The Trump Charm Offensive

“The FBI background check on Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, does not include interviews with Hegseth’s ex-wives or the woman who accused him of sexual assault in a California hotel room in 2017,” NBC News reports. Punchbowl News: “Senate Republicans and Trump aides believe Hegseth will get confirmed if nothing new is revealed about the nominee during or immediately after the hearing.”

Playbook: “The onslaught has arrived. At 9:30 a.m., the first of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees will face a confirmation hearing: Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and the former host of Fox & Friends Weekend, will be the guest of the Senate Armed Service Committee as they weigh his bid to become Defense secretary.” “For the Trump transition, it will be the first real rubber-meets-the-road moment, as a would-be member of his administration will for the first time face a public grilling over their qualifications and record.” “It also illustrates the shelf life of conventional wisdom in Trump’s Washington: Weeks ago, Hegseth’s nomination was considered all but dead on arrival.

“Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted President-elect Donald Trump on charges of illegally seeking to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, said in a final report released early Tuesday that the evidence would have been sufficient to convict Mr. Trump in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue,” the New York Times reports. Wrote Smith: “The department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind.” He continued: “Indeed, but for Mr.

“A coalition of MAGA die-hards, tech bros and blue-collar workers were key to Donald Trump’s November victory,” Politico reports. “Now, some of them are already at each other’s throats.” “Free traders and protectionists are at odds over Trump’s promise to enact “universal” tariffs. Immigration hard-liners are butting heads with tech companies that support legal immigration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in a brief interview on Monday night that it was his “expectation” that his conference won’t tackle the debt ceiling as part of a border-energy reconciliation bill, Politico reports.

“A little over a month ago, President-elect Donald Trump’s top nominees appeared to be entering a world of pain,” Politico reports. “HHS pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was facing tough questions about his stance on the polio vaccine. Would-be director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in the barrel over her dealings with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.