Good morning and RIP to the mayoral campaign of a woman in Illinois. Kim Benda was kicked off the ballot in Granite City (bit of an aspirational name, there) because her paperwork was missing one critical detail: a staple. Imagine the joy experienced by the eagle-eyed rule stickler who caught that flagrant violation.

In other news, Meta just donated a cool $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Zuck, who recently became human, didn’t endorse Trump but has been much more friendly toward him in 2024 than in years past.

TRANSITION

🕵️ FBI Director Wray will resign, clearing path for Trump’s new pick

“You can’t fire me. I quit!” That’s pretty much what FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday when he announced that he’s hitting the exits when President Biden leaves office. Wray called his resignation “the right thing for the bureau.”

President-elect Trump celebrated the move as “a great day for America” that will end the “weaponization” of justice and slammed Wray’s FBI for raiding Mar-a-Lago during the (now-dead) federal prosecution of the incoming president.

• Wray was given the job by then-President Trump back in 2017.

• FBI directors sort of serve ten-year terms. But it’s not a term in the traditional sense, but a maximum length of service.

Replacement: Trump previously announced his intention to fire Wray next year and replace him with former prosecutor and Defense official Kash Patel, who is big in Trump World. Patel’s required Senate confirmation is going smoothly… so far.

• Related fun fact: No Democrat has ever been nominated to lead the FBI.

Elsewhere in the Trump transition…Donald Trump, Jr. dumped his fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Thankfully, Dad’s taking care of any possible awkwardness and sending Guilfoyle to Europe as U.S. ambassador to Greece.

• Trump hired Alina Habba (coincidentally the hottest of his personal attorneys) as counselor to the president. She’ll be a high-ranking, catch-all advisor in the West Wing.

The FTC is getting some new blood. Trump will promote “pro-innovation” Andrew Ferguson to chair of the Federal Trade Commission and stand up to “Big Tech censorship." He’s currently one of four (non-chair) commissioners who help lead the agency, two of whom must be from the opposition party. Ferguson will replace BLina Khan in the top role. She’s been a strong opponent of big corporate mergers since taking over in 2021.

• Trump will also nominate former FTC staffer Mark Meador as a commissioner.

GOVERNMENT

💰️ The House passed the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a bipartisan 281-140 vote. The annual NDAA lays out military policy and spending for the next year. This year’s humongo $884 billion package includes pay raises for service members and, controversially, bans the military’s Tricare health insurance program from covering gender transitions for people under age 18. The Senate expects to take up the bill next week.

🦋 The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wants to list the monarch butterfly as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (that’s one step below “endangered"). Monarchs are critical to their ecosystems but growing habitat loss is making life difficult. If the FWS’s proposed rule is finalized, monarch habitats would be protected — and capturing these lil guys would be illegal.

🧪 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned two cancer-causing chemicals this week, though some uses are still permitted under specific circumstances. The first, TCE, is used in manufacturing, furniture care, and auto products. The second, PCE, is common in dry cleaning shops. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act gives the EPA authority to pull the plug on things like this.

POLITICS

🏛️ Lara Trump makes her move

Presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, stepped down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Rumors are swirling that she’s got her eyes set on the Senate seat about to be vacated by soon-to-be Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R-FL).

President Biden threatened to veto a bipartisan bill that would create 63 new slots for federal judges around the country. The Senate passed the bill unanimously to ease the workload of the existing crew. The new judgeships would be added slowly over the next decade, but Trump would get to name 22 of them. And that was a bridge too far for President Biden.

• Meanwhile, two retiring Democratic senators voted with Republicans to block Biden’s pick for the union-regulating National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). As a result, Republicans are likely to gain control of the NLRB next year.

Immigration is a hot topic in D.C. right now. Trump is promising to deport millions of immigrants who are here illegally (there are more now than ever before) and his border czar, Tom Homan, plans to use 1,400 acres offered by Texas for that purpose.

• Democratic senators are urging Biden to throw up a legal block via grants of “Temporary Protected Status.”

• On the other side, Republicans are fighting amongst themselves over whether to prioritize an immigration bill or a tax bill first in 2025.

