"Jimmy Carter was that all too rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace." -- Vice President Kamala Harris' eulogy as the late president lied in state on Capitol Hill. Above, funeral services earlier at the Carter Center in Atlanta (Carter Center photo).
Welcome readers of Columbia Spy.
Trump Appeals to SCOTUS – President-elect Trump wants the US Supreme Court to quickly intervene and delay sentencing scheduled for Friday on his conviction last summer for falsifying business records in his hush money case, The Washington Post reports. New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan already has said he will not sentence Trump to jail time or probation, but the president-elect’s attorneys argue Trump is immune from criminal proceeding and have called for the postponement to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operation of the federal government.”
Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made prior to the 2016 election is a New York State case, and therefore impervious to presidential pardon.
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This Means Potential Full-Blown Diplomatic Crisis – Donald J. Trump ran for re-election last year on a pro-peace, isolationist platform, in particular promising he will end the war in Ukraine possibly even before his January 20 inauguration. But his refusal as president-elect at a Mar-a-Lago press conference Tuesday to rule out a military invasion of Greenland (as Donald Trump Jr. was visiting its capital, Nuuk) and Panama came off as rather bellicose. (Trump also declared at his presser that the Gulf of Mexico is hereby renamed the Gulf of America.)
That’s how French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot interpreted Trump’s words in comments to Newsweek via email. Barrot replied that Trump’s renewed interest in taking over Greenland, an autonomous territory of European Union and NATO member Denmark could “escalate” into a full-blown diplomatic crisis.
Barrot added that he does not believe Trump will use military force to take over Greenland, but said he believes the current global climate feels like “survival of the fittest.”
--TL
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TUESDAY 1/7/25
MPCUSA and Buy Greenland – Whither MAGA isolationist nationalism? President-elect Trump wants to Make the Panama Canal the US Again. In yet another “rambling” hour-long news conference at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Trump “refused to rule out” using military force to take back the Panama Canal – returned to Panama in a treaty signed by President Carter – and suggested he would force Denmark to sell Greenland to the US, The New York Times reports. Trump insists Greenland is critical to US national security, while Greenland, a country of just 56,000 people, insists it is not for sale and only wants to go independent from Denmark.
Elsewhere in Florida … Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, whom you will remember as a Trump appointee, has temporarily banned special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his final report on the January 6 Capitol attack investigation to the public. Smith was to have released the report on Friday.
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Social’s ‘Truth’ – Social media oligopoly Meta is ending its practice of fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a video posted by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In his “free speech” pitch, Zuckerberg, who on figurative bended knee dined with President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago the day before Thanksgiving, said “we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US.”
Meta has since donated the max-allowed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
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Canada’s PM Steps Down – Justin Trudeau announced Monday he will step down as Canada’s prime minister as soon as his Liberal Party names a successor. Trudeau has faced several months of pressure from allies and opponents to resign as Canada faces high post-pandemic inflation and rising housing costs, according to NPR’s All Things Considered.
“It has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” Trudeau said, referring to federal elections for the 45th Canadian Parliament, which are to be held on or before October 20.
He became leader of the Liberal Party in 2013 and was first elected prime minister in 2015, promising a more open immigration policy, greater taxes on the wealthy and more action to protect the environment. But Trudeau’s tenure was marked by a series of scandals early on, while critics say his open immigration policy went too far.
Trudeau, 53, is the son of Canada’s charismatic 15th prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who served from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984.
--TL
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MONDAY 1/6/25
It's Still Mike – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pulled victory from the jaws of defeat to retain his gavel for the beginning of the 119th Congress. Because of the GOP’s wafer-thin majority, Johnson could afford to lose just one vote and remain speaker. Johnson had already lost that single vote, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) had committed to voting for third-ranked House Republican Tom Emmer, of Minnesota.
During the first round of voting, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) voted for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) … but there was no second round. House Republicans suspended the vote, then huddled, and got Norman and Self to flip for Johnson, thus giving the incumbent speaker the 218 votes he needed, according to CQ Roll Call.
Johnson said afterward that he had promised “nothing” to Norman and Self for their flips.
Will the GOP’s thin House majority be a problem for the incoming administration? President-elect Trump mounted a heavy-duty phone call campaign to push for Johnson, and Roll Call figures it should have been easier. But in reality, it doesn’t look to be too tough a ride for Trump’s agenda, as the friction is coming from MAGA GOP’s right-flank.
As Self put it in comments to reporters; “We had a talk about how we admire the Trump agenda. That’s what this was about. I’ll say it a dozen more times, but this is how we support President Trump as a House with a very narrow majority. How’s that gonna happen?”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa