopolitics are all being reordered at breakneck speed — all simultaneously. It's the Great Upheaval, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: We're witnessing more change ... across more parts of life ... at more speed ... than ever before. This means opportunity — and new threats or surprising shifts — pop up faster and faster. Anticipating change is tougher than ever, CEOs tell us. There are several causes: a global populist surge, an AI arms race, shifting political alliances globally and domestically, and radical changes in how people worldwide get and share information. 🔋 President-elect Trump's governing plans are designed to exploit this emerging phenomenon — and speed it up, his advisers tell us. Elon Musk routinely tells Trump this will be the most dramatic transformation of business, governance and culture since the nation's founding. It's classic Musk salesmanship, as we've seen with cars: Promise vast, immediate change — regardless of feasibility. Musk, newly appointed White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and many others see explosive change hitting energy, space, new technologies, crypto and tangential businesses. The new Trump team believes government needs to be an accelerant, not a deterrent. This means making agencies leaner, at least in decision-making, and more biased toward pro-business action. The risk: The shifts benefit the architects more than the general public. Musk, Sacks, the Trumps and many incoming leaders are super-wealthy, and deeply invested in the areas set to take flight. 🔭 The big picture: This upheaval benefited Trump, but it very much transcends him and the coming four years of governance. The forces set in motion are bigger than one moment, or one man, or one nation. 💬 Eric Schmidt, the former chairman and CEO of Google, told us: "I think the most important thing people don't know is that tech is now working at mega scale — 'everything everywhere all at once.'" Schmidt, who just released a book on AI, "Genesis," with Craig Mundie and the late Henry Kissinger, added: "This is largely due to scale computing (huge computational and network resources) and the application of AI to everything." For instance, Schmidt is the lead investor in Samaya AI, which is building a financial AI platform designed to leverage AI agents for complex, high-value tasks. "Businesses will make more money and be more efficient if they move quickly to adopt these AI agents," he said. Column continues below ...   🌐 Part 2: Shifting tectonic plates     Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images   This is a global phenomenon and intensifies — and raises — the stakes of the U.S. vs. China cold war for international dominance, Jim and Mike write. "China and the United States are winners," says geopolitical strategist Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, "since they're the countries most dominating the new technologies and relevant supply chains." But there's broad agreement the Great Upheaval is hitting everyone, everywhere. This is just a small snapshot of the tectonic plates shifting at once: 🤖 AI arms race. This is the fixation of the most powerful people at the most powerful companies in the most powerful nations. The sheer magnitude of intellectual and financial investment guarantees massive disruption, even if it never meets the epic expectations. Bremmer tells us this is making tech leaders "geopolitical actors in their own right." 🔌 AI-adjacent surge. These technologies eat up unfathomable energy and data, driving everyone from Musk to Meta to invest billions in new sources of both. Much of this is U.S. investment, which will impact state economies and politics. "We need much more electricity in the U.S. to power these data centers," Schmidt says. "We can use foreign data centers but they are less secure." 🚀 Space war. Another AI adjacent boom. The future of warfare is robots, drones and satellites — not boots on the ground. The nearly trillion-dollar defense budget will shift in this direction. Think about the consequences: Oceans will no longer protect against invasion. A nation's tech will matter more than its conventional military might. 📱 Information wars. We used to get most of our information from "the news." Now, the information in our life pours in from a host of random inputs: a podcast ... someone tweeting ... a Substack ... a snippet of video — the sum of all the noise in our day and on our phone. What to watch: Pay attention to the info flows to particular populations. Our new information cascade is easier to manipulate than the traditional sources of rigorous reporting we all grew up on. Our information diet is blowing up before our eyes, as attention shatters into scores of pieces based on location, job, wealth and politics. This dynamic is true around the globe, and is enhancing the power of authoritarian regimes.

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Trump is named Time’s Person of the Year and rings the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-stock-exchange-time-nyse-bell-ringing-91a59ff0f4ce77c0c6f87e55a38c6c75?

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Trump Picks Oz, Champion Of Medicare Privatization

New Jersey TV doctor Mehmet Oz has decided to stake his Pennsylvania Senate campaign on vilifying legislation that would help Americans afford to visit a doctor when they get sick. At the same time, Oz is pitching a health care initiative that could force millions of seniors off traditional Medicare and into private health insurance plans cited by government regulators for wrongly denying medical claims.

https://www.levernews.com/dr-oz-can-now-pull-off-his-medicare-privatization-scheme-2/

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Trump speed read

President-elect Trump covered lots of ground in his TIME "Person of the Year" interview. Here are some highlights:

• ⚖️ Jan. 6 pardons: Trump plans to pardon almost every Jan. 6 rioter, and said the matter will get his attention within "maybe the first nine minutes" of his term.
• 💊 Abortion pills: The FDA won't stop women from getting them. "That would be my commitment. Yeah, it's always been my commitment," he said.
• 💉 Vaccines: "We're going to have a big discussion," about vaccines, led by RFK Jr., Trump said, without offering many more specifics.
• 🏛️ The filibuster: He wants the Senate to keep it.

