| | | | |  | | By Eli Stokols | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | CORE CABINET COMPLETE — With yesterday’s nomination of BROOKE ROLLINS for secretary of Agriculture, the core of President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s second-term cabinet is now in place and awaiting confirmation, the sudden end of a dizzy two-and-a-half-week period during which he unveiled his picks to head all 15 executive agencies. Read Meredith Lee Hill and Meridith McGraw on the Rollins pick … Read Irie Sentner for the big-picture view on Trump’s cabinet WHAT THE C-SUITE IS READING — How’s this for thinking different? WSJ’s Chip Cutter and Aaron Tilley have a smart read on Apple CEO TIM COOK’s blueprint for working with Trump, and a particular approach he used to enormous success: Cook “developed a meeting strategy with Trump where he would bring one data point to home in on a single issue in a meeting …. That approach helped keep the meetings from spiraling in too many directions.” It’s a model other execs hope to emulate. But first, here’s how they’re jutting their foot in the door: “A number of companies are also considering whether to propose ideas directly to the ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ led by ELON MUSK and biotech entrepreneur VIVEK RAMASWAMY,” write Cutter and Tilley. “If executives can offer ideas to streamline the government, aligning on issues the administration cares about, it could be a way to develop new relationships within Trump’s inner circle.”
|  Donald Trump’s return to Washington has been the buzz of the Halifax Security Conference. | Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images | ANXIETY IN ACADIA — The question to the four-star general was straightforward enough: How might Trump’s unpredictability be leveraged to advance democratic objectives? But Adm. SAMUEL PAPARO, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command speaking on a panel about the threats posed by autocrats, reached down to tug at his socks. Although he noted that uniformed officers don’t talk about politics, he attempted to offer the audience of diplomats and defense officials some reassurance. “For all of our allies and partners, I’ll say that, uh … that uh … that uh … particularly in the, with regard to the … I really see a lot of continuity coming,” he said. “And that’s all.” The room, for perhaps the only time over three days of conversations here at the annual Halifax Security Conference, erupted in laughter. The moment of levity was freighted with unease — an encapsulation of a summit where many weren’t sure how to feel or what to say. Trump’s return in Washington has brought new uncertainty about America’s commitment to their main causes: Ukraine, NATO and democracy’s defense. At Halifax, all of the public affirmations of support for committing more fully to democratic alliances and collective defense belied a palpable anxiety about a world very much on the brink. This year’s annual gathering felt, to one attendee, “like a therapy session.” Top of mind was the increasingly fluid situation on the battlefield in Ukraine, where North Korean troops have joined Russia’s side at a moment of political upheaval across the West. Panelists repeatedly lamented that they have not yet done enough to boost defense production or to shore up vulnerabilities — be they in space, cyberspace and the new world of AI or overlooked regions like the Arctic. In the weekend’s opening panel on Friday, Sens. JIM RISCH (R-Idaho) and JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.) tried to reassure this group of 300 or so like-minded defense and foreign policy officials about both Trump’s imminent return and the level of bipartisan support for Ukraine in the senate. Risch sought to assuage concerns that Trump’s vow to end the war on his first day in office — just a “euphemism,” the senator said, to convey that it’s a high priority — won’t mean forcing Kyiv into peace talks and giving in to VLADIMIR PUTIN. “I know Trump well. This man hates war,” Risch said. “He does not want war. He wants peace.” But after Risch expressed confidence that Trump could force concessions out of Putin, Sen. MIKE ROUNDS (R-S.D.) cast doubt on whether the Russian leader would ever agree to peace talks. “As much as I would like to believe we can negotiate with a tyrant, I suspect we may be deceiving ourselves," Rounds said during a session where he seemed near tears as he expressed regret that the Biden administration’s worries about escalation have slowed both the flow of weapons and the easing of restrictions on their use. Trump, Risch said a day later, “has always been good as far as listening to what people actually say” and deserved some time to figure out his approach on Ukraine. Many Europeans in Halifax betrayed little outward anxiety about whether the president-elect’s commitment to their security. But away from the microphones, they’re more candid about their fears. "Speakers have been putting a good face on the current threats,” said EVELYN FARKAS, the executive director of the McCain Center at Arizona State University. “The mood seems to be more ‘let’s see what Trump does’ … though privately some people are concerned." Those more private concerns, especially among defense officials, have to do with whether reliable information-sharing with the U.S. will hold up, and whether Trump will follow through on reported plans to purge high-ranking generals he believes to be disloyal. At the same time, some focused on areas where Trump’s predilections and views might align more with their own. Perhaps, they hope, Trump will figure out a way to take credit for increases in defense spending by NATO members, or to do what President JOE BIDEN has been afraid to do when it comes to fully arming Ukraine. Rounds, asked what rationale for supporting Ukraine was most effective at convincing more skeptical GOP colleagues, said he has tried to explain how a Russian victory would embolden adversaries in China, Iran and North Korea. A number of speakers emphasized that point throughout the weekend, even though no one in this room needs convincing. “The autocracies look at us and ask who’s going to flinch first? And that is a very serious situation,” said Adm. ROB BAUER, the chair of NATO’s military committee. “I cannot imagine it’s in the interests of the United States that Putin comes out of any possible peace negotiations as the winner.” Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: estokols@politico.com.
