How We Got To The Verge Of A Shutdown

The Senate voted 99-0 on Monday to confirm Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as President Trump’s Secretary of State, Axios reports. It’s a resounding show of Senate bipartisanship for one of their own.

“Neo-Nazis are celebrating Elon Musk making two Nazi-like salutes during a speech to tens of thousands of President Donald Trump supporters on Monday,” Wired reports.

“Elon Musk has already achieved his first cut at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency: his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy,” Politico reports. “Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days… An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.” “Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE and planning to announce a run for Ohio governor next week.

“President Trump’s redecorated Oval Office includes a portrait of Benjamin Franklin and a fresh Andrew Jackson painting, part of an Inauguration Day overhaul of the most exclusive office space in America,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Donald Trump’s pledge to rename the highest mountain in North America put Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation in varying states of dismay after he reiterated plans to change Denali back to Mount McKinley in his inaugural address Monday,” Politico reports.

“Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U. S. government to resettle in the U. S., including family members of active duty U. S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending U. S. refugee programs,” Reuters reports.