Trump eschews Ivy Leagues in favor of business acumen for cabinet

Harvard crimson may be a prominent color in the offices of the Obama administration, but that looks to change as President-elect Trump transitions to the White House.
Unlike Obama – who mined the faculties of Harvard and other Ivy League schools to fill his cabinet and top level administrative posts – Trump has so far focused his search for help steering his administration policies on people he is more familiar with: wealthy businessmen and women.
Trump is expected to select billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as his commerce secretary and will likely choose Todd Ricketts, the owner of the Chicago Cubs whose father founded TD Ameritrade, as deputy commerce secretary. The president-elect last week named Betsy DeVos, the chairwoman of Michigan-based investment firm the Windquest Group, as education secretary. In addition, Mitt Romney, who before his time as Massachusetts governor was the founder of investment firm Bain Capital, is on Trump’s shortlist for secretary of state.

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President-elect Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos pose for photographs at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J. Trump has chosen charter school advocate DeVos as Education Secretary in his administration. (The Associated Press)

“Birds of a feather flock together,” Gary Nordlinger, a professor in the graduate school of political management at George Washington University, told FoxNews.com. “Trump wants to surround himself with people who he sees as successful in the real world and he has approached the entire cabinet appointment process as a businessman would.”
The move away from Ivy League academics and toward the titans of commerce appears not just to be one of comfort for Trump, but also to fulfill his campaign promise to root out Washington insiders, lobbyists and liberal elites, whom he sees as the main problem inside the Beltway.
While Trump has been criticized for keeping a number of former lobbyists on his transition team (he argued that selecting lobbyists was the only option he had), the appointment of ultra-wealthy conservatives to cabinet-level posts does align with his distrust of the presumed liberal elites who make up the Obama administration.
During his two terms in office, Obama – himself a graduate of Colombia University and Harvard Law School – filled his administration with Ivy League brethren. From Harvard’s faculty alone, Obama recruited Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and top economic aide Lawrence Summers to name just a few. Of the 22 cabinet-level positions in Obama’s White House, 13 of them are held by people with either undergraduate or graduate degrees – or both - from an Ivy League school.

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President Obama introduces Elena Kagan as his choice for Supreme Court Justice. (AP Photo)

“Obama is deep, deep down an intellectual,” Nordlinger said. “He is a product of the Ivy Leagues and it makes perfectly reasonable sense why he chooses to surround himself with these type of people.”
Despite his penchant for being the outsider, Trump can’t completely eschew candidates with Ivy League backgrounds – he himself graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, Ross holds a BA from Yale and earned his MBA at Harvard as did Romney. But he appears to be looking for people whose success lays in fields different than academia.
“Trump’s argument is that while the Ivy League faculty may have a bunch of accolades, they don’t understand real life,” Joe Trippi, a political strategist and frequent Fox News Channel contributor, told FoxNews.com.
It also does not appear that all Ivy League academics are opposed to actually working with the president-elect. Harvard lecturer Carlos E. Díaz Rosillo is helping him with his transition and school officials say that Trump can still find like-minded professors in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Summary

91 percent of donations made by faculty at Harvard in 2015 went to Hillary Clinton, according to the Harvard Crimson.

“To the extent that Harvard is both very committed to acceptance and integration and diversity and also is very committed to fact-driven policy, it’s not a natural fit,” Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who served in the Obama administration, told the Boston Globe. “But I could see, at the agency level, a lot of good reasons for various experts here to join the administration.”
In the long run, whether or not Trump foregoes choosing Ivy League academics to join his administration and instead fills his cabinet with like-minded business people may not matter if he can’t fulfill his campaign promises.
“He’s just replacing one set of elites for a different set of elites,” Trippi said. “The difference is that he says these are people who have real-life experience in actually getting things done. We’re going to see very soon if that rings true.”

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies at age 90

Longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the bearded, cigar-smoking Communist revolutionary who infuriated the United States, inspired both loyalty and loathing from his countrymen and maintained an iron grip on Cuban politics for almost 50 years, died Friday at the age of 90.

Castro, who was the only leader most of his countrymen ever knew, outlasted 11 US presidents since he first took power in 1959.

Castro had been in declining health for years – he continued to spew his anti-American tirades almost until the end.
In October, 2014, Castro reprinted a New York Times editorial in state-run media that argued that the U.S. embargo on Cuba should end. The editorial ran almost verbatim, omitting one line about Cuba’s release of political prisoners.
In 2012 he wrote an opinion piece for a state-run media outlet in which he branded the Republican presidential primary race "the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance" the world has ever seen.
And just to show how much his volatile presence lingered in American politics, despite officially handing over power to his brother Raul in 2008, Castro also was the subject of a question during a Republican candidates' debate in Tampa, Fla. that same month.

When Mitt Romney was asked the first thing he would do as president if he found out Castro was dead, he replied, "Well first of all, you thank heavens that Fidel Castro has returned to his maker and will be sent to another land."

When it was his turn to answer, Newt Gingrich said, "I don't think that Fidel is going to meet his maker. I think he's going to go to the other place."

