Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy in ISIS fight, resigns  —  Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019.  But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate …

Trump Policy Gyrations Threaten Fragile Republican Coalition  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump's near-simultaneous decisions this week to force a government shutdown over his demand to fund a border wall and withdraw American troops from Syria and Afghanistan have imperiled the fragile Republican coalition …

Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say  — Advisers warn ousting Fed chairman would lead to market rout  — President's legal authority to remove Powell is unclear  —  President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell …

Trump lashed out at Whitaker after explosive Cohen revelations  —  Cohen says he lied about project in Moscow  —  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has at least twice in the past few weeks vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced …

Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say  —  Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly,” report says.  —  Two days before the 2016 presidential election …

Trump Plan to Win the Shutdown: A Noun, a Verb, and ‘Caravan’  —  The White House intends to send surrogates on television to hammer Democrats and to accuse them of wanting drugs, terror, and ‘trafficking’ pouring over the southern border.  —  With the latest government shutdown …

Trump's shutdown stunt is an act of needless stupidity  —  “IT'S ACTUALLY part of what you do when you sign up for any public service position.”  So said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) when asked about the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will have to work without pay …

You Can't Serve Both Trump and America  —  The story is told of Jim Mattis, when he was the commanding general at Quantico, relieving a young lance corporal on Christmas.  The rest of that wintry day, those entering the front gate of the Marine base were startled to see that the sentry was a general …

The Year of the Old Boys  —  It's hard to overstate the extent to which childish masculinity revealed itself in 2018 as the engine of power in America.  —  Many of us have spent 2018 trying to wrap our heads around how, exactly, the country whose slightly priggish brand was once meritocracy …

Student Targeted by ‘Troll Storm’ Hopes Settlement Will Send Message to White Supremacists  —  An African-American student leader who was targeted by a racist “troll storm” says she hopes an unusual legal settlement with one of her harassers will send a strong message to white supremacists …

The Syria Fairy Tale Lives!  —  Americans will no longer support Washington's incoherent Middle East adventurism.  —  Unlike my colleagues, I've been a bemused spectator during this week's Syria follies.  As readers of these columns know (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here) …

A girl in Mexico attached her Christmas list to a balloon.  A man across the border found it.  —  The spot of red was what first caught Randy Heiss's attention last Sunday as he hiked the remote expanse of land behind his ranch in Patagonia, Ariz., a town near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mississippi's Republican governor quietly considering Medicaid expansion  —  JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi's Republican governor is considering Medicaid expansion, the first sign that long-held GOP opposition could be wilting in the Deep South after an election that was a big winner for the Obamacare program.

It's official.  We lost the Cold War.  —  Perhaps the timing of George H.W. Bush's death last month was merciful.  This way he didn't have to see America lose the Cold War.  —  Bush presided over the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.  But the triumph he and others earned with American blood …

Trump's Abrupt Syria Withdrawal Thwarted ‘Major’ Operation Targeting ISIS, Sen. Bob Corker Says  —  The Foreign Relations chairman said the U.S. was weeks away from launching a ‘major clearing operation’ in the Euphrates River Valley when Trump decided to withdraw from Syria.

Week 83: BuzzFeed Takes a Victory Lap  —  Sweet vindication embraced BuzzFeed News this week as federal Judge Ursula Ungaro tossed out a defamation suit filed against it by a Russian tech CEO named in the 35-page “Steele Dossier” the site famously—and controversially—published on Jan. 10, 2017.

Taliban greets Pentagon's withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan with cries of victory  —  “The 17-year long struggle and sacrifices of thousands of our people finally yielded fruit,” said a senior commander in Helmand.  —  PESHAWAR, Pakistan — News that the White House had ordered the Pentagon …

“Some Reverse Wag-the-Dog Bulls—t": Boxed in and Fighting for Survival, Trump Is Flailing, Fuming, and Wondering Why Jared Is Getting All the Good Press  —  His base is revolting, his staff are rolling their eyes, and Ann Coulter called him “a joke.”  But, says a self-pitying president, Macron is worse.

Trump learned nothing from the midterms.  Exhibit A: the shutdown.  —  (CNN)First things first: The theme song of the week is the theme to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.  —  Number of the week: A Quinnipiac University poll finds that 43% of voters support building a wall along the Mexican border.