Trump moves to burn down the rule of law  —  His cabinet nominations are obscene and augur dark days to come. … 🌎  —  When the sordid history of the second Trump administration is written, should we all survive that long, it will be difficult to sort out which of his early cabinet picks were the most atrocious.

Woman testified to House Ethics Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17: Sources  —  Trump tapped Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be the new attorney general.  —  Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024.

The Sanewashing of RFK Jr.  —  Let's call a crank a crank.  —  Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's improbable nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, actually such a crank?  Short answer: yes.  But two opinion pieces published in just the past few days argue that although Kennedy …

Trump's Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Said to Face Previous Sexual Misconduct Allegation  —  Sources say Donald Trump's transition team leadership met with the former Fox News host, who is a left-field pick to head the Department of Defense, about the claims on Thursday.

Trump's team skips FBI background checks for some Cabinet picks  —  President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs …

Inside the Republican false-flag effort to turn off Kamala Harris voters  —  A multipronged dark money effort by advisers to Elon Musk targeted liberals, Jews, Muslims and Black voters with ads that were not quite what they seemed.  —  Muslims in Michigan began seeing pro-Israel ads …

This Is the Dark, Unspoken Promise of Trump's Return  —  For those bewildered by why so many Americans apparently voted against the values of liberal democracy, Balint Magyar has a useful formulation.  “Liberal democracy,” he says, “offers moral constraints without problem-solving” …

Trump Threatens New York Times, Penguin Random House over Critical Coverage  —  Legal letter follows complaints aimed at CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Daily Beast.  —  The letter, addressed to lawyers at the New York Times and Penguin Random House, arrived a week before the election.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Final CHIPS Award for TSMC  —  Two years ago, shortly after I signed the CHIPS & Science Act, I visited Arizona to announce a commitment by TSMC to invest in America, create American jobs, and shore up American supply chains.

The Resistance Is Not Coming to Save You.  It's Tuning Out.  —  The first Trump administration sparked waves of public activism and aggressive media coverage.  This time, not so much.  —  In the weeks before the 2024 election, no media platform had more catnip for Donald Trump's detractors than the Drudge Report.

Elon Musk Met With Iran's U.N. Ambassador, Iranian Officials Say  —  The tech billionaire, a top adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, was reported to have discussed ways to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States.  —  Elon Musk, a close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump …

Pay Close Attention to Your Credit Card Balance Under Trump 2.0  —  Expect efforts to protect consumers from sky-high fees to fizzle under the new administration.  —  During Donald Trump's reelection campaign, he boasted of plans to overhaul the federal government, promising to gut or even eliminate entire federal departments.

Lara Trump says she'd ‘love to consider’ filling Rubio's Senate seat if asked by DeSantis  —  President-elect Donald Trump tapped Sen Marco Rubio to serve as secretary of state  —  Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo that she would …

Focus group: Swing voters wary of Musk-Trump relationship … - 12 of 14 participants in this week's sessions said they were familiar with Musk's advising Trump. … “I don't know what his ultimate agenda would be for having that type of access.”  — “I think it'll favor his Tesla company …

RSF presses criminal charges against X (formerly Twitter) for its participation in identity theft and spreading disinformation  —  Organisation:  — RSF_en  — RSF_Inter  —  After discovering that it was the target of a disinformation campaign, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) …