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UNBELIEVABLES

Getting my arms around everything, in a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency, again....

Mark Halperin

Jan 18

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It takes a lot to surprise me.

Even more to shock me.

But as I wake up this morning in the town of my childhood, a Nation’s Capital poised for the improbable return to power in about 55 hours of DJT, most of what I see in the news is simply some combination of farfetched, phantastic, preposterous, mind-boggling, and astonishing.

To give you just a few examples:

* No one seems to have any idea where the several hundred thousand people who are here will watch the inauguration ceremony from now that it has moved indoors – and no one has chronicled the titanic battle for the few seats available for the warm and cozy Capitol swearing in. (You won’t believe who hasn’t made the cut – and the lengths some VIP folks are going to get in.)

* Someone who is reportedly going: Mike Pence, who probably won’t be taking a date.

* The Dominant Media and the Democrats seem to still not understand that OMB topper Russell Thurlow Vought will be one of the very most important, powerful, and influential members of the Trump administration, central to the four-headed efforts of cutting regulations, controlling spending, reducing headcount, and rooting out Deep State enemies.

* Only now, through a new national poll, does the New York Times tell its readers that Donald Trump’s policies (as on immigration) are popular well beyond “the extreme MAGA base.”

* I can’t find a single explanation anywhere of what TikTok and the ChiComms’s strategy is regarding USG efforts to shut the popular platform down, in a weekend showdown whose outcome is unknown.

* The left seems surprised that ICE raids are about to happen, when they were promised without ambiguity.

* Bill Gates joins the We Are All Trumpists Now Club, telling the Wall Street Journal what a thoughtful and knowledgeable man the incoming president is, after dining with him and Susie Wiles at MAL.

* The ceasefire looks to be happening.

* The New York Times, among the most active participants in the four-year effort to cover up Joe Biden’s loss of mental acuity, assigns top reporters to do a big investigative piece about the historic conspiracy – and ends up with a long article that only perpetuates the nightmare, with an article that falls 99% short of the mark of truth.

As one savvy Wide World of News reader observes:

The Times’ piece on how “Biden’s inner circle protected a faltering president” comes off as an apologetic mess for a diminished man who could not accept his limitations and the close circle of advisors who propped him up. The story also didn’t answer the most important questions, including, why didn’t the press push earlier to examine his acuity and who was really in charge? I badly want [the media] to acknowledge its missteps and start rebuilding trust (a long road). But the Times piece doesn’t help and it badly missed the mark. It raises more questions about those who stood by and protected a fading president, and those who didn’t report on it. That breeds skepticism.

* Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet sent Sam Altman an outrageous letter demanding he reveal his reasons for making financial contributions to Donald Trump, which he helpfully published on X, making the point that they never inquired about his motives when he gave cash to their party.

* On the first Friday night in nearly a decade that I did not have dinner at Nobu Downtown, Taylor Swift chose to dine there.

* Nearly everything about this Obama tweet, but especially the picture:

* Only now does the New York Times tell its readers that the key to Donald Trump’s success is that he is a great brander via produced television and events.

* Paul Gigot & Co. are getting on board, maybe.

* Donald Trump’s new portrait suspiciously evokes my AI-produced headshot.

* The Village People are uniting America!

* Civil suits are causing CNN to make a settlement and CBS to consider one, per the Wall Street Journal:

Paramount Global executives have held internal discussions about settling a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a CBS News interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to people familiar with the situation, a sign of larger efforts to dial down tensions with the incoming president.
Paramount, owner of CBS, its namesake studio and several cable channels, has a major piece of business in front of the new administration: its planned merger with Skydance Media. It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to offer concessions to win approval, people familiar with the situation said.

* The Dominant Media’s appetite for gossipy stories about Musk, Bannon, and Trump is INSATIABLE.

* Whatever it is Joe Biden did on the Equal Rights Amendment.

* Only now, and in the kicker, does the New York Times explain to its readers how Donald Trump operates ideological and practically:

Brad Todd, a Republican strategist, said no one understood the temperature of the Republican Party quite like Mr. Trump, who spends hours calling different lawmakers, donors and activists to get their views.
“Trump is not ideological,” Mr. Todd said. “He’s a pragmatic, practical person. He is a populist in that he wants to do popular things.”

* The bathos emanating from this email sent by another Wide World of News reader.

Mark, I’m an evacuee from the Palisades Fire, one of the greatest disasters in U.S. history, up there with Katrina in terms of destruction to property and disruption to lives—hundreds of thousands of them either displaced temporarily or permanently. On a personal note the school that my son attended from kindergarten to 6th grade, where we watched innumerable school plays, sporting events, parent/teacher conferences and many of the most memorable events of childhood, was reduced to charred rubble. Now those sweet memories must be mixed with the violent conflagration that was to be. As a father of school-aged children you know what that must mean.
All presidents in my lifetime (I’m 73) have at least given lip service stating they’d be president for all Americans. Exactly twice during the election advisors told Trump to say that *he’d* be president for all Americans. Once during his acceptance speech at the Convention and one other time. Both times it seemed as though he’d literally choke on those words and he quickly moved to more comfortable topics.
When I’ve criticized Trump in the past it’s been pointed out to me that, “he’s your president, too.” But is he? I’d honestly like to believe that but I feel like the President-Elect has no intention to be my president. This is apparent in this time of great suffering and loss to many fellow Americans. President-elect Trump has yet to offer one sentence of empathy or condolence to victims. Rather, he’s blamed victims and has been dismissive, condescending, and inaccurate about these epochal fires. He’s scolded us for not “maintaining our forests”, not realizing or caring that these were not forest fires but urban brush fires fanned by unprecedented Santa Ana winds battering a drought-parched region. “Sweeping the forests” could not be less pertinent .
This disaster is climate change related, something Trump doesn’t believe in. He dismissively calls climate change, “the green new SCAM”. Well, he may not believe in climate change but ALL the major insurance companies do, and they’ve proceeded with mass cancellations and major rate hikes explaining clearly that climate change is the reason. Insurance companies are not woke. They’re businesses who flee when science points to conditions where they’ll lose money.
Mark, I believe that you’re hopeful and looking forward positively towards the new Administration and this is not an argument to try and dissuade you from that. The phrase I learned from you, the presumption of grace, resonates and is meaningful to me. But I have to ask if you believe the president-elect presumes grace for me or any progressively inclined citizen who he’s been once again elected to lead and protect. I don’t believe he does which is a source of discouragement and anxiety for us as we embark upon these new Trump years.
HG
Brentwood

What is NOT unbelievable, I hope, is that Mr. Trump will read that note, take it to heart, and act on it.

It is his chance in this Ultimate Mulligan moment to, indeed, Be Best, or, at least, Be Better.

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