Trump's Cabinet Set To Shake Up Government
Plus, the post-election stock market rally and countries agree on a $300 billion/year climate deal after bitter negotiations
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Good morning,
Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk joked over the weekend about buying MSNBC. Technically, it is not for sale (yet). But, Comcast has said it will be spinning off nearly all its cable networks (it is keeping Bravo) into a separate company. The move comes as consumer cord-cutting has sped up, and media companies increasingly do not see a future in cable.
Déjà vu: The back-and-forth between Trump Jr. and Musk seems eerily familiar to another social media exchange that led to Musk buying then-Twitter in 2022…
Joe Rogan chimed in that he wants to take over Rachel Maddow’s desk if a deal goes through.
Crazier things have happened!
Mosheh, Jill, Sari, & Lauren
PS: Don’t forget to refer friends & family to subscribe to the Mo Newsletter… you could get free Mo News merch — DETAILS at the bottom of this newsletter!
📌 TRUMP NAMES CABINET WITH UNPRECEDENTED SPEED: A LOOK AT THE AGENDA
Via: Washington Post
President-elect Donald Trump dropped a flurry of new cabinet announcements on Friday evening. He has handpicked the leaders of all the key government departments in a record three weeks. Trump is prioritizing personal loyalty, and nominating people who promise to shake things up. He was frustrated by a number of his choices who challenged him or didn’t execute his preferred policies the first time he was president.
It’s a clear sign of how he plans to govern in his second administration.
SOME NEW NAMES
Trump tapped Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary, Scott Turner as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Sean Duffy for Transportation Secretary, as well as six others on Friday.
Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer is a pro-union moderate, who narrowly lost her recent reelection for the House seat in her swing district in Oregon. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said she has more labor union endorsements than any Republican he’s seen in his entire life. It is leading to some grumbling on the right.
The move comes as Trump made gains with rank-and-file union voters: A CNN exit poll this fall showed 45% of voters from households with a union member voted for Trump, up from previous elections.
Trump also tapped Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Vought spent years helping write Project 2025, the controversial governing blueprint written for Trump by conservative activists. Vought’s role in Project 2025 was to oversee executive orders that Trump could make early in his term, with the longer term goal of remaking government institutions to strengthen presidential power.
On the campaign trail, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, saying he didn’t know anything about it and calling some of the ideas “ridiculous and abysmal.” However, at least five of Trump’s recent cabinet and senior adviser picks contributed to the plan.
THE NATION’S HEALTH
We also learned about a number of new hires who will be working with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., pending he is confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump chose Dr. Marty Makary to lead the FDA. Makary is a surgeon and author who gained prominence on Fox News for opposing COVID vaccine mandates and other health measures during the pandemic. He has criticized federal health agencies for not prioritizing chronic diseases.
"We have the most overmedicated, sickest population in the world and no one is talking about root causes," he recently said. "We have poisoned our food supply."
Trump also announced on Friday that doctor and former Florida GOP Congressman Dave Weldon would lead the CDC, while Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor, was tapped to be the next Surgeon General.
A critical group: Each of Trump’s health picks have called the US health system “broken,” and vowed to shake up the department responsible for the nation’s health. They have criticized vaccine mandates, drug approval processes, and overall management of the agency.
They point to studies showing that the US spends more on health care than any other high-income country, but has some of the worst health outcomes.
The jury is out: Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and former Harvard professor, told the New York Times, “We are playing with fire with the shake-ups and choices, but at this point change is needed.” On the other hand, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a FDA adviser, said, “What they’re saying when they make these appointments is that we don’t trust the people who are there… I’m very, very worried.”
THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
Some of Trump’s more establishment picks include Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Waltz for secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively. They’re expected to be confirmed by the Senate with relative ease.
However, as far as foreign policy goes, that’s where the mainstream really stops. Trump's picks to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and to be Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, are facing pushback.
Ratcliffe faces accusations that he prioritized partisanship and loyalty as director of national intelligence in Trump's first term, while Gabbard has been accused of parroting Russian propaganda.
Then there’s the Department of Justice. While Trump’s most controversial pick so far – Florida’s Rep. Matt Gaetz – is out, his new nominee Pam Bondi might create a firestorm by targeting lawyers within the DOJ. Last year, she said that “The prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” after Trump’s fourth set of criminal charges.
She defended Trump during his first impeachment and is at least the fourth former or current Trump defense lawyer to get picked for a top DOJ job.
📌 WHY WALL STREET RALLIED FOR TRUMP POST-ELECTION
On Friday night, Trump also named Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary. He’s a Wall Street investor, with deep knowledge of bond and currency markets, who has been friendly with the Trump family and JD Vance for years.