The lawyer, revolutionary and political leader who triggered such visceral reactions was born August 13, 1926 out of wedlock to a Cuban sugar plantation owner and a servant in his home (they eventually married). He was not formally recognized by his father until he was 17, when his surname was changed to Castro from Ruz, his mother's name.
Though he spent the better part of his life railing against capitalism and the rich, Castro enjoyed a wealthy and privileged childhood.
He attended Jesuit boarding schools, and developed a love for sports, pitching for El Colegio de Belen’s baseball team. He attended the University of Havana law school, where he joined groups that focused on Cuban nationalism and socialism.
After graduation and now a revolutionary, he took up arms against the government of President Fulgencio Batista, leading a failed 1953 attack on a military barracks in hopes of triggering a popular revolt.

Instead he was captured and at his trial, where he led his own defense, famously predicted "history will absolve me."

After spending time in prison, Castro went into exile in Mexico, where he met Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who became his confidante.

Castro established another guerrilla force and after several years of fighting, eventually defeated Batista in 1959, taking control of Cuba at the age of 32.

After being sworn in as prime minister, Castro began a series of reforms, many designed to end US economic power on the island. Relations between the two countries frayed and when Castro visited the US later that year, President Dwight Eisenhower refused to meet with him.

At the same time, Castro's government began to establish relations with the Soviet Union. In April 1961 Castro formally declared Cuba a socialist state just days before the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion that saw 1,400 Cuban exiles trained by the CIA unsuccessfully attempt to invade and topple his government.

Castro intensified relations with the Soviet Union and in 1962 US reconnaissance planes discovered Soviet missiles on their way to Cuban sites, precipitating a tense standoff between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

But in the 1980s, Russia stopped taking Cuban sugar, causing widespread economic deprivation that resulted in thousands of Cubans trying to flee to the US by sea.
Castro often spoke with resentment and disgust of the Cubans who left the island because of his government, particularly those who went into exile in the United States.
He called Cuban exiles “guzanos,” the Spanish word for “worms,” and complained about the Miami Mafia that always sought his ouster.
Cuban exiles responded with equal disdain, with many forming organizations solely focused on getting Castro out of power.
Rumors of his death ran rampant in Cuban communities many times over the decades.
In a 1988 speech, Castro said: "I think I hold the dubious record of having been the target of more assassination attempts than any politician, in any country, in any era.”
"The day I die, nobody will believe it."
Castro served as prime minister until 1976, when he became president, serving in that position until 2008, when an ailing Fidel handed over power to his younger brother Raul.

He remained as First Secretary of the Communist Party until April 2011.

And even when officially out of office, he remained the best known figure in Cuba.

"Men do not shape destiny," he once said. "Destiny produces the man for the hour."

Along the way he was a prime enemy of the US and there were reports of the CIA trying to topple him in a variety of ways, although some suggestions – like an exploding cigar – seemed to border on the absurd.

Castro's personal life was complicated and private. He was believed to have one son by a first marriage, an illegitimate daughter from another relationship, five sons from a second marriage and another son by an unnamed mother.

Cry baby College Student Cartoons

According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2015–2016 school year was $32,405 at private colleges, $9,410 for state residents at public colleges, and $23,893 for out-of-state residents attending public universities.

