Today in Politics, Bulletin 278. 1/2/26

… WSJ: “Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t just a frequent visitor to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The club was also sending spa employees—usually young women—to Epstein’s nearby mansion for massages, manicures and other spa services, according to former Mar-a-Lago and Epstein employees. The house calls went on for years, even as spa employees warned each other about Epstein, who was known among staff for being sexually suggestive and exposing himself during the appointments.”

… “The spa occasionally provided house calls for members. Epstein wasn’t a dues-paying member of the club, but Trump told staff to treat him like one, the employees said. Epstein had an account at the spa where his companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, booked appointments on his behalf.”

… Karoline Leavitt was asked for a comment: “It’s shameful the Wall Street Journal is wasting their once great paper writing up fallacies and innuendo in order to smear President Trump and distract from his historic first year back in office.”

… AP: “Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats as widening economic protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June. Trump warned Iran on Truth Social that if it ‘violently kills peaceful protesters,’ the US ‘will come to their rescue.’ At least 7 people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations. ‘We are locked and loaded and ready to go,’ Trump wrote.”

… “Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged that Israel and the US were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during years of protests sweeping the country.” Larijani: “Trump should know that intervention by the US in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the US interests. The people of the US should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”

… “Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council’s secretary for years, warned that ‘any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut. The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza.’”

… Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): “This is when we need a strong Voice of America beaming information into Iran. Some in the Admin underestimate the value that VOA brings, but now it is an important tool for the President and our national security team. Information is an instrument of power.”

… Too bad Trump, Musk and director Kari Lake wiped it out.

… After posting that we were on the brink of war with Iran, Trump went shopping for marble on his way to golf. CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg: “The president has stopped this morning at Arc Stone and Tile in Lake Worth Beach, FL. I snapped this photo of a truck in the company’s parking lot.”

… A WH official issued a statement: “President Trump is purchasing marble and onyx, at his own expense, for the White House Ballroom.”

… Not sure I buy the “at his own expense” part.

… New CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil was roasted online after he posted a video declaring their new philosophy under Bari Weiss: “On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.”

… Katherine Brodsky: “I don’t want the analysis of average Americans on the news. If I want their opinions, I’ll read X. What I want to see from media is better discernment of which experts are actually best suited for the story, not based on PR and connections, but actual topical knowledge.”

… Larry Sabato: “Absolutely! You wouldn’t want ‘academics and elites’ who have actually studied a subject to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we’re seeing the resurgence of measles, and the widespread belief in almost non-existent vote fraud, among many other great leaps backward in the Trump era. Cronkite would be so very proud of you, CBS News.”

… Media critic Stephen Whitty: “The job of a journalist is not to repeat back to me what I see and hear; it’s to report everything in full, and with context. Don’t tell me what I think I already know; increase my knowledge by telling me things I didn’t.”

… Neera Tanden: “As the culture moves against MAGA, Bari Weiss has moved towards it. Liberals will abandon CBS and the right will still just watch Fox. She will ensure the Ellison money is set on fire.”

… WSJ: “Trump is taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend. He briefly tried wearing compression socks for his swelling ankles, but stopped because he didn’t like them. And he regrets undergoing advanced imaging because it generated scrutiny of his health: ‘In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition. I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”

… “Trump gets little sleep and has recently struggled to keep his eyes open during several televised events in the West Wing. Aides, donors and friends say they often have to speak loudly in meetings with the president because he strains to hear. Aside from golf, Trump doesn’t get regular exercise, and he is known to consume a diet heavy on salty and fatty foods, such as hamburgers and french fries.”

… “The large dose of aspirin he chooses to take daily has caused him to bruise easily, he said, and he has been encouraged by his doctors to take a lower dose. ‘They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?’”

… “The president has sought to conceal ailments that have led to speculation about his health, covering bruising on his hand with makeup. In his first term, he played down the severity of his Covid-19 symptoms and declined to disclose that he got a colonoscopy. His physical signs of aging are becoming more evident to some of his closest advisers. His skin is so delicate that Pam Bondi caused his hand to bleed when she nicked him with her ring while giving him a high-five at the RNC.”

… The Hill: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, cardiologist to the late former VP Dick Cheney, dismissed Trump’s aspirin regimen: “It makes no sense. First of all, when