TRUMP TRANSITION WATCH: Tweeter-in-Chief
From NBCNews.com: “President-elect Donald Trump tweeted a stream of thus-far baseless claims of voter fraud Sunday, indicating that the Hillary Clinton campaign's involvement in an election recount was hypocritical. Trump, who himself suggested that he would not concede the election during the campaign if he had lost, used his Twitter account to declare that "nothing will change." He also reiterated that Clinton had already conceded the election.”
More, from the New York Times: “A day earlier, Mr. Trump’s transition team ridiculed the idea that recounts were needed. “This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded,” it said in a statement, “and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused.” That message runs counter to the one Mr. Trump sent on Sunday with his fraud claims — if millions of people voted illegally, presumably officials across the country would want to pursue large-scale ballot recounts and fraud investigations.”
The big picture, from the AP: “With his return to New York, President-elect Donald Trump faces a pressing need to set more of the foundation blocks of his presidency in place by filling vacancies for secretary of state and other top posts. Distraction looms, however, much of it created by the president-elect himself, whose extraordinary claims of widespread voter fraud during a 12-hour Twitter offensive on Sunday cast a shadow over the legitimacy of an election that he actually won.”
Trump and Obama speak “regularly,” Kellyanne Conway says. Conway also had strong words over the weekend about Trump’s weighing of Mitt Romney for the Secretary of State post.
“Two sources at the top of the Donald Trump transition team confirm to MSNBC that they spoke to the president-elect today and that Donald Trump was "furious" at Kellyanne Conway's comments Sunday suggesting Trump "betrayed" his supporters by even considering Mitt Romney for a position in his cabinet.”
The Wall Street Journal: “The internal tug of war over who will be named to the nation’s top diplomatic job has slowed what had been a relatively brisk pace of appointments since Vice President-elect Mike Pence took over the transition effort a week after Election Day. It also is obscuring the many key positions that remain unfilled.”
The Washington Post profiles Jared Kushner and his “long history of fierce loyalty.”
The New York Times offers an in-depth look at Steve Bannon’s early political development.
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NBC News alum Ashwini Anburajan and the data team at OpenUp find that women were 56 percent more likely to read about Trump than Clinton online in the weeks leading up to the election.
TRUMP AGENDA: Watching Cuba
From the Washington Post: “If tensions between Cuba and the United States ratchet up again under a Trump presidency, it would be a new stress test for Raúl Castro and his quieter, more austere leadership style. Cuba will enter the Trump era with Fidel Castro’s one-party socialist state firmly in command but without the supercharged politics and nationalist fervor he relied on to sustain it.”
The Wall Street Journal: “Corporations are scrambling to retool their lobbying efforts as Republicans, preparing for control of the House, Senate and White House come January, hope to break the partisan logjam that has blocked the passage of legislation for six years. Among policy areas back on the table—in some cases for the first time since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 along with a Democratic-controlled House and Senate—are immigration, health care, the tax code, infrastructure and Wall Street regulations. These are all top issues on which corporations lobby Congress and the White House.”
The Fed is buckling up for a shake-up under the Trump administration, writes The Hill.
DEM WATCH: Eyeing the 2018 gubernatorial races
From POLITICO: “The remnants of Hillary Clinton’s campaign roared to life on Sunday, their Twitter feeds boiling over in frustration as President-elect Donald Trump falsely claimed that “millions” of illegal immigrants had tipped the popular vote in her favor.”
Democrats are hoping that their comeback could begin in the 2018 governors’ races.