| | | | |  | | By Lisa Kashinsky | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE BOOK OF AXE — “The Political World Just Lost its Last Bipartisan Meeting Place,” by Jonathan Martin: “I’m sad to see ‘The Axe Files’ go, in part because it’s more essential now than ever. Yes, it was respectful and it generated more light than heat. There were no food fights. But I come to praise [DAVID AXELROD], not bury him in a shroud of bygone-day nostalgia for civil discourse.” JUST ANNOUNCED — STEPHEN MIRAN will be nominated for chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, President-elect DONALD TRUMP said on Truth Social. He was a Treasury official during Trump’s first term.
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Democrats have spent the past few days portraying Elon Musk as a shadow president. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | PLAYING THE ELON GAME — We’ve written plenty over the past few weeks about Democrats’ despondency since Trump’s big November win — their internal turmoil, their inability to counter MAGA’s momentum, their struggle to find a cohesive message going forward. But in this past week’s funding debacle, they suddenly seem to have found a foothold — and a foil — in billionaire ELON MUSK. Some in the party had initially warmed to the soon-to-be co-chief of cutting government glut. But Democrats are now broadly putting the billionaire businessman on blast after his very public role in torpedoing Speaker MIKE JOHNSON’s original federal funding deal and prompting a near-shutdown. In so doing, they’re hoping to turn one of Trump’s most powerful allies — a ubiquitous cultural figure who was already wielding enormous influence over the president-elect’s transition — into his Achilles’ heel. Their playbook so far is trifold: 1. MOCK ‘PRESIDENT MUSK’ From floor speeches to hallway chats to post-vote statements, Democrats have spent the past few days portraying Musk as a shadow president — a man perhaps more influential than Trump himself. Musk, you may recall, used his social media platform to start whipping Republicans into tanking the initial, bipartisan funding deal before Trump publicly nuked it. Yes, it’s a transparent play to prey on the incoming president’s insecurities — Trump despises when people outshine him, and one of the most notable elements of his second-term team so far is that it’s filled with people who are unlikely to steal his spotlight. MAGA world is warning not to take the bait, but, nevertheless, Dems are persisting. “Last time I checked, nobody voted for Elon Musk to run the federal government. But this week, he seemed to think that was his job,” Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.), one of the pair’s foremost foes, blasted out in a fundraising email last night. “And Donald Trump appeared to agree with him.” It’s getting a rise out of Musk. He spent hours roasting Rep. ROSA DeLAURO (D-Conn.) on X after she slammed the tech mogul as a “self-appointed president” in a fiery floor speech condemning his meddling. And he attacked Warren for doing much the same in a CNN interview earlier in the week. 2. INTIMATE A CULTURE OF CORRUPTION DeLauro’s also among the Democrats accusing the Tesla CEO of trying to shut down the spending bill over a provision that could have affected his business dealings in China. The proposal, which would have limited and screened U.S. investments there, was scrapped from the final deal. Rep. JIM McGOVERN (D-Mass.) went so far as to suggest (on X, no less) that Musk wanted to shut down the government over it. “His second-largest market is China. He’s building huge factories there. His bottom line depends on staying in China’s good graces,” McGovern wrote. “So what did Elon do? He tanked the whole thing.’” They’re also reminding people that Musk is one of the Pentagon’s largest contractors. We caught up last night with Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), who noted that Musk didn’t have much to say about the similarly sprawling defense authorization bill that passed earlier in the week. “There’s a lot of money in there for him,” Murphy said. 3. ENGAGE IN SOME OLD-FASHIONED CLASS WARFARE You don’t need to be a messaging genius to see how the optics of having the world’s richest man seemingly calling the shots in Congress might resonate. Democrats are already trying to blame Musk’s slash-and-burn commands for Johnson dropping childhood cancer-related provisions from the final funding deal. (Some were later restored on the Senate floor.) They’re finding more fodder in House Republicans’ informal deal to slash $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending (that includes Medicare and Medicaid) in exchange for getting the hard right on board with raising the debt limit next year — all while pursuing a tax bill that will almost certainly benefit Musk’s bottom line. Murphy also wondered to Playbook whether the broader network of billionaires and executives Trump is surrounding himself with was behind the demise of the major pharma industry reforms that had languished for months before ending up in the government-funding bill, only to get killed. (Billionaire Trump critic and aspiring prescription-drug retailer MARK CUBAN notably pushed Musk for his stances on this very topic last night.) “People don’t want self-interested billionaires in charge of their government. And it’s pretty clear that the billionaires are taking over and their goal is to rig the rules so they can get richer at the expense of everybody else,” Murphy said, calling Musk’s role in the spending fight a “sliver of what’s to come with the Trump oligarchy.” Trump’s team is taking none of this bait. Incoming White House communications director STEVEN CHEUNG dismissed Democrats’ accusations against Musk in a statement as “ridiculous claims” from “utter morons” who “are still reeling from President Trump’s dominant and historic victory, and … have resorted to acting like crying toddlers kicking and screaming.” Musk and a spokesperson for his super PAC did not respond to requests for comment. Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line at lkashinsky@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Congress can help keep teens safe online today.