✍️ Between the lines: Trump is beginning his term with GOP majorities in both the House and Senate. So why, TIME asked, is his agenda so heavily tilted toward executive action?

• His answer: "I didn't get along with Paul Ryan. I didn't like him. I didn't respect him. I didn't get along with Mitch McConnell ... But I do get along with [incoming Senate Majority Leader John] Thune. I do get along with [Speaker] Mike Johnson ... If I have even a little bit of trouble, I go to an executive order because I can get it done."

Read the transcript.

What Americans think about Hegseth, Gabbard and key Trump Cabinet picks: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for high-level positions in his incoming administration face scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-hegseth-gabbard-rubio-kennedy-cabinet-poll-2e6a3b7a9f5fad9fb7527681f1f5a9aa?

Amazon to contribute $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Meta is also donating $1M

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, a move that comes as major tech companies seek to improve their relationship with the incoming president.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-meta-zuckerberg-inauguration-donation-c540bf7c638def11b8428e633965c718?

ps:Put in your Million and see how much they can get back from there taxes!! Oh that's right they basically don't pay anything now??

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The DOGE Democrats

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

President-elect Trump and Elon Musk are finding a wellspring of unexpected cooperation from Democrats in their plans to crack down on government waste and inefficiency. Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an outside group that won't be part of the government, has been a mostly Republican brainstorm. But centrist and progressive Democrats have begun offering ideas for it. 💡 Rather than mocking DOGE, more than half a dozen House Democrats told Axios' Andrew Solender they have their own ideas about how it could save the federal government money. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), the lone Democrat to join Congress' new DOGE caucus, said his big idea is to shrink the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, perhaps by removing FEMA and the Secret Service from its umbrella. Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) offered several ideas: cutting agency redundancies, consolidating export promotion agencies and instituting self-populating tax forms, as well as the more liberal idea of scrapping fossil fuel subsidies, 🗄️ "It's not a particular department across the board," Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said. "It's the way individuals interact with government — there are so many inefficiencies, so many layers." 🎯 Between the lines: These lawmakers skew younger and male. Some have open ambitions about running for higher office. They're seeking to answer Republicans' newfound alliance with tech billionaires by changing the perception of Democrats as unquestioning champions of bureaucracy. Go deeper.   💰 Tech tries for Trump reset Meta and Amazon are each donating $1 million to President-elect Trump's inauguration fund, as major tech companies aim for a fresh start with him. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, both are meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, following Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's dinner there last month. Why it matters: Big Tech has long been a target for Trump, "who has lambasted the industry as biased and anticompetitive and targeted some of the biggest tech companies with threats of punitive action," notes The Washington Post, owned by Bezos. 📱Salesforce CEO and cofounder Marc Benioff, who owns TIME, tweeted congratulations yesterday to Trump on being named the magazine's Person of the Year: "We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone. May G-d bless the United States of America. ❤️🇺🇸 #Leadership #FutureOfAmerica." Amazon will stream Trump's inauguration on Prime Video, as it did for President Biden — a separate in-kind donation valued at another $1 million. 🏛️ Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his inauguration 38 days from now — an unorthodox move that would fold U.S. allies and adversaries into a very American political tradition, AP reports. Without saying who besides Xi he has invited, Trump said yesterday during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, where he rang the bell to open trading: "Some people said, 'Wow, that's a little risky, isn't it?' ... And I said, 'Maybe it is. We'll see. We'll see what happens.' But we like to take little chances." China-watchers expect Xi to decline the invitation as too risky. But the overture "sheds light on the president-elect's confidence and ambition as he wields power ahead of his second term," CNN notes. 💡 Worthy of your time ... "The Stock Market and TV: Trump's Most Durable Guardrails," by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman (gift link😞   "Trump's fear of falling markets and bad imagery on TV may serve as more formidable checks on some of his more aggressive policies, like mass deportations and sweeping tariffs on trade with China, than any institutional restraints he may face in Washington."

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About 3 in 10 are highly confident in Trump on Cabinet, spending or military oversight: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans may have recently elected Donald Trump to a second term, but that doesn’t mean they have high confidence in his ability to choose well-qualified people for his Cabinet — or effectively manage government spending, the military and the White House, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-cabinet-administration-biden-poll-be16ac992769e9c4636854eee7999dfb?

