National Debt Hits $16t; Gop Critical

Playbook: “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.

“President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the Panama Canal is charging ‘exorbitant prices and rates of passage’ on US naval and merchant ships, and he demanded that fees be lowered or else Panama should return the canal to the U. S.,” Bloomberg reports.

“Private prisons and other companies that provide detention services are getting ready to cash in on what President-elect Donald Trump has billed as “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” That includes scouring for as many detention beds as possible in their networks of facilities, and scouting sites for new buildings to house migrants,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Some executives are considering whether to take up the controversial work of detaining families or unaccompanied children.

New York Times: “As rebels advanced toward the Syrian capital of Damascus on Dec. 7, the staff in the hilltop Presidential Palace prepared for a speech they hoped would lead to a peaceful end to the 13-year civil war.” “Aides to President Bashar al-Assad were brainstorming messaging ideas. A film crew had set up cameras and lights nearby.

“For many years, Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to sue the press but often didn’t follow through. When he did, he almost always lost,” the Washington Post reports. “But Trump’s recent settlement with ABC News and a cascade of lawsuits and other complaints against media entities from him and his allies signal a ramped-up campaign from the president-elect.