Welcome to THE TRAIL 2016, your daily rundown from The Hill on all the latest news in the White House, Senate and House races.
Sometimes politics get so surreal that the only proper response is to gulp and gawk. That’s what we did in The Hill’s newsroom as we watched what was surely the most jaw-dropping scene in a consistently jaw-dropping year in presidential politics.
Let the record show that on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, President Barack Obama and president-elect Donald J. Trump met in the Oval Office, shook hands, said nice things about each other, and even shared a joke.
To say these men do not like each other would be comic understatement. Trump has spent a good chunk of his public career questioning the birthplace of the country’s first African-American president. And Obama and the first lady have publicly described Trump as a racist, demagogic, sexist, misogynistic menace who can’t be trusted with the nuclear codes.
On Thursday, however, the President bit his tongue.
“I have been very encouraged by the interest in President-elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces,” Obama told assembled journalists following what he called an “excellent” and “wide-ranging” discussion.
Trump, for his part, called Obama a “very good man” and said meeting with him — face-to-face for the the first time ever — was “a great honor.” He vowed to seek Obama’s counsel before he enters the Oval Office.
So there you go. What a year ago would’ve been an Onion headline or a scene from a sci-fi comedy, is now reality. We at The Hill cover politics for a living, but nothing has prepared us for what we’ve seen this year. Today’s Oval Office meeting seems a fitting way to end this extraordinary election season.
Thank you to our millions of readers of this newsletter, and please stay tuned as we cover what’s next in the Age of Trump. Also, look out for a great story from Niall Stanage. He’s looking at all the unanswered questions from the shocker result on Tuesday night.
RACE TO 1600 PENN
BIG LEAGUE PROMISES: The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports: President-elect Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that his priorities as president will be healthcare reform, strengthening immigration enforcement and creating “big-league” jobs.
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK: The Hill’s Brooke Seipel reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) attributed Donald Trump’s win to “a lack of enthusiasm” among Democrats. Sanders said during the primaries that he’d have a better chance than Clinton of beating Trump because his progressive policies energized young people. He also said he wouldn’t rule out another run for president in 2020 even though he’ll be almost 80 years old.
DAZED AND CONFUSED: The Hill’s Amie Parnes reports: They never saw it coming. That was the sentiment repeated over and over again by Hillary Clinton’s aides, surrogates and friends on Wednesday, a day after their candidate failed to shatter the last glass ceiling.
YOU WEREN’T ALONE, SENATOR: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Republican Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) said Thursday that while he voted for Donald Trump, he wasn’t expecting the GOP nominee to win the presidential election.
GAME ON: The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports: Congressional Republicans, who were bracing for major losses on Election Day, are now drafting an ambitious agenda that will seek to torpedo President Obama’s major accomplishments over the last eight years.
FISCAL FRENZY: The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: Donald Trump’s election victory and the Republican success in holding the House and Senate have opened the door for tax legislation in 2017.
ODDS AND ENDS
POWER PLAY: The Hill’s Scott Wong reports: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hosted the president-elect and Vice President-elect Mike Pence for lunch at the Capitol Hill Club to discuss the transition, then gave them a tour of the Speaker’s office in the Capitol.
CABINET WHISPERS: The Hill’s Nikita Vladimirov reports: Donald Trump’s transition team has prepared a preliminary list of potential Cabinet members for his upcoming administration. The list, obtained by BuzzFeed News, reveals a number of familiar faces.
JOSTLING: The Hill’s Rebecca Savransky reports: Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said on Thursday that she has been offered a job in Trump’s White House.
COOL IT: The Hill’s Lisa Hagen reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign manager called on President Obama or Hillary Clinton to denounce the anti-Trump protesters who are calling for violence.
POLL POSITION
WHAT WENT WRONG? Yahoo News reports: Yes, the polling was wrong—but the reasons why are numerous, and nuanced, and will take a long time to fully parse and understand. In addition, it wasn’t just the polls that went wrong, but also the media’s interpretation of the polls.
THE DAILY TRUMP
CALEXIT: The Hill’s Reid Wilson reports: A group of California liberals, horrified at President-elect Donald Trump’s win on Tuesday, is taking the first steps toward what it hopes will be the next big secession movement.
TRADITIONAL TRUMP: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: Donald Trump plans on implementing a traditional press pool in his White House, a spokeswoman told Politico. The White House Correspondents’ Association criticized the president-elect on Thursday for foregoing the traditional pool during his White House visit with President Obama.
A 21-SPRAY SALUTE: The Hill’s Harper Neidig reports: President-elect Donald Trump received a grand send-off Thursday at LaGuardia airport, where fire trucks gave his plane a water cannon salute.
THE WAR ISN’T OVER: The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: Outspoken Trump critic, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said millions of Americans are “deeply worried” about what will happen under a Trump administration, but she promised Democrats would “stand up to bigotry.” Fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders promised to be Trump’s “worst nightmare” if the new president goes after minorities.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I just want to remind everyone in our country that the office of the presidency needs to be respected.”
— Ohio Gov. John Kasich, attending an event at White House, is letting bygones be bygones when it comes to the new president-elect.
CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS
CAN’T CRACK CONGRESS: Bloomberg Politics reports: In 2016, millennials surpassed baby boomers as the nation’s largest living generation. Yet for all that voting power, millennials are still woefully underrepresented in Washington.
MIXED BAG: The Washington Post reports: The Congress that voters cobbled together Tuesday is a mixed bag on the diversity front: Women held more or less even in their representation (about 20 percent of Congress), which is not a representative ratio. But the women who did get elected are more diverse than ever.
MONEY WATCH
AN EXPENSIVE HOUSE: Florida Politics reports: Outside groups spent $8 million in Florida’s 7th Congressional District, mostly to help Democrat Stephanie Murphy oust Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica.
WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR TODAY, TOMORROW AND THE WEEKEND
(All times Eastern)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who mixed it up often with Trump during the campaign, will a guest tonight on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway will be a guest on tonight’s “The Kelly File” on Fox News at 9 p.m.
Potential Attorney General Rudy Giuliani and possible chief of staff (and current RNC chairman) Reince Priebus will be on “Hannity” at 10 p.m. today on Fox News.
Donald Trump gives his first television interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday at 7 p.m.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Write us with tips, suggestions and news: Jonathan Easley, Ben Kamisar, Jonathan Swan, Lisa Hagen.
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