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Trump Is About to Betray His Rural Supporters

Ron Brownstein: “Donald Trump’s support in rural America appears to have virtually no ceiling. In last month’s election, Trump won country communities by even larger margins than he did in his 2020 and 2016 presidential runs. But several core second-term policies that Trump and the Republican Congress have championed could disproportionately harm those places.”

https://politicalwire.com/2024/12/13/trump-is-about-to-betray-his-rural-supporters/

 

🌴 Bending to Trump

A Wall Street Journal headline calls this "The Week CEOs Bent the Knee to Trump":

• Apple CEO Tim Cook dined at breezy Mar-a-Lago last night — a day after a pilgrimage to Trump's table on Thursday by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Mark Zuckerberg flew in on Thanksgiving Eve. Jeff Bezos will sit down with Trump next week.
• Meta! Amazon! OpenAI! Rat-tat, each donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. "President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement to Axios.
• Trump basked in literal Wall Street applause as he rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange, beneath a giant Platon cover portrait of himself as "Person of the Year" in his beloved TIME magazine.

Why it matters: The bullish "Trump trade" shows markets, from stocks to crypto, believe he'll be good for business. But after staying arms-length during the campaign, CEOs aren't "leaving anything to chance," as The Journal puts it.

📈 Being there: "When Donald Trump arrived at the New York Stock Exchange this week for a postelection victory lap, dozens of influential executives lined up to catch a glimpse of the man who holds the future of their businesses in his hands," The Journal reports.

• "Gathered behind red velvet ropes were senior executives at Visa, Meta Platforms, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab and Citadel ... Real-estate and aerospace magnate Robert Bigelow was spotted in the crowd, as was investor [and Trump stan] Bill Ackman."

👀 Between the lines: In tech, the "turnabout has been especially stark as some tech executives who made donation pledges or met with Mr. Trump this week had appeared to be avowed liberals," the N.Y. Times' Teddy Schleifer and David Yaffe-Bellany note.

🏈 What's next: Daniel Penny — a Marine veteran who choked a volatile, mentally ill Manhattan subway rider and was acquitted of homicide this week — accepted an invitation from Vice President-elect Vance to join him in Trump's box at this afternoon's Army-Navy football game in Landover, Md.

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🇸🇦 Trump envoy meets Saudi crown prince

President-elect Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• It was the first meeting between MBS and a member of the incoming Trump administration since the November elections.

🔭 The big picture: Trump appointed Witkoff, his best friend, as his administration's Middle East envoy with the clear aim of sealing a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia — a process that started under President Biden.

• Trump wants the deal to include a historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and at least some progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sources with knowledge of Trump's thinking said.

Keep reading.

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Unique among ‘Person of the Year’ designees, Donald Trump gets a fact-check from Time magazine

Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a Person of the Year designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview.

https://apnews.com/article/time-trump-fact-check-3e1c54007f0486ac64f146948f7c4376?

[GayatfootofCross]

the Hulk show of the70's (last century)

has 
"Don't Make Me Angry. You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry."

Trump dont like the fact checkers

we will see how it is manifested 

oooooo eeeeeeehks

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Rhetoric and reality diverge in cases of noncitizen voting Before the November presidential election, Ohio’s secretary of state and attorney general announced investigations into potential voter fraud that included people suspected of casting ballots even though they were not U.S. citizens. It coincided with a national Republican messaging strategy warning that potentially thousands of ineligible voters would be voting. In the end, their efforts led to just a handful of cases. Read more.

Why this matters: Of the 621 criminal referrals for voter fraud that Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent to the attorney general, prosecutors have secured indictments against nine people for voting as noncitizens over 10 years — and one was later found to have died. That total is a tiny fraction of Ohio’s 8 million registered voters and the tens of millions of ballots cast during that period.   The Associated Press attended in-person and virtual court hearings for three of the Ohio defendants over the past two weeks. Each of the cases involved people with long ties to their community who acted alone, often under a mistaken impression they were eligible to vote. They now find themselves facing felony charges and possible deportation.   The outcome and the stories of those now facing charges illustrate the gap between the rhetoric about noncitizen voting and the reality: It’s rare, is caught and prosecuted when it does happen and does not occur as part of a coordinated scheme to throw elections.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump appoints Richard Grenell to serve as special missions envoy and Devin Nunes to head a presidential advisory board   Trump nominees should ‘steer clear’ of undermining polio vaccine, McConnell says   Journalists anticipate a renewed hostility toward their work under the incoming Trump administration   Trump hosts Apple CEO at Mar-a-Lago as big tech leaders continue outreach to president-elect   OpenAI’s Altman will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund   FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup   Capitol rioter who tried to join Russian army is sentenced to prison for probation violation

