Good morning, and congratulations to Susan Boyle. The Scottish singer is in the news again after Timothée Chalamet, who is somehow American despite his comically French name, admitted to being a big admirer.

President Trump interrupted your parents’ new episode of “NCIS: Branson” last night with a fancy address from the White House. He defended his record on the economy amid sagging economic poll numbers (his worst ever) and announced a "Warrior Dividend" for military members of a totally random $1,776. The president also touted his policies on immigration and energy — he's slightly more popular there than on the economy.

Programming note: Merry Christmas! Everyone in Washington is about to go back home for Christmas and pretend they don’t prefer living in D.C., so the news cycle is about to slow to a crawl. With that in mind, we’re taking the holidays off. Our next issue will hit your inbox in the new year, on Monday, January 5, 2026.

WORLD

🌍️ Trump declares WMDs, ramps up campaign against Venezuela

Who’s ready to party like it’s 2003 again? A new WMD just dropped.

President Trump signed an executive order this week declaring fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction.” He cited the drug’s lethality and said it “threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders.”

Does this do anything? Sort of. But it doesn’t change the government’s existing definition of “weapon of mass destruction.” It simply explains why the fentanyl crisis is a crisis and directs a few agencies to try tackling it.

• It directs the Department of Justice to more heavily prosecute crimes associated with fentanyl.

• It directs the Department of Defense to determine whether military help is needed to combat fentanyl.

• Department of the Treasury to go after "financial institutions" that could be involved with fentanyl or its "core precursor chemicals."

Trump was recently asked to do this by parents of fentanyl victims, but the idea isn’t new. There was a bipartisan push to get Biden to do it in 2022, but he didn’t bite. U.S. fentanyl deaths peaked in 2023 at 76,000. In 2024, they fell to 48,000.

Military: Claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were a big part of why Bush invaded Iraq in 2003. Some think tank nerds believe Trump could use this as a reason to ramp up his high-pressure campaign against Venezuela.

• Critics of the idea called it a “political exercise” that’s just for show.

• Trump’s order won’t actually do anything, they say, other than step on Congress’s toes and get a few headlines.

Blockade: Speaking of ramping up his pressure on Venezuela, President Trump ordered a “complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. What does that mean?

• Venezuela has more proven oil reserves than any country in the world, including Saudi Arabia.

• The Treasury Department has existing sanctions on 30+ oil tankers in the Caribbean.

• That means they aren’t allowed to do business with Americans or U.S. companies, basically making them pariahs in the global economy.

With a blockade in place, the U.S. Navy — big chunks of which Trump has stationed off the coast of Venezuela — might seize these ships if they attempt to enter or leave the country. At least 12 of them are known to carry Venezuelan oil, which is the lifeblood of dictator Nicolás Maduro's regime. If this hampers his ability to sell oil (to other baddies), his government could go belly-up.

GOVERNMENT

🚀 There's a new sheriff in town over at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After a rocky road in which Trump pulled his nomination, crapped on him, and renominated him, the Senate confirmed entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA in a bipartisan 67-30 vote. Isaacman, 42, is a self-made billionaire who founded payment processing company Shift4 when he was 16 (because that's something you can apparently do). He's also a two-time private astronaut and flight commander who has spent seven days in orbit. Isaacman told senators that he hopes to revitalize NASA and refocus it on returning to the moon and winning the new space race against China. He'll take over for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has served as interim NASA administrator since July. NASA says it plans to launch a flight around the moon as soon as February, ahead of actually landing on the moon in 2027.

🥼 Dr. Harvey Risch is a man known for his spicy takes on covid vaccines. He also happens to be a well-respected Yale epidemiologist who's spent decades working on cancer research. Presumably with that second point in mind, President Trump has selected Risch to chair the President's Cancer Panel. The panel he'll lead directly advises the president about how we're doing on the whole "cure cancer" thing. Where does it get its information? Well, it monitors the U.S. government's coordinated, 54-year-old effort to cure cancer. That effort is called the National Cancer Program ... which is part of the National Cancer Institute ... which is part of the National Institutes of Health ... which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They've got a real Russian nesting doll thing going on over there.

📡 Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), testified to the Senate Commerce Committee that the FCC is "not formally an independent agency." The FCC regulates the internet, satellite services, TV, and radio. Legally, it is an "independent agency" in two ways. It isn't part of a larger government department, and it’s run by a board of commissioners who don’t necessarily answer to the president. However, that could change soon if the Supreme Court strikes down the FCC's structure as unconstitutional. During the testimony, committee chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined Democrats in attacking Carr for threatening Jimmy Kimmel in September. Cruz warned that "we cannot have the government arbitrating truth" and proposed neutering some of the FCC's powers.