The breakneck pace ahead for Congress

So 2017 is probably going to be a lot like 1995 on Capitol Hill.
Republicans in the House and Senate are practically exuberant that they now have control of both bodies of Congress and President-elect Trump coming into the White House. They have a chance to legislate and promulgate GOP and conservative policies which registered merely as “messaging bills” under President Obama.
The election of Trump grants Republicans agency to truly legislate. Many Republicans in Congress have never served under a GOP President. Eight years of a Democratic administration wore them down. Some grew tired of always working “against” something rather than striving “for” something.
Some Congressional Republicans grew disheartened. Uninspired. Exasperated. More years of investigations and inquiries awaited them in what many anticipated was the incoming Clinton Administration. So some Republicans turned on themselves. They went after former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Chatter began that maybe House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., wasn’t good enough, either. Maybe Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,was the problem – so say nothing of all of those weird Senate rules.
And now, Republicans hit the jackpot. Or at least think they have. They’re anxious to get started. Energized. Confident. And expectations from the public are off the chart.
What is past is prologue.
Republicans seized control of both the House and Senate in the fabled 1994 midterm elections. Republicans lost the Senate in 1986. So it had only been eight years in the wilderness there. But the House was another enterprise altogether. Republicans wandered aimlessly in the minority for 42 years in the House of Representatives. So entrenched were the Democrats in the House, many observers believed the party may have marshaled a “permanent majority.” In fact, Democrats ran the House for all but four of the previous 62 years.
That was until Republicans captured an astonishing 54 seats in 1994 and flipped the House to GOP control. They beat then-House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash. Then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., christened the incoming freshmen “majority makers” and was determined to show the public how the GOP could run the House better. Gingrich planned to advance his 10-point “Contract with America” through the House during the first hundred days. Gingrich encouraged the public to watch Congressional proceedings on C-SPAN. And in a maneuver which would appear practically archaic today, Republicans took out an ad in TV Guide which listed the ten Contract with America points. Gingrich hoped voters would follow along at home and then check off each item as they advanced through the House.
The parameters of the opportunity ahead for Congressional Republicans now are different compared to 1994. But much like GOPers 22 years ago, this crowd is ready to legislate, buoyed by the opportunity to work with the Trump Administration. Their parliamentary muscles atrophied over the past few years. So Republicans are marking an ambitious agenda which features the prospective repeal and replacement of Obamacare, a new tax structure, a robust infrastructure program, a crackdown on the Obama Administration’s immigration policy and a planned rollback of various executive branch rules.
The House and Senate conducted a minimalist schedule over the past few years. McConnell promised full work weeks when the GOP earned control of the Senate two years ago. But the Senate rarely met for a full five days. The House adhered mostly to the classic four-day schedule. But recesses were long. Both bodies skipped town from mid-July until almost mid-September this year. Lawmakers gave back days which leaders scheduled for legislative work. The compact schedule produced harried lawmakers and aides as everyone maximized their time in Washington. GOP leaders defended the skeletal approach. They argued it was important for lawmakers to escape the Beltway and be in touch with their constituents.
Now those sentiments are out the window. Republican lawmakers will want to be in Washington. Five-day weeks (or more) are expected in both chambers. Trump and Republicans have to have something to show the public…and soon. They’ll need to make a point or voters may presume President-elect Trump and Republicans sold them a bag of goods.
You think the public is apoplectic now?
Expect a breakneck pace on Capitol Hill in 2017. It might be an approach not seen since 1995.
The first 100 days of 1995 were an exhaustive slog for House Republicans. Things were tough in the Senate, too. But much of the onus fell on the House and Gingrich.
Long days. Long nights. Epic floor fights with the Democrats. Barbs on the floor. Contentious press conferences with Gingrich. It was a wild, wild time.
“It’s not the 100 days that are killing us,” said the late-Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., at the time. “It’s the 100 nights.
Legislative sessions often started promptly at 9 am (or earlier in some instances) and bled well into the night with few respites. Fourteen and 15 hour days were the norm. Republicans logged an astonishing 486 hours in session over the first 100 days compared to a meager 189 hours over the same time period in the previous Congress. The House conducted 252 roll call votes by mid-March. Lawmakers voted a scant 73 times two years prior.
Republicans found themselves exhilarated at the opportunity to legislate and flex their policy bona fides. But there was a cost. A big one.
Everyone was tired. Sleep deprived. Fuses were short. Lawmakers snapped at each other, aides and journalists. They devoured takeout constantly from Armand’s Chicago Pizzeria and the recently-burned Hunan Dynasty on Capitol Hill. The House even ordered several of the Capitol’s cafeterias to remain open into the evening to serve famished lawmakers and staff. Waistlines expanded. Some shrank from the stress.
Lawmakers dozed on the floor during debates and caught catnaps in their offices. Even one of the barbers in the House barber shop remarked how the anxiety was palpable.
“Right now people are more uptight than any time I’ve been here,” said veteran House barber Nurney Mason to The Wall Street Journal. “They’re always in such a rush to get out. No time for a blow dry.”
People fell sick thanks to the grueling, frantic pace. Lawmakers trafficked the Capitol passageway leading to the Office of the Attending Physician as heavily as the corridors leading to the House floor. Dozens of lawmakers came down with some weird bronchial crud. They promptly passed it around to everyone else because no one ever left the building and many lawmakers slept in their offices and showered in the House gym.
But Gingrich tried to keep his troops in line and maintain esprit de corps. He often psyched up his members, suggesting they were “revolutionaries” and that this was an appointment with history.
It’s unclear if Republicans now in the House and Senate view themselves as having an appointment with history in the 115^th Congress which starts in January. But they do think they have the chance to get some big things done. And appointment with history or not, it appears they’re willing to endure a long slog over the next few months – even if that also means an appointment with the Office of the Attending Physician.

100 percent of CFPB donations went to Democrats

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the most partisan agency in the federal government in terms of donations to candidates, according to campaign finance data.
Employees at the CFPB, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, contributed nearly $50,000 during the 2016 campaign with all of that money going to aid Hillary Clinton or her rival, the insurgent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Agency employees made more than 300 donations during the campaign. Not one went to a Republican candidate.
Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wisc., a frequent critic of the agency, said that it is no surprise that the agency would contribute to the Democratic campaign. Republicans have tried to reduce the scope of the bureau’s broad regulatory power since Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the most liberal lawmakers in the country, oversaw its creation.
“CFPB employees fell over each other to give money to Hillary because she supported CFPB’s desire to remain in the shadows and unaccountable to the American people,” Duffy said. “No one is shocked that Washington bureaucrats would donate to the candidate who promised to maintain and expand onerous Dodd-Frank regulations that crush our community banks and local credit unions.”
The bureau did not return request for comment from the Washington Free Beacon about the donations.
The CFPB was one of just four agencies in which every political contribution went to the Democratic Party or allied groups, though one of those agencies’ donations came from just one employee.
Peace Corps workers contributed nearly $25,000 to Hillary Clinton and her allies, including the pro-abortion Emily’s List PAC, the second highest total of monolithic agency contributions.

House GOP business-tax plan upends U.S. policy, bares corporate fault lines

Fault lines inside the corporate world are emerging over a proposed rewrite of the U.S. tax code, pitting importers against exporters.
At the heart of the fight is a Republican plan in Congress that would impose corporate taxes on imports while eliminating them from exports, a move that would upend decades of tax policy.
The proposed shift in effect would curtail existing incentives for U.S. companies to move profits and operations abroad, but it would also pose new challenges for some global businesses. Retailers selling imported products and refiners using imported oil could be hardest hit, while some exporters could see their tax bills vanish.
“You’re going to have the big importers fighting the big exporters,” said Lisa Zarlenga, a former U.S. Treasury official and now a partner at international law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
The proposal is part of House Republicans’ blueprint for overhauling the entire U.S. tax code and has been around since June. While still not legislation, it has gained fresh momentum—and scrutiny from corporations—since the November election sweep gave the GOP the chance to advance its ideas with its newfound one-party control of Congress and the White House.
Lawmakers must now weigh competing business interests to achieve the country’s first major tax revamp since 1986. “Tax reform always hits different industries differently,” said Republican economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin. “It’s the ability to rise above those differences that makes tax reform hard.”
Other crucial elements of the business-tax plan would also be a major departure for the U.S. and include dropping the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%. Companies would also be able to write off capital expenses immediately but couldn’t deduct net interest.