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Learn more about open source AI. | | | SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. ERIC SCHMITT (R-Mo.) on the sexual assault allegations against Defense Secretary nominee PETE HEGSETH, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Of course I’m going to have questions, but that police report and no charges being brought, I think again, answers itself. If there was, you know, something to be done here, I’m sure the prosecutor would have pursued it. … But ultimately, the Pentagon needs reform, and I think Pete Hegseth is a guy that President Trump trusts to go do that kind of reform, eliminating DEI, being more innovative in our Pentagon.” — Sen. BILL CASSIDY (R-Tenn.) on Hegseth’s nomination, on ABC’s “This Week”: “Don't let these allegations distract us. What we need is real, significant change. The Pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than they have lethality without the past four years. … The transition team has been working for months to prepare for this. I'm certain that there was significant vetting that has taken place.” — Sen. JAMES LANKFORD (R-Okla.) on whether he has concerns about TULSI GABBARD’s nomination as DNI, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “We will have lots of questions. She met with BASHAR ASSAD. We will want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was as a member of Congress. We will want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context. So, sure, there’s comments that are floating out there, but we want to be able to know the rest of the story.” — Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) on whether Gabbard could be a Russian asset, on “State of the Union”: “I think that she is someone who is wholly backing and supportive of Putin. And I worry that she will not have America's best interests at heart.” — Schmitt on Gabbard being called a “Russian asset,” on “Meet the Press”: “I think it’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly.” — Sen. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-Minn.) on the FBI background check process for Trump’s nominees, on “This Week”: “If they keep delaying on these background checks, we will have a delay in getting these Cabinet officials in. And I don't want to have a delay. I want to have the hearings. I want to make a decision on each one of them on the merits, as I've done in the past, and I can't do that without the background checks. … Sometimes it is an ongoing process, and you could do it at the same time, but we just need the background checks.” — Hagerty on the FBI background checks, on “This Week”: “I don't think the American public cares who does the background checks.” — Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.) on Trump nominees, on “Fox News Sunday”: “I'm not going to pre-hate this. I’m going to have an open conversation for anyone. ... And there are some people that I just couldn’t be able to vote for and there’s some that I might be able to enthusiastically vote yes.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era,” by Gábor Scheiring for POLITICO Mag
- “Three Theories of the Trump Cabinet,” by Ross Douthat for NYT
- “George Will, The Iron Man of America’s op-ed pages,” by David Von Drehle for WaPo
- “The Rise of Green MAGA,” by Holly Jean Buck for Compact Mag
- “Why Do We Talk This Way?” by Joshua Rothman for the New Yorker
- “Biden Antitrust and the Spirit Airlines Bankruptcy,” by the WSJ Editorial Board
- “The Right Has a Bluesky Problem,” by Ali Breland for The Atlantic
- “Frontline Democrats Won With Progressive Populist Messages,” by Luke Goldstein for The American Prospect
- “Earn-and-Learn Education,” by Bruno Manno for National Affairs
- “Immigration Is a Mess. Here’s How to Fix It,” by Reihan Salam for The Free Press
- “What’s Right and Wrong About Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick,” by Jennifer Steinhauer for NYT
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Details about who is bankrolling the Trump transition effort are scant. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | 1. TRANSITION LENSES: With much of the Trump 2.0 administration coming into focus, one area that is likely to remain dark is the network of donors bankrolling the effort, “a break from tradition that could make it impossible to see what interest groups, businesses or wealthy people are helping launch his second term,” NYT’s Ken Bensinger and David Fahrenthold report. “Mr. Trump has so far declined to sign an agreement with the Biden administration that imposes strict limits on that fund-raising in exchange for up to $7.2 million in federal funds earmarked for the transition. By dodging the agreement, Mr. Trump can raise unlimited amounts of money from unknown donors to pay for the staff, travel and office space involved in preparing to take over the government.” Related read: “Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump’s bumpy transition,” by WaPo’s Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer 2. THE TECH TIES: As Trump enters office, China is looking to ELON MUSK as a potential throughway into the Oval Office, WSJ’s Yoko Kubota and Raffaele Huang write. “Chinese leaders enjoy some leverage over the Tesla chief executive, who has poured billions of dollars into investments in Shanghai.” Musk’s position stands in stark contrast to the various China hawks that fill out the rest of the administration. “In China, Musk is a symbol of the American dream and of U.S. technological prowess. Even Musk’s 76-year-old mother, MAYE MUSK, boasts celebrity