“The spa was a big reason why we moved here, and now we’re screwed,” a resident of 515 East 72nd Street fumes, upon hearing that a planned Miraval Living spa will not open in the building owing to a rift with the developer. [NYP]
The coddled dear leader
Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ”
However cleareyed Trump’s aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were “happy to scratch his itch,” this adviser said. “If he thinks he won, it’s like, ‘Shh . . . we won’t tell him.’ ” …
In the days after the election, as Trump scrambled for an escape hatch from reality, the president largely ignored his campaign staff and the professional lawyers who had guided him through the Russia investigation and the impeachment trial, as well as the army of attorneys who stood ready to file legitimate court challenges.
Instead, Trump empowered loyalists who were willing to tell him what he wanted to hear — that he would have won in a landslide had the election not been rigged and stolen — and then to sacrifice their reputations by waging a campaign in courtrooms and in the media to convince the public of that delusion.
You didn’t think Trump would let us have a relaxing holiday weekend, did you?
Things are going well for the president
Trump still focusing on the important stuff
Some bad news for everyone looking forward to a repeat of Giuliani’s “meltdown” last week
President Trump on Wednesday canceled his trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he was scheduled to join his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a Republican-led state Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing on alleged election irregularities.
… The cancellation comes after Giuliani was exposed to a second person who tested positive for the coronavirus. It’s unclear if that’s the reason the trip was cancelled.
Ya think?
This does not bode well for Biden’s dreams of returning to the days of Senate bipartisanship
Some Republican senators have publicly acknowledged Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect. Others have moved straight to criticizing his early Cabinet picks, even as President Trump continues to dispute the outcome of the Nov. 3 election.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), three weeks after Election Day, has still not said much of anything at all.
McConnell’s ongoing silence, even as the Trump administration moves to allow Biden to start his transition, leaves a question mark over what could be the most important Washington relationship of the next two years — between an incoming president who promised to tackle the nation’s most pressing concerns and the win-at-all-costs Capitol Hill operator who may well serve as his legislative gatekeeper.
The two men — Senate colleagues for 24 years and sparring partners in several high-stakes negotiations during Biden’s time as vice president — still have not spoken since the election, according to a GOP aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly.
Trump was reportedly dissuaded in recent weeks from striking Iran, but Israel still wants to be prepared
The Israel Defense Forces have in recent weeks been instructed to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. will conduct a military strike against Iran before President Trump leaves office, senior Israeli officials tell me.
… The Israeli government instructed the IDF to undertake the preparations not because of any intelligence or assessment that Trump will order such a strike, but because senior Israeli officials anticipate “a very sensitive period” ahead of Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The wheels are in motion
But what about alienating our allies for no good reason?
Wall Street does not exactly seem upset about Biden’s victory
Another state down
Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription
Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription
Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription
Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription
Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription
