Good morning! President Biden, well-rested after getting caught falling asleep during a (surely riveting) Trans-Africa Summit meeting, took part in the 102nd National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse last night (that’s between the White House and the National Mall). Viewers can catch a broadcast of the show on CBS on the 20th featuring performances from Stephen Sanchez, Adam Blackstone, the War and Treaty, and plenty of other artists we’ve totally heard of before.

POLITICS

💰️ DOGE begins building support in Congress

Donald Trump’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) might not be an actual government department, but it is increasingly becoming a bipartisan effort. Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman is the second Democrat to join the House’s DOGE-supporting caucus, saying “If you want to affect change and have an impact, you want to be in the room.”

• Others, including Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, think they might find some agreement with Musk on cutting wasteful spending in the Department of Defense.

• Some Dems aren’t quite as DOGE-friendly. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), slammed the effort as possibly “unconstitutional.”

DOGE’s dual leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, hit the pavement this week to build support on Capitol Hill. They may not have Lofgren, but Maine Sen. Susan Collins — the chamber’s most moderate Republican — “was very impressed” with Musk’s “energy and dedication.”

• Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is a key DOGE ally. She’s pushing a plan to force federal workers out of their PJs and back into the office full-time. That’s a common Republican policy that happens to be shared by the very Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser (yes, Bowser).

• Musk himself is all in on removing subsidies from “all industries,” including electric vehicle tax credits for Teslas.

Over in Confirmationland, Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is fighting for his political life in the Senate. Despite rumors that Trump was ready to dump him in favor of a new nominee, Hegseth says he has the boss’s full support. Some of the chamber’s Republicans? Not so much. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the Senate’s first female combat veteran, isn’t a fan and may prove to be the pivotal vote. Others, however, say the various allegations against him are worthless as long as they’re anonymous.

Meanwhile, big-time Democrats are duking it out in a battle to become their party’s next national chair. The 448 members of the Democratic National Committee will vote on February 1.

• Elsewhere, the party wants to revamp its presidential primaries calendar in 2028.

Looking forward to 2026, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan left the Democratic Party to run for governor of Michigan as an independent. And he’s got at least one prominent supporter: the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, Jr. (Henry’s great-grandson).

GOVERNMENT

🌊 The government’s weather nerds were on high alert yesterday. The U.S. Geological Survey measured a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Northern California coast. Afterward, the good folks at the National Tsunami Warning Center, who probably have very boring jobs 99% of the time, issued a tsunami warning. That warning led to “LEAVE NOW” evacuation warnings in the Bay Area, which soon subsided when the threat passed.

👨‍⚖️ The Supreme Court is back in the news this week. Justices heard arguments in a case challenging Tennessee’s ban on transgender-related medical intervention for minors. The Biden administration sued to overturn the ban, arguing it’s sex discrimination that violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The general consensus is that the justices will side with Tennessee on this one.

😴 The Biden administration signed a deal with a labor union representing 42,000 Social Security Administration employees. The agreement allows them to keep working from home at least through 2029, which juuust so happens to be when Trump’s term ends. Trump has vowed to force federal workers back into the office.

TRANSITION

💼 Trump keeps the picks rolling

When President-elect Donald Trump isn't slinging watches and detailing the success of his campaign's TikTok activity, he’s busy rounding out his upcoming administration. Let’s take a look at a few of the more interesting picks:

Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) will take a Cabinet-level gig leading the Small Business Administration (SBA). At the SBA, she’ll provide job training and dole out grants and loans to entrepreneurs.

• Loeffler will also co-chair the Party Planning Presidential Inaugural Committee.

• Fun fact: Her husband’s company owns the New York Stock Exchange.

Former Treasury official Monica Crowley will serve as chief of protocol of the United States. Ever wondered how presidents know state dinner etiquette and whether some foreign dignitary will be offended by the wrong kind of handshake? That’ll be her job.

• Fun fact: child actress and mocktail namesake Shirley Temple had this job in the 1970s between stints as an ambassador.

