• It’s been just three weeks since the election, and President-elect Donald Trump has already named most of his cabinet picks, including all of the big ones to head executive departments. They are, in a word, eclectic. A mix of traditional Republican establishment types, MAGA diehard and… former Democrats? It’s an open question whether Trump’s picks will find common cause beyond just wanting a seat at Trump’s table. Burgess Everett, Congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about how Trump Administration 2.0 could work.
• And in headlines: Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped both of his criminal cases against Trump, California says it found bird flu in raw milk that’s available in stores, and Drake uses the courts to get petty.

• Check out Burgess reporting – www.semafor.com/author/burgess-everett
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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Tuesday, November 26th. I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that stands with Peach and Blossom, the two turkeys pardoned on Monday by president Joe Biden. Pardoned for what? We have no idea. What crimes could these two turkeys have possibly committed? Do they have legal representation? [music break] On today’s show, Special Counsel Jack Smith calls off charges against Trump. And California says it found bird flu in raw milk that’s available in stores. Let’s get into it. It’s been just about three weeks since the election, and President elect Donald Trump has already named most of his cabinet picks, including all the big ones, to head executive departments. And they are, in a word, um eclectic. You’ve got some traditional Republican establishment types, people like Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. They’ve been tapped for secretary of state and secretary of the interior, respectively. Then there are the MAGA diehards, like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who Trump wants to head the Department of Homeland Security, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth. Trump’s pick for defense secretary. There are also three former Democrats, including one billionaire who used to donate to Democratic causes. That’s Scott Bessant, Trump’s pick to head the Treasury Department. The other two Dems are RFK Jr, who’s been picked to run Health and Human Services, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump wants for director of National Intelligence. Sure, diversity of perspective and opinion is definitely a good thing. Normally but this is a Trump cabinet. So how are all these people supposed to work together? Will they find common cause beyond just wanting a seat at Trump’s table? Or is the Trump administration 2.0 going to be like the real world Capitol Hill with drama and backstabbing and at least one person crying in a confessional? And yes, there is also a real world alumnus among the ranks of Trump’s picks. That’s former congressman and Fox News personality Sean Duffy, who’s Trump’s pick for transportation secretary. He was a contestant on The Real World Boston in the late 1990s because anything is possible. So for more analysis on how all of this is supposed to work for Trump, I spoke with Burgess Everett. He’s the congressional bureau chief for Semafor. Burgess Everett, welcome back to What a Day. 

Burgess Everett: Thanks, Jane. Nice to see you. 

Jane Coaston: So what, if anything, unites Trump’s cabinet picks beyond the fact that they’ve all hitched their proverbial wagons to him and I guess a lot of them are from Florida? 

Burgess Everett: Yeah, I got to admit, I’m not I’m not seeing much that unites them ideologically. If anything, perhaps stylistically, these are mostly folks that have stayed on his good side, especially since after January 6th, etc.. Um but no, I mean, you have you have establishment friendly picks like Marco Rubio who even appeal to Democrats. You have former Democrats like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr, who don’t really appeal to Democrats. But I don’t see anything being guided by are all these people confirmable? Well, the answer is obviously not already, because Matt Gaetz already withdrew. Um. And so it’s hard for me to see exactly how they put this team together. 

Jane Coaston: Well, I’ve been kind of obsessed by all of the contradictions in this cabinet. And one of the most obvious conflicts to me appears to be around Trump’s pick for labor secretary, outgoing Oregon Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer. She’s–

Burgess Everett: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: –centrist and pro-union, which doesn’t really fly with the whole let’s dismantle government regulations and fire everybody. So how’s that going to work? 

Burgess Everett: Well, I feel like this is the sort of the J.D. Vance strain of Republicanism, which is kind of like run with Trump’s populism, but given it this sort of like new pro-union, I don’t even know if policy wise we can say that this is like a pro-union ideology, but it seems to be a pro-union positioning. And you can see that in not only J.D. Vance, but people like Josh Hawley. Um. So um I was surprised. And it shows kind of like a clean break from those sort of the stereotypical country club Republicans that were pro-business and anti-union. Um. We’ll see how she actually if she’s confirmed, how she actually governs and how and if she maintains that pro-union um stance and reputation. Um. But you can also see there’s some imprint um from the unions that Trump was dealing with all election like the Teamsters. 

