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


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57 minutes ago, phkrause said:

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?

clutch the pearls

For all Eternity God waited in anticipation for  You  to show up to give You a Message - YOUR INCLUDED !!! { a merry dance }?️‍?

" If you tarry 'til you're better
You will never come at all "   .. "I Will Rise" by the late great saved  Glen Campbell

If your picture of God is starting to feel too good to be true, you're starting to move in the right direction. :candle:

 

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."

Romeo and Juliet

 

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What Americans think of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his health stances

WASHINGTON (AP) — The kids seen by Dolores Mejia around suburban Phoenix have been growing heavier in recent years. Their parents, too, she says.

https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-vaccines-food-additives-pharmaceuticals-trump-797750f5f141161778792e84602b57c8?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🌐 Rubio's toughest task

One of Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio's most challenging tasks won't be abroad but at home, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

  • He'll have to navigate a network of envoys nominated by President-elect Trump to manage key foreign policy issues directly out of the White House.

Why it matters: Rubio has extensive foreign policy and national security experience from his years in the Senate, but he isn't a member of Trump's inner circle.

🔎 Zoom in: Trump has appointed numerous presidential envoys and given them many of the State Department's responsibilities.

  • They've already started meeting with foreign diplomats and traveling to the regions they're assigned to work on.
  • Rubio, on the other hand, has declined all requests by foreign diplomats and ministers to meet with him, saying he is focused on his confirmation process and staffing the State Department, three sources with direct knowledge told Axios.

The intrigue: Ric Grenell, Trump's pick to be the presidential envoy for special missions, will focus on the "hottest spots around the world," including Venezuela and North Korea.

  • A source with knowledge of the situation said Grenell would be best positioned to succeed Rubio if he leaves the administration.

ps:Exactly!! Will he be able to really do his job or be told what to do at every turn?????

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Republicans Said the FTC Was Too Politicized. Now Trump’s FTC Pick Says It Should be Politicized — by Trump.

For years, Republicans claimed that Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan was politicizing her ostensibly independent agency by working too closely with the Biden administration. Days before the election, House Republicans aligned with Donald Trump even put out a scathing report on the subject.

https://theintercept.com/2024/12/18/trump-ftc-andrew-ferguson-ticket-fees/?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Limits of the MAGA-verse
 
Illustration of a red Maga-like baseball cap that reads
 

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

 

The MAGA-verse — with President-elect Trump and Elon Musk at the helm — is wielding unprecedented power over Congress. But this week also revealed limits, Axios' Stef W. Kight reports.

  • Why it matters: Three times now, influential voices surrounding Trump — often organizing on X — have failed to get exactly what they wanted.

Since Trump and congressional Republicans ran the table 46 days ago ...

  • John Thune of South Dakota was elected Senate majority leader, despite a fevered push by Trump allies to elect Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). Scott didn't even make it past the first round of votes.
  • Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was forced to withdraw from consideration to be attorney general. Despite being celebrated by some in Trump's orbit, the votes weren't there from Senate Republicans.
  • 38 House Republicans defied Trump on Thursday by voting against a short-term spending deal he explicitly asked for.
  • Congressional Republicans went against Trump's wishes again yesterday by voting for a spending bill that didn't include an increase in the country's debt ceiling.

👀 Between the lines: There's no denying that an X post from Musk or a Truth Social post from Trump still hold huge sway over GOP lawmakers.

  • But the MAGA-verse has proven more effective at shooting down ideas and plans, rather than making the case for things.

🪖 A big exception: An outpouring of support from Trump and his online backers solidified the chances his pick for the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, with wavering senators.

 

🏃 Trump pick marathon

From Monday to New Year's Eve, C-SPAN will run continuous coverage on the people President-elect Trump plans to nominate for top government roles — in their own words.

  • Zoom in: C-SPAN will mine its archives for speeches and interviews given by the candidates on the campaign trail, in congressional hearings, at think tanks and beyond.

First up on Monday are CIA Director pick John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio, UN Ambassador pick Elise Stefanik and Commerce Secretary pick Howard Lutnick.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🌵 Mobilizing Trump's youth, podcast army

PHOENIX — Five hundred fans of Charlie Kirk — the 31-year-old founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, the MAGA-verse's biggest outside group — broke into applause yesterday as Kirk welcomed former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to the stage for a taping of "The Charlie Kirk Show" podcast, Mike reports.