By passing federal legislation requiring app store parental consent and age verification, Congress would put parents in charge of teen app downloads. This helps parents ensure teens download apps that are safe.
That's why 3 of 4 parents agree: teens under 16 shouldn't be able to download apps without parental consent.
Tell lawmakers: support a national standard requiring app store parental consent and age verification for teens. | | | IT’S OFFICIAL — President JOE BIDEN signed into law the continuing resolution to keep the government open and avoid a shutdown. More from WaPo TOP-ED — “Dear Federal Workers: Don’t Quit,” by MAX STIER for POLITICO Magazine: “Your decision isn’t just about your career, or a single president. It’s part of a larger war, one waged throughout American history, over what the federal government can and should be: Is it an apolitical source of expertise and professionalism, or is it a partisan weapon for presidents to use for their own political or economic ends? … By staying in your position as long as you can, you can defend the work of our democracy.” SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-Okla.) on Dem concerns about Musk’s conflicts of interest, on “Fox News Sunday”: “It’s laughable, because these same Democrats turned a blind eye to the 27 shell companies that the Biden family had … and now they’re pointing fingers at a president and his consultants around him? … I wonder if they really think the American people are that stupid. … It makes me angry, but it actually says they don’t care about actually changing America for the best; they were more interested in driving a wedge between the American people … They lost.” — Sen.-elect JOHN CURTIS (R-Utah) on PETE HEGSETH’s nomination for Defense secretary, on ABC’s “This Week”: “He still has to go for a hearing. He still has to have an FBI check. It’s a little premature for me, right? To try to resolve all these things in 30 minutes [of meeting him]. So I asked him what he was going to do in his first hundred days … But for me, they remain unresolved. And I shouldn’t try to resolve them until I have this big, broad canvas of information about him. … Anybody who wants to give me heat for doing my job, bring it on. This is my job. It’s my constitutional responsibility.” — Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.) on VP KAMALA HARRIS calling Trump fascist, on “This Week”: “That’s her prerogative … but it’s not a word that I would use. … I happen to love people that are going to vote for Trump, and they are not fascists. And also fascism, that’s not a word that regular people … use, you know? I think people are going to decide, ‘Who is the candidate that’s going to protect and project … my version of the American way of life,’ and that’s what happened.” — Sen. JAMES LANKFORD (R-Okla.) on working across the aisle, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Really what we’re talking about is: How do people who disagree sit down and figure it out? That’s where we are. Unfortunately, Washington, D.C., is a mirror to the country that the country doesn’t really like. … I typically will smile at folks when they say, ‘Those crazy people [in D.C.] yell at each other.’ It’s like, ‘What was Thanksgiving like when your whole family got together last year?’” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “Look to science, not law, for real answers on youth gender medicine,” by the WaPo editorial board
- “Open-Government Nonprofits Are Dying Off Just When They’re Needed Most,” by Daniel Schuman in The Bulwark
- “How Democrats Lost Their Way on Immigration,” by Cecilia Muñoz and Frank Sharry in The Atlantic
- “Why Ultraprocessed Foods Aren’t Always Bad,” by Nicola Guess in the NYT
- “The road back to power for Democrats,” by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel in WaPo
- “I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit,” by Wendell Potter in the NYT
- “Why House Democrats rejected Ocasio-Cortez’s power play,” by WaPo’s Karen Tumulty
- “Done With Never Trump,” by NYT’s Bret Stephens
- “Like Kennedy, I Recovered From Heroin Addiction. I Don’t Agree With His Approach,” by NYT’s Maia Szalavitz
- “In Praise of Mercy,” by The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden and Harris have nothing on their public schedules. On the transition Trump will speak at Turning Point’s AmericaFest in Phoenix shortly. As WSJ’s Aaron Zitner reports from the conference, CHARLIE KIRK and other new-media conservative figures speaking there have emerged as powerful figures with wide reach and a plan to be Trump’s enforcers.