Asia is nervous about Trump, but US-India ties could improve

Will Trump agree to Rubio's move to crack down on China?

Some Asian nations are watching anxiously as Donald Trump prepares to take up the presidency, but for at least one major power in the region, India, the changing of the guard in Washington could strengthen ties.
During a brutal election campaign, where Trump's rhetoric on foreign partners was overwhelmingly negative, he was largely positive about India -- or at least its Hindu majority -- and its nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi.
When Trump courted Indian-American voters at a rally in New Jersey in mid-October, he said, "There won't be any relationship more important to us." He praised Modi -- another populist who is savvy in using social media -- as a "great man" for championing bureaucratic reforms and economic growth.
There are other hints that Trump is well-disposed toward India.
He has done a lot of business there. A Washington Post analysis of Trump's pre-election financial disclosure found that of his 111 international business deals, the highest number -- 16 -- were in India. He stirred controversy last week over potential conflicts of interest by meeting with three Indian business partners who are building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex in the city of Pune.
On Wednesday he selected South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- the first woman tapped for a Cabinet-level post in his administration. Haley has no foreign policy experience.
It remains a matter of conjecture how any of this will shape the approach taken by a Trump administration when he takes office Jan. 20. But Lisa Curtis at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank said it was "easy to envision" the U.S. and India working closer on counter-terrorism.
India hopes that Trump's promise to fight radical Islamic militants will mean more American pressure on Pakistan and less aid for India's historic archrival. Militants based in Pakistan are accused of launching cross-border attacks inside India.
Neelam Deo, who heads the Mumbai-based think tank Gateway House, said India would also welcome it if Trump builds a working relationship with Russia in fighting the Islamic State group.
But Deo predicted U.S.-India friction if Trump restricts non-immigrant visas for Indians to try to protect American workers. She said that 60 percent of India's information technology experts who work abroad go to the U.S.
Biswajit Dhar, an economics professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said that how Trump approaches immigration is a major concern in India and tough action "is going to rattle quite a lot here."
Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to the U.S., said reactions in India to Trump's election victory have ranged from vocal support from right-wingers to shock and disappointment among the liberal intelligentsia. He said people had noticed that Trump had attended election campaign events with Hindus rather than the broader Indian-American community.
India is 80 percent Hindu, but 14 percent of its 1.3 billion people are Muslims.
U.S.-India relations have advanced under President Barack Obama, particularly since Modi's election in 2014. When Modi addressed Congress this June, he described the U.S. as an "indispensable partner" and said together they could anchor stability and prosperity from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific.
Staunch U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea, which host American forces and depend on U.S. nuclear deterrence, have been unnerved by Trump's call for nations to shoulder more of the burden for security in Asia.
But that is less of a concern for India, which is not a formal ally of the U.S. It has expanded its military cooperation with Washington and purchased American hardware as it modernizes its armed forces. But it prizes having an independent foreign policy, as it did during the Cold War.
"India's interest in taking on a larger role fits in with Mr. Trump's view of U.S. friends and partners doing more in their own regions," said C. Raja Mohan, director of the Carnegie India think tank.
Trump plans to take an ax to the main economic element of Obama's Asia policy -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He said this week that he will end U.S. participation in the 12-nation trade pact. India is not involved in the agreement.
But India would be concerned if Trump adopted an isolationist stance and dialed back the U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific.
"India is worried about China's dominance in this region," Dhar said.

Thanksgiving Turkey Cartoons

VP and family arrive for island Thanksgiving holiday

(Nov. 23, 2016) Joe Biden arrived at Nantucket Memorial Airport on Air Force Two just after 7 p.m. Tuesday night, for his last Thanksgiving holiday on the island as vice president.

Biden and his family have been visiting Nantucket Thanksgiving week for the last 39 years, except for last year, following the death of Biden's son Beau.
The vice president has been quite a visible figure during his visits, shaking hands on Main Street during the annual tree-lighting and community caroling the day after Thanksgiving, shopping, biking and even hitting the water at Children's Beach as part of the Atheneum library's Cold Turkey Plunge fundraiser Thanksgiving morning.
This year has been no different, as the vice president was spotted downtown Wednesday having lunch at Fog Island Cafe and walking on Main Street.
After touching down Tuesday night, Biden's motorcade – including a convertible Volkswagen Beetle and a Jeep Wrangler – sped away from the airport to an undisclosed location, although sources familiar with this year's visit said the Bidens are likely staying at the Abram's Point compound of Carlyle Group co-founder and prominent Washington, D.C. philanthropist David Rubenstein, as they did in 2014.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a temporary flight restriction for “VIP Movement” below 3,000 feet within a three-mile radius of Nantucket Memorial Airport through Sunday. The restrictions prevent unauthorized aircraft not taking off or landing at the airport from entering the island’s airspace and have been issued each year Biden has arrived by air as vice president. They typically cause little disruption to airport operations, officials said.

