The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold

Government & Politics

• Bondi et al. set to testify: Following the fireworks at defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s hearing¹ yesterday, today’s hearing for attorney general nominee Pam Bondi² will likely not be as dramatic. Bondi, who formerly served as Florida’s attorney general, was tapped by Donald Trump after embattled former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew³ from consideration. Democrats don’t like Bondi’s record of serving as one of Trump’s defense attorneys during his first impeachment. They will undoubtedly question her about Trump’s challenge of the 2020 election results. That said, Bondi should have little trouble receiving the green light from Republicans. Also on the hearings list today⁴ are Florida Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe for CIA director, Sean Duffy for transportation secretary, Russell Vought for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Chris Wright for energy secretary, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for director of homeland security.

(Edited for accuracy about Bondi’s role in Trump’s first term.)

• Joni Ernst backs Pete Hegseth, handing big win to Trump (Just the News⁵)

• Speaker Johnson orders Capitol flags to full-staff: Yesterday, we reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared that flags in the Lone Star State would be at full-staff for Donald Trump’s inauguration this coming Monday — this despite Joe Biden’s decree that government flags would fly at half-staff for 30 days in honor of Jimmy Carter⁶, who died on December 29 at age 100. And it looks like the Texan tail is wagging the DC dog. “On January 20th, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said⁷ in a statement. “The flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter.” For the record, the flag at our office has remained at full-staff.

• AOC, Michelle Obama top list of Dems avoiding Trump’s inauguration: Several high-profile Democrats will skip Donald Trump’s inauguration this coming Monday. The biggest name on the list is former First Lady Michelle Obama, who was also conspicuously absent from Jimmy Carter’s funeral⁸. Her advisors gave the convenient excuse that her absences are due to scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile, New York Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who falsely claimed⁹ she was nearly “murdered” on January 6, will also not attend¹⁰ the celebration, stating, “I think it’s the general kind of safety and logistical chaos in that event. I’m opting out.” Seven other House Democrats will avoid the inauguration, including Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL), who blasted Trump, stating, “I could attend the inauguration and listen to the president-elect debase the office of president of the United States. Or I could spend the day with family, honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his patriotism, and the dream he had for the United States. I choose the latter.” With that attitude, it’s probably better he stays home.

• Mike Johnson critic Thomas Massie taken off powerful Rules Committee (Axios¹¹)

Economy

• Coming soon: The External Revenue Service: Much has been made of Donald Trump’s use of tariffs as a behavior modification tool, and yesterday, he announced a means for enforcing their collection: an External Revenue Service. As The Washington Post reports¹², the president-elect plans to hit the ground running: “Trump said the External Revenue Service will collect revenue from tariffs starting Monday, after he is inaugurated for a second term. The structure of the new government operation was unclear from his [Truth Social] post, although two outside advisers … suggested it could involve renaming an existing office within the Treasury Department.” As Trump put it¹³, “Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves. It is time for that to change. … We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying, FINALLY, their fair share.” If the phrase “their fair share” sounds familiar, it’s because the Democrats tend to use it as a truncheon for raising taxes on our nation’s job creators. Somehow, we don’t think Trump’s use of the term is accidental.

• One last kick in the shin from Bidenflation: Perhaps the “experts” have learned by now, just five days from the end of Joe Biden’s term, because when December’s inflation number came in this morning, it was right around what they were expecting. “The consumer price index rose 0.4% in December from November and finished the year up 2.9%,” The Wall Street Journal reports¹⁴. “Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected the CPI to advance 0.3% last month from November and 2.9% from December 2023.” To be sure, 2.9% is a far more tolerable annual rate than Peak Bidenflation, which hit 9% in June 2022, but that doesn’t make this hidden tax on the American people any more appealing. This is what we get when more dollars are chasing fewer goods. On the bright side, if you have a 401(k), you’re a bit richer today — at least for the moment. Stocks rallied on news of the relatively muted number, which traders took as an indication that the Fed is at least a bit more likely to cut interest rates at some point in the year ahead.

• Canada suddenly says it’ll buy more U.S. products after Trump threatened to slap it with tariffs (Daily Caller¹⁵)

• Biden extends deadline for Nippon’s U.S. Steel bid, keeping deal alive (Newsweek¹⁶)

• Policy: How Trump can unlock America’s energy options (City Journal¹⁷)

Security

• China weighs selling TikTok to Musk: “Rubbish,” say the Communist Chinese, and perhaps they’re right. The purchase of their besieged TikTok platform by the iconoclastic titan of tech and industry seems unlikely, but these sorts of things tend to seem unlikely right up until they happen. As The Wall Street Journal reported¹⁸ yesterday, “Chinese officials, facing a looming U.S. TikTok ban, have internally discussed options including the possibility of allowing a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk to invest in or take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.” But soon thereafter, the BBC reported¹⁹, “TikTok has called a report that China is considering allowing a sale of the social media company’s US operations to Elon Musk ‘pure fiction.’” Maybe so, but the days of TikTok as we know it may be numbered in the U.S., as the Supreme Court’s justices on Friday seemed more sympathetic²⁰ to the state’s argument that TikTok is Chinese spyware and less sympathetic to the commie complaints that their First Amendment rights are being violated. The deadline for the platform’s shutdown is January 19 unless the Court or Congress decides to extend that deadline.

• Biden to lift Cuba’s terrorism designation: The White House announced that Joe Biden will remove the state sponsor of terrorism designation from Cuba²¹, which Donald Trump reinstituted just days before his first term ended. It was Barack Obama who first rescinded Cuba’s terrorism sponsor designation in 2015, which had been first applied in 1982. This move is a nod to the Catholic Church that has been pressing Biden to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist-sponsoring states. Doing so benefits the communist Castro regime economically. In exchange, Cuba’s government will release a number of political prisoners. Republican lawmakers were quick to denounce this decision. The move is “unacceptable on its merits,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) asserted. “The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not ceased.” Cruz, whose father was Cuban, then pledged, “I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision.”

• Biden’s Cuba bombshell shocks Florida Democrats (Axios²²)

Education

• 60% of parents looked for new schools last year: School choice is a popular idea with parents. According to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, 60% of parents²³ looked for new schools to enroll their children in last year alone. Yet just 28% of children ended up being enrolled in new schools. Shelby Doyle, the foundation’s vice president, observed, “These results demonstrate strong and continuing demand for K-12 school choice, even as disruptions to K-12 education from COVID-19 have receded.” The survey noted that 35% of parents enrolled their children in neighborhood public schools, down from 45% between 2022 and 2024. The number of parents opting for private or religious schools grew from 29% to 36%, and the rate of homeschooling continues to climb, rising from 23% to 32% across that same time span. Interestingly, the highest growth in new schooling options was among ethnic minorities: 68% black, 63% Hispanic, 59% Asian, and 58% white. Doyle contended that the data shows that removing obstacles to school choice benefits everyone. Parents empowered by school choice will result in their children getting a better education.

Misc.

• FDA bans red dye No. 3 from foods (AP²⁴)

• Newsom and Bass recall efforts gain momentum after fallout from wildfires (Washington Examiner²⁵)

• Rashida Jones steps down as president of MSNBC (Axios²⁶)

• Nearly 400 noncitizens voted in DC’s 2024 general election (Just the News²⁷)

• Tennessee law requiring age verification for adult sites takes effect after court ruling (The Tennessean²⁸)

• Starbucks reverses open-bathroom policy it adopted in 2018 after wokies cried racism (Not the Bee²⁹)

• South Korean President Yoon detained after standoff over martial law decree (NPR³⁰)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here³¹.