Good morning. Sunny with breezes and a high around 57 today. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 41. The Capitals host Columbus tonight. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Exit Angles, “Time Out.” Groovy, literate, and arty punk from Wheeling, West Virginia? I’m in before the song ends! Exit Angles play Rhizome tonight with Liz Hogg.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of my daily music recommendations this year.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
This is your brain on shrugs: President Trump‘s chummy meeting with New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani Friday and his messy breakup with US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, which led to her announcing later that same night that she would resign from Congress in January, opened a strange weekend for the President’s online fans. (NYT) The one-two punch of weirdness is a “reminder that the MAGA movement has always been defined more by id than ideology.” (Politico) The social media platform X rolled out a feature over the weekend that displayed users’ locations, leading to revelations that some big MAGA accounts that purport to be US-based are in fact run from overseas. (NYT) The President, apparently aware of a swirling new narrative that his coalition might be showing cracks, posted over the weekend that it is not. (Fox News)
But! Pesky GOP apostate and US Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul predicted yesterday that Trump’s coalition would experience a “splintering and fracturing” if his recent saber-rattling with regard to Venezuela led to war. (Politico) Indeed, despite Friday capping a week when Republicans overwhelmingly voted to require Trump to release the government’s files on his former pal Jeffrey Epstein—a move he opposed until the motion became unstoppable—“It’s way premature to declare that Trump’s lock on Republicans in Congress has been broken,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said. (Washington Post) Greene’s defenestration may not be the final word on their relationship: Trump “has no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.” (AP)
Have you driven affordability lately? Trump will unveil a plan to halt dramatic rises in the price of Obamacare premiums today—it’s a continuation of Covid-era subsidies, the exact things he said he opposed when Democrats in the Senate sparked a government shutdown over their expiration. (MS Now) Trump’s framework would set some “new limits on eligibility” for the subsidies. (Politico) Trump hasn’t actually imposed the tariffs he threatened on Canada after Ontario Premier Doug Ford ran a TV ad that upset him. (Politico) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted 2026’s economy would be easier on Americans. (CNBC) The GOP is “struggling to find a winning message on housing costs”—the second-most driver of voters’ worries about affordability, after groceries. (Politico)
Administration perambulation: The US backed off a draft plan to end the war Russia started with Ukraine after a confusing weekend in which some US senators said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had described it as “essentially the wish list of the Russians.” Rubio denied that. (Washington Post) Does DOGE exist? Did it ever exist? Was it all a dream? (Reuters) FBI Director Kash Patel has sent SWAT teams to protect his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, and his “heavy use of taxpayer-funded resources during his first nine months on the job has contributed to growing questions inside the administration.” (NYT) Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attended the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend. (Reuters) Noem’s department “quietly corrected false information it published” about its actions last week in North Carolina. (Charlotte Observer) Republicans in North Carolina are concerned that the department’s heavy hand there might turn off voters. (Politico) Former DOJ officials have begun to collect resignation letters from people who left the department under Trump. (CBS News) Trump wants to revive the “Rush Hour” franchise. (Semafor)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
The Dabnog—the Dabney’s banger of a holiday drink—is back. And last week, it made for the perfect liquid dessert after dinner at the Shaw restaurant (which now, smartly, has ditched its tasting menu-only format). It’s thick and eggy and delicious, like the best eggnog you could hope for. It’s also boozy AF, made with rum, Madeira, rye, *and* bourbon. One glass was enough for me, but it’s also sold by the bottle. If $50 for the latter seems pricey, our server reminded us that thanks to the mind-eraser level of liquor, it keeps for months. (122 Blagden Alley., NW.)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• What would Congress’s new crime bills mean for the District?
• The new food stall Gigi’s Pasta is drawing long lines daily at Western Market.
• Looking for locally sourced holiday gifts? Here’s our guide.
Local news links:
• The Washington Spirit lost to Gotham FC in the NWSL Championship Final Saturday. (Washington Post)
• The Kennedy Center said FIFA would pay it $7.4 million to hold the World Cup draw there next month after Senate Democrats criticized an agreement to hold the event there for free. (AP)
• Dancers protested at the Kennedy Center Saturday. (WUSA9)
• A ruling by US District Judge James Boasberg that allows the feds to seek indictments in DC when federal grand juries reject them is a big victory for US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro. (Washington Post)
• Police found a body in a wooded area of Frederick after a man called into the DC101 show “Elliot in the Morning” to report he’d found it. (WTOP)
• Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. received five life sentences for a deadly 2022 shooting he committed at U.Va. (Washington Post)
• Two men from Texas are under arrest; authorities say they’d hatched a plan to recruit homeless people from DC to help them invade a Haitian island where they planned to murder all the men and make women there their sex slaves. (NBC4 Washington)
• Three men were arrested in Takoma Park Friday and charged with stealing 720 eggs with a street value of nearly $800. The eggs remain unaccounted for. (DC News Now)
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