Obama 'pardons' one last turkey ahead of Thanksgiving holiday

Barack Obama pardoned his last turkey as U.S. president on Wednesday, but his daughters should beware: he plans to continue the tradition as a private citizen.
Obama, who leaves office in January, has followed the annual tradition of "pardoning" a turkey every year before the Thanksgiving Day holiday, which many Americans celebrate with a turkey dinner.
His daughters, Malia and Sasha, often join their father for the tongue-in-cheek Rose Garden Ceremony. Not this year.
"Of course, Thanksgiving is a family holiday as much as a national one. So for the past seven years, I've established another tradition: embarrassing my daughters with a corny-copia of Dad jokes about turkeys," Obama said.
"This year they had a scheduling conflict," he deadpanned.
The president was joined in the Rose Garden by his young nephews, Austin and Aaron Robinson, instead.
He joked that he planned to keep up the tradition during his post presidency.
"Malia and Sasha, by the way, are thankful that this is my final presidential turkey pardon. What I haven’t told them yet is that we are going to do this every year from now on," he said to laughter. "No cameras. Just us. Every year. No way I’m cutting this habit cold turkey."
White House staffers, eager to see the final iteration of the annual tradition, filled the Rose Garden for the ceremony. The president had some more serious words for them and the public, too.
"On this Thanksgiving, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the American people for the trust that you’ve placed in me over these last eight years and the incredible kindness that you’ve shown my family," he said. "On behalf of Michelle, and my mother-in-law, and our girls, we want to thank you so very, very much."
After finishing his remarks, the president blessed a 40-pound (18-kg) fowl from Iowa, granting it a long life and a pardon from appearing on an American dinner table. A backup turkey also had its life spared. Their names: "Tot" and "Tater."

Vice President-elect Mike Pence to spend Thanksgiving in Mississippi

JACKSON, MS 

Vice President-elect Mike Pence will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Mississippi, according to the Associated Press.
According to Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump's transition team, Pence's son, 2nd Lt. Michael Pence Jr., is a Marine who is training to be a pilot and is stationed at Naval Air Station Meridian.
The public affairs officer for NAS Meridian says while Pence is coming to spend the holiday in the area, the Naval Air Station does not expect a visit from him at this time.
Miller says that President-elect Donald Trump will spend Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Security tightens up at Mar-a-Lago Club during Trump family Thanksgiving visit

PALM BEACH, Fla. - Security is incredibly tight around the Mar-a-Lago Club this week as President-elect Donald Trump and his family are in Palm Beach to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Secret Service and sheriff's deputies were posted around the perimeter of the lavish waterfront property as Trump prepares to enjoy the holiday.

"They're stopping all the trucks and searching every truck," Palm Beach resident Andrew Krinsky said.
The future first family arrived in Palm Beach on Tuesday and a day later, school busses were parked in front of the Trump jet, likely as a security precaution.
"I've been a Donald trump supporter from the beginning," Palm Beach County resident Janusz Piskupek said.
Piskupek drove to Mar-a-Lago from Boca Raton just to be close to the president-elect.
"He works very, very hard," Piskupek said.
Meanwhile, flight restrictions were put in place around the waterfront club.  The security on the water is also very tight, as the Coast Guard set up several security zones.
"I'm not very proud, actually, that he had two towers very close to where we live," seasonal resident Brinlee Shultz said.
And while not everyone is thrilled to have Trump in the area, it's not all about politics.
"People are staying away from the area," gift shop owner David Leon said.
Leon said his store has seen less customers because people are trying to avoid the traffic.
"I've checked the years before, previous years," Leon said. "We've done a little better. A lot better actually then we have done in the last couple of days. And I think it is because Mr. Trump is here."
The Trump family is expected to go back to New York on Sunday.

DeNiro Cartoon

Gingrich: 'I can think of 20 other people' better suited for secretary of state than Romney

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich expressed skepticism Tuesday at reports that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the frontrunner to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state.
"I can think of 20 other people who would be more naturally compatible with the Trump vision of foreign policy," Gingrich told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
MITT ROMNEY LEADS DONALD TRUMP'S PICKS TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE
Gingrich said that Trump would have to consider whether Romney would be a secretary of state "in the John Kerry tradition" and whether the 2012 Republican presidential nominee would "represent the kind of tough-minded, America-first policies that Trump has campaigned on."
Gingrich added that his preferred choices for secretary of state over Romney included former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Hewlett-Packard CEO and Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina.
However, the former Speaker added that if Trump nominated Romney to be America's top diplomat, "I'm going to support him. But President-elect Trump deserves to have the team he wants."
Gingrich also addressed Trump's offer of the secretary of housing and urban development post to former primary rival Dr. Ben Carson.
CARSON SAYS TRUMP HAS OFFERED HIM HUD SECRETARY, OTHER POSTS
"It would be a little bit unusual because I think Dr. Carson would be more obviously the secretary of health and human services," Gingrich said. "[But] certainly Ben Carson, anything he did, he would do extraordinarily well."