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Trump's creators & destroyers

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Think of President-elect Trump's top Cabinet and West Wing officials in two big buckets, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column: The Creators are charged with stoking a booming, AI-enabled economy, including a low jobless rate — the "golden age of America" that Trump promised after he won. The Destroyers are the more controversial picks — wired to disrupt existing institutions, and acting on smoldering grievances against the organizations they've been picked to lead. Why it matters: This creators-plus-destroyers dynamic dominates the behind-the-scenes jockeying for jobs and influence. Expect jarring swings between popular, pro-growth moves and ruthless government gutting and payback. It's the Trump Way. 🧱 The Creators are concentrated on Trump's economic team, including Treasury nominee Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund veteran with Wall Street cred. Trump wants to spur economic growth via lower taxes and pro-business policies. Howard Lutnick — chair & CEO of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and co-chair of Trump's transition — was named to a souped-up version of Commerce secretary, as leader of Trump's tariff and trade agenda. Kevin Hassett, who'll be director of the National Economic Council — in Trump I, he chaired the Council of Economic Advisers — is popular on the Hill. Trump's trade representative will be Jamieson Greer, who was chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer — the pro-tariff, China-hawk trade representative in Trump I. Trump needs a massive surge in energy production, and greater capacity in adjacent businesses. His pick for Interior secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, will also chair a new National Energy Council, with purview over "ALL forms of American Energy." Joining him on the council will be his choice for Energy secretary, Chris Wright, a Denver-based energy entrepreneur and fracking proponent. Trump needs to juice the AI boom to super-boost growth — and provide more wiggle room for other economic policies. He's creating the new role of AI and crypto czar for David Sacks, who became a tech-bro hero as one of the four "Besties" on the "All-In" podcast. 🧠 The working theory: Remember, Trump treats the markets as his approval rating. To have the leverage to carry out his economic plans, he needs markets to continue booming, as they have under President Biden. So the most savvy companies are finding ways to show how they help Trump boost growth — while keeping quiet on his harder-edged moves. 💣 The Destroyers are out for revenge — sometimes for Trump, sometimes for themselves, sometimes born of ideology. Then they'll rebuild in MAGA's image. These are picks where Trump has gone with this gut. Trump is hellbent on retribution against the FBI for investigating him. Thus the aggressive pick of hardliner Kash Patel for FBI director. Trump would be happy to return the Pentagon, the biggest bureaucracy of them all, to its roots — center it around the needs of warfighters, and tear down and rebuild a broken procurement system. A transition source says Trump told Pete Hegseth, his choice for SecDef: "I expect you to do more with less. They're spending too much money, and we're not getting anything for all that money." So Trump fought back when Hegseth's confirmation chances looked shaky after a series of damaging articles last month. But a ferocious operation by Trump's inner circle now has Hegseth on track for confirmation, barring damaging new information. Column continues below.

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Part 2: Trump feeling "unassailable"

You can see Trump's deep mistrust of the intelligence community in his selection of former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Jim and Mike write.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would bring radically new instincts and priorities to HHS — and, some public-health critics contend, undermine the mission.
• Trump is stacking destroyers in some jobs that don't need Senate confirmation. These include two hard-line appointees announced over the weekend: Ric Grenell, a presidential envoy to world hot spots, and former House Intelligence chair Devin Nunes, who'll chair the President's Intelligence Advisory Board while remaining head of Trump's Truth Social.

Between the lines: Some of Trump's picks have been given the delicate charge of both creating and destroying. Hegseth, for instance, is expected both to shake up the "defense industrial complex," while building up a "powerful military that the president can use as a tool for deterrence," a second transition source said.

• John Ratcliffe, who has been tapped for CIA director, is expected to both destroy what Trump sees as "the Deep State" lurking within the agency, while also building an intelligence apparatus that "won't be caught off guard," and will "give the president the best intelligence in the world," the source said.

👂 What we're hearing: Trump is sticking with his destroyers because they're his people. We're told that this time around, he's vastly less inclined to second-guess his instincts when senators or advisers warn him to be more cautious.

• Trump controls the party. Republicans are only going to pick so many fights — and Trump's likely to get his way most of the time.
• Transition sources tell us that if a senator votes against more than a nominee or two, that lawmaker or their allies could wind up with a Trump-backed primary opponent.

What we're watching: Now that once-skeptical senators are signaling they'll vote to confirm Hegseth, the most vulnerable nominees are Gabbard, who faces skepticism on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Kennedy.