status.” Related read: “Musk gets a leg up from Trump in space battle vs. Bezos,” by Hailey Fuchs 3. TALES FROM THE CRYPTO: “Howard Lutnick’s Other Top Client: Crypto Giant Tether,” by WSJ’s Angus Berwick, Ben Foldy, Jenny Strasburg and Eliot Brown: “As chairman of the Wall Street trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald, [Commerce Secretary nominee HOWARD] LUTNICK counts as one of his other most important clients an ex-plastic surgeon named GIANCARLO DEVASINI, the owner of the cryptocurrency firm Tether. Lutnick and Devasini each have a big interest in future administration policy. “Devasini said privately earlier this year that Lutnick will use his political clout to try to defuse threats facing Tether, according to business associates of the two men. … Tether, whose unregulated cryptocurrency of the same name has spawned a hard-to-police shadow financial system, is under investigation by the Treasury and Justice departments for possible violations of anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws. 4. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Immigrants Across U.S. Rush to Prepare for Trump Crackdown,” by NYT’s Miriam Jordan: “Foreign-born residents [are] … taking whatever steps they can to inoculate themselves from the sweeping measures Mr. Trump has promised to undertake after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20. … People with green cards want to become citizens as soon as possible. People who have a tenuous legal status or who entered the country illegally are scrambling to file for asylum, because even if the claim is thin, having a pending case would — under current protocols — protect them from deportation. People in relationships with U.S. citizens are fast-tracking marriage, which makes them eligible to apply for a green card.”
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | 5. ON THE MAGA MAP: “Palm Beach, a Democratic Pocket in Florida, Becomes MAGA Central,” by WSJ’s Deborah Acosta: “A popular hotel now houses foreign dignitaries, federal officials and various others vying for government jobs, all meeting with Trump during the frenetic transition period. Traffic is so bad on the island of Palm Beach that longtime residents said they have to drive off on one of three bridges and then drive back on another to avoid bumper-to-bumper tie-ups. And Secret Service agents at the area’s chicest restaurants can outnumber the waitstaff.” 6. WHERE WE’RE GOING, WE DON’T NEED LABELS: “No Labels goes after opponents of third-party presidential bid in court,” by WaPo’s Michael Scherer: “Leaders of No Labels are fighting back in three federal courtrooms with a sprawling legal-discovery effort aimed at exposing the secret machinations they believe led to their project’s demise. Leaders of the moderate Democratic group Third Way and of Investing in US, a political operation funded by LinkedIn co-founder REID HOFFMAN, are fighting to limit the document production. But documents already unsealed by the courts reveal remarkable details about private proposals for a wide range of hard-nosed tactics that would go beyond public efforts like ads, op-eds and meetings to discourage the No Labels campaign.” 7. COP TO IT: “Climate summit ends with a long-fought deal — and a lot of anger,” by Sara Schonhardt, Zia Weise, Zack Colman and Karl Mathiesen in Baku, Azerbaijan: “Countries agreed to a deal early Sunday that asks rich, developed nations to pay at least $300 billion to help poorer countries shift their economies away from polluting fuels, bringing to a close two weeks of contentious talks that threatened at multiple points to fall apart. It didn’t come easily, or without caustic criticism. “The figure is short of what developing countries had been calling for, and is not in line with the trillions that they’ll need over the next decade. But it was likely the best they could get at a time of geopolitical turbulence and hardening divides between wealthier and more impoverished nations, with a second Donald Trump era looming in Washington.” Related read: “What the ‘show me the money’ climate summit tells us about the new Trump era,” by Zack Colman 8. IT’S A BOLD STRATEGY, COTTON: “Republicans Ponder: What if the Trump Tax Cuts Cost Nothing?” by NYT’s Andrew Duehren: “Adopting a ‘current policy’ mind-set again could help Republicans out of the fiscal hole they dug in 2017. Members of the party are exploring cuts to clean energy and social welfare programs next year, but unifying enough of those cuts may ultimately prove difficult. And then there are other, potentially expensive policies they may also want to pass, including the list of additional tax cuts Mr. Trump proposed during the campaign. Making the math work will be easier if the party can look past roughly $4 trillion in expected deficits from extending the 2017 cuts.” 9. BIG IN BIG SKY COUNTRY: “An influx of outsiders and money turns Montana Republican, culminating in a Senate triumph,” by AP’s Matthew Brown: “The state’s old instinct for choosing its own, regardless of party, gave way to larger trends that began more than a decade ago and accelerated during the pandemic. Job opportunities in mining, logging and railroad work — once core Democratic constituencies — dried up. Newcomers, many drawn by the state’s natural social distancing, came in droves — with almost 52,000 new arrivals since 2020. That’s almost as many as the entire prior decade, according to U.S. Census data. As the population changed, national issues such as immigration and gender identity came to dominate political attention, distracting from local issues.”