De Niro appears to soften tone on Trump

Actor Robert De Niro appeared to soften his tone toward President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday when he was asked what message he would share with the soon-to-be 45th U.S. president.
“I would only say that we’re all hoping, waiting and hoping, that he will lead the country in a way that’ll benefit everyone and benefit our neighbors around the world,” De Niro told ITK, according to The Hill.
“We’re waiting and hoping, and we’ll see.”
De Niro spoke to ITK at the White House after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honor. The 73-year-old actor joined the likes of Michael Jordan, Bruce Springsteen and Vin Scully in getting the award.
The “Raging Bull” actor’s comments appear to be a complete turnaround from the disparaging remarks he made about the real estate mogul in October.
Of Trump, De Niro said "he's a punk, he's a dog, he's a pig, he's a con, a bulls--- artist, a mutt who doesn't know what he's talking about."
"It makes me so angry that this country has gotten to this point that this fool, this bozo, has wound up where he has," De Niro added. "He talks how he'd like to punch people in the face? Well, I'd like to punch him in the face."

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• Jon Voight defends Trump remarks, blasts Robert De Niro for 'ugly rant'

• Canada's crashed immigration site caused by 'significant' traffic spike

Leading up to Election Day, De Niro called Trump “insane” and compared him to General Jack D. Ripper who was one of Stanley Kubrick’s characters in “Dr. Strangelove.” After Trump’s election win, he told The Hollywood Reporter that it made him feel like he did after 9/11.
Tuesday, De Niro appeared more diplomatic and called the video “more symbolic.”
“After he said the things that he said, anybody would want to punch him in the face,” De Niro said. “Many people told me, ‘You said what I’d want to say.’ It’s just unacceptable to say those things in the situations that he said them in.
“I just want to see what he’s going to do.”

Carson says Trump has offered him HUD secretary, other Cabinet posts

It appears the doctor is in.
Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is close to accepting the position of secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet, a GOP source with knowledge of the offer told Fox News late Tuesday.
The source said Carson would consider Trump's offer over the Thanksgiving holiday before making a final decision.
On Tuesday, Carson told Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" that the HUD position was "one of the offers [from Trump] that is on the table."
"Our inner cities are in terrible shape," Carson said. "And they definitely need some real attention. There have been so many promises made over the last several decades and nothing has been done, so it certainly is something that has been a long-term interest of mine."

Minutes after Carson left a meeting with Trump at Trump Tower Tuesday, the billionaire mogul tweeted: “I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I’ve gotten to know him well—he’s a greatly talented person who loves people!”

BEN CARSON WOULD GIVE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION TO CABINET POST
On Sunday, Carson told “Fox Report Weekend” he was open to accepting a spot on Trump’s White House team.
“Basically, I’ve said my preference is to be outside and to act as an adviser, but if after going through the process they all conclude it would be much better to have me in the Cabinet, I would have to give that very serious consideration,” Carson said.
The walk-back followed Carson friend and business manager Armstrong Williams’ comments to The Hill on Nov. 15, during which he said Carson “feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
Later that day, Carson tried in a Facebook post to tamp down the embarrassing statement, noting his decision not to seek a Cabinet post “has nothing to do with the complexity of the job as is being reported by some news outlets.”
It’s previously been reported that Carson could be considered for a variety of department secretary jobs, including Education, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs.
The HUD position is at first blush a surprising fit for Carson. However, Carson has previously shown an interest in the department. In June 2015, Carson criticized HUD for “overreach” for forcing the city of Dubuque, Iowa to weigh housing voucher applications from Chicago the same as it did applications from Dubuque residents.
“This is just an example of what happens when we allow the government to infiltrate every part of our lives,” said Carson, then a Republican presidential primary contender and an adversary of Trump. “This is what you see in communist countries, where they have so many regulations encircling every aspect of your life that if you don’t agree with them, all they have to do is pull the noose.”
Carson also wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Times in July 2015 on HUD’s policies to “desegregate” housing.
“There are reasonable ways to use housing policy to enhance the opportunities available to lower-income citizens,” Carson wrote, “but based on the history of failed socialist experiments in this country, entrusting the government to get it right can prove downright dangerous.”

Merkel 'not happy' over crumbling Pacific trade pact

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that she wasn’t happy about the possible demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President-elect Donald Trump vowed to pull out of in his first day in office.
Merkel didn’t directly mention Trump in the speech to the German Parliament, but called for nations to take a multilateral approach to solving global issues.
Merkel said: "I will tell you honestly: I am not happy that the trans-Pacific agreement now will probably not become reality. I don't know who will benefit from that."
She added: "I know only one thing: there will be other trade agreements, and they won't have the standards that this agreement and the hoped-for TTIP agreement have."
Trump’s video message Monday came after President Obama and other leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group called for fighting the backlash against trade highlighted by Trump’s victory and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
Trump had previously described the 12-nation pact as a “potential disaster for our country.” he has also said he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, something Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said he would be willing to work with Trump on.
The TPP, signed this year in New Zealand, would take effect after it is ratified by six countries that account for 85 percent of the combined gross domestic product of its member nations.
The United States is 60 percent of the combined GDP of that group and Japan less than 20 percent, so those conditions cannot be met without U.S. participation.

More on this...

• Japan PM says TPP would be "meaningless" without the US

• Malaysia asks Japan's Abe to encourage Trump to support TPP

• Japan's leader vows to accelerate economic measures, TPP

"TPP is meaningless without the United States," said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Last week, he became the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his Nov. 8 election victory.
As Japan's most powerful leader in a decade, Abe invested political capital in overcoming opposition to the TPP from farmers and the medical lobby. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party pushed TPP ratification through the lower house of parliament and had been set to seek final approval in the upper house.
Renegotiating the agreement would "disturb the fundamental balance of benefits," said Abe, who was in Argentina following APEC.
Other TPP members include Chile, Mexico, Canada, Peru, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia.
Obama has said he would give up seeking congressional approval for the TPP. He had championed it as a way for the United States to lead the creation of "gold standard" rules for 21st century trade.
"I think not moving forward would undermine our position across the region," Obama said last week at the APEC summit in Peru.

