On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Special Friday Edition): On Our World

 We present a discourse on The World with thoughts courtesy the Team at Bloomberg Opinions, Gary Kaspravo and Others: 

“NATO Doesn’t Exist” From my remarks in Halifax: Ukraine is fighting the war NATO was built to fight. Garry Kasparov     Last week, I spoke at the Halifax International Security Forum. I had a few choice words for NATO and the US when it comes to the Western response (or non-response) to Russia’s ongoing genocidal war in Ukraine. Those comments have gone viral over the past week. Here’s what I had to say (edited very lightly for clarity): This is the best show Putin can hope for. Not a single straight answer. It’s not about how many weapons you have, ammunition… it’s: are you willing to fight and die? Oh, it’s nice, you have a Canadian-led brigade in Latvia. What are the orders for this brigade? Will they shoot if Russians cross the border? We know the answer. It will take ages to negotiate. I still didn’t hear a clear response to this. I can’t even imagine this. How can we discuss seriously the deal made by Trump’s business partner [Witkoff]? It’s a real estate deal to enrich Trump’s family and sell Ukraine. How can we seriously discuss that Ukraine will have to give up fortifications that are saving Europe? Ah, we’re celebrating NATO! NATO is not strong. NATO doesn’t exist. It’s a fake. It’s N-A-T-O, four letters. The reason you are still sitting here and celebrating it: Ukraine is dying every minute. It’s a massive sacrifice. If not for Ukraine, if not for Ukraine standing in front of Russia, Russian tanks would be in Poland already. You all suggested that Ukraine would give up. You offered Zelensky a ride. And he said, “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.” Four years, Ukraine is fighting for the whole of Europe. NATO was built to fight only one war. Not to go to Afghanistan, not to go to Syria. One war: To save free Europe from Russian aggression. Ukraine is the only country that is fighting this war, and we’re still discussing: Should we include them or not? Ukraine is the only country that is fulfilling NATO’s destiny. And we owe them everything. “Oh, let’s sacrifice them.” I don’t know how to explain this choice. As a Russian, I also feel guilty. That’s why I cannot tell Zelenskyy to show Trump the middle finger. But again, we have how many senators here? Are you going to tell Donald Trump that he cannot do that? You have 85 [senators]. 85 is more than two-thirds, yes? If I’m out of 100. So, yes. How come that, you know, this bill is still sitting somewhere on the floor of the Senate, and it’s not still being done? Putin, Xi Jinping, all others, they are celebrating it. And by the way, Russia has North Koreans, they have Cubans, they have Africans, volunteers, and we’re still talking about escalation? We have everything—military, political, economic power on our side—and we’re still losing the war. Thanks to Ukraine, Russia is not fulfilling Putin’s dream of restoring the Russian Empire. But, if, god forbid, Ukraine is forced to make this deal, then, it’s very clear: Putin will realize his dream. And then, guys, you are next, but you are not willing to fight. My comments—especially the remark that “NATO doesn’t exist”—touched a nerve with critics and supporters alike. I stand by what I said, and I’d like to expand upon it a bit. As a formal entity, yes, there is an institution called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The terms of international accords are spelled out in great length and detail. But do they mean anything? I often return to the formulation set forth by Lord Ismay, NATO’s first secretary-general, laying out the alliance’s core purpose: To keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. (Readers may recall that I revisited Ismay’s quote back in August when the buzz was all about “NATO-style” security guarantees for Ukraine, whatever that means). The Soviet Union’s zombie successor is in free Europe—on the ground in Ukraine and with deep influence in NATO capitals from Washington to Budapest, Berlin, and Bratislava. The Americans are out of Europe. The MAGA wing of the political spectrum actively wants out, and is doing everything possible to isolate the US from its democratic allies. But the non-MAGA wing is not guiltless. The invasion of Ukraine started on Joe Biden’s watch, and his administration responded to a Russian blitzkrieg with all the vigor of a garden snail. And that last part: When Lord Ismay talked about keeping “the Germans down,” he wanted to prevent the rise of a hegemonic empire on the continent in the mold of Hitler’s Reich. Russia is abusing Western indecision and proceduralism to grab territory from its neighbors just as the Nazis did in Central Europe ninety years ago. Meanwhile, democratic Germany is unwilling to lead. Judged by Lord Ismay’s standard, does the NATO alliance meaningfully exist? Why isn’t NATO collectively standing with the one country fulfilling its founding mission? For too long, the West has chosen comfort over action, offering words and gestures to Kyiv while the Ukrainian people die every day in a desperate battle to hold the frontlines. Yes, there was anger in my voice at Halifax. I spoke with a level of indignation appropriate to watching a free country sold out to a fascist aggressor. If the Free World allows its historical purpose to be watered down by caveats, then “never again” will quickly become “again and again.” More From The Next Move: Diplomacy for Sale: How Witkoff and Co. Cut a Deal with Russia Garry Kasparov · Nov 26 A Moscow friendly deal and how Trump’s circle is reshaping diplomacy for profit. Read full story Jay Nordlinger Agony over Ukraine Jay Nordlinger · Nov 26 Many Americans, starting with the president, are hostile or churlish toward the Ukrainians and warm toward their invader—a bitter truth to digest. Read full story