  • "I wish they were all members of the United States Senate," Gaetz joshed, a month after withdrawing as President-elect Trump's choice for attorney general, and with release expected imminently of a House Ethics Committee report on his conduct.
  • "I think they want you to be pope!" Kirk quipped.
  • "I'm a Baptist!" Gaetz replied.

Why it matters: Kirk is one of the biggest winners of November's election who wasn't on the ballot. He'll introduce Trump today as the climactic guest of Turning Point's annual AmericaFest. This year's victory-lap edition is a triumphalist, four-day MAGAstock that drew 21,000 Trump diehards, many in college, to the desert the weekend before Christmas.

🥊 Kirk, who caught snippets of college football playoff games backstage, is the boyish, often controversial leader of a MAGA army that will:

  1. Bring grassroots pressure on Republican senators to confirm all Trump nominees. "Confirm the Mandate" is how Turning Point Action, Kirk's political arm, puts it.
  2. Insist GOP lawmakers toe the Trump line. In a tectonic change for the right, Turning Point is happy to be as combative with Republicans as with Democrats.
  3. Push Trumpers nationwide to act on Elon Musk's insistence, which Kirk repeated onstage, that everyday users of X "are the media now."

🎧 Between the lines: It's all backed by a vast network of friendly podcasts, dozens of which taped on elaborate sets that sometimes even include teleprompters. "Media Row" is actually two huge wings of the Phoenix Convention Center atrium.

  • Kirk is close to Trump, Vice President-elect Vance, Don Jr. and Tucker Carlson. During the election, Turning Point Action launched a high-risk, high-reward "Chase the Vote" turnout operation for Trump — and won big.
  • Kirk has become one of the most popular pitchmen for products aimed at "patriots": "Use promo code KIRK today." At the Gaetz taping, audience members had to show proof of membership in "Charlie Kirk Exclusive," the podcast's paid tier.

🧮 By the numbers: Turning Point — which also holds a Student Action Summit, a Young Women's Leadership Summit and a Pastors Summit — tells Axios this weekend's AmFest is the group's largest-ever multiday event, with 6,000 students among the 21,000 attendees.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Media's suck-up moment
 
Illustration of a news anchor microphone wearing a MAGA hat.
 

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

 

Fearing political retribution and strained by new business challenges, media companies that once covered President-elect Trump with skepticism — and in many cases, disdain — are reconsidering their approach, Axios' Sara Fischer and Dave Lawler write.

  • Why it matters: Trump's decisive victory in November has forced media executives to put their business interests ahead of their personal politics.

Case-in-point: Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, a longtime Democrat whose wife served as the ambassador to the Bahamas during the Obama administration, met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week, Axios confirmed.

  • "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who railed against Trump for years, met with Trump in an hour-plus meeting at Mar-a-Lago last month, infuriating their loyal audience. Scarborough said the reaction showed "a massive disconnect ... between social media and the real world."

🔎 Zoom in: Amid a record media trust deficit, outlets once critical of Trump are now making overtures to the former and future president, and the Americans who voted for him.

  • A week after Trump's victory, two executives from TelevisaUnivision, the parent of the largest U.S.-based Spanish-language broadcaster, flew to Mar-a-Lago so the president-elect could personally thank them for election support, The Wall Street Journal reported.
  • L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong vowed (on Fox News, no less) to balance out his editorial board with conservative voices. He also has discussed plans to add a digital "bias meter" for editorials and opinion columns.
  • Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos (who, like Soon-Shiong, overruled his staff to kill a Harris endorsement) said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit that he's "actually very optimistic" about Trump's second term.

🖼️ The big picture: Compare that to the resistance media era that started in 2016, with outlets like The Washington Post garnering tough-on-Trump reputations (and thousands of subscriptions).

  • This time around, national outlets — struggling to regain viewers and subscribers — are trying to signal they're no longer out for blood.

Between the lines: Another business consideration for news outlets reversing course is the legal risks associated with getting on Trump's bad side.

  • ABC's $15 million defamation settlement with Trump shocked some legal experts who say ABC could've easily won the case. ABC has declined to say why it settled. But media onlookers see the settlement as a possible effort to avoid further scrutiny and legal attacks from the president-elect.

👀 What we're watching: Tech titans facing historic regulatory scrutiny are also scrambling to be inside Trump's tent this time.

  • Meta, Amazon and Open AI have each donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Bezos all have met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago since the election.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🌵 Trump promises "common-sense revolution"

During his first rally-style speech since the election, President-elect Trump promised a "common-sense revolution," delighting the triumphant crowd at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest, at the Phoenix Convention Center.