Jane Coaston: Where else do you think we’re going to see some of the biggest ideological rifts within this administration? I mean, RFK is an obvious one to me because the guy who wants to ban gummy worms and the let’s dismantle government regulations people, that seems like a contradiction. But what do you think? 

Burgess Everett: Yeah, I think definitely RFK Jr. Um. I’m questioning whether Democrats will be able to wrap their head around his nomination enough to support him. But um he’s also got, you know, pro-abortion rights views, pro environmentalist views that Republicans typically would not have been super excited about. I expect they’re probably going to say that there’s limitations to what the HHS secretary can do and they’re going to be guided by what the president wants to do anyway. And so I expect a lot of the RFK views that are outliers in the Republican Party are going to be sort of minimized. I think Tulsi Gabbard is is another one. She’s a former Democrat, hawkish Republicans they may vote for her in the end. You know, I talked to one of them last week. It was Mike Rounds. He’s on the Intel Committee when I was talking to him about Trump’s cabinet picks he said, Tulsi Gabbard is actually one that doesn’t really rub me the wrong way. Uh. So I do think there’s going to be some deference there. But this is somebody who’s been kind of warm towards Russia and Syrian President Bashar al Assad. That’s not like a down the line Republican position. So I think, you know, those two definitely stick out to me. And then Hegseth’s on the defense side. Um. He’s got sexual misconduct allegation against him on one hand. And then he’s also got some stuff he’s going to have to sort through with, like, is he experienced enough? He doesn’t want women playing combat roles in the military. Does he soften that role a little bit? Because you have people like Joni Ernst who are veterans um, who are in the Rep– Senate Republicans who are going to have to vote on his nomination. So now that Matt Gaetz is out of the picture, those are kind of the three that I’m keeping the top of mind of, these are the biggest fights going forward. It’s just not clear whether it’s going to be an internal Republican fight or whether it’ll be Democrats getting involved as well. 

Jane Coaston: Let’s think, though, beyond the confirmation process. Theoretically, they could all all three could get confirmed. How will they work together? What about fights within the cabinet? Because if I recall the first Trump administration, Trump loves conflict and the chaos kind of becomes a bit of the point. He likes it when everybody’s fighting. So is this just in keeping with how he operates and how would this actually function? 

Burgess Everett: You know, I was reading about how it wasn’t quite a team of rivals, but like you’re saying, you you do have some sort of friction there ideologically. Like we’re saying, there’s no unifying theory among these people. Even just looking at the top of the depth chart like J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, you can see a major difference in their hawkishness, their statements on Ukraine over the years. And so I think it’s going to be a lot of different viewpoints. But I would expect that Trump, Trump has a way. I know that he does like the conflict. He does like kind of sorting the stuff out in public. But I do think people whose views differ from his own are going to not emphasize those views nearly as much as I think we think they are, because once you work for Trump, you work for Trump. You don’t go off on the side and do your own thing. And people that have done that uh have ended up getting booted out of the administration. You know, Jeff Sessions didn’t ideologically differ with Trump. He just wasn’t hardcore enough defending him. And that was enough to toss him to the side. So I would expect the same thing to play out here, where you not only don’t have people breaking with Trump, but you also have people kind of running over each other to get to the cameras to defend him. 

Jane Coaston: What do you think will be the ideological anchors of the next Trump administration? Like which faction of cabinet picks ultimately will win out in a fight? The immigration hawks, the cut government spending group, the actually government spending doesn’t matter group, the MAGA retribution group? Who wins here? 

Burgess Everett: I would look to J.D. Vance as sort of the north star of the Trump administration’s cabinet. I know he’s also the vice president, but he’s not really into cutting spending. I know that that’s what we’re hearing a lot about the DOGE caucus. Uh, it’s hard for me to imagine them cutting spending to the degree that they’re talking about. People love to talk about cov– cutting government spending. 

Jane Coaston: Yes. 

Burgess Everett: Until you actually put programs on the line that you would need to cut and then that’s when you hear a lot of outrage about that. But I–

Jane Coaston: Yeah. The uh the reference I believe that there was something about sunsetting certain government programs. And someone pointed out like, you want to cut Veterans Affairs? Do you really want to do that? 

Burgess Everett: Right. 

Jane Coaston: You don’t really want to do that. 