On Our "Virtual Route 99" In America

Our team pulled together a Virtual Snapshot of the week that was in Donald Trump's America with thoughts from Brian Taylor Cohen, Heather Cox Richarsdson and the team at Politico:

Heather Cox Richardson President Donald J. Trump’s behavior over the holiday weekend has increased concern about his mental acuity. A rant on his social media account at midnight on Thanksgiving itself threatened to strip citizenship from naturalized immigrants, called Minnesota governor Tim Walz a profoundly offensive slur, and ended: “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for—You won’t be here for long!” On NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday, Walz responded by calling for Trump to release the results of an MRI he told reporters he underwent in October, later saying: “I have no idea what they analyze, but whatever they analyze, they analyzed it well and they said that I had as good a result as they’ve ever seen.” Although Trump told reporters the MRI was part of his routine physical, medical experts say such tests are not routine. Walz said to Kristen Welker: “Here we got a guy on Thanksgiving, where we spent time with our families, we ate, we played Yahtzee, we cheered for football or whatever. This guy is apparently in a room, ranting about everything else. This is not normal behavior. It is not healthy. And presidents throughout time have released a couple things. They’ve released their tax returns—not Donald Trump—and they’ve released their medical records—not Donald Trump. And look, the MRI is one thing, but I think what’s most concerning about this is, as your viewers out there are listening, has anyone in the history of the world ever had an MRI assigned to them and have no idea what it was for, as he says? So look, it’s clear the President’s fading physically. I think the mental capacity, again, ranting, you know, crazily at midnight on Thanksgiving about everything else. There’s reasons for us to be concerned. This is a guy that randomly says the airspace over Venezuela’s closed. He’s ruminating on if you could win a nuclear war. Look, this is a serious position. It’s the most powerful position in the world, and we have someone at midnight throwing around slurs that demonize our children, at the same time he’s not solving any of the problems. So I’m deeply concerned that he is incapable of doing the job.” Last night, on Air Force One, Trump responded oddly to a reporter’s question about Walz’s call for Trump to release the MRI results: “[I]f they want to release it, it’s okay with me to release it,” Trump said. “It’s perfect. It’s like my phone call where I got impeached. It’s absolutely perfect…. [I]f you want to have it released, I’ll release it.” When a reporter asked “What part of your body was the MRI looking at?” Trump answered: “I have no idea. It was just an MRI. What part of the body? It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing,” he said, pointing at the female reporter. He then pointed at another female reporter and said: “You, too.” Today White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a memo from the president’s physician, Sean P. Barbabella, saying that “advanced imaging” was performed on the president as a preventative measure. The memo said this imaging “was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.” It said Trump’s cardiovascular and abdominal imaging is “perfectly normal.” Conspicuously absent from the memo was any reference to the president’s brain. In the press conference, Leavitt also addressed Friday’s Washington Post story by Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima claiming that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Special Operations commander Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley to “kill everyone” in a small boat off the coast of Venezuela on September 2. After a first strike left two survivors clinging to burning wreckage, Bradley ordered a second strike that killed the survivors. This so-called double tap has been widely condemned as unlawful and a war crime, although Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday appeared to make fun of those concerns. He posted an AI-faked cover of a children’s book featuring Franklin the Turtle with the title “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.” It showed the fake Franklin in a military vest and helmet at the open door of a helicopter, firing what appears to be a rocket launcher at a burning small boat with a person and bundles in it while two other boats with armed men and bundles converge nearby. Above the image, the post read: “For your Christmas wish list…” Hegseth might think targeting survivors is funny, but he’s about the only one who does. A strike on survivors who pose no threat is outside the bounds even of the administration’s own assertion that it can kill civilians it claims are “narco terrorists” who threaten the United States. That assertion itself has met significant disagreement from legal experts. But as Talking Points Memo’s David Kurtz wrote today, the September 2 double tap that killed the two men “would be a violation of the laws of war even under the administration’s own self-justifying description of its campaign as an armed conflict with ‘narcoterrorists.’” The development is so alarming that there has been bipartisan outcry among