America Love it or Leave it.

Trump Country: Michigan supporters want quick progress on trade, taxes

Donald Trump supporters are closely watching the president-elect’s first key policy decisions as he prepares to enter the White House.
Voters who backed the GOP nominee in southeastern Michigan say as the country moves past the election, Trump will need to stay on message.
“Donald Trump has got a fantastic opportunity to show the blue-collar and union workers that he does have the ability as an outsider to bring a lot of change,” Terry Bowman, an autoworker and chair of the Union Conservatives in the region, said.
“We want you to fight for us now, we want you to fight on trade, fight for secure borders, and we want you to get our economy going again,” Jamie Roe, partner at the Michigan-based political strategy firm Grand River Strategies, said.
Trump attributes his success in the Wolverine State to campaigning on his business career.
He made this appeal in Macomb County just days before the election. “I’m telling you, I’m the only one who going to bring their business back, I’m the only one who is going to get rid of all these ridiculous regulations, I’m the only who is cutting taxes,” he said.
Trump ended up winning the county by more than 10 points – compared to President Obama defeating Gov. Mitt Romney there in 2012.
“A place like Macomb County where Barack Obama four years ago won it by 25,000 votes and Donald Trump won it by almost 50,000 votes this time so it was an incredible turnaround,” Roe said.
Michigan currently has an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent -- slightly lower than the national average at 4.9 percent. Trump supporters though remain skeptical this is accurate.
“We’re not taking into consideration the thousands of people that have just  stopped looking for work altogether”, said Benjamin Roark, a local sales representative.
Brian Pannebecker, a Ford Motor Company autoworker added, “Michigan’s economy is not fine right now, a lot of people have dropped out of the labor force”.
Supporters say they need results in his first few months in office.
“He has to show some progress in the next couple years on trade,” said Roe.
“In the upcoming year I at least want to see progress towards the bulk of all the issues he brought up through the campaign trail”, said Roark.

Judge urges new citizens to leave US if can't accept Trump

SAN ANTONIO –  A federal judge in San Antonio finds himself at the center of an uproar after telling newly sworn U.S. citizens that Donald Trump is "your president, and if you don't like that, you need to go to another country."
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primono's comments were reported by KENS-TV in San Antonio, which covered the naturalization ceremony at which 500 immigrants took the oath of U.S. citizenship at the Institutes of Texan Cultures on Thursday.
"I can assure you that whether you voted for him or you did not vote for him," the television report quoted him as saying of the president-elect, "if you are a citizen of the United States, he is your president. He will be your president, and if you do not like that, you need to go to another country."
WATCH: UNDOCUMENTED YALE STUDENT SPEAKS OUT ON SANCTUARY CAMPUSES
He later told the station and the San Antonio Express-News that he meant his words to be unifying and respectful of the president's office, not political, and added that he did not vote for Trump for president.
"I wasn't trying to say anything for or against Donald Trump. I was just trying to say something hopeful and unifying, and unfortunately it was taken out of context," he told the Express-News.
PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES IMAGES OF IMMIGRANTS FROM ALL NATIONS
The television station also reported that Primono was critical at the ceremony of protesters who carried placards saying, "He's not my president," and said he detested the actions of pro athletes who kneel during the playing of the national anthem.
Primono, the son of German and Italian immigrants, has been a magistrate judge since 1988.

Summit meeting: Can there be a 'reset' between Trump and the media?

