Good morning! Republicans in both houses of Congress will elect their internal party leaders today. House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA) has no opposition in his bid to remain that chamber’s top Republican. Senate Republicans, on the other hand, have a three-way race involving two conventional picks and a third option backed by many Trump-aligned conservatives.

In more important news, John Krasinski last night became the first-ever Dunder Mifflin employee to be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive. Congratulations, Jim!

TRUMP

💼 Trump rolls out more staff picks

President-elect Donald Trump is spitting high-level appointments like they’re going out of style. It’s almost as if he’s got to hire 4,000 people or something. We’ll list these in the rough order of most important to least important. Most must be confirmed by a majority vote in the new Republican-controlled Senate before taking their new jobs. Despite that, confirmation isn’t always a foregone conclusion.

• Trump is rumored to have chosen Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as Secretary of State. But there’s been some backlash to that pick from Trump’s base and there’s been no official announcement.

Pete Hegseth will serve as secretary of Defense. The job has two main roles. First, he’ll run the day-to-day operations of the entire Department of Defense and its nearly 3 million employees. Second, he’ll command the entire military, carrying out the president’s military orders.

• This one is spicy. Hegseth is mostly known as a low-tier Fox News host. But he’s also an Ivy League grad, U.S. Army Major, and combat vet who’s worked for veterans advocacy groups.

Kristie Noem will serve as secretary of Noemland Homeland Security. Created after 9/11, Homeland Security is the newest Cabinet department. Noem will oversee immigration-focused agencies like the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She’ll also lead security-focused agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

• Noem is the governor of South Dakota and a former congresswoman. She made headlines for the wrong reasons earlier this year for including in her book a story about, umm, shooting her dog in a gravel pit…

Mike Waltz will serve as National Security Advisor. As the president's point man on all national security issues, he'll work just down the hall from the Oval Office. Waltz will also run meetings of the National Security Council (NSC). That's the security group made up of the President, VP, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Attorney General, top military generals, and more.

• Waltz represents Florida in the House and is an Army Colonel and Special Forces vet. More importantly, his brother-in-law is Scott Stapp, the lead singer of Creed.

• This does not require Senate confirmation.

John Ratcliffe will serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He'll run the foreign-focused intel agency and report to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

• Ratcliffe previously served in the House and spent the last six months of 2020 as then-President Trump’s DNI.

Lee Zeldin will serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition to regulating basic air and water safety, the EPA plays a big role in energy standards. Many conservatives, including Zeldin, believe it often goes too far.

• Zeldin served eight years in the House before retiring in 2022 to make a long-shot run for governor of New York, which he lost only narrowly.

Stephen Miller will serve as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Alongside Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Miller will help run the show with a special focus on, you guessed it, political policy. He's known as an immigration hardliner, so expect that to be a major early focus next year.

• Miller served in a generic advisory role last time around and helped write many of OG Trump's immigration policies.

• This does not require Senate confirmation.

Mike Huckabee will serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel — a major post as America's top diplomat in the Middle East's only democracy. He'll work out of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Huckabee's a former Baptist pastor who is extremely pro-Israel, so conservatives will love this pick.

• Huckabee served as Governor of Arkansas and ran for president in '08 and '16. He also slaps da bass and hosts a weekend talk show. His daughter Sarah is the current Governor of Arkansas.

Bill McGinley will serve as White House Counsel. He and his staff will advise Trump and crew on policy-related legal questions, handle potential pardons, and take care of lawsuits against President Donald Trump — but not those against Citizen Donald Trump.

• McGinley is an attorney (obviously) who served on Trump 1.0's White House staff.

• This does not require Senate confirmation.

Steven Witkoff will serve as Special Envoy to the Middle East. "Special Envoy" is a generic diplomatic role that sounds important but doesn't necessarily have much to do.

• Witkoff is a business friend and golf buddy of Trump's who's also helping plan the upcoming inauguration.

• This one, weirdly, might require Senate confirmation.

GOVERNMENT

⭐️ After escaping from slavery in Maryland, abolitionist and unfortunate-last-name-haver Harriet Tubman risked her life by returning to the state as a leader in the Underground Railroad. She later served as a spy for the U.S. Army during the Civil War. During a Veterans Day celebration on Monday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore honored Tubman by making her an officer in the Maryland National Guard and promoting her to the one-star rank of Brigadier General. As governor, Moore is commander-in-chief of his state's National Guard.

🌴 President Joe Biden is making the most of his final 10 weeks as the world’s most powerful man. Starting tomorrow, he’ll spend six days in Latin America. First, he’ll attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (fun!) in Peru. That’ll be followed with a swing through Brazil for the G20’s annual summit. The G20 is a group of 19 countries, the African Union, and the European Union (math is apparently not a big priority) focused on economic and financial issues.

✈️ The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned flights between the U.S. and Haiti for 30 days. A Spirit “Airlines” flight attendant was injured on Monday when a plane was hit by gunshots while trying to land in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has pretty much been run by violent gangs since its government collapsed in 2021.