  • "Woke is bullsh*t," Trump — whose swift appointments and activist transition reflect his certainty about his second term — said at one point.
  • "The people have given us their trust. And in return, we're going to give them the best Day 1, the biggest first week and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any president in American history."

In the desert address, Trump ...

  • 🚢 Threatened to reassert control of the Panama Canal, contending shippers are charged "ridiculous" fees, and warning "it's falling into the wrong hands" — a reference to growing China influence. Panama's conservative president José Raúl Mulino said sovereignty is "not negotiable." Go deeper.
  • 🏔️ Said he'll restore the name of Mount McKinley, North America's tallest mountain, which was renamed Denali, the Alaskan Native name, in 2015. Go deeper.
  • 🥊 Scoffed at the notion he's ceding presidential power to Elon Musk: "No, no, that's not happening. ... Elon has done an amazing job. Isn't it nice to have smart people that we could rely on? ... So we want to thank him. But, no, he's not going to be president — that I can tell you. And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be. He wasn't born in this country." (Musk was born in South Africa.)

🗺️ In a personnel announcement a few hours later, Trump declared: "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."

  • During his first term, Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, but was rebuffed by the Danes. Go deeper.

🗞️ Wall Street Journal headline: "Trump Threatens to Take Control of Panama Canal, Greenland."

🪖 Go deeper on Trump's Pentagon picks: Trump named Stephen Feinberg as deputy secretary of Defense, Bridge Colby as undersecretary for policy, Michael Duffey as undersecretary for acquisitions and sustainment, and Emil Michael as undersecretary for research and engineering. All face Senate confirmation hearings. (N.Y. Times gift link)

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🏛️ Dems warn Speaker

House Democrats are sending an early warning signal to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that he shouldn't count on them to rescue him again, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

  • Why it matters: Johnson will have the barest of majorities next year — and he's staring down growing unrest within the Republican conference.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has said he'll vote against Johnson's reelection as speaker on Jan. 3, with several other Republicans saying they're undecided.

  • With a majority as narrow as 219-215, Johnson may only be able to afford to lose one vote.

State of play: At a caucus meeting Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) signaled to his members that relations with Johnson had entered a new, significantly worse phase.

  • He pointed to Johnson's reversal on the funding deal last week and letting communications go dark at times, according to three lawmakers and a fourth source present for his remarks.
  • House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said won't personally ask Democrats to bail out Johnson going forward as they did in May.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Posted

This behavior is so embarrassing.  :blush:  Reminds me of when i was in England and some very strange statements were being made from the WH, so much so i was embarrassed  to be an American. When i told one of the ladies who I was having lunch with, that I wasn't backing any of these things, she told me i should tell everyone I was Canadian. :🙂

Posted

It is really difficult to believe anyone is embarrassed by Trumps statement concerning Greenland and yet would have voted for  Harris,better known as Tweetie Bird, in MN.And of course her VP pick was a real doozy.Daffy Duck  the brain that felt boys needed tampons.

The dems have a lot of credit for Trump winning the presidency. Their insane hatred put him higher in the polls everytime they tried to nail him with something. It will continue as there is no cure for what is wrong with the democrats since Trump came down the escalator.

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Trump wants mass deportations. A ride-along with immigration officers shows the challenges

NEW YORK (AP) — The immigration officers sat in their vehicles before dawn near a two-story building. A New York subway line rumbled overhead, then an officer’s voice crackled over the radio.

https://apnews.com/article/deportation-trump-immigration-ice-border-ba586dc760a5ffab73c0611fbf924df9?

A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt once declared the Panama Canal “one of the feats to which the people of this republic will look back with the highest pride.” More than a century later, Donald Trump is threatening to take back the waterway for the same republic.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-panama-canal-roosevelt-treaties-1999-handover-8db28fd0249377a3f102cbb0a81e9356?

President-elect Trump wants to again rename North America’s tallest peak

President-elect Donald Trump has once again suggested he wants to revert the name of North America’s tallest mountain — Alaska’s Denali — to Mount McKinley, wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict about what the peak should be called.

https://apnews.com/article/denali-mckinley-alaska-tallest-peak-donald-trump-990bfc96869ccb4f23cec6ec648b570e?

