Good morning and happy Monday to all who celebrate. As Hollywood desperately tries to make Glicked happen, let’s take a look at what’s going on with our much more serious federal government.

Your inbox will be Elective-free on Wednesday and Friday this week but we’ll be back next Monday, December 2. As always, thank you for reading and best of luck arguing with your uncle on Thursday!

WHITE HOUSE

🦃 Biden pardons a turkey as White House preps for Christmas

Back in 1789 (what a year), George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation said it was “the duty of all Nations” to “acknowledge the providence of Almighty God” and “obey his will.” He asked that we unite to “beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions.” Yadda, yadda, yadda, two lucky turkeys will retrieve last-minute pardons from President Biden at the White House today.

Peach and Blossom were born in a Minnesota barn on July 18 and have quite literally spent their entire lives training for this very moment. They even stayed at a five-star hotel in D.C. last night ahead of their big day. The 40 million other turkeys Americans will eat on Thanksgiving? Not so lucky.

• These two birds beat out 42 others from their flock in a personality contest for the big prize. After all, you can't have a poorly behaved bird freak out at the crowd noise and attack the president.

This wacky affair is a production of the National Turkey Federation. The turkey farmers’ trade group has been presenting a turkey or two to the president since 1947. Presidents initially said “thanks” and gobbled down those bad boys for dinner.

• Sadly, everybody had gone soft by the 1980s. Sending the birds to live out their days in peace became the norm.

• Peach and Blossom will punch a one-way ticket this week to an educational fun farm in Minnesota.

The cost of Thanksgiving "dinner" this year is 5% lower than in 2023, which itself was 4.5% lower than in 2022. But prices are still 19% higher than in 2019.

• About 80 million people will travel for the big meal this week. With gas prices down about 6% since last Thanksgiving, 71 million of them will be driving.

• Flying, though, will cost you about 9% more this year. The right to get day drunk at an airport Chili’s runs an average of $284 (plus $4.89 for the salsa).

The White House is pulling double duty today. As President Biden celebrates Thanksgiving with a Turkey pardon, First Lady Jill Biden will accept a 20-foot tall Fraser fir Christmas tree from the Cartner family’s tree farm in North Carolina.

• As 2024 champs of the National Christmas Tree Association contest, the Cartners won the right to supply the White House.

• White House staff flew down in October to hand-select this almost 500-pound, 25-year-old tree. Where you gonna put a tree that big? Bend ov…the Blue Room, as always.

GOVERNMENT

⏲️ President Biden has exactly eight weeks left in power and he’s doing what he can to make the most of it. He's aiming to spend billions of dollars remaining from the CHIPS Act to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and billions more from the green energy-boosting Inflation Reduction Act. Incoming President Trump has vowed to slash that funding. President Biden is also sending diplomats to the Middle East as part of a long-shot effort to secure a ceasefire in Israel before he leaves office.

💰️ Donald Trump's planned DOGE efficiency team, led by Rich Guys™ Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is getting some backup from Congress. Georgia's Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will lead a new House subcommittee on the matter, which she says will lead the charge to fire government "bureaucrats." On the Senate side, Iowa's Sen. Joni Ernst will head up the new Senate DOGE Caucus, which is a less formal group than (sub)committees that actually run the show.

⭐ Oklahoma's Sen. Markwayne Mullin has frozen three-star Army General Christopher Donahue's promotion to the top-ranked four-star. President Biden wants to promote Donahue to lead all U.S. Army forces in Europe. At this level, that requires the Senate's permission. But Donahue helped lead the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. And President-elect Donald Trump has promised to fire any senior officer associated with that, er, situation.

TRANSITION

🗄️ Trump fills out his Cabinet

And then there were two. Trump has made dozens of hires for everything from the Cabinet to White House staffers to random ambassadors and third-tier agency heads… all in less than three weeks. He’s flown through this process four times faster than other recent presidents. Only two Cabinet-level picks remain unfilled (and they’re the weird ones): U.S. trade representative and administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Scott Bessent will serve as the 79th secretary of the Treasury. He beat out a host of other finance pros for the right to fill Alexander Hamilton’s shoes running everything from the U.S. Mint (coins) to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (cash) to the IRS. He'll also manage the federal debt and the Treasury's intelligence activities.

• Bessent is a hedge fund manager and longtime economic advisor to Trump. He’ll be the highest-ranked openly gay official in the history of U.S. government.

• And he’ll get his name on money! Better get that signature into shape.

Brooke Rollins will serve as the 33rd secretary of Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees the Food Safety and Inspection Service, doles out food assistance (SNAP benefits), manages the U.S. Forest Service, and more.

• Rollins is the CEO of a pro-Trump policy think tank. She’s also worked in Texas’s government and as a policy advisor during Trump's first go-round.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer will serve as the 30th secretary of Labor. She'll oversee safety rules via OSHA, economic statistics via the BLS, wage regulations, and more.

• Chavez-DeRemer is viewed as more friendly toward organized labor than many Republicans are comfortable with.

• She’s also a current member of the House who just lost her reelection bid — something she might now view as more of a win.

Scott Turner will serve as the 19th secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD enforces housing discrimination laws, hands out development grants, and funds housing assistance.

• He played seven seasons in the NFL about 25 years ago and later served in the Texas Legislature.