Burgess Everett: I do think there’s probably an aspect of making the federal government a punching bag in the sense of get workers back in the office. If they don’t want to do it, get rid of them and replace them with people that will be back in the office. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more efforts which start in the Trump administration to relocate government offices. But I don’t think that’s a big priority of Trump’s. I don’t think that’s a big priority of J.D Vance’s and I don’t think the majority of the people that are being put in the cabinet um that that’s something that rises to the top of their priority list as well. So I would probably be looking for somebody like the Labor secretary pick to to have more sway than you might think because the Republican Party’s realignment um and the voters that they’re getting, it may depend on keeping those people that voted for Trump that were that are working class folks around the country. And the way to do that is probably by appearing to be pro-union and maybe even imposing pro-union regulations or removing anti-union regulations. Um. So that is my best guess, and that’s just a guess of how this ends up. 

Jane Coaston: Burgess, thank you so much for joining me. 

Burgess Everett: Thanks so much for having me, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Burgess Everett, congressional bureau chief for Semafor. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: And now the news. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter] Special counsel Jack Smith is officially moving to drop the January 6th election interference case against President elect Trump. 

Jane Coaston: Jack Smith asked judges to drop both of his criminal cases against Donald Trump on Monday. That signaled an end to his efforts to hold the president elect accountable before he takes office. A federal judge granted Smith’s request to drop one of them, the election interference case. Smith also dropped the bid to revive his other case against Trump that accused him of mishandling classified documents. Both cases were expected to fail once Trump assumes office. After all, the president elect went on the Hugh Hewitt Show last month saying he’d fire Smith on day one. 

[clip of President elect Donald Trump] It’s so easy, I would fire him within two seconds. 

Jane Coaston: The Trump hush money case in New York is where he was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying documents. Justice Juan Merchan is expected to finally issue a decision today on whether or not the president elect can be sentenced. California health officials announced on Sunday that they detected bird flu in raw milk that was available at stores. The milk was recalled by its producer, Raw Farms. The company tried to downplay the recall in a social media video. 

[clip of unnamed Raw Farms spokesperson] We’re doing this voluntarily, which means the government’s not making us do anything. We’re choosing to just simply collect the item. 

Jane Coaston: You know, like you do when things are definitely fine. California health officials said that no one has gotten sick from this batch of raw milk and that pasteurized milk is safe to drink. But the recall comes just days after the first child in the U.S. tested positive for bird flu. And since 2022, the Centers for Disease Control has detected bird flu in over 100 million poultry in 49 states. Which would be scary enough without Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promoted raw milk and loves disease, potentially becoming the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s going to be a long four years, folks. In music news, Kendrick Lamar released one of the most devastating diss tracks of all time this summer, Not like us. And on Monday, his target, Drake, struck back in the most badass way he can by filing a pre-action petition. That’s what you do in New York when you want people to think you might file a lawsuit. In Drake’s filing, he accused distributors Universal Music Group and Spotify of conspiring to make the song appear more popular than it actually was and inflating download numbers. Drake’s attorneys went so far as to accuse Universal of racketeering. That’s a charge usually used to prosecute organized crime and Trump in Georgia. A funny detail about this case. Universal also distributes Drake’s music. In response, Universal said in a statement, quote, “Fans choose the music they want to hear.” And finally, unlike some other people, President Joe Biden is taking the high road. He and Jill Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration on January 20th, his spokesperson confirmed on Monday. Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration back in 2021. It took place two weeks after Trump told his supporters to march to the Capitol, where they proceeded to ransack it because Trump falsely claimed he won the 2020 election. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing, something you may have missed during all the conversations about Project 2025 during the election was that the document calls for pornography to be outlawed and for the people who make it, performers, producers, hell, probably the guy who edits the title cards to be imprisoned. That’s terrifying. And I say that because this isn’t actually just about pornography. For one thing, Project 2025 links porn to quote, “transgender ideology,” as in trans people are the result of porn. Which makes this effort part of a larger attempt to crack down on LGBTQ people by classifying their very existence in public as pornographic. That’s something Republican lawmakers in some states have already tried to do with drag performances. During the election, a campaign called Hands Off My Porn featured performers and workers in the adult film industry talking about the dangers Project 2025 poses for all of us. I spoke with Siri Dahl, a performer who was involved in the campaign. Siri Dahl, welcome to What a Day. 