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Posted
29 minutes ago, phkrause said:

Trump wants mass deportations. A ride-along with immigration officers shows the challenges

NEW YORK (AP) — The immigration officers sat in their vehicles before dawn near a two-story building. A New York subway line rumbled overhead, then an officer’s voice crackled over the radio.

https://apnews.com/article/deportation-trump-immigration-ice-border-ba586dc760a5ffab73c0611fbf924df9?

A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt once declared the Panama Canal “one of the feats to which the people of this republic will look back with the highest pride.” More than a century later, Donald Trump is threatening to take back the waterway for the same republic.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-panama-canal-roosevelt-treaties-1999-handover-8db28fd0249377a3f102cbb0a81e9356?

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

i silly its not a commandment

its  the natural flow of a fleshy heart

really amazing!

IMAGINE IN DROVES

soon

(“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”)

 

For all Eternity God waited in anticipation for  You  to show up to give You a Message - YOUR INCLUDED !!! { a merry dance }?️‍?

" If you tarry 'til you're better
You will never come at all "   .. "I Will Rise" by the late great saved  Glen Campbell

If your picture of God is starting to feel too good to be true, you're starting to move in the right direction. :candle:

 

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."

Romeo and Juliet

 

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Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump appears intent on making America “bigger" again. In the past week, he’s taunted Canadian officials by suggesting the US could absorb its northern neighbor and make it the 51st state. He threatened to take over the Panama Canal, the US-made waterway controlled for a quarter century by its Central American namesake. And on Sunday, he resurfaced his first-term desire to obtain Greenland, a Danish territory he has long hoped to acquire for “purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World.” Trump’s transition team declined to clarify whether these latest statements reflect genuine ambitions or other motivations, instead pointing CNN back to his recent comments and social media posts.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Trump's empire dreams
 
Photo illustration of Donald Trump holding his hands to his forehead and looking at the earth.
 

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images

 

President-elect Trump has big plans to make America greater — in terms of square mileage, Axios' Dave Lawler and Zachary Basu write.

Why it matters: Trump has been in a strikingly imperial mood since his election victory. He has floated acquiring Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal, annexing Canada, and potentially invading Mexico — to the intense consternation of their leaders.

  • Trump is "entertaining an American territorial expansion that, if he's serious, would rival the Louisiana Purchase [of 1803] or the [1867] deal that netted Alaska from Russia," as CNN put it.

In each case, Trump is blending trolling, negotiation and intimidation.

  • He pitched statehood for Canada during a Mar-a-Lago to jokingly needle "Governor" Justin Trudeau.
mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%

But he has doubled down in the last 48 hours, including via memes (above), on taking over Greenland and claiming the Panama Canal. It's unclear how exactly either would be accomplished short of an invasion.

  • "Trump's Wish to Control Greenland and Panama Canal: Not a Joke This Time," a New York Times headline insists.

👓 Between the lines: This is Trump's foreign policy playbook — he says wild stuff, sometimes acts on it, and often doesn't.

  • Prepare for whiplash after four years of President Biden extolling alliances and institutions.
  • Trump has little regard for the "global order." He thinks throwing foreign partners off balance — or, when possible, steamrolling them — better serves American interests.

🧊 State of play: Greenland's prime minister, Múte Egede, hit back at Trump yesterday: "Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom."

  • A day earlier, Trump had labeled taking "ownership" of the world's largest island "an absolute necessity."

It was widely treated as a joke when Trump first floated buying Greenland in 2019. Then Trump canceled a trip to Denmark, which controls Greenland, after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuffed him.

  • This time, The Times notes: "Arctic experts did not dismiss Mr. Trump's Greenland bid as a joke."

🚢 In a Saturday evening post on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. would "demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us" if fees for U.S. ships to transit the waterway — which the U.S. returned to Panamanian control beginning in 1977 — were not reduced.

  • Panama's president declared in an on-camera address Sunday that Panama would not hand over a single square meter of the canal, to which Trump replied on Truth Social: "We'll see about that!"

🔭 Zoom out: That's the second time this month that Trump proposed a land grab in the context of trying to renegotiate trade terms.

  • Trump previously told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his country could avoid tariffs if it became America's 51st state — a message he has repeatedly re-upped through memes and jokes.

But it's not all fun and games. Trump's allies have also been discussing a potential "soft invasion" of Mexico, as one adviser phrased it to Rolling Stone.

  • That could involve targeting cartels through cross-border special forces operations or drone strikes.