lawmakers. Democrats have spoken out forcefully, while the Republican chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), have also publicly vowed to conduct oversight not just of the September 2 strike but of the entire operation. Representative Mike Turner (R-OH) explained: “There are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification that’s been provided. But this is completely outside of anything that’s been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation.” Senator Angus King (I-ME), a lawyer who sits on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that “the law is clear. If the facts are as have been alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill the survivors in the water, that’s a stone cold war crime. It’s also murder. So the real question is who gave which orders, when were they given, and that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of in the Congress…. It’s really a factual question. The law is totally clear.” Today, Leavitt told reporters the administration believes the strike was lawful because it “was conducted in self defense to protect Americans and vital United States interests.” This justification would permit the president, or those acting in his name, to be judge, jury, and executioner without regard to the law. But Leavitt was careful to distance both the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from the order. When asked by a reporter, “Does the administration deny that that second strike happened, or did it happen and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?” she said: “The latter is true.” She attributed the orders of September 2 to Admiral Bradley, appearing to be setting him up for underbussing. This evening, Hegseth pushed Bradley under, posting: “Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made—on the September 2 mission and all others since.” Commentator Brandon Friedman promptly posted: “Hegseth is very transparently blaming a Navy admiral for his own decision. Let this be a lesson for every other military officer: The Trump administration will issue unlawful orders, then blame you for following them.” Hegseth’s Franklin post to dismiss what is shaping up to look like a war crime is an excellent illustration of this administration’s focus on their fantasy of what strength looks like. In The Atlantic today, national security scholar Tom Nichols called out Hegseth, the secretary of defense of the United States of America, for acting like “a sneering, spoiled punk who has been caught doing wrong and is now daring the local fuzz to take him in and risk the anger of his rich dad—a role fulfilled by Donald Trump, in this case.” Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), whom the administration recently threatened to court martial and execute for recording a video to remind service members they must not follow an illegal order, called Hegseth “unqualified” for his job. “He runs around on a stage talking about lethality and warrior ethos and killing people.” But, Kelly said, “the most competent, capable military this planet has ever seen” needs direction about “mission and accountability and the rule of law and training,” as well as being “equipped to do really hard jobs.” “[I]nstead,” Kelly said, “he runs around on a stage like he’s a 12-year-old playing army. And it is ridiculous, it is embarrassing, and I can’t imagine what our allies think of looking at that guy in this job, one of the most important jobs in our country…. He is in the national command authority for nuclear weapons. And last night, he’s putting out on the internet turtles with rocket-propelled grenades…. This is the secretary of defense. This is not a serious person. He should have been fired after Signalgate. And then every single day after that.” Hegseth is not the only Trump appointee unqualified for their job. Today a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that Alina Habba, whom Trump placed in the position of acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, was appointed unlawfully. Trump appointed her to a 120-day acting appointment, after which the district court judges control the spot until the Senate confirms a new U.S. attorney. The judges rejected Habba, who has no experience as a prosecutor, and instead selected Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor, to lead the office. Attorney General Pam Bondi then fired Grace and maneuvered Habba back into control of the office. “It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” wrote Judge D. Michael Fisher in the opinion. But the judges say Trump cannot just get his way by ignoring the law. Last week a federal judge found that Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan to the post of U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was illegal and threw out the cases she had brought against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James. Erica Orden of Politico noted today that federal judges have also found illegal Trump’s appointments of U.S. attorneys for the Central District of California and the District of Nevada. —

On the sunny Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Messman Doris Miller had served breakfast aboard the USS West Virginia, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and was collecting laundry when the first of nine Japanese torpedoes hit the ship.

