Skip to content
$$$
Washington Post: “It’s a little late for this year’s celebrations, but you can get a very early jump on next year and count down with the $38 Trump Advent calendar. Or trim the tree with a $95 Mar-a-Lago bauble or a $16 MAGA hat ornament, sold in nine colors. (A glass version of the hat ornament is $92.) Stuff stockings with an $86 ‘GIANT Trump Chocolate Gold Bar’ and a $22 pair of candy cane socks printed with ‘Trump.’ Prepare a holiday feast with a $14 Trump Christmas tree pot holder and $28 Trump apron featuring Santa waving an American flag. … The profits from these holiday trinkets do not benefit a political committee or a charitable cause, but the Trump Organization, the Trump family’s privately owned conglomerate of real estate, hotel and lifestyle businesses.
$90,000
The House Ethics Committee released the report on its yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R, FL-1) yesterday. Read the 37-page document here (click “Committee Report”). The committee found Gaetz obstructed Congress and violated other ethics rules while in office, paying over $90K to 12 women for sex or drugs—including marijuana, ecstasy, and cocaine. One of the girls allegedly paid for sex was 17 years old at the time; multiple women were transported over state lines for the purpose of sex.
78.4
U.S. life expectancy rose last year, hitting its highest level since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports NBC News. The report, released Thursday, found that life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023. That’s a significant rise — nearly a full year — from the life expectancy of 77.5 years in 2022.
37
President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on federal death row, sparing the lives of 37 men just a month before Donald J. Trump will return to the Oval Office with a promise to restart federal executions, the New York Times reports. Those affected by Mr. Biden’s action, all of whom were convicted of murder, will serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead of facing execution. Only three men, who each carried out notorious mass killings, will remain on federal death row.
53%
A new Monmouth poll finds 53% of Americans are optimistic about a second Donald Trump term, with his fellow Republicans even more likely now to feel very optimistic than they were after his 2016 victory. Said pollster Patrick Murray: “Republicans are even more enthusiastic about a second Trump term than they were the first time around. They are particularly looking forward to him following through on the plans he promised.”
41%
A new Emerson College poll finds 68% of voters think the actions of the killer of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, are unacceptable, while 17% find the actions acceptable. However, among younger voters, 41% find the killer’s actions acceptable, while 40% find them unacceptable.
-16 points
A YouGov survey has found the share of Americans who agree there is a war on Christmas in the United States has fallen since December 2022, to 23% from 39%. Among Republicans, 36% believe there is a war on Christmas, down from 59% in 2022.
54%
A new CNBC poll found that 54% of the public are “comfortable and prepared to support” Donald Trump as president. The potential agenda becomes more contentious when considering Trump’s plans to grant pardons to individuals convicted of crimes related to the January 6th Capitol riot. Only 43% of the population supports this move, while 50% oppose it.
$200 billion
“Elon Musk’s net worth has climbed by more than $200 billion in 2024, a massive increase in the same year that the world’s richest person spent at least $277 million backing Donald Trump and other Republican candidates,” the Washington Post reports. “The bulk of the increase, more than $170 billion, has come since Election Day.”
52% to 48%
The American public is closely divided on the outlook for Donald Trump’s second term, a new CNN poll finds, with 52% of adults expressing positive feelings, and 48% responding negatively.