• RFK's past support for abortion rights is an increasingly clear danger zone with Republican senators who have been strongly anti-abortion for their whole careers.
• So Trump insiders are quietly wondering whether the anti-abortion movement will flex its muscle to try to sink Kennedy's nomination.
• By contrast, Trump's natural allies haven't been voicing concerns about Patel.

👀 The intrigue: RFK Jr. had pushed his daughter-in-law, former CIA officer Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, for deputy CIA director, as Axios first reported. We also scooped that RFK Jr. wanted her in the job partly to get to the bottom of whether the CIA was involved in the assassinations of his father and uncle.

• We're told Fox Kennedy has been ruled out for the CIA job because of opposition on the Senate Intelligence Committee. But she could well wind up in another administration job — perhaps as part of Gabbard's team, or in a White House position.

The bottom line: A Mar-a-Lago source tells us that after last week's spree of love from tech moguls and his victory lap at the New York Stock Exchange, TIME's Person of the Year is feeling "unassailable."

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Trump's Cabinet

Key picks for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet will continue their efforts to build support on Capitol Hill this week. Two selections facing particular headwinds, defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth and Trump's choice for intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, appeared with Trump on Saturday at the Army-Navy football game. Hegseth, meanwhile, is trying to assuage concerns among key lawmakers about a series of allegations against him. Gabbard has faced criticism for her positions on Syria and the war in Ukraine that many national security officials see as Russian propaganda. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is also expected to hold meetings with senators this week as the vaccine skeptic aims to shake up federal health agencies.

[bonnie1962]

3 hours ago, GayatfootofCross said:

the Hulk show of the70's (last century)

has 
"Don't Make Me Angry. You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry."

Trump dont like the fact checkers

we will see how it is manifested 

oooooo eeeeeeehks

Maybe you could help me understand this absolute obsession with Trump. The hatred began when he came down the elevator beginning his first campaign. Much has been made about his lack of morality. But I don't really believe that is a problem here or the world at large. After all Clintons behavior in the Oval office had nothing to do with his ability to lead,or so we were told, both here on a christian forum and elswhere, so that type of behavior isn't a problem. Dishonesty, really depends on who is dishonest doesn't it? Biden has   throughhout his political career been proven to be dishonest. Many times not for a ggod reason, but just because  he can. Not a problem Not even a bought and paid for a tall tale about Russian Collusion  could bring a negative word about that type of dishonesty,with nary a word of reproof from most Biden supporters. Even going to far as to impeach on what they knew was a lie. So i f you can or will please explain how this works.

[phkrause]

Trump transition

In wide-ranging remarks on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump downplayed concerns that his administration would revoke the polio vaccine's authorization, suggested he could pardon New York City Mayor Eric Adams and said he will press Ukraine and Russia to end the war. Trump described himself as a "big believer" in the polio vaccine and said that Americans won't lose it amid concerns that his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could seek to revoke its approval. Also on Monday, Judge Juan Merchan ruled Trump does not have presidential immunity protections in the New York hush money case. Trump's transition spokesman called Merchan's decision "a direct violation of the Supreme Court's decision on immunity, and other longstanding jurisprudence."

[phkrause]

📰 Trump ramps up legal threats

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

News organizations are on high alert after President-elect Trump vowed yesterday to continue suing new outlets and influencers over their coverage, Sara Fischer writes in Axios Media Trends. 📊 Trump sued the Des Moines Register late yesterday for defamation, over a pre-election poll that showed him behind in the state. The Register's parent, Gannett Co., today called the lawsuit meritless and vowed to vigorously defend the paper's First Amendment rights. That followed ABC's $15 million defamation settlement with Trump, in a case that some legal experts say the network could've won. Trump has also filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS over a "60 Minutes" interview with Vice President Harris. 🥊 Reality check: While Trump has a long history of filing lawsuits against media companies, he doesn't have a winning track record. But even a losing lawsuit drains the defendant's time and resources — and can damage their reputations no matter the outcome. Go deeper.   Trump's pick for health secretary, RFK Jr, supports polio vaccination, US senator says WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin said on Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's pick for health secretary and a vaccine skeptic, told him he supports polio vaccination. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-pick-health-secretary-rfk-jr-supports-polio-vaccination-us-senator-says-2024-12-17/?

[phkrause]

Trump sues Des Moines Register, pollster for ‘election interference’ after pre-election poll

President-elect Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and its pollster for “brazen election interference” in publishing a survey the weekend before the election that showed Democrat Kamala Harris with a surprising lead of three percentage points in the state.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-des-moines-register-lawsuit-polling-09698af51779943e13ffdc680e4fdbd5?