In the deadly confusion, Miller reported to an officer, who told him to help move the ship’s mortally wounded captain off the bridge. Unable to move him far, Miller pulled the captain to shelter. Then another officer ordered Miller to pass ammunition to him as he started up one of the two abandoned anti-aircraft guns in front of the conning tower.

Miller had not been trained to use the weapons because, as a Black man in the U.S. Navy, he was assigned to serve the white officers. But while the officer was distracted, Miller began to fire one of the guns. He fired it until he ran out of ammunition. Then he helped to move injured sailors to safety before he and the other survivors abandoned the West Virginia, which sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor.

The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. Japan declared war on America, and on December 11, 1941, both Italy and Germany declared war on America. “The powers of the steel pact, Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany, ever closely linked, participate from today on the side of heroic Japan against the United States of America,” Italian leader Benito Mussolini said. “We shall win.” Of course they would. Mussolini and Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler, believed the Americans had been corrupted by Jews and Black Americans and could never conquer their own organized military machine.

The steel pact, as Mussolini called it, was the vanguard of his new political ideology. That ideology was called fascism, and he and Hitler thought it would destroy democracy once and for all.

Mussolini had been a socialist as a young man and had grown terribly frustrated at how hard it was to organize people. No matter how hard socialists tried, they seemed unable to convince ordinary people that they must rise up and take over the country’s means of production.

The efficiency of World War I inspired Mussolini. He gave up on socialism and developed a new political theory that rejected the equality that defined democracy. He came to believe that a few leaders must take a nation toward progress by directing the actions of the rest. These men must organize the people as they had been organized during wartime, ruthlessly suppressing all opposition and directing the economy so that businessmen and politicians worked together. And, logically, that select group of leaders would elevate a single man, who would become an all-powerful dictator. To weld their followers into an efficient machine, they demonized opponents into an “other” that their followers could hate.

Italy adopted fascism, and Mussolini inspired others, notably Germany’s Hitler. Those leaders came to believe that their system was the ideology of the future, and they set out to destroy the messy, inefficient democracy that stood in their way.

America fought World War II to defend democracy from fascism. And while fascism preserved hierarchies in society, democracy called on all men as equals. Of the more than 16 million Americans who served in the war, more than 1.2 million were Black American men and women, 500,000 were Latinos, and more than 550,000 Jews were part of the military. Among the many ethnic groups who fought, Indigenous Americans served at a higher percentage than any other ethnic group—more than a third of able-bodied Indigenous men between the ages of 18 and 50 joined the service—and among those 25,000 soldiers were the men who developed the famous “Code Talk,” based in tribal languages, that codebreakers never cracked.

The American president at the time, Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, hammered home that the war was about the survival of democracy. Fascists insisted that they were moving their country forward fast and efficiently—claiming the trains ran on time, for example, although in reality they didn’t—but FDR constantly noted that the people in Italy and Germany were begging for food and shelter from the soldiers of democratic countries.

Ultimately, the struggle between fascism and democracy was the question of equality. Were all men really created equal as the Declaration of Independence said, or were some born to lead the rest, whom they held subservient to their will?

Democracy, FDR reminded Americans again and again, was the best possible government. Thanks to armies made up of men and women from all races and ethnicities, the Allies won the war against fascism, and it seemed that democracy would dominate the world forever.

But as the impulse of WWII pushed Americans toward a more just and inclusive society after it, those determined not to share power warned their supporters that including people of color and women as equals in society would threaten their own liberty. Those reactionary leaders rode that fear into control of our government, and gradually they chipped away the laws that protected equality. Now, once again, democracy is under attack by those who believe some people are better than others.

President Donald J. Trump and his cronies have abandoned the principles of democracy and openly embraced the hierarchical society the U.S. fought against in World War II. They have fired women, Black Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ Americans from positions in the government and the military and erased them from official histories. They have seized, incarcerated and deported immigrants— or rendered them to third countries to be tortured— and have sent federal agents and federal troops into Democratic-led cities to terrorize the people living there.

They have traded the rule of law for the rule of Trump, weaponizing the Department of Justice against those they perceive as enemies, pardoning loyalists convicted of crimes, and now, executing those they declare are members of drug cartels without evidence, charges, or trials. They have openly rejected the world based on shared values of equality and democracy for which Americans fought in World War II. In its place, they are building a world dominated by a small group of elites close to Trump, who are raking in vast amounts of money from their machinations.

