Trump’s victory lap

For an incoming president, the period after an election often feels like a honeymoon. It's all anticipation, no responsibility. And that's been more than true for Donald Trump. 

As this past week has made clear, Trump is reveling in the spoils of victory. He has stocked his cabinet to mostly good reviews from his Republican allies, while his Democratic opponents are still grasping for a way forward. He has CEOs making pilgrimages to his Florida base, and he scored a blow in his never-ending crusade against the media. He is also showing he will be the one who will impose his will on the next Congress, not the other way around.  
 
One more thing: Today's edition of Reuters Politics U.S. is the final one for 2024. We will be back on Jan. 2. Happy Holidays. 

I'm James Oliphant, national political correspondent for Reuters. I covered Trump's first transition eight years ago and can attest that this one does in fact feel different. For one thing, Trump has no Russia investigation hanging over his head. And the legitimacy of his 2024 win is not in question.  

Right now, his gripes and grievances are few. But Trump being Trump, that could change at any time. Now that we are deep in the holiday season, call it a battle between the Ghost of Trump Past and the Ghost of Trump Future.  

"One of the big differences between the first term….the first term, everybody was fighting. This term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump said on Monday. "This one is much less hostile. It's really the opposite of hostile." 

Ahead of taking office, Trump is already dictating the action. On Wednesday, he, along with his new lieutenant Elon Musk, torpedoed a massive spending bill crafted by Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, forcing Johnson to scramble to come up with a new measure to avoid a government shutdown days before Christmas. It was the kind of risk Trump feels he can afford to take right now, hoping the blowback is felt by others, not him. 

Earlier in the week, Trump held forth on a variety of topics during a 90-minute presser at his Mar-a-Lago estate. An early focus has been foreign policy. Trump has demanded that Hamas agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and return the remaining Israeli hostages, or, he said, "It's not going to be pleasant." He wants to bring the war in Ukraine to a close and, as Reuters exclusively reported, plans to dispatch his special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Kyiv to help secure a deal.  

He remains a strong backer of two of his most controversial nominees—Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump raised eyebrows when he suggested that he shares some of Kennedy's skepticism about the efficacy of some vaccines but maintained that he supports polio shots.  

Trump's pick for his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is also facing some skepticism among Republicans about her suitability for the post. 

Meanwhile, corporate America has come calling, looking to get on the new president's good side. He's dined with the heads of Big Pharma and met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Netflix's Ted Sarandos and Amazon's Jeff Bezos. A bevy of companies have committed to donating to Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. 

Another mammoth corporation, Walt Disney Co, which owns ABC, capitulated to Trump this week, settling a high-profile defamation lawsuit he brought against the network. ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump's presidential library over comments anchor George Stephanopoulos made on air. Experts fear the settlement will only embolden Trump to go after more media targets. "We have to straighten out the press," Trump said at his Florida press conference. 

Some of Trump's most outspoken critics, too, remain fearful of his retribution, going so far as to guard themselves against possible punitive IRS audits.  

Even with Trump feeling the love, a new Reuters poll this week suggests much of the country remains hard to get. The poll found Trump at a 41% approval rating, a full 10 percentage points less than where he stood in December 2016. But Trump would be the first to say, winning is everything. 

Drone sightings over the East Coast fueled misinformation online that reflected frustration among the public, some officials and even Trump, who complained about a lack of transparency from the Biden administration on the nature of the sightings. 

One viral false narrative said the Pentagon had launched "Operation Necromancer" to intercept the drones, echoing the name of a fictional Project Necromancer in the Star Wars franchise. Read more.  

In this section, the Reuters fact-checking team addresses misinformation connected to the U.S. politics. Find more fact-checks from around the world here. 

Russia said this week that it can work with the Trump administration to reduce the threat of conflict between the two nations, including the risk of a nuclear war. 

"Managing this crisis and getting to less shaky ground than now should be put on the agenda of hypothetical discussions with the Americans," Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told a panel discussion in Moscow on Wednesday. 

Find up-to-date elections coverage, interactive data and more on Reuters.com. 

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