FEAR AND LOATHING IN MAR-A-LAGO

CEOs and billionaires are rejoicing at the dawn of a new Trump era, while laying the table for what looks like a coming banquet of massive corporate profits, corruption and self-dealing.

• “Pass the tax breaks!” the executives merrily exclaim while digging into plates of Kobe beef and foie gras around patio tables at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. “It’s time to get rich!” they bellow, pounding the hilts of their golden flatware on the table and jangling their diamond cufflinks, while audibly counting the billions they’ll make over the next four years thanks to tax cuts for the ultra-rich, slashed environmental regulations, anti-union measures, fossil fuel industry giveaways, and corporate kickbacks. At least, that’s how the scene looks when I picture it… And yet the reality, as reported in the mainstream press, doesn’t actually sound all that different.

• Executives and billionaires are racing down to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee, kiss the ring, beg forgiveness, seek indulgences, and generally treat Trump like an American Sun King. They know exactly how to make their prayers heard: With cold, hard cash. This Thursday, they’re literally splashing out for $1 million tickets per person to attend a “candlelight” Trump fundraiser. No, I’m not making that up!

• Just a few years ago, companies were scrambling away from Trump as fast as they could, over controversies like his Muslim travel ban and the Capitol riot. “Flash forward to now, and America’s CEOs are in a race to crawl as far up Trump’s ass as fast as possible,” Crooked’s Dan Pfeiffer wrote in his subscriber-only newsletter. Yes, we’re looking at you, centibillionaire conspiracist Elon Musk, who is now allowed to help regulate the same government agencies that provide his companies billions of dollars in contracts .

• To grasp how much things have changed, look at Meta. After the infamous Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the social media giant banned Trump from its Facebook and Instagram platforms for inciting violence. But Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly dined with Trump before Thanksgiving on the Mar-a-Lago patio, where he stood and put his hand over his heart when a recording of the Jan. 6 prison inmates singing the national anthem played on the house stereo, according  to the Wall Street Journal. Zuckerberg’s Meta, comic book villain Jeff Bezos’s Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman each plan to donate $1 million  to Trump’s inaugural fund. A Japanese tech billionaire pledged to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, supposedly because he likes Trump.

• “The CEOs should be a bit more cautious,” Brad Setser, a prominent economist who has worked in the Treasury Department and White House, told What A Day. “They are placing a bit too much confidence that ‘billionaire’ Trump will pursue the policies they like, and ignoring the signs that ‘MAGA’ Trump is serious about tariffs — effectively new regulations on trade, not deregulation.”

Meanwhile, Americans without $1 million lying around for protection dinners are anxious about the future. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said they were afraid about Trump coming back into power, while only 7 percent of Republicans said the same.

• If you’ve criticized Trump, watch out, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told our pals on Pod Save America today. He’s worried that Trump might try to jail Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), one of MAGA’s most vocal opponents in Congress and a guy Trump has already threatened. Even if they didn’t put him behind bars, Khanna fears that “they will intimidate dissent in this country, that they would make people fearful of criticizing the president,” he said. “Can American democracy survive that? Absolutely. Can Democrats win in 2026 and 2028? Yes. But will we have significantly degraded American democracy if that happens? Yes, and the cost is enormous.”

• How is this anxiety manifesting? Some of Trump’s political targets are being advised to leave the country before he takes office. Scores of federal employees are afraid that Trump will retaliate against them, and many more worry about being fired. After all, he has threatened to persecute his political enemies more than 100 times.

• Sales of underground bunkers to hide from a nuclear attack are on the rise. By 2030, the market for fallout shelters is expected to grow from $137 million last year to $175 million in the United States. What is this, the Cold War? Those people are afraid of a world that’s becoming more weaponized and polarized.

Will Trump’s new CEO buddies laugh last? I’m reminded of a line by former President John F. Kennedy: “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

ABC BLUES

What kind of retribution will Donald Trump take on the media? ABC News’ decision to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump for $16 million, without explaining why, is a troubling sign of what lies ahead.

The case stemmed from an interview last year in which George Stephanopolous, the popular ABC News anchor, inaccurately claimed that Trump had been “been found liable for rape by a jury” in the case involving writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

As a result, the outlet will pay $15 million toward Trump’s “future presidential foundation and museum” and $1 million to cover his legal fees. Stephanopolous has since deleted his account on X, while media critics slammed the decision.

“ABC News should never have caved. They might well have prevailed if they had hung in there. The legal bar is very high for libeling a public figure, and Trump is the ultimate public figure. Instead, this outcome encourages Trump in his attacks on the press — and he needs no encouragement,” wrote Margaret Sullivan, the former public editor of the New York Times.

The outlet “broke Rule 1 of resisting autocracy: ‘Don’t obey in advance,’” Sullivan wrote.

After all, even the judge overseeing the case wrote in 2023: “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

What’s more, a Disney executive who oversees ABC News dined with Trump’s future White House chief of staff in Florida days before the settlement, though they claimed they only talked about transition coverage. That’s fishy, considering Trump threatened to strip the outlet of its broadcasting license while on the campaign trail and attacked its moderators during a presidential debate, as media critic Parker Molloy pointed out.

“ABC News didn’t just cave to Trump. They helped write the playbook for crushing press freedom. The question now is: who’s next?” Molloy wrote.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Luigi Mangione was charged with first degree murder and terrorism in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced. He’ll appear in court on Thursday for a hearing on whether he’ll be extradited to New York.

Slightly more young voters think the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO was acceptable than unacceptable, according to a new poll. Across all age demographics, 68 percent of voters think the action was unacceptable.

Ukraine killed a top Russian general by detonating a scooter in Moscow today. Russia, unsurprisingly, promised “inevitable retribution” against Kyiv’s leaders.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, once claimed that the Capitol riots were a false flag attack by leftist groups dressed up as MAGA supporters. “Antifa folks took advantage of this to try to get to the front and try to agitate and create openings for themselves,” Hegseth said on a podcast. Friendly reminder that Crooked sells Antifa onesies for your radical little children!

Elite colleges engaged in a “price-fixing” scheme and overcharged students by $685 million, favoring rich kids and limiting financial aid to less wealthy ones, an anti-trust lawsuit alleges. One alleged example: Dozens of Georgetown students were admitted after a review of their wealthy parents’ finances — without a glance at their essays or transcripts. Georgetown and all the universities involved denied wrongdoing. But, y’know, at this point, it kinda feels like colleges should be donating to you after graduating.

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-PA) thrashed the U.S. government for supposedly having “no answers” about the New Jersey drone sightings — and shared a photo of a Star Wars TIE Fighter prop, which he apparently thought was a downed drone. You might think that’s funny, but many Bothans died to bring us this information.

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