Will we permit the destruction of American democracy on our watch?

When America came under attack before, people like Doris Miller refused to let that happen. For all that American democracy still discriminated against him, it gave him room to stand up for the concept of human equality—and he laid down his life for it. Promoted to cook after the Navy sent him on a publicity tour, Miller was assigned to a new ship, the USS Liscome Bay, which was struck by a Japanese torpedo on November 24, 1943. It sank within minutes, taking two thirds of the crew, including Miller, with it.

We hear a lot these days about how American democracy is doomed and the radical right will win. Maybe. But the beauty of our system is that it gives us people like Doris Miller.

Even better, it makes us people like Doris Miller.

VING THE DAY

President Donald Trump presents Gene Simmons, a member of the band Kiss, with his Kennedy Center Honors medal in the Oval Office on Dec. 6, 2025. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

EMCEE-IN-CHIEF: President Donald Trump has gone to great lengths to remake Washington in his image during his second presidency — often in historic and unprecedented fashion. Tonight, Trump is set to break yet another norm when he plays host at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, marking the first time a president has presided over the event. The emcee duties typically have fallen to a more traditional media figure, like Walter Cronkite, or a celebrity like Stephen Colbert or Queen Latifah. It is also a break from Trump’s previous posture toward the event, which he did not attend at any point during his first term. At a dinner for the honorees held by the State Department last night, Trump said he was hosting “at the request of a certain television network.” (The broadcast is set to air on CBS and Paramount+ on Dec. 23.) The honorees: This year, the crop of celebrities being christened comprises Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford and the band KISS. The inductees received their medallions (which have a brand-new design this year courtesy of Tiffany & Co.) during an Oval Office ceremony last night, where Trump heaped praise on the “incredible” honorees. “These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.” But even the selection process was upended this year by Trump. In the past, the honorees have been chosen by the Kennedy Center board over a period of months. But Trump — who elevated himself to chair of the Kennedy Center and installed a group of loyalists on the board — said in August that he was “about 98% involved” in putting this group together. He claimed that he denied “a couple of wokesters” that were proposed by the board and praised Stallone as a friend. As for the other honorees, it’s unclear where exactly they fall on the political spectrum. “Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years,” AP’s Darlene Superville and Hillel Italie write. “Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016,” they add, while noting that he had choice words for Trump in 2022. In keeping with long-running tradition, the names of those who will deliver performances in honor of the awardees is being kept secret until the program tonight. But the Trump-led “upheaval at the Kennedy Center has led to questions about who will be there this year,” NPR’s Elizabeth Blair writes. “Historically, even when artists have disagreed with past administrations, they've in large part showed up. Some make it a point to come every year.” The event tonight will cap off a weekend during which Trump has put the Kennedy Center on display following the FIFA World Cup 2026 draw held there on Friday that brought delegations in from across the globe and saw Trump receive the organization’s inaugural peace prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Tonight offers Trump a chance to revel in the pomp — and the former TV star’s confident that his stage presence will deliver. “It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen,” Trump said yesterday. And it’s safe to say that he won’t be taking cues from some Hollywood host types. “I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.” (Kimmel has never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, though he’s emceed events like the Oscars and the AMAs.) — SPOTTED at yesterday’s Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception hosted at the State Department: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, Ambassador and Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley, Richard Grenell, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, George Strait, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, Sylvester Stallone, Tiffany Trump, Kelsey Grammer, Stephen and Katie Miller, Robert Kraft and Norah O’Donnell. NOT BY THE BOOK: “Trump’s Presidential Library Will Be an ‘Icon.’ But Will It Be a Library?” by Luke Mullins for POLITICO Magazine: “Forget glamor-free presidential libraries in towns like Little Rock or Grand Rapids. Sometime after 2029, enthusiasts might be able to take in a facility whose possible elements include a 47-story tower, a hotel, a rooftop restaurant, and a prime perch in the Miami skyline. Donald Trump’s presidential library, like Donald Trump’s presidency, is already breaking molds — and it hasn’t even been commissioned yet. “The hype around the building gathered force back in September, when Trump’s son Eric — a trustee of The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation — announced the location, proclaiming the library would be ‘one of the most beautiful buildings ever built’ and ‘an Icon on the Miami skyline.’ No official plans have been released, but in conversations with Florida power players, local activists, real estate pros and Trump insiders familiar with the discussions, it appears that the project is shaping up to be a lot more glamorous, a lot pricier, and a whole lot more lucrative than the libraries of his predecessors.”

