Haaretz:
Ben-Gvir and His Far-right Party Resign From Netanyahu Gov't Over 'Reckless' Cease-fire Deal
National Security Minister Ben-Gvir says his party has officially left the governing coalition. He previously said 'If the war against Hamas resumes with full force,' his party with return to the government
The government coalition now stands at 62 members.
Ben-Gvir first claimed responsibility for the delays caused by Israel in the deal negotiations by using his party's political power on Tuesday in a post on X, a claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently denied, instead placing the blame on Hamas.
A benefit already from the deal, said one opposition member. But Netanyahu’s government has not fallen and while three hostages are released and home, only three are released and home. So, much more to play out. The next round is this Saturday.
CBS:
Trump's return to office greeted with optimism, high expectations — CBS News poll
That's bolstered by Americans' expectations for a good economy in 2025 — higher than they currently rate it — along with wide belief among his voters that Trump will bring down grocery prices, make them financially better off and bring more peace and stability to the world.
It all echoes many of the reasons Trump won in the first place.
n this hyper-partisan era, though, optimism for incoming presidents isn't quite as high as it once was. For Carter and Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton and Obama, CBS News polling at the time showed higher optimism than either Joe Biden in 2021 or Donald Trump today enjoys. That's largely because these days, opposing partisans are less likely to express positivity.
Let’s check in on that in six months.
New York Times:
Support for Trump’s Policies Exceeds Support for Trump
A new poll found the public is sympathetic to the president-elect’s plans to deport migrants and reduce America’s presence overseas.
Many Americans who otherwise dislike President-elect Donald J. Trump share his bleak assessment of the country’s problems and support some of his most contentious prescriptions to fix them, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Ipsos.
A little more than half of the country expresses some desire to see Mr. Trump follow through with his harshest threat to deal with illegal immigration: deporting everyone living in the United States without authorization.
David A French/New York Times:
MAGA Is Misreading Its Mandate
I’m growing increasingly amused by the overreaction to Donald Trump’s election.
I’m not talking about genuine concerns over Trump’s authoritarianism, incompetence and malice. His conduct during his first term gave Americans ample cause for alarm. He may well be the most unstable and dangerous person our nation has ever elected as president.
I’m talking about something else. As we watch chief executive after chief executive pay homage to Trump and MAGA, with Apple, Meta, Amazon and OpenAI making identical $1 million donations to Trump’s inauguration, either through their chief executives or their corporate accounts, there is a sense that his election signals some sort of sweeping ideological “vibe shift,” a triumph of right-wing populism over all its foes.
It is no such thing.
Lakshya Jain/Twitter vis Threadreader:
Mark Hertling/The Bulwark:
Team Trump Promises ‘Shock and Awe.’ Do They Know What That Means?
The three-decade-old concept didn’t survive first contact with the enemy.
The key to rapid dominance is to gain advantage over an adversary through overwhelming firepower, precise maneuver, unrelenting speed, continuous situational awareness of both friendly and enemy forces, and brilliance in execution. The concept’s defining characteristic: paralyze the enemy’s decision-making process and force immediate surrender by delivering such overwhelming force that resistance is futile.
Rapid dominance had four key components. First, for victory, a commander and his troops would need absolute knowledge about the enemy and the environment in which they were fighting, while also having complete self-awareness of their strengths, vulnerabilities, capabilities, and decision-making abilities. Second, the commander would have complete control of operational tempo while also perfectly synchronizing their force’s actions. If those first two requirements weren’t challenging enough, the next component tasked the battlefield commander with precisely monitoring every action on an ever-changing battlefield. And for the fourth component, the professor describing this concept to our class said that joint (and potentially multinational) forces and their commanders must continuously demonstrate operational brilliance in planning and execution while also controlling the entire operational environment: terrain, intelligence, actions of the enemy, weather, and maneuver. That’s the expectation of future leaders, the lecturer said in closing. Doing all this would impose on any enemy “a desired state of helplessness and a lack of will to continue the fight.”
I don’t remember which professor gave the lecture, but I do remember a Marine sitting next to me leaning over to whisper, “perhaps this professor who’s never worn the uniform doesn’t understand how tough it really is in combat.” Having recently fought in Desert Storm and experienced the fog of war and how chance, a lack of situational awareness, and poor intelligence play a part in battle, I couldn’t help but agree.
Ezra Klein/New York Times:
Trump Barely Won the Popular Vote. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way?
Down-ballot, Republicans’ 2024 performance was, if anything, less impressive. In the House, the Republicans’ five-seat lead is the smallest since the Great Depression; in the Senate, Republicans lost half of 2024’s competitive Senate races, including in four states Trump won; among the 11 governor’s races, not a single one led to a change in partisan control. If you handed an alien these election results, they would not read like a tectonic shift.
And yet, they’ve felt like one. Trump’s cultural victory has lapped his political victory. The election was close, but the vibes have been a rout. This is partially because he’s surrounded by some of America’s most influential futurists. Silicon Valley and crypto culture’s embrace of Trump has changed his cultural meaning more than Democrats have recognized. In 2016, Trump felt like an emissary of the past; in 2025, he’s being greeted as a harbinger of the future.
Whatever. Still pretty easy for me to ignore the inauguration today. And, also, a respectful Martin Luther King Day salute to everyone.
Cliff Schecter covers Adam Schiff and not taking Pam Bondi as a given assent: