Could we be seeing some voluntary turnover at the White House come New Year? I explore this question in a piece for the new issue of the magazine. Here’s a preview:
Goodbye Paul Ryan?—Via Politico: “Paul Ryan Sees His Wild Washington Journey Coming to An End”
Omarosa Manigault, the former Apprentice star and White House staffer who was fired (or, she claims, resigned) Tuesday evening, appeared on Good Morning America Thursday morning to tell her side of the story.
“John Kelly and I had a very straightforward discussion about concerns that I had, issues that I raise, and as a result I resigned,” Manigault said. She denied White House reporter April Ryan’s claim that the situation had devolved into vulgarity, saying that if it had been a scene, then “where are the pictures and videos?”
Messy firing or not, the unpredictable and dramatic Manigault might still prove a headache for the Trump administration, since she seems to have no plans to leave the public eye.
“As the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that made me feel uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Manigault told GMA. “And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”
Column of the Day—From Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake on the real FBI scandal “hiding in plain sight.”
“If you’re looking for a Justice Department scandal regarding Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s influence of the 2016 election, it’s hiding in plain sight. Look no further than the government’s release of the private texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page,” Lake writes.
President Trump is fond of saying he has accomplished more during his first year in office “than any president in history”—a claim that’s fairly, um, hyperbolic. But on Thursday, the president had a chance to brag about one area where his administration has made sweeping changes: federal deregulation.
“We’ve begun the most far-reaching regulatory reform in American history,” Trump said. “For many decades, an ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, and restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries. But all that has changed the day I took the oath of office.”
It was an elaborate victory lap: Trump, flanked by cabinet members and dwarfed by a towering stack of papers representing the country’s federal regulations, at one point cut a literal piece of red tape with a large gold pair of scissors.
The president said they had exceeded their two central regulatory goals: adding no new regulatory costs to the economy, and eliminating two old regulations for every new one put into place.
“And instead of eliminating two old regulations, for every one new regulation we have eliminated 22. That’s a big difference,” Trump said. “And by the way, those regulations that are in place do the job better than all of the other regulations, and they allow us to build and create jobs and do what we have to do.”
Photo of the Day
Donald Trump prepares to cut a red ribbon between two stacks of paper, representing the regulatory code from 1960 compared to today, during an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, on December 14, 2017. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A defense of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies comes from Roy Peter Clark, who has seen a lot of them since becoming his wife’s caregiver. Stick around for his surprisingly good treatment of a made-up movie.
Song of the Day—“A Long December” by Counting Crows