Bessent is seen as a highly-qualified pick, as well as a loyalist. He has been publicly supportive and fundraised for Trump, even after spending years working for the billionaire Democratic mega-donor George Soros.
He’ll be responsible for seeing out Trump’s economic agenda, which includes tax cuts and sweeping tariffs. He will have to navigate the tariff policy with Wall Street, where a number of executives are concerned about their potential impact on the US economy.
The move shows that Trump is more focused on outcomes than politics when it comes to the top economy job. Mo News sat down with CNBC’s Sara Eisen to break down how the markets have reacted to the incoming Trump administration, and what we might expect for the economy during his second term.
WALL STREET RALLY
The stock market was euphoric after Trump’s election win. Though it has cooled in recent days, there is still overall enthusiasm for what’s ahead, including massive corporate tax cuts and deregulation. Trump’s decisive victory and the GOP’s control of both chambers of Congress “was seen as the most bullish outcome generally by the markets and investors,” according to Eisen.
On Trump’s tariff proposal: Business leaders have criticized Trump’s plan for tariffs, but Eisen says the belief on Wall Street is that tariffs are just Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ approach to global negotiations, and likely a tactical play. She says that his other pro-business policies are seen as pro-growth and will be good for the markets, “even though tariffs aren't necessarily the most market-friendly.”
Other hot topics: Wall Street CEOs are also optimistic about Elon Musk’s proximity to Trump, and helping to ensure policies are business-friendly. Regarding housing, Eisen notes there is not enough supply, so “home builders have been some of the best performing stocks.”
🎧🚨 You can listen to our full interview on the Mo News Interview podcast, available on Spotify and Apple.
📌 COP29 $300 BILLION CLIMATE DEAL FACES BACKLASH
Over the weekend, diplomats at the United Nations’ annual climate conference agreed to a $300 billion climate deal after more than two weeks of bitter negotiations and political boycotts.
The last-minute deal, made at the COP29 conference in Azerbaijan, pushed wealthy countries to help developing countries deal with the impacts of climate change, vowing to pay $300 billion a year by 2035. Critics note that this is way under the $1.3 trillion a year economists said developing nations will need.
Trump’s plan to leave the Paris climate agreement and overall America-first sentiment has other countries doubting the US’s future in the agreement.
It comes as 2024 is set to be the hottest on record, with a significant number of deadly weather events. Those include flash floods across Pakistan and Afghanistan, a typhoon in Myanmar, and deadly landslides in India. [Many of the countries getting hit the worst have polluted the least CO2 over the last century.]
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 Trump team barred from agencies amid legal standoff (POLITICO)
📌 Forecasts warn of possible winter storms across US during Thanksgiving week (AP)
📌 Musk’s DOGE commission considering mobile tax filing app (NEWS NATION)
📌 NYC congestion pricing plan gets federal approval, set to begin January 5 (FOX 5)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 Israel says rabbi found dead in U.A.E. was abducted and killed (TIMES OF ISRAEL)
📌 Ukraine to analyze fragments of missile fired by Russia capable of carrying nuclear warheads (FOX)
📌 Uruguay’s once-dull election has become a dead heat in the presidential runoff (AP)
📌 Pakistan government mediators seek ceasefire as 68 killed in sectarian violence (NBC)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 Why airline passenger walks to the terminal gate may get a little longer (NBC LA)
📌 Thanksgiving dinner is historically affordable this year (CNBC)
📌 72,000 pounds of ready-to-eat meat, poultry recalled amid deadly listeria outbreak (CNN)
📌 Earth bids farewell to temporary 'mini moon' that's possibly a chunk of actual moon (ABC)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 ‘Wicked’ opens to $114M, ‘Gladiator II’ conquers $55.5M (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)
📌 Adele ends Vegas residency with heartfelt goodbye & thanks for “second chance” (VARIETY)
📌 Jason Kelce epically sings ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ at Appalachian State tailgate (PEOPLE)
📌 Chuck Woolery, game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83 (NPR)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: NOVEMBER 25
1952: “The Mousetrap,” a murder-mystery play written by Agatha Christie, opened in London. It’s the longest-running play in the world and has been performed more than 29,500 times.
1963: President John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral procession through Washington, where an estimated one million people lined the route, three days after his assassination.
1992: In her debut film, Whitney Houston played a pop diva in ‘The Bodyguard,’ which included the song ‘I Will Always Love You.’
1999: Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle between his relatives in Florida and his father in Cuba. He would eventually be forcibly returned to Cuba by the Clinton White House.