Rep. Nancy Mace was assaulted in a House office building. The South Carolina Republican, known for recently pushing a bill to restrict Capitol bathroom access by biological sex, was unharmed. An Illinois man was arrested and charged in the incident.

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner followed the call of fate in 2011 when he flamed out of Congress after a sexting scandal in which he sent out nudes of his Last Name using the alias Carlos Danger. Now he’s looking to make a comeback by running for New York City Council. Who’s his opponent? None other than Harvey Epstein…who is, as SNL noted, “a different guy.”

WORLD

🛥️ Monaco expands seaward, opens expansion

Monaco. Real-life Genovia. A country half the size of Central Park. The land of yachts, F1 drivers, and Grace Kelly's grandchildren. And it’s growing.

Monaco is an oddity of history that somehow remained independent even as its total land area was whittled down to about 500 acres. The place is surrounded by France, though there are no border controls. It’s not a member of the European Union, though it uses the Euro. It’s a monarchy, but it has no king.

Albert II, Grace Kelly’s son, is in charge. But because of history, Monaco isn’t a kingdom. It's a principality. So, as head of the royal House of Grimaldi, Albert is the prince of Monaco.

• It’s no coincidence that Grimaldi is Mia’s middle name in “The Princess Diaries” (ahem… in the books).

Monaco is known for three things: the Monte Carlo Casino, the Monaco Grand Prix, and rich people. Lots and lots of rich people. But those rich people need somewhere to go and, with only a few hundred acres to choose from, pickings are slim.

Enter: Mareterra. Taking a page from the Netherlands’ playbook… and Boston’s…and Singapores’…and, well, you get the picture. Monaco’s expanding sliver of land grew by 15 acres this week in the latest example of land reclamation. Dump enough dirt in the water and bam! No more water.

• Prince Albert and Princess Charlene opened the new neighborhood of Mareterra to plenty of fanfare. There are more than 100 new apartments available. But beauty comes at a cost here. Prices run nearly $10,000 per square foot.

TRIVIA

TIME magazine, which somehow still exists, will grab its annual dose of headlines today when it announces its 2024 Person of the Year. News leaked yesterday that, as you might suspect, it’s Donald Trump. Trump won in 2016, too, and is the 14th president to win. But not every president gets it. Who was the last U.S. president to never be named TIME’s Person of the Year?

Hint: He’s a historical anomaly in more ways than one.

BRIEFS

● From the WTF files: A Haitian warlord’s son died of a severe illness. A voodoo priest told the guy the illness was caused by, obviously, old people practicing witchcraft. So the warlord had more than 180 elderly residents of a slum slaughtered.

● South Korea’s defense minister attempted suicide after being arrested over his role in the president’s short-lived declaration of martial law last week. The president, now the subject of a criminal investigation, might soon add “impeached” to his resume.

● The use of puberty blockers by people under 18 is now banned in the United Kingdom due to “unacceptable safety risk.” The ban process began earlier this year under a conservative government but the current liberal government finished the job.

● There is plenty of love lost between Kroger and Albertson’s this week after federal judges blocked the companies’ $25 billion grocery mega-merger. Albertson’s is now suing Kroger for billions, blaming the loss on Kroger’s failure to play ball in court.

● A Chinese citizen and lawful permanent U.S. resident has been charged with flying a drone over and taking photos of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Yinpiao Zhou was arrested at San Francisco’s airport while attempting to board a flight to China.

● Syrian rebels torched the tomb of newly ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad’s father (also a dictator). Meanwhile, neighboring Israel is striking Assad’s old chemical weapons caches and advancing into the country to create a border buffer zone.

QUOTE

ANSWER

You’ve got to go all the way back to the 1970s to find a president who never won Person of the Year. Not coincidentally, President Gerald Ford also never won a national election. He was appointed vice president when the prior VP resigned in scandal and accidentally ended up president when President Nixon also resigned. Ford served just over two years in the top job before losing the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter. To add insult to injury, Carter also won Person of the Year in ‘76.