The Trump team appears to be leaving nothing to chance. His campaign bought a radio ad that will air in Cincinnati on Thursday, according to a Republican strategist who tracks the news media. The ad is said to promote the tour.
He and Vice President-elect Mike Pence will also appear on Sean Hannity's Fox News program.
Just announced: Hello, New Orleans!
The victory tour dates are dribbling out. Mr. Pence will be in New Orleans on Saturday. Tickets are now available.
And about that Carrier deal.
Not that the 1,000 workers whose jobs were saved will care, but the still-vague deal to keep that Carrier plant in the United States is starting to take flack from the right and the left. To conservatives, government intervention at such a micro-level is just bad economics.
The Libertarian-leaning Representative Justin Amash, Republican of Michigan, weighed in early:
Now it's coming from more intellectual circles.
"This is all terrible for a nation's economic vitality if businesses make decisions to please politicians rather than customers and shareholders. Yet America's private sector has just been sent a strong signal that playing ball with Trump might be part of what it now means to run an American company," wrote James Pethokoukis, the DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Liberals have latched onto the tax breaks and incentives offered to Carrier's parent company, United Technologies, by Governor Pence of Indiana just before he leaves for Washington. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, put it this way in The Washington Post:
In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to "pay a damn tax." He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How's that for standing up to corporate greed?
If companies can extract tax concessions by threatening to move to Mexico, they may have found a partner willing to play ball in the new president, the critics say. Economists call that "moral hazard."
Trump's foreign policy: Praise for Kazakhstan's strong man, gushing over Pakistan.
President-elect Trump took phone calls Wednesday from Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan. The results were instructive.
According to Kazakhstan, Mr. Trump said "that under the leadership of Nursultan Nazarbayev our country over the years of Independence had achieved fantastic success that can be called a 'miracle'."
Through some rather circuitous paths, Mr. Trump's real estate empire has been tied to Kazakhstan in ways a Financial Times investigation labeled "dirty." Mr. Nazarbayev has run Kazakhstan since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. Last year, he won a fifth consecutive term with 97.7 percent of the vote.
The Pakistani government released its own account of the telephone conversation between and Mr. Trump and Mr. Sharif that sounded, well, Trumpian.
"President Trump said: 'Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work, which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you, prime minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing, with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems. It will be an honor, and I will personally do it. Feel free to call me anytime, even before 20th January, that is before I assume my office.' "
"On being invited to visit Pakistan by the prime minister, Mr. Trump said that he would love to come to a fantastic country, fantastic place of fantastic people. 'Please convey to the Pakistani people that they are amazing, and all Pakistanis I have known are exceptional people,' said Mr. Donald Trump."
While not exactly confirming the content, the Trump transition team did acknowledge both calls.
Clinton's lead in popular vote passes 2.5 million.
To some it is just trivia: Hillary Clinton's popular-vote lead over Mr. Trump reached 2,526,184 — five times Al Gore's lead over George W. Bush in 2000. At 1.9 percentage points, her lead is now larger than those of 10 presidents, and it is approaching Jimmy Carter's margin over Gerald Ford in 1976.
So what?
Well, her lead is close to what the final polls before Election Day had shown, pointing to a geographic concentration of Democratic voters and a daunting disadvantage in the Electoral College. Do Democratic presidential candidates now need to build a four percentage-point lead to assure victory?
Senate Democrats try to pry taxes from Trump choices.
Democrats may have failed to shame Mr. Trump into releasing his federal tax returns, but they are determined to at least see the returns of his cabinet and top staff picks.
Senate Democrats will use the routine adoption of rules and procedures in January to force committees to require all cabinet picks to submit the last three years of their tax returns before their confirmation hearings. The Finance and Homeland Security committee already have the requirement, meaning the tangled finances of Steven Mnuchin are likely to spill out before he can be confirmed as Treasury secretary.
But other billionaires could skate through without the rules change, including Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary pick, who will go before the Senate Commerce Committee, and Betsy DeVos, the choice for education secretary, who will answer questions from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
If Democrats prevail on the requirement, there could be consequences. The Finance Committee's tax examination nearly derailed President Obama's first Treasury nominee, Timothy F. Geithner, and thwarted his first health secretary, Tom Daschle.
Spotted at Trump Tower: a bipartisan defense secretary
Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense for both George W. Bush and President Obama, was seen trundling into Trump Tower.
Worth remembering, Mr. Gates wrote in The Wall Street Journal in September, "The world we confront is too perilous and too complex to have as president a man who believes he, and he alone, has all the answers and has no need to listen to anyone. A thin-skinned, temperamental, shoot-from-the-hip and lip, uninformed commander in chief is too great a risk for America."
Spotted smoking outside his hotel: Nigel 'Mr. Brexit' Farage
If General Petraeus is tapped …
The Washington Examiner noted Thursday that if former Gen. David H. Petraeus is chosen to be secretary of state or perhaps director of national intelligence, he'd be the first to have to notify his parole officer. Last year, General Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was sentenced to two years' probation for giving his mistress, Paula Broadwell, classified information.
"The defendant shall not leave the Western District of North Carolina without the permission of the Court or probation officer. Travel allowed for work as approved by U.S. probation office," according to the court order. "The defendant shall notify the probation officer within 72 hours of any change in residence or employment."
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. wants Keith Ellison to head the Democratic Party.
At first blush, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. seems to be open to a democratic process as it considers whom to back as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Please indicate your preference regarding an A.F.L.-C.I.O. endorsement, the electronic ballot reads.
But the choices are lacking: No — Make no endorsement at this time; or Yes — Endorse Congressman Keith Ellison.
The only name on the ballot belongs to an ardent progressive from Minneapolis. Seems like the White House's search for an alternative may be losing steam.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president, Richard L. Trumka, noted in an email that many union presidents and members have already publicly endorsed Mr. Ellison, and that other unions have indicated their desire to back his candidacy.
Mr. Ellison has collected the most support to date in the race, which will be decided when the committee meets in February, but the field of candidates may not yet be fully formed.
As Mr. Trumka wrote in his message: "Several others have reached out to me and to many of you, including Labor Secretary Tom Perez, about possibly getting into the race, and it's expected that others will join the race in the coming weeks."
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