| | | | You read POLITICO for trusted reporting. Now follow every twist of the lame duck session with Inside Congress. We track the committee meetings, hallway conversations, and leadership signals that show where crucial year-end deals are heading. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | | 
RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump won't be the next senator from Florida. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. NO SENATOR TRUMP YET: RNC Co-Chair LARA TRUMP took herself out of the running to be appointed senator from Florida, saying she would instead have her own announcement next month. The president-elect’s daughter-in-law had previously been buzzed about as a potential replacement for Secretary of State-designate MARCO RUBIO, which will ultimately be in Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS’ hands. More from the AP As for the possible picks, Gary Fineout runs through the options: “POLITICO previously reported that several people could be in the mix for the spot, including Attorney General ASHLEY MOODY, Lt. Gov. JEANETTE NÚÑEZ, DeSantis’ chief of staff JAMES UTHMEIER and former Florida House Speaker JOSE OLIVA. But in recent weeks Moody has emerged as the top contender for the job. If DeSantis were to select Moody he could then potentially appoint his long-time ally and former presidential campaign manager Uthmeier to the job of attorney general.” DeSantis is expected to pick before New Year’s Day. 2. A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA: Is the Panama Canal the new Greenland for Trump? He unexpectedly unleashed detailed threats last night “that the U.S. would reassume control of the Panama Canal if it felt that Panama wasn’t honoring the terms of a 1977 treaty regarding the waterway’s legal status,” Eric Bazail-Eimil writes. Trump emphasized the canal’s importance to the U.S. economy and national security, and sounded enraged about the fees for ships to traverse it. But there are serious legal questions about whether the U.S. could actually take it back. 3. MERRY CHRISTMAS, KEVIN McCARTHY: The House Ethics report on former Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) is now expected to come out publicly tomorrow, CBS’ Nikole Killion, Margaret Brennan, Michael Kaplan and Kathryn Watson report. Meanwhile, Gaetz today dangled the prospect of running for senator or governor of Florida — or landing a special counsel spot to go after his former colleagues in Congress, per CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs. 4. BRINGING TO JUSTICE: Trump’s picks for key positions within the Justice Department foretell a very different law enforcement approach across a number of realms. If HARMEET DHILLON is confirmed as head of the civil rights division, she’ll likely steer its focus away from women and minorities toward protecting historically hegemonic groups like men, white people and social conservatives, whom she sees as the people now under threat, Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum reports. Fighting against typical diversity efforts would constitute a wholesale change for the division. And with KASH PATEL tabbed for FBI director, many of his political enemies are frightened he’d weaponize law enforcement against them, NBC’s David Rohde reports. Trump named a couple more selections for top spots yesterday: CHAD MIZELLE will be chief of staff, bringing a DHS alum and STEPHEN MILLER ally to DOJ to help steer mass deportations. He’s already been planning with AG-designate PAM BONDI. And AARON REITZ will be nominated for head of the Office of Legal Policy. Chief of staff to Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) and a KEN PAXTON alum, Reitz is no stranger to suing the Biden administration, and he’d help steer department policies. More from Irie Sentner 5. MORE TRUMP PICKS: Trump launched another flurry of personnel announcements yesterday, beyond the Justice Department figures. The latest:
- MARK BURNETT, creator and producer of “The Apprentice” (the TV show, not the new movie), was announced as special envoy to the U.K. He’s also famous for “Survivor,” “Shark Tank” and “The Voice.” Trump said he’ll focus on business/trade and culture. More from Irie and Eric
- TILMAN FERTITTA will be Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Italy. The billionaire owns Landry’s and the Houston Rockets, and he’s a veteran GOP donor. More from Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing
- DAVID FINK will be nominated as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. He’s a former president of Pan Am Railways, a company founded by GOP megadonor TIMOTHY MELLON.
And one to watch: The N.Y. Post’s Jon Levine scoops that the contenders to be nominated for special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism include ALAN DERSHOWITZ, the legendary and controversial law professor; LIZZY SAVETSKY, a pro-Israel social media star who quit “The Real Housewives of New York City”; ELLIE COHANIM, who was the deputy in Trump’s first term; and BROOKE GOLDSTEIN, founder of the Lawfare Project.
