Trump team prepares dramatic cuts  —  is ready to take an ax to government spending.  —  Staffers for the Trump transition team have been meeting with career staff at the White House ahead of Friday's presidential inauguration to outline their plans for shrinking the federal bureaucracy, The Hill has learned.

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates  —  WASHINGTON — American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials …

Trump Sought Military Equipment For Inauguration, Granted 20-Plane Flyover  —  “It's very Red Square,” said Stephen Kerrigan, who oversaw the past two inaugurations.  —  Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post  —  WASHINGTON Part of being a great president is showing off America's …

Washington Hotel Presents Trump With a ‘Minefield’ of Potential Scandal  —  WASHINGTON — With sirens blaring, a fleet of limousines and security personnel raced down Pennsylvania Avenue twice in less than the last 24 hours to deliver Donald J. Trump to inauguration events.

Report: Trump has given up personal cellphone  —  Less than 24 hours before his inauguration, the Associated Press reports President-elect Donald Trump  —  has given up his personal cellphone.  —  Trump apparently told a friend on Thursday that he has given up the phone on the advice of security agencies.

Trump on Supreme Court pick: ‘I think in my mind I know who it is’  —  Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump suggested to an audience on Thursday that he has a good sense of who he plans to nominate to the Supreme Court.  —  “I think in my mind I know who it is,” …

First on ABC: George W. Bush's Inauguration Day Letter to Barack Obama  —  Writing a letter to the next commander-in-chief has been a tradition for outgoing presidents.  —  As Barack Obama prepares to hand the baton to Donald Trump, ABC News has obtained an exclusive look at the missive …

It's time to relax about Trump  —  Hugh Hewitt hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and is author of the forthcoming “The Fourth Way: The Conservative Playbook for a Lasting GOP Majority.”  —  My wife and I welcomed Mike and Debbie for dinner at our California home Tuesday night.

4 Recent Examples Show Why No One Trusts Media Coverage Of Trump  —  One may have hoped that the media would respond to their 2016 failures and resulting lack of credibility by reforming.  Instead, it seems that many in political media are quadrupling down on the mistakes that served …

A Final Reminder: Here's Who ‘Owns’ the Trump Presidency and Who Will Get the Blame/Praise  —  As we all brace for the official start to a Donald Trump presidency which most of us never thought would happen, it is important to set down some markers.  Specifically, who will get the credit/blame …

Thank You  —  Editor's note: President Obama sent this final message to the White House email list this morning.  —  My fellow Americans,  —  It's a long-standing tradition for the sitting president of the United States to leave a parting letter in the Oval Office for the American elected to take his or her place.

Wyden objection to Pompeo could push vote to Monday  —  Trump CIA pick backs intel on Russian hacking  —  (CNN)Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a vocal privacy advocate, has formally objected to the Senate voting Friday on CIA director nominee …

Michael Moore leads massive anti-Trump protest in NYC  —  Documentary director Michael Moore held a massive protest Thursday night outside Trump's New York City International Hotel featuring speeches from public figures including actors Robert De Niro and Mark Ruffalo.

Malia Obama's Secret Trip to Bolivia and Peru  —  The Bolivian guides were convinced it was the blonde.  It had to be the blonde.  American Embassy officials in November had told three brothers who led guided hikes across Bolivia's majestic Cordillera Real mountain range that they would soon be hosting an important American dignitary.

The Reinvigoration of the Clemency Authority  —  Today, the President granted commutation to 330 individuals.  The President has now granted commutation to a total of 1,715 individuals, including 568 people who had been sentenced to life in prison.  The vast majority of these men and women …

Jim Brown backs Donald Trump  —  Who are the most formidable and iconic male African-Americans of the 1960s?  Martin Luther King and Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali are surely the top two.  —  Who is third?  For me, it's Jim Brown (and not John Lewis).  —  Brown is as great an athlete as I've ever seen.

Congress moves to give away national lands, discounting billions in revenue  —  Though recreation on federal lands creates $646bn in economic stimulus and 6.1m jobs, Republicans are setting in motion a giveaway of Americans' birthright  —  n the midst of highly publicized steps …

Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Nominee, Failed to Disclose $100 Million in Assets  —  WASHINGTON — Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick to be Treasury secretary, failed to disclose nearly $100 million of his assets on Senate Finance Committee disclosure documents and forgot …

Wayne Barrett, Fierce Muckraker at The Village Voice, Dies at 71  —  Wayne Barrett, the muckraking Village Voice columnist who carved out a four-decade career taking on developers, landlords and politicians, among them Donald J. Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, died Thursday in Manhattan.  He was 71.

Op-Ed How to stop Trump: Lessons from the tea party  —  Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin speaks to a crowd during the kickoff of the nationwide Tea Party Express bus tour in Reno, Nev. on Oct. 18, 2010.  (Scott Sady / Associated Press)  —  Gonzalo Martínez de Vedia, Jeremy Haile and Sarah Dohl

Cornyn: No One Covered Under Medicaid Expansion Will Lose Coverage  —  A group of Republican governors met with Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, and some expressed concerns about the number of people who could lose insurance once GOP lawmakers repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Americans seem more interested in inauguration protests than in the inauguration  —  On Friday, an estimated 800,000 people are expected to gather around the National Mall in Washington, DC, for Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.  The following day, the Women's March on Washington …

El Chapo, Mexican Drug Kingpin, Extradited to the U.S.  —  Mexico City — Joaquin Guzman Loera, the notorious drug lord known as El Chapo, who twice slipped out of high-security Mexican prisons and into criminal legend, was being extradited to the United States on Thursday night, officials said …

CNN Announces Washington Correspondent Assignments  —  Washington, D.C. - Jan. 18 - Today, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker announced the following assignments for the network's Washington, D.C. based correspondents.  — Dana Bash will continue as the network's chief political correspondent.

Democrats prepare for Trump with one of the earliest resistance movements ever to greet a new president  —  When Donald Trump takes the presidential oath of office on Friday, thousands of protesters will be marching his way from an “Occupy the Inauguration” rally at Malcolm X Park.

Facebook's Zuckerberg sues to force land sales  —  When Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg paid around $100 million for 700 acres of rural beachfront land on Kauai two years ago to create what Forbes magazine described as a secluded family sanctuary, he actually acquired a not-so-secluded property.