The bottom line: America First is colliding with American imperialism.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Toyota is donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration

DETROIT, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab of North America is donating $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after Detroit's Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab and General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, said they would give the same amount.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/toyota-is-donating-1-million-trumps-inauguration-2024-12-24/?

The Big Companies Funding Trump’s Inauguration Despite Denouncing Jan. 6

The second Trump inaugural fund is on track to be the most lucrative yet

https://www.wsj.com/business/trump-inauguration-sponsors-large-company-donations-a3cc1b92?

  • Sad 1

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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Trump's first-day frenzy
 
A word cloud showing things Donald Trump has said he will do in his first day in office. He mentioned more than 60 things, including closing the border, settling the Russia-Ukraine war and defunding schools with vaccine mandates.
Data: Axios analysis of Rev.com transcripts. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

President-elect Trump is setting the stage for an explosive first day in office: pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, a vacuum-sealing of the Southwest border, and a massive regulatory rollback affecting vast swaths of the American economy, Axios' Zachary Basu and Erin Davis write.

  • Why it matters: The tone of the next four years will be set on Day 1. Trump and his transition — armed with a barrage of executive orders — are preparing an early shock-and-awe campaign to lay the foundation for his ambitious second term.

🖼️ The big picture: Trump's Day 1 promises fit three big themes, according to an Axios analysis of his speeches, press conferences and interviews.

1. Immigration: No issue has defined Trump's political identity more than his crusade against illegal immigration, particularly after border crossings surged to record highs under President Biden.

  • A brain trust of West Wing border hawks — led by Stephen Miller and incoming border czar Tom Homan — will help unleash executive orders ending Biden's temporary "parole" programs, restarting construction of the border wall and suspending refugee admissions.
  • Trump is hellbent on immediately launching the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, despite the logistical challenges. Watch for a Day 1 flex of the new administration's deportation muscle.
  • The president-elect has also vowed to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship, setting up a constitutional clash over the 14th Amendment that could wind up at the Supreme Court.

2. Red meat for MAGA: The second bucket of executive orders will seek to institutionalize the views of the GOP's culture warriors.

  • Priorities for Day 1 include a ban on DEI programs and requirements across the federal government — and pardons for supporters convicted for breaking into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
  • Trump, whose campaign spent millions of dollars on anti-trans ads, also wants to use executive action to ban trans women from women's sports. The exact mechanism for doing so is not yet clear.
A word cloud showing things Donald Trump has said he will do in his first day in office. He mentioned more than 60 things, including closing the border, settling the Russia-Ukraine war and defunding schools with vaccine mandates.
Data: Axios analysis of Rev.com transcripts. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

3. Big business: CEO and investor confidence has soared since the election, as Corporate America revels in Trump's promise to slash "10 old regulations for every new one," as he put it at his press conference last week.

  • Trump has vowed to expedite permits for drilling and fracking, even if it means acting like a "dictator" for one day. Inauguration will start the clock on his one-year goal of reducing energy prices by 50%.
  • Trump plans to aggressively target Biden's climate policies by killing tax credits for electric vehicles and rolling back emissions standards, as well as any "job-killing" regulations affecting automakers.
  • Wall Street is working feverishly to persuade Trump not to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. But he seems intent on ushering in a new era of MAGA protectionism as quickly as possible.

🔎 Between the lines: Many of Trump's sweeping promises will require the support of Congress. Others have proven to be hyperbole.

  • "It's hard to bring [prices] down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," the president-elect told NBC's "Meet the Press," despite constantly pledging on the campaign trail to crush inflation.
  • Trump also tamped down his talk of settling the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office, telling reporters this month that peace may even be "more difficult" than in the Middle East.
  • 🚢 P.S. Trump on Christmas named Kevin Marino Cabrera — a Miami-Dade County commissioner, and Florida state director of Trump's 2020 campaign — as ambassador to Panama, which he called, "a Country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal." Go deeper.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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MAGA civil war
 
Musk's tweet
 

Via X

 

A MAGA-world civil war erupted yesterday when a social media post on American culture turned into a pitched battle over race, immigration and billionaires versus the working class, Axios' Ben Berkowitz and Zachary Basu write.

  • Why it matters: The fight exposes one of the MAGA movement's deepest contradictions. It came to prominence chiefly via the white, less-educated, working class — but is now under the full control of billionaire technologists and industrialists, many of them immigrants.

The battle royale on X sets up a tense MAGA vs. DOGE moment that could infect the early stages of President-elect Trump's second presidency.