A message from Instagram: Automatic protections for teens. Peace of mind for parents. Last year, Instagram launched Teen Accounts, which default teens into automatic protections. Now, a stricter “Limited Content” setting is available for parents who prefer extra controls. And we'll continue adding new safeguards, giving parents more peace of mind. Learn more.

SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on the Affordable Care Act subsidies fight on “Fox News Sunday”: “[I]f we do continue the subsidies, you can put that over here, 100 percent going to the patient, and put it into a health savings account. … Off the bat, that's a better thing. Let's give the American people the choice ... We've got to do it by next year. We can do this by next year. So, I've been talking to Democrats. There's absolute interest.” On the vaccine advisory board’s recent vote to alter Hep B vaccine requirements for newborns: “If the system is that every mother is offered this vaccine, and every child is offered this vaccine, not a mandate, it's a recommendation, then the insurance company pays for it, it's recommended, and she can elect to have it. By the way, it is safe … there's no side effects, and it's effective. Let's give the mama the ability to give the gift to her child of protection against hepatitis B. She may not know her hepatitis B status, and the doctors may not know. But if they're all offered, it works.” — White House border czar Tom Homan on ICE detainments of legal citizens on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “I think there's been zero U.S. citizens that have been detained for questioning because reasonable suspicion said they may be in the country illegally. They may have an issue with that, but as soon as that questioning is over, if they're a U.S. citizen, they will be released.” More from POLITICO’s Cheyanne Daniels — Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) on Trump’s immigration crackdown on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “If I were mayor, the very first thing I would do is, I'd sit down with ICE and I say, I want the bad guys out of my city and I want my citizens to feel safe. Now let's do that. And too much of that isn't happening. … I think, to the extent that ICE is not transparent, it brings this fear into a community, and we have got to get rid of that fear. We have got to get rid of the bad guys and to be compassionate at the same time. We can do it.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces. “The Coming MAGA Crackup,” by Leighton Woodhouse for Social Studies on Substack “Peace Through Strength Is Worth Paying For,” by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for WSJ “The Last Democrat Redneck,” by Chuck Rocha for Rocha Revolution on Substack “Republicans’ War on Property Taxes Will Lose Them the Suburbs,” by Aaron Renn for NYT Opinion “Republican populism craters as Trump stumbles, Democrats surge,” by Andrew Bates for Fox News “Why Democrats Won the Shutdown,” by Neera Tanden for WSJ “The Henhouse Liberalism Built,” by Waleed Shahid on Substack “What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes,” by Phil Klay for NYT Opinion

The unusually small group includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. | Yuri Gripas/ABACA