• During Trump's first term, Turner worked on getting private investment pumped into distressed communities via the Opportunity Zones program.

Russ Vought will serve as the 44th director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Rather than being part of a larger department, OMB is a division of the White House that helps create and oversee the federal budget.

• It’s déjà vu all over again for Vought. He had this exact job back in 2019 and 2020. Since then, he's been involved in a lil hot potato policy wish list known as Project 2025.

More non-Cabinet picks announced

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat will serve as surgeon general — the government's top doc for public health issues. As head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corp, a health-focused but militarylike uniformed service, she'll hold the same rank as a three-star Navy vice admiral — no boot camp required.

• It’s an important job but not quite as fancy as it sounds. Nesheiwat will be two rungs below the Cabinet. Incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be her boss’s boss.

Sebastian Gorka, who probably loves “The Little Mermaid,” will serve as a senior counterterrorism advisor. He was born and raised in the U.K. to Hungarian parents and later lived in Hungary during the 1990s and early 2000s. Gorka became a U.S. citizen in 2012.

Alex Wong will serve as the deputy national security advisor. Along with his soon-to-be boss, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Wong will work down the hall from the Oval Office and provide Trump with daily security advice. Wong served as a high-level State Department official in Trump 1.0.

POLITICS

🪙 Gaetz cashes out as Gabbard takes heat

Matt Gaetz has had a busy two weeks. He resigned his House seat to focus on his nomination as Trump’s attorney general. He then dropped that pursuit amid political pressure from Republicans and a serious ethics investigation.

• Now he says he won’t rejoin Congress in January despite being elected to serve another two years. The ex-Florida congressman has instead joined Cameo, where he’s charging more than $500 a pop.

• Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly announced a special election to replace Gaetz. A primary race will take place on January 28 with a general election scheduled for April 1.

The incoming Trump administration has been locked out of federal transition resources. Incoming staffers typically meet with their outgoing counterparts at each agency to ensure a smooth handover. Secure email servers and cybersecurity support are also provided. Getting the goods requires signing some paperwork, which Team Trump hasn't yet done. But both sides say negotiations are ongoing.

• Until those docs are signed, Trump's nominees won't even get their FBI background checks. That's a problem the Senate might see as insurmountable ahead of confirmation hearings.

• But some Republicans say Trump's transition is running just fine without government help.

Elsewhere in transition world, Democrats claim Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI), ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, is "compromised" by Russia. Republicans say that accusation is "ridiculous and outright dangerous."

TRIVIA

As we all prepare to stuff ourselves with turkey, why not stuff ourselves with Thanksgiving trivia, too? Let’s see how much of that third-grade Pilgrims lesson stuck around.

1. From which city did President George Washington issue a proclamation marking the first national celebration of Thanksgiving in 1789?
   

2. Thanksgiving came and went for a while after Washington’s initial celebration. We’ve celebrated it annually in November since a proclamation by which 1800s U.S. president?
   

3. In what year was the date of Thanksgiving standardized as the fourth Thursday in November?
   

4. The first winter after the Pilgrims landed in 1620 was bruuutal. How many of the Mayflower’s 102 passengers survived it?
   

5. A few months after arriving, the survivors were greeted by a few Wampanoag people. In a sick move that definitely freaked ‘em out, one of those guys casually greeted the Pilgrims in English. What was his name?

BRIEFS

● Frank Underwood would be so proud. The vice president of the Philippines is worried the president is going to have her killed. Her response? Hire an assassin to kill the president, his wife, and another official if she herself ends up dead.

● Russia passed a law banning the adoption of Russian children by parents in countries that allow for the gender transition of minors. The blacklist includes Australia, Canada, and more than a dozen others. The U.S. has been off-limits since 2012.

● TikTok is still set to be banned in the U.S. in January if it’s not sold off by its Chinese parent company. Now CEO Shou Chew is looking to Elon Musk for advice on dealing with incoming President Trump, who says he now opposes the ban.

● COP29, the latest annual U.N. climate summit, ended last week. Wealthy countries agreed to provide at least $300 billion in annual financing to help poor countries fight climate change, but many blasted that as insufficient.

● The tanking satellite TV business will not find its savior via merger. DirecTV canceled its proposed purchase of rival Dish Network after the two sides couldn’t agree on the financial terms.

QUOTE

ANSWER

1. Ole Georgie Boy issued that proclamation from New York City, which served as the nation’s capital for the first two years he was in charge before it moved to, obviously, Philadelphia.

2. We’re looking for an all-time banger here with Abraham Lincoln. Before his 1863 proclamation, Thanksgiving was a rare treat that happened in February or April or really whenever the vibes were right.

3. The date shifted a little across Thursdays in late-ish November until President President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law in 1941 sticking it on the fourth Thursday in November (it didn’t kick in til 1942, though). The move ensured the Christmas season wouldn’t get cut short in the rare years when November has five Thursdays.

4. Of the 102 Mayflower passengers, only 53 survived the first winter — and they had to live aboard the ship to do it. Perhaps landing in Massachusetts in November wasn’t the best timing…

5. That English-speaking greeter was none other than Squanto (aka Tisquantum). He’d been kidnapped by English sailors a few years earlier and spent some time in Europe before escaping captivity and returning home.