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 6. CLIMATE FILES: “Biden Mulls Tariff Break for Solar Modules From Mexico,” by Bloomberg’s Jennifer Dlouhy: “At issue are tariffs on imported crystalline silicon solar cells and modules that were imposed by President-elect Donald Trump in early 2018 and extended by Biden through Feb. 6, 2026, with the level set to be 14% for most of next year. While the US waived Canadian products two years ago, it stopped short of also exempting Mexico, having concluded domestic solar manufacturers stand to be seriously harmed by the country’s exports. The change now under consideration would effectively reverse that view, potentially increasing the flow of solar imports into the US — and giving an advantage to Maxeon.” 7. HUGE STAKES: “Refugees Are Bracing for Trump to Cut the Resettlement Program Again,” by NYT’s Miriam Jordan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz: Resettlement agencies “are scrambling to secure funding to keep alive operations that support refugees already in the country, and are trying to expedite the arrivals of people waiting in camps in Kenya, Jordan and Uganda. … People assigned for resettlement in the United States remain eager to come.” More immigration reads: WSJ’s Elizabeth Findell, Tawnell Hobbs and Tarini Parti on private prisons preparing to win big from Trump’s mass detentions and deportations — and thinking about whether to expand to unaccompanied children. … NYT’s Marcela Valdes, Churchill Ndonwie, Danielle Ivory and Steve Eder on the undocumented workers who help make America’s prepared food but have faced danger and death at jobs through staffing agencies. 8. MERCY ME: The news that Biden may grant clemency to most people remaining on federal death row could erect fresh obstacles for Trump to resurrect federal capital punishment, Josh Gerstein and Brakkton Booker report. But would Biden switch all 40 men to life sentences or leave a handful facing the death penalty? Also coming imminently is a Justice Department review of the protocol to use pentobarbital for injections, which critics say can lead to intense pain. Nonetheless, to many criminal justice activists, Biden’s recent moves to pardon his son HUNTER and issue mass commutations have had little impact on people actually in prison, WaPo’s Beth Reinhard, Ann Marimow and Perry Stein report. His nearly 1,500 commutations didn’t go through DOJ vetting, and they applied only to people in home confinement. Meanwhile, DOJ has cleared hundreds of people who are currently behind bars for clemency. But after months and years in some cases, Biden still hasn’t taken action. 9. INTERESTING READ: “Kennedy Wants to Overhaul the F.D.A. Here’s How Experts Would Change It,” by NYT’s Dana Smith: “[S]ome experts do agree with [ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.] that the F.D.A. needs to change — except they say that the agency should have more resources and authority, not less.” The leading ideas from experts, including some who have worked at the FDA under Democrats and Republicans: “Stop relying so much on industry funding. … Crack down on employees’ industry connections. … Close loopholes in the approval process. … Break the F.D.A. into two agencies.”
| | | | POLITICO Pro's unique analysis combines exclusive transition intelligence and data visualization to help you understand not just what's changing, but why it matters for your organization. Explore how POLITICO Pro will make a difference for you. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Jeff Bezos denies he’s about to throw a $600 million wedding. Wes Moore finally got his Bronze Star. John Fetterman and Stephen A. Smith hung out with Moore at the Ravens game. Ingrid Lewis-Martin was unbowed at karaoke. The Jonathans Pingle are the country’s top jobs forecasters. IN MEMORIAM — “Lee Edwards, Historian of the Conservative Movement, Dies at 92,” by NYT’s Trip Gabriel: “In his books about Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater and other figures on the right, he was, one observer said, ‘a keeper of the flame and spreader of the gospel.’” MEDIA MOVES — WaPo named managing editor Krissah Thompson the editor of the new WP Ventures (nee the “third newsroom”). Samantha Henig is joining as general manager. She is a BuzzFeed and NYT alum. ENGAGED — Heather Fischer, senior adviser for social impact at Thomson Reuters and a Trump White House alum, and David Panton, chair of Panton Equity Partners, got engaged at Shōtō on Dec. 13. They met in Atlanta through mutual friends when she was there on an official White House visit. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) … Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) … Diane Sawyer … POLITICO’s Daniella Diaz and Kristin Longe … Jamie Kirchick … Mike Needham of America 2100 … DJ Nordquist … Venable’s Rich Ward … Matt Manda … Heather Holdridge of Real Voices Media … Libby Rosenbaum of the American Council of Young Political Leaders … Maria Thorbourne … Zack Carroll … ACB Ideas’ Rachel Manfredi … Beau Phillips … Jake Perry of Jake Perry + Partners … BerlinRosen’s Karen Defilippi … AP’s Jack Auresto … NPR’s Michele Kelemen … McGuireWoods Consulting’s Mark Bowles … Paul Wolfowitz … Stephanie Strategos Polis of the Plastics Industry Association … former Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.) … Eugene Steuerle ... Andrew Egger ... WTOP’s Matt Small … former Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz … Maeve Coyle … Mary Kirtley Waters … Landon Heid … Hank Sheinkopf … Marc Raimondi … Justin Duckham … Scott Sadler … Mary Baskerville … Matt Cohen of HBS+ … Chris Austin … Matthew Mazzone … Matt Kaplan of Endeavor and WME 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.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Instagram Teen Accounts: automatic protections for teens
Parents want safer online experiences for their teens. That's why Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts, with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see.
A key factor: Only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
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