9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. THE CIRCLE OF TRUST: In a year that has seen an intense focus on foreign affairs for the White House, Trump “has entrusted only a handful of his closest advisers to tackle his most important foreign policy priorities from Russia to the Middle East. Even as their portfolio expands – now including a possible strike on Venezuela – the group remains small,” POLITICO’s Diana Nerozzi and Eli Stokols report. “It’s a mark of the president’s unyielding belief in his inner circle made up of old friends, family and confidants, and underscores his deep distrust of the broader national security and State Department apparatus that has served as the backbone of foreign relations for decades. The unusually small group includes Trump’s long-time real estate friend Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and chief of staff Susie Wiles.” 2. CARLSON IN QATAR: Conservative media host Tucker Carlson said today that he’s buying a place in Qatar. The announcement, made onstage at the Doha Forum as Carlson interviewed Qatar’s prime minister, comes as Carlson has faced withering criticism from MAGA stalwart Laura Loomer for his ties to the Arab state, POLITICO’s Nahal Toosi writes in from the forum. Carlson said he’s buying property in Doha “because I like the city. I think it’s beautiful, but also to make the statement that I’m an American and a free man, and I’ll be wherever I want to be.” Carlson pressed the Qatari leader, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, about his country’s links to Hamas. It’s an old but sensitive subject. Al Thani stressed that Qatar has hosted Hamas leaders for years at the request of Israel and the U.S., and that doing so helped mediate a ceasefire in Gaza. Carlson, who is skeptical of U.S. ties with Israel, pointed out that Israel recently bombed Doha (targeting Hamas). He also questioned why wealthy Arab states such as Qatar should be asked to pay to rebuild Gaza given that Israel destroyed much of the enclave. Loomer has used her influential social media accounts to blast Carlson and others in conservative circles for showing up in Doha. Loomer’s attacks on Carlson have gotten some back-up from GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Donald Trump Jr. also attended the forum, but has drawn a more sympathetic reaction from Loomer: “I worry about the Trump family being exploited by anti-American Muslims who seek to destroy Western civilization,” she wrote. 3. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: At the Doha Forum, Trump Jr. “criticized corruption in Ukraine and suggested Sunday that his father may walk away from the country if it doesn’t make peace with Russia,” Nahal reports from Doha. “Trump Jr. stressed that Ukraine has long been hamstrung by corruption in its official ranks and argued that such graft is fueling the war in both Moscow and Kyiv.” What he said: “When asked if the U.S. president could walk away from Ukraine, the younger Trump said, ‘I think he may,’” per Nahal. ‘What’s good about my father, and what’s unique about my father, is you don’t know what he’s going to do,’ he added. ‘The fact that he’s not predictable … forces everyone to actually deal in an intellectually honest capacity.’” The view from Moscow: The Kremlin lauded Trump’s new national security strategy today, saying the new directive to stop calling Russia a direct threat was a “positive step,” per Reuters. On the ground, Russia launched a wave of missile and drone attacks over the weekend, targeting power stations and energy centers in Ukraine, per Al Jazeera.

Transition of Power: What's Next for Virginia Join POLITICO in Richmond on Dec. 9 for dynamic conversations on the transition of power in the commonwealth and the future political stakes for Virginia residents. Key speakers include Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, Virginia Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle, and Virginia House Speaker Don Scott. The event will be in-person and streamed live, and participants can request to join here.

4. SCOTUS WATCH: “Trump’s plans to shatter the bureaucracy have a green light at the Supreme Court,” by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “The Supreme Court will debate Monday whether to finally finish off a teetering, 90-year-old precedent that limited presidents’ power over many federal agencies. But lurking in the wings is a far more radical bid by the Trump administration to remake the federal government from top to bottom by ending the concept of the civil service. Indeed, some legal experts say that as a practical matter, the administration — emboldened by the justices — has already managed to eliminate job protections that have been on the books for nearly 150 years.” 5. ON THE MONEY: Behind the scenes in the West Wing, Trump’s aides and advisers have been pressing him for weeks to reconfigure his messaging around voters’ affordability concerns, showing him polling numbers and social media posts on economy, WSJ’s Josh Dawsey and Meridith McGraw report. “Almost every senior White House official is involved in the effort,” though Trump has continued to dismiss aides' concerns, arguing affordability is a “trap set by Democrats.” Still, “White House aides are reorienting some of Trump’s public events to focus on costs” as some allies have “have encouraged the White House to focus less on issues abroad and turn their gaze back to the U.S.” 6. DEEP IN THE HEART: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is prepared to make a decision tomorrow over whether she is jumping into the Lone Star State’s Senate primary or opting to run for reelection. The Dallas-Fort Worth area lawmaker told CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere that she has “two cashier’s checks made out” for tomorrow, one for reelection and another for a Senate bid: “Her down-to-the-wire indecision, she knows, is driving even her staff crazy. She’s invited hundreds of people to an announcement event Monday that’s scheduled 90 minutes before she needs to submit one of the checks.” Over a 45-minute conversation, Crockett “expressed annoyance at accusations that she’s just barreling into the race,” Dovere writes. “I’m not crazy,” Crockett said. “It’s weird that people believe that I could win the races that I won and I’m just like out here willy-nilly. But OK. I am very self-aware, right? Even when I go in to help candidates in other states, I ask them, have you polled for me?” Pardoner’s remorse: Trump lashed out at Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), whom he pardoned last week, over his decision to run for reelection as a Democrat. In a post on Truth Social this morning, the president decried “vicious” Democrats, who he claimed had targeted Cuellar. Trump said Cuellar running as a Democrat would mean “continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison - And probably still do! Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

The $148 billion failure: Watchdog's final report excoriates America’s attempt to rebuild Afghanistan By Thomas Novelly After nearly two decades of oversight, SIGAR will conclude its work early next year.