Siri Dahl: Hi there. Thank you. I’m so glad to be here. 

Jane Coaston: So now that Trump is going to be the president, what does Project 2025 mean for sex workers? What are people most concerned about in your community? 

Siri Dahl: Well, [laugh] the foreword of the Project 2025 Plan says right there on page five, they want to make pornography illegal and put all the pornographers and those who distribute it or facilitate its production in jail. Now, whether that’s actually a realistic thing to expect at anytime soon is a whole entirely other discussion. But at least the way that the Republican Party feels about, you know, my career field, about the adult industry in general and sex workers in general, that that part is loud and clear. Um. So there is no way that this is not going to have really large and negative ramifications for the adult industry. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Siri Dahl: Um. 

Jane Coaston: I mean, it goes from studios, producers, cinematographers. 

Siri Dahl: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Like–

Siri Dahl: Yup. 

Jane Coaston: It’s an entire like it’s an entire field of content–

Siri Dahl: And every independent–

Jane Coaston: –creation. 

Siri Dahl: –content. Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. 

Siri Dahl: And every independent content creator. I mean, the number of especially, you know, women and and trans folks, queer folks who have found a way to make a living by making their own content and selling it on fan platforms like only fans or fansly. It’s going to be interesting and very stressful to see how those kinds of platforms are affected because they’ve already been the target of a lot of um censorship. And I expect that just to get far worse. 

Jane Coaston: Especially because I think pornography and pornographers have historically been the canaries in the coal mine for crackdowns on free speech. Pornographers have historically been some of the most staunch advocates for free speech, arguing that crackdowns on their First Amendment rights are signs of further infringements on those rights for everybody. So what are the ways that these attacks on sex work and pornography could impact people outside of your industry? 

Siri Dahl: Well, I mean, really, what this spells out is the end of a free and open Internet. And unfortunately, most average Americans have no idea what that would look like because they’ve never been subjected to the special forms of censorship and de-platforming that sex workers have been subjected to for a while now. So, for example, like just getting kicked off of a social media platform because even though you didn’t do anything wrong and you didn’t do anything against the guidelines, it’s just like, no, we don’t want you here. You just get kicked off. No explanation, no really way to appeal that decision. Um. And that’s been happening for a while with with sex workers. But that kind of thing, that kind of treatment is just going to become the norm and it will just continue to get worse. 

Jane Coaston: Some people have argued that a crackdown on the porn industry in the US would mean more success for pornography that’s produced under less stringent protections than the industry here is under. I think people don’t really know how strict the porn industry in the United States like the studios actually are. So if that industry in the US is under threat, what’s the potential global impact of all of this? 

Siri Dahl: Oh. Huge. I mean, one of the things that is really, really disturbing is seeing how hard the and it’s I have to say, it’s also bipartisan, the efforts to censor the porn industry, because, you know, Republicans come out and say it, we want to ban porn. Um. Democrats generally don’t do that, but they’re absolutely not allies to sex workers. One of the writers, Russ Vought of Project 2025, literally went on the record and said that they want to ban porn by going through the quote unquote, “backdoor.” And the backdoor he was referring to was age verification legislation. So they’re already doing it. The plan is to make it so burdensome for adult companies to comply with these laws that get passed that they have no choice but to just go out of business. And it’s going to make it harder for businesses to exist. The outcome of that is going to be the Internet’s absolutely not safer for kids. Porn’s not going to go away. I mean, porn is here to stay. You’re not going to get porn off of the internet. What you’re going to do is make it impossible for people who want to run a compliant and legal business to actually do that. You’re going to drive all that traffic to websites that are irresponsible, that are non-compliant, that are mostly hosted overseas, that don’t verify, uh they don’t even verify the age of the participants. They don’t verify the uploaders themselves. God knows where that stuff is coming from. And it is like the Wild West. You know, so it’s really bad. 

Jane Coaston: Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. 

Siri Dahl: Thank you so much. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Siri Dahl. [music break]. 

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Make sure your Thanksgiving turkey has adequate legal representation and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just about how to finally give up on the dream of making a homemade pie crust, because apparently making homemade pie crust is literally harder than anything else you could possibly do on earth like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and I demand justice for turkeys. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Tyler Hill, Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. [music break]

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