Billionaire entrepreneur and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman will serve as NASA administrator. This guy founded Shift4 Payments, which he still runs, at age 16. In his spare time, he runs a defense company and commands record-breaking SpaceX flights. Some people, man…

Silicon Valley titan David Sacks will “guide policy” on AI and crypto while also leading a presidential advisory panel on science and tech. Sacks, like his old PayPal compatriot Elon Musk, is originally from South Africa.

Former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) will serve as IRS commissioner (booo!). To hire Long, Trump will need to fire the current guy, who is technically serving a five-year term until 2028. This could be a hot topic. But federal law says the commish "may be removed at the will of the President."

• Long is a former auctioneer who once put his skills to work to drown out an annoying protestor during a congressional hearing.

TRIVIA

Donald Trump has won more raw votes than any presidential candidate in history. Now, that’s pretty much just due to population growth and the fact that he’s run three times. Even so, he’s way back in fifth place in lifetime Electoral College votes. Numbers one and two also ran three times (or more!), which helps explain their rankings. But one guy was able to run up the score to a third-place finish in only two campaigns. Of the historical presidential candidates who have only received votes in two elections, who has the most lifetime Electoral College votes?

Hint: This is in your parents’ lifetime.

2024

📆 The election aaaalmost over

Sure, we all voted (right? right?) last month. But we didn’t really elect the president. We elected electors to the Electoral College so they can elect the president. But that is neither the next nor the final step in the presidential election process.

September 20: Early voting begins in a few states with very loose definitions of “early.”

November 5: Election Day. More than 57% of votes have already been cast.

November 7 - December 11: State governments make it official by certifying their results. Delaware gets it done ASAP while Oregon likes to kind of hang around and re-enact “Portlandia” sketches or something until the last possible second.

December 17: The almighty Electoral College meets in states across the country, usually in the state capitol. These folks are political activists who were pre-selected by the two campaigns. They’re the only ones actually voting for president.

December 25: Christmas Day is the deadline this year. States certified their elections via Certificates of Ascertainment and made a fat pile of very special copies. Now they’ve all got somewhere to go. Importantly, the vice president and the official archivist of the United States each get copies.

January 6: Congress meets in the Capitol to count the Electoral College votes. The votes are delivered by hand in big, fancy wood and leather boxes.

January 20: Inauguration Day. The final end to our long, nearly two-year election process.

BRIEFS

● The U.S. claims Russia is interfering with the ongoing presidential election in Romania, a strong NATO ally. The Biden administration and some in Congress believe a Russian operation has pushed an obscure, pro-Russian candidate to the top of the pile.

● The father of Jordan Neely has filed a high-dollar civil lawsuit against Daniel Penny. Penny is on trial for killing Neely on the subway in 2023 via chokehold after Neely threatened to kill other passengers. The jury is deliberating now.

● Syrian rebels continued their offensive against the Syrian army. The formerly al-Qaeda-linked militants captured the city of Hama, which is about halfway to the capital from the city they captured in a shock last week.

● Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe got into a full-on shouting match with Rep. Pat Fallon during a House committee hearing. Fallon seemed to take issue with Rowe’s appearance at a 9/11 event as improper.

● Blue Cross Blue Shield bailed on its, er, controversial plan to limit the amount of anesthesia it would pay for during covered surgeries. The company says the whole thing is a misunderstanding.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Assuming there are no shenanigans when the Electoral College votes on December 17, Donald Trump will finish his political career with 848 votes across three races. Due to the sheer size of his wins, though, Ronald Reagan ended up with 1,015 in just two elections. Following up a 44-state romp with a 49-state landslide tends to have that effect. Dwight Eisenhower’s 899 also beats Trump’s score.

The top two finishers both ran more than twice. Franklin D. Roosevelt comes in first with a whopping 1,876 electoral votes across his four elections. Runner-up Richard Nixon garnered 1,040 votes in his three races.