If Donald Trump can sit down with Mitt Romney, who called him a con man and failed businessman, it’s hardly shocking that he would invite a bunch of network executives and anchors to Trump Tower.
Even if he spent much of the campaign calling their organizations dishonest and corrupt.
I’m told it was a relatively pleasant session at which the president-elect made clear his unhappiness with certain negative aspects of the coverage. He reminded his guests that they misjudged the election and never believed, for instance, that he could win Michigan, where he campaigned in the final days.
Variety describes it as a "tough" sitdown, with Trump "reserving particularly harsh words for CNN and NBC News."
The New York Post has a more dramatic version, saying that Trump told CNN President Jeff Zucker--who worked with him at NBC during "The Apprentice"--“I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed."
“There was no need to mend fences,” Kellyanne Conway told reporters. “It was off-the-record meeting. It was very cordial, very productive, very congenial. It was also very candid and very honest. From my own perspective, it's great to hit the reset button.”
And if the network folks had a chance to express their concerns about media access, news conferences and press pools, all the better.
Trump will meet today with executives from what he calls the “failing” New York Times and other outlets.
Trump is going to be the 45th president, and the mainstream media aren’t going away. It would be good if they could find a way to work together, despite what is always an adversarial relationship.
After all, Trump was a gold mine for the cable networks during the primaries. He was the most accessible candidate in modern history when it came to granting interviews. The reality-show veteran understands what makes good television. There are opportunities here for both sides.
It’s not like other presidents-elect haven’t reached out to the press with informal dinners and schmooze sessions. It’s just that we’ve never been through a campaign where there was so much hostility between candidate and press corps.
Four years of outright hostility wouldn’t be good for him, for us, or the country.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a culture war brewing against Donald Trump as well.
Less than two weeks after his election, his vice president gets a stern lecture from the cast of “Hamilton.” At the American Music Awards, Model Gigi Habib mocks Melania Trump’s accent and demeanor.
These are entertainers and cultural figures who are offended that their preferred candidate lost the presidency, and they are refusing to “normalize” the 45th president, as I noted yesterday about many in the mainstream media.
To me this is a finger in the eye of the 60 million Americans who voted for Trump, at least in part because they didn’t like the way the elites—political, media and cultural—look down on them.
I have no problem with a president being comedically skewered. Alec Baldwin and “SNL,” have at it (with Kate McKinnon having to switch from the old-news Hillary to the rising star Kellyanne Conway).
I have no problem with critics opposing Trump’s policies or his appointments. That’s how democracy works. New presidents used to get a bit of a honeymoon—that’s now a thing of the past—but at a minimum a level of acceptance, even after a bitter campaign.
That’s not happening now.
Those of you who can’t stand Trump respond by telling me all the terrible things about him. But how would you feel if Hillary Clinton had won the election and Trump diehards remained hostile, Broadway actors lectured Tim Kaine and crowds chanted “not my president”?
In the political arena, one of the diehards is former attorney general Eric Holder, who was far more liberal than part of the country. At a funeral for PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, Holder asked media people paying their respects, “Will you cower? Will you normalize that which is anything but?”
At a funeral! Unlike Barack Obama, his former boss, Holder isn’t wishing the new president well.
And then Howard Dean called incoming White House senior strategist Steve Bannon a “Nazi.” I know Dean is running for DNC chair, but whatever the inflammatory nature of Bannon’s record—he insists he’s a nationalist, not a white nationalist—that kind of language is awful.
Here’s a hopeful sign. The new ombudsman at the New York Times, Liz Spayd, writes that “from my conversations with readers, and from the emails that have come into my office, I can tell you there is a searing level of dissatisfaction out there with many aspects of the coverage.
“Readers complain heatedly and repeatedly about the forecasting odometer from The Upshot that was anchored on the home page and predicted that Hillary Clinton had an 80 percent chance or better of winning. They complain that The Times’s attempt to tap the sentiments of Trump supporters was lacking. And they complain about the liberal tint The Times applies to its coverage, without awareness that it does.”
While partly faulting the candidates, Spayd says “the media is at fault too, for turning his remarks into a grim caricature that it applied to those who backed him. What struck me is how many liberal voters I spoke with felt so, too. They were Clinton backers, but, they want a news source that fairly covers people across the spectrum.”
Perhaps it’s time to move beyond the “grim caricature.”
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

'The house is burning down': Ryan, set to challenge Pelosi, fears for Democratic Party

The Ohio congressman running to unseat Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader said Monday that the Democratic Party is playing with fire.
Rep. Tim Ryan said on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory – combined with the GOP protecting its majorities in the House and Senate – sent a clear signal to lawmakers that “working-class” Americans had “flipped their middle finger to the establishment.”
“I am pulling the fire alarm right now, is what I’m doing in the Democratic Party,” Ryan said of his challenge to Pelosi. “I believe we are in denial of what’s happened, and I’m pulling the fire alarm because the house is burning down.”
FORTUNES RISE AND FALL IN BIDS TO LEAD CONGRESS
And despite Democratic President Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s close loss to Trump, Ryan said he fears for the future of his party.
“We better get our act together or we will cease being a national party,” Ryan said. “We are going to be a regional party that fails to get into the majority and fails to do things on behalf of those working-class people that were the back of the Democratic Party for so long.”
Ryan is talking about people in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio – part of the so-called “blue wall” that Trump knocked down on election night. While Republicans had an overarching message – and Trump, in particular, with his “Make America Great Again” slogan – Ryan decried the lack of a simple, coherent, national message to deliver in the lead-up to Election Day.
“The problem is they talk to people in segments,” Ryan told The Washington Post on Monday. “Here’s our LGBT community. Here’s our labor guy. That doesn’t work. You stop becoming a national party.”
Things were different in previous elections, Ryan said, because of the person at the top of the ticket.
“If we don’t have Barack Obama at the top of the ticket, we can’t win elections,” Ryan told The Post. “That is an unsustainable model.”
So Ryan, who launched his bid on Thursday, proposes changes such as elevating junior members to positions of leadership and giving members whose seats may be in danger more of a voice.
“I’m talking Democratic Party 2.0,” Ryan said.
Ryan, 43, was first elected to the House in 2002, after former Rep. Jim Traficant was convicted on federal corruption charges and expelled from Congress. A fierce critic of President Bush, Ryan also pressed – and failed – to place punitive tariffs on nations such as China that were guilty of currency manipulation – a topic Trump addressed on the campaign trail numerous times.
But Ryan faces an uphill climb to become the “other Ryan” in House leadership – joining House Speaker Paul Ryan, R.-Wis.
The 76-year-old Pelosi, who has been in the House since 1987, has led Democratic congressmen since 2002, when she replaced Rep. Dick Gephardt as minority leader. Pelosi in 2006 became the first female Speaker of the House when Democrats took back the majority from Republicans. During her tenure she helped spearhead the passage of ObamaCare, which Trump has promised to repeal. Pelosi lost the speakership in 2010 when Republicans won control of the House, but she remained in a marquee role as minority leader.
Democrats are set to vote for their leader on Nov. 30.