POLITICS

✂️ Trump announces Elon-led DOGE

Instead of speculating about the president-elect’s plans for everything from tariffs to TikTok, why not take it straight from the source? Donald Trump last night revealed the basics of what Elon Musk’s long-rumored government role will look like.

Musk will lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The name, which Trump’s announcement shortened to “DOGE,” is an obvious play on Musk’s favorite joke cryptocurrency, Dogecoin… which is itself a joke reference to 2013’s favorite meme. Musk will work “in conjunction” with Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE.

• Ramaswamy ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries before dropping out and endorsing Trump.

• He’s also a potential candidate to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance’s soon-to-be-vacant Ohio Senate seat.

• The 39-year-old former pharmaceutical exec and Yale Law grad is worth around $1 billion.

As with anything, Trump announced the plan via a post on Truth Social. DOGE, he says, will do four things:

1. Dismantle government bureaucracy

2. Slash excess regulations

3. Cut wasteful expenditures

4. Restructure federal agencies

Despite its name, DOGE will not be a government “department.” Instead, it will “provide advice and guidance from outside” government and team up with the White House budget nerds to push big reform ideas and “create an entrepreneurial approach to government.” Trump said the group will “drive out… waste and fraud” to “liberate” the economy.

• DOGE will conclude its work “no later than” America’s upcoming 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, as a “perfect gift to America.”

So what is this, really? Trump’s announcement was light on details. It might be similar to President Obama’s 2010 bipartisan budget commission or President Clinton’s 1993 National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Neither effort was very successful. Government reform efforts do sometimes succeed, however.

• President Truman appointed the Hoover Commission in 1947. Led by former President Hoover, the group worked until 1949.

• It eventually delivered 273 recommendations to Congress on waste, agency overlap, and more. More than 70% were implemented.

According to Musk, the federal government now spends more each year paying interest on its debt than it does on the entire trillion-dollar defense budget. And Ramaswamy is already crowdsourcing examples of government waste to cut.

TRIVIA

As we mentioned above, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland. We don’t often associate Maryland with slavery today because, unlike 11 other states, it remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. In addition to Maryland, which three slave states refused to secede from the Union?

Hint: All three were considered “border states” during the war.

WORLD

📛 Is Somaliland a country or not?

Is a country a country if other countries don’t recognize it as one? Unfortunately for Somaliland, the diplomatic answer is “no.” But that won’t stop ‘em from holding a presidential election today. A big issue in the race? The battle for international recognition.

Somaliland is home to about 6 million people. It occupies a primo chunk of East Africa near the entrance to the Red Sea. It declared independence from neighboring Somalia in 1991 and has governed itself since. Meanwhile, Somalia is a governmental dumpster fire at best.

Today Somaliland is a more stable democracy than a sizable chunk of the world’s recognized nations. For weird diplomatic reasons, however, not a single nation legally recognizes Somaliland as independent or maintains relations with it.

• Plenty of countries around the world have problems with separatist movements (looking at you, Spain).

• Recognizing the reality of Somaliland’s independence might lend a bit too much credence to the whole “we secede!” plans they’re trying to ignore.

Widespread diplomatic recognition would bring access to everything from financial aid from the World Bank to international trade and security deals with other countries. So plenty of people argue the U.S. should break the mold on this.

Somaliland’s government has been pushing for just that and its leaders are optimistic about the incoming Trump administration. Several diplomatic officials from Trump’s first term are all aboard the “recognize Somaliland” train.

Elsewhere: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol started playing golf this week, hoping to boost his relationship with avid golfer Donald Trump.

BRIEFS

● The Biden administration will not reduce its weapons transfers to Israel. Biden had threatened to do so if Israel didn't improve the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The U.S. says Israel has made good but limited progress and more is needed.

● A federal judge blocked a Louisiana law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments starting in January. The block is temporary while a lawsuit challenging the law works its way through the courts.

● At the buzzer yesterday, New York Judge Juan Merchan delayed until November 19 his decision on whether Trump's felony conviction must be wiped out. The extra week gives prosecutors time to respond to a new claim from Trump's legal team.

● A U.S. jury awarded $42 million to three Iraqi men who were tortured at Iraq's notorious American-run Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq War. A Virginia-based defense contractor will have to cough up the cash.

● Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, 22, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. In early 2022, he leaked classified documents related to Russia's war in Ukraine on Discord while bragging about all his cool secret info.

● The archbishop of Canterbury, the Church of England’s top religious leader, resigned for failing to report serial child abuse. Supreme Governor of the Church of England King Charles III will appoint a replacement on the advice of church leaders.

QUOTE

ANSWER

When the Civil War began, slavery was still legal in 15 states, 11 of which seceded to form the Confederate States of America. Four remained loyal to the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Today, Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky are even considered part of the South by the U.S. Census Bureau.