POLITICS

🏛️ Congress passes NDAA, takes slice out of Hegseth

They did it! They passed a bill. And they did so with a solid, bipartisan 77-20 vote ... which is actually the norm for this.

The Senate passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday, which authorizes the Pentagon to spend up to $901 billion on defense next year. The House passed this bad boy last week, and Trump is expected to sign it ASAP.

• This doesn’t actually spend any money. All it does is authorize the Pentagon to spend money on certain programs.

• But the military can't spend that money until it actually has that money. That'll happen later, after Congress’s appropriations process.

This thing includes a laundry list of programs and policies. The Trump administration wants to refocus America’s military on the Western Hemisphere instead of Europe and Asia. The NDAA makes sure he has to jump through a few hoops if he wants to reduce troop counts in Europe or Asia.

• Also a key point: The bill cuts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget by 25% until he turns over video footage of the controversial “double tap” strike against an alleged drug boat on September 2.

• Hegseth on Tuesday pushed back and told Congress that he’d release it only to “appropriate committees.”

In other military news, two senators are freezing the nomination of Admiral Kevin Lunday to serve as commandant of the Coast Guard in response to the service changing its policy around hate symbols.

Over on the health care front, drama broke out in the House when four moderate Republicans bucked their party to force a vote on extending expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Elsewhere in politics:

1. Fifty-four members of Congress — that’s over 10% of it — won't return to their seats after the 2026 midterms. Many are retiring, while others are running for different offices.

2. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R), who got ousted in a 2023 coup, was strangely spotted getting onto Marine One, the presidential helicopter, with Trump on Wednesday.

3. President Trump’s numbers on the economy are lower than they've ever been (in either term). That's historically been his best issue, but just 36% of respondents to a new poll said they like what he's doing right now.

TRIVIA

Whether you’re a weird movie character who doesn’t put up a tree until Christmas Eve, or a weird real-life character who jumps the gun and overlooks Thanksgiving entirely, pretty much everyone loves Christmas decor. And the good people in charge of decorating the White House are no different. Since this is our last issue before Christmas, we thought we’d end the season with a few questions on the executive mansion:

1. In what year was the first Christmas tree put in the White House?

2. Which state has provided the most White House Christmas trees since 1961?

3. How much does the famous White House replica gingerbread house weigh?

4. What is the White House record for most Christmas trees in use at one time?

Hints:
 1. The president was Benjamin Harrison.
 2. It’s a Southern state.
3. Plenty of adult women weigh less than this.
4. It’s less than 67, but still enough to be annoying.

BRIEFS

● U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet in Miami this weekend for more peace talks. Meanwhile, the U.S. is warning Europe against lending $105 billion in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, arguing they'll have to "give it back" anyway as part of a peace deal.

● Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio is donating $75 million to help add an extra $250 to the "Trump accounts" for 300,000 kids in Connecticut. The contribution is part of a 50-state push to find donors in each state to help increase the program's size.

● President Trump wants the U.S. to start building tiny Japanese "kei" cars. The compact cars (and trucks) often sell for just $10,000 in Asia, but are too small to be legally driven on U.S. roads. The average new car in America today costs $50,000.

● President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC for deceptively editing a documentary about Jan. 6 last year. The BBC recently apologized for giving viewers the impression that Trump had "made a direct call for violent action."

● FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino plans to leave his post early next year after less than a year on the job. Rumors are flying that he's already cleaned out his office. Trump on Wednesday said he thinks Bongino “wants to go back to his show.”

QUOTE

ANSWER

According to the nonprofit, nonpartisan White House Historical Association…

1. President Benjamin Harrison put up a tree for his grandkids in 1889 and decorated it with exactly the thing you want on a dead tree: candles. By 1894, President Grover had improved the setup to use electric lights instead.

2. For the third time, Michigan provided the Blue Room’s tree this year. It’s an 18-foot white fir. Three is more than most, but it’s nothing compared to the 16 times that North Carolina has won the honor over the years.

3. The annual White House gingerbread replica is basically the Super Bowl for the White House’s executive pastry chef (imagine having not just a full-time chef, but a full-time dessert chef). Per the White House, this year’s model contains “more than 120 pounds of gingerbread.”

4. Most of us probably only have one Christmas tree. Maybe two. Maybe three if you live in a house the size of the McCallisters’ place in “Home Alone.” The White House has room for a few extras. So much room, in fact, that the Obamas went all-out in 2015 with a whopping 62 trees.