| | | | Don't just read headlines—guide your organization's next move. POLITICO Pro's comprehensive Data Analysis tracks power shifts in Congress, ballot measures, and committee turnovers, giving you the deep context behind every policy decision. Learn more about what POLITICO Pro can do for you. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Jared Bernstein is processing the election with “confusion, guilt” and “cognitive dissonance.” Sherrod Brown isn’t ruling out a return to politics. Chris Sununu isn’t, either. IN MEMORIAM — “Fred R. Harris, Oklahoma senator on Kerner Commission, dies at 94,” by WaPo’s Michael Brown: “Former senator Fred R. Harris, a liberal prairie populist from Oklahoma whose meteoric rise in politics ended in the 1970s with two sputtering presidential campaigns in which he vowed to ‘take the rich off welfare’ and keep ‘the big hogs out of the trough,’ died Nov. 23 at 94. Mr. Harris’ wife, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his death to the Associated Press but did not provide further details. An affable Southerner brimming with folksy humor, Mr. Harris was once considered a bright young face of the Democratic Party.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: MEDIA MOVE — Jude Marfil has been laid off from the Wall Street Journal, where she was a much-beloved newsroom operations manager based in the paper’s Washington bureau, Daniel Lippman reports. She was critical in helping resettle more than 100 Afghans who had worked with the Journal and their families during the U.S. pull-out, according to her bio on the WSJ’s website. ENGAGED — Ellie Turner, Nebraska comms director for the Harris campaign and a Sharice Davids and Claire McCaskill alum, and Liam O'Connell, a consultant at PwC, got engaged last weekend in Chicago. The couple were acquaintances for years before going on their first date on July 4, 2020 at Barcelona Wine Bar. Pic … Another pic WEDDING — Zach Praiss, campaigns director at Accountable Tech and a Harris campaign alum, and Kurtis Bradley Brown, a Biden and Harris campaign alum, had a D.C. wedding reception in Dacha Beer Garden in Shaw last night, following their micro-wedding in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in August. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Chelsea Peterson Thompson, general manager at NGP VAN, and Vicky Simpson Thompson, chief revenue officer at Cadmium, recently welcomed Thora Abigail Thompson. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas … former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman of APCO Worldwide (8-0) … POLITICO’s Shia Kapos, Katie Phillips, Shubham Kadam and Anastasia Romanova … Tom LoBianco … Rachel Kriegsman … Ben Burger … Chris Putala of Putala Strategies … former Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) … Frank Ahrens … Nikki Clifton of UPS … Mark Steitz … Brooke Jamison … Gary Beck of America’s Health Insurance Plans … MSNBC’s Rachel Witkin … Jeff Ballabon … Alpex International’s Lee Godown … Patrick Burchette … Lindsey Schulte … Jim Landry … Dave Rapallo … Jeremy Pevner … Sally Susman of Pfizer … Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Penn … Marlin Fitzwater … Zach Gillis … Krystal Ball … Kaiser Health News’ Darius Tahir … Meaghan Smith of Gilead Sciences … Sherry Ettleson … Hugh Grindstaff … Jonathan Black … Tyler Goodspeed of the Hoover Institution … Aidan Shank of the American Conservation Coalition … Paul Tagliabue … Sarah Dickson Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
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