Good morning. Cold with wind gusts and a chance of light snow and flurries today. The high temperature will be around 33. A low near 19 overnight. 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:
Mobb Deep, “Shook Ones, Pt. II.” Prodigy, the rapper for this essential Queens hip-hop duo, may have died in 2017, but in October his partner Havoc released the album “Infinite,” which features some of his unreleased verses. Mobb Deep plays the Fillmore tonight with Raekwon.
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:
So, that happened: Not unlike Nero performing for captive audiences in ancient Rome, President Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Honors last night, bestowing medals upon personal favorites including Kiss, Michael Crawford, and Gloria Gaynor. “Hollywood turnout was noticeably down.” (Washington Post) The center, which Trump took over early in his term and has struggled ever since, changed its traditional medallions, made by a family in Bethesda and hung from rainbow-hued ribbons, for Tiffany & Company-designed castings with “a much more subtle rainbow motif.” (NYT) They’ll be broadcast on December 23. (NPR)
Administration perambulation: The Kremlin is thrilled with Trump’s new foreign policy document, saying “it largely accorded with Russia’s own perceptions.” (Reuters) European far-right figures such as Viktor Orbán are pleased with the administration’s anti-European rhetoric in the wake of a 120 million euro fine the European Union has imposed on Elon Musk‘s social media platform X. (Politico) Trump, who has directed military strikes on dozens of people he claims without evidence to be drug dealers, “has pardoned or granted clemency to at least 10 people for drug-related crimes since the beginning of his second term.” (Washington Post) Soon-t0-be-former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia ripped Trump in a “60 Minutes” interview, saying he’s not doing enough for his base. (CBS News) Trump is furious that US Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, whom he pardoned last week, does not plan to switch parties. (AP) The US Supreme Court will tackle Trump’s attacks on the civil service today. (Politico) Few of the people arrested in the administration’s immigration crackdown in New Orleans so far have criminal records. (AP) The administration will release its plan today to aid US farmers battered by Trump’s tariffs. (Bloomberg) Trump issued an executive order over the weekend to investigate what he called price-fixing by food producers overseas as concerns about affordability grow. (Axios) Lawmakers are struggling to pass anything that might ease things for people facing huge increases in the price of Obamacare plans, and Trump has “given them little direction.” (NOTUS) Bruna Ferreira, who was arrested on immigration charges last month and whose son is White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt‘s nephew, says White House attempts to paint her as a criminal with weak connections to Leavitt are untrue. (Washington Post) Trump’s presidential library could include a hotel, office space, and a 47-story building in Miami. (Politico)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:
Walk through the upstairs dining room at Maydan, and you’ll see tables literally overflowing with food. At the one next to mine last week, diners were arranging plates on an extra barstool. Mostly, that happens if you order the $95-per-person Tawle menu, a set feast of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors. Even if all those dips and snacks and kebabs arrive at too fast a clip (hence, table traffic jam), it’s still a terrific tour of what the eight-year-old alley restaurant can do. The star that night was, perhaps predictably, the place’s famous lamb shoulder, a giant hunk of melty meat full of crispy, spice-crusted bits and smothered in sumac onions and herbs. By the time it arrived, we were stuffed. But the leftovers, dunked in to-go cups of toum and labne, have made several days of lunches—and late night snacks—pretty great. (1346 Florida Ave., NW.)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• New legislation could make it easier for DC restaurants to keep their outdoor dining structures—though many have already torn theirs down because of new city rules, and restaurateurs are wary.
• Play Date Social in Fairfax offers New England–style food—and doubles as a play space for kids.
• This September wedding took inspiration from its setting in Virginia’s hunt country.
Local news links:
• DC Police Chief Pamela Smith plans to step down at the end of the month, ending a relatively brief tenure in the job that saw her try to manage Trump’s takeover of the force earlier this year. (Axios D.C.)
• The Commanders had another godawful performance yesterday as their season of misery plodded on. Jayden Daniels reinjured his elbow, TE Zach Ertz got seriously hurt, too, and the team lost to Minnesota 31-0. Fans have four more games to endure. (Washington Post)
• Anita Bonds won’t seek reelection to the DC Council, which means “there definitely will be a new mayor and there could easily be five or six new councilmembers by early 2027.” (WCP)
• Dan Snyder‘s unwillingness to upgrade what was then FedEx Field helped scotch the DC area’s chance of hosting World Cup matches. (The Athletic)
• 78.7% percent of DC seniors graduated high school in the 2024-5 year, the public school system’s best rate in more than ten years. (WTOP)
• Bob Immler retired Friday, ending more than 40 years of reporting on traffic. (WTOP)
• Jurors who served on the trial of Sean “Sandwich Guy” Dunn said they “agreed that this is not and should not have been a federal case.” (CBS News)
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.