  • While some want to make America great by restricting immigration and promoting the American worker, others want to cut costs and increase efficiency no matter who does the work.

💡 How it happened: The skirmishes started Sunday when Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his adviser on AI policy.

  • Krishnan's appointment triggered an anti-Indian backlash on social media, based largely on his past advocacy for lifting caps on green cards.
mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.axios.com%

Vivek Ramaswamy escalated the conflict into a full-blown war yesterday with a tweet blaming an American culture that "venerated mediocrity over excellence" for the growth in foreign tech workers.

  • "This can be our Sputnik moment," he wrote. "We've awaken[ed] from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump's election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness."

Elon Musk's X is the town square for the MAGA movement. By stepping into that square and firmly criticizing American culture — while praising the immigrant work ethic and parenting model — Ramaswamy threw down a gauntlet.

  • Musk tried to defend his DOGE co-leader and explain his argument, framing it as using immigration to supplement, rather than replace, American workers.
  • "Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning," Musk wrote.

👓 Between the lines: The problem for many MAGA adherents was accepting the very notion of immigrants telling them America needs more immigration to fill lucrative jobs in America.

  • It revived old tensions around the H-1B visa, which is reserved for people who "perform services in a specialty obligation" but practically speaking has become a crucial tool of Silicon Valley's growth.

🇮🇳 Ramaswamy's parents immigrated from India, the home country of as many as 75% of petitioners in recent years for an H1-B visa.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🔎 Center of MAGA storm

Sriram Krishnan has become a MAGA lightning rod since President-elect Trump named him senior policy adviser for AI, working in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, on Dec. 22.

  • The fracas is due to both anti-Indian racism and Krishnan's pro-immigration views, Axios' Dan Primack reports.

🔭 The big picture: Krishnan is an unlikely candidate for controversy, known throughout Silicon Valley for his affability and to the broader world as co-host of a podcast with his wife, tech entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy.

  • Krishnan has advocated for raising country caps on green cards, but hasn't specifically commented on H-1B visas (despite incorrect social media claims to the contrary). His appointment stirred a swift backlash on social media over those immigration views,

🔬 Zoom in: Krishnan was born and educated in India, moving to the U.S. on an L-1 visa (intra-company transfer) in 2007 to work at Microsoft.

  • He remained in Seattle for just over six years, mostly focused on Azure, before moving to Silicon Valley and serving in senior product roles at Snap, Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter. He became a U.S. citizen in 2016.
  • During the pandemic, Krishnan and Ramamurthy launched a popular show on the Clubhouse audio app, which included interviews with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

Moving on: Krishnan in late 2020 became a general partner with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent backer of Clubhouse.

  • He became the firm's emissary to Twitter after Elon Musk's takeover, which Andreessen Horowitz helped finance, spending time in the "war room" with Musk pals like David Sacks (who'll be Trump's AI and crypto czar).
  • Last year, Krishnan moved to London to lead Andreessen Horowitz's first European office and to focus on early-stage crypto investments. Before Trump's job offer, Krishnan announced in November that he'd leave the firm at year-end.

🧠 The bottom line: Krishnan's new job would be to advise the White House on AI policy, not on immigration policy.

  • But there could be overlap, given the skilled labor needs of existing U.S. AI companies, plus the history of immigrants founding successful startups in AI and other tech sectors.

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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🥊 Trump sides with Musk on visas
 
Image of Musk tweet
 

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian American inventor and engineering genius, was born in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (now Croatia). Via X

 

President-elect Trump told the New York Post he backs H-1B visas — siding with Elon Musk after the tech billionaire vowed to "go to war" to defend the program, and condemned "hateful, unrepentant racists" in the GOP.

  • Why it matters: Trump's support for the visas is his first intervention in an online civil war between his techno-optimist advisers and MAGA diehards.

"I've always liked the visas," Trump told the Post by phone, referring to H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled workers to work in the U.S. under a "nonimmigrant status."

  • "I have always been in favor of the visas. That's why we have them. ... I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program."

Reality check: Trump has in the past criticized the H-1B visas, calling them "very bad" and "unfair" for U.S. workers. During his first term, he unveiled a "Hire American" policy that directed changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most skilled applicants. (AP)

💣 From the other side of the visa fight, Steve Bannon said yesterday on his "WarRoom" podcast: "We are going to win this. They are going to surrender." (Fox News Sunday)

phkrause

Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60

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