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Elon Musk pushes Lutnick for Treasury

Elon Musk pushes Lutnick for Treasury

Politico reports: Elon Musk is backing Donald Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to lead the Treasury Department, touting the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald as a potential secretary who “will actually enact change” from the most powerful economic post in Trump’s Cabinet. Musk labeled another prime contender for the post, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a “business-as-usual choice,” he posted on X, the social media network he purchased two years ago. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change…

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How to avoid looking like Nazis: Trump allies were told to stop saying they’ll put migrants in ‘camps’

How to avoid looking like Nazis: Trump allies were told to stop saying they’ll put migrants in ‘camps’

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump’s incoming administration brass wants it made clear: The president-elect is not planning to build a brand new network of “camps” to house the myriad undocumented immigrants who Trump has vowed to round up in what he claims will be “the largest deportation” operation in the “history of our country.” To be sure, Trump’s migrant expulsion program, if he were to follow through with his plans to deport millions, would require massive new camps — something…

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The ‘team of vipers’ is back

The ‘team of vipers’ is back

Politico reports: The last time Cliff Sims was this close to presidential power, he coined an indelible phrase for the cut-throat coterie around Donald Trump — it was a “Team of Vipers,” as he titled his 2019 tell-all. Now a key member of the Trump transition, Sims is showing that he knows his way around the old snake pit. That has become clear in recent weeks, when he turned into the subject of a Mar-a-Lago whisper campaign that arose alongside…

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How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny

How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny

A purple and white flag representing the world’s oldest democracy, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, flies above a Mohawk flag at a Native American gathering. Giordanno Brumas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images By Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill When the founders of the United States designed the Constitution, they were learning from history that democracy was likely to fail – to find someone who would fool the people into giving him complete power and then end the democracy. They…

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This is the dark, unspoken promise of Trump’s return

This is the dark, unspoken promise of Trump’s return

Masha Gessen writes: For those bewildered by why so many Americans apparently voted against the values of liberal democracy, Balint Magyar has a useful formulation. “Liberal democracy,” he says, “offers moral constraints without problem-solving” — a lot of rules, not a lot of change — while “populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints.” Magyar, a scholar of autocracy, isn’t interested in calling Donald Trump a fascist. He sees the president-elect’s appeal in terms of something more primal: “Trump promises that you…

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Trump looks to bypass Senate for polarizing Cabinet picks

Trump looks to bypass Senate for polarizing Cabinet picks

The Washington Post reports: As Donald Trump moves to fill his administration with polarizing figures like former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and onetime presidential rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he may need Congress to heed his demand to allow him to bypass the traditional confirmation process and appoint his picks without Senate approval. The president-elect has insisted that rather than put his nominees through an extended public vetting process, the GOP-led Senate should take extended breaks that would allow him…

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How Elon Musk muzzled government employees from talking about xAI’s new supercomputer

How Elon Musk muzzled government employees from talking about xAI’s new supercomputer

Forbes reports: Nearly six months ago in Memphis, before residents or even city councilors knew that Elon Musk was building “the world’s largest supercomputer” in their backyard, the billionaire’s team met secretly with a host of local and national law enforcement agencies including the sheriff’s office, Memphis Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigations. The covert meeting, which has not been previously reported, concerned Musk’s growing AI startup xAI, according to the Greater Memphis Chamber,…

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Elon Musk met with Iran’s UN ambassador, Iranian officials say

Elon Musk met with Iran’s UN ambassador, Iranian officials say

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk, a close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations on Monday in New York in a session that two Iranian officials described as a discussion of how to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States. The Iranians said the meeting between Mr. Musk and Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani lasted more than an hour and was held at a secret location. The Iranians, who spoke on…

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Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran, officials say

Israel destroyed active nuclear weapons research facility in Iran, officials say

Axios reports: The Israeli attack on Iran in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, according to three U.S. officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official. Why it matters: The strike — which targeted a site previously reported to be inactive — significantly damaged Iran’s effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research, Israeli and U.S. officials said. One former Israeli official briefed on the strike said it destroyed sophisticated equipment used…

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Muslims for Trump and against Harris concede ‘it does look like our community has been played’

Muslims for Trump and against Harris concede ‘it does look like our community has been played’

Reuters reports: U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his Cabinet picks, they tell Reuters. “Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his Secretary of State pick and others,” said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump. Muslim support for Trump helped him win…

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The boys in our liberal school are different now that Trump has won

The boys in our liberal school are different now that Trump has won

Anonymous write: When we walked into school on the morning of 6 November, we exchanged quick glances with the other girls in our social circle – looks filled with uncertainty and dread about the future. Because we are applying to colleges all around the country and about to leave our homes in the Hudson Valley, political issues suddenly have begun to feel a lot more personal. Access to abortion and contraception, protection of the environment, and the growing hate and…

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Republican leaders are more afraid of Trump than ever

Republican leaders are more afraid of Trump than ever

Jonathan Chait writes: If you had predicted before the election that Donald Trump’s second administration would seek to hand some of the most sensitive and powerful roles in government to a Fox News personality (Pete Hegseth, nominated for defense secretary), a recurring Fox News guest who is also featured frequently on Russian state-controlled media (Tulsi Gabbard, nominated for director of national intelligence), and the target of an ongoing House Ethics Committee sexual-misconduct investigation (Matt Gaetz, nominated for attorney general), you…

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Trump: ‘Gaetz is a tough son of a bitch. He’s my son of a bitch’

Trump: ‘Gaetz is a tough son of a bitch. He’s my son of a bitch’

Marc A. Caputo reports: While Trump served as president, [former Rep. Matt] Gaetz acted as his unofficial eyes and ears in Congress. During this campaign, he helped him prepare for his debates. Gaetz is close to Trump campaign manager and incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Previously, the two worked closely together and helped rescue Ron DeSantis’s floundering 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Gaetz is also a frequent presence at Mar-a-Lago events, where he met his wife, Ginger Luckey, the…

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‘Tulsi’s single governing principle seems to be expedience’

‘Tulsi’s single governing principle seems to be expedience’

NBC News reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, has been accused of amplifying Russian propaganda and would come to the job having never worked in the intelligence world or served on a congressional intelligence committee. Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq with a medical unit, has long criticized U.S. foreign policy as imperial and heavy-handed. She also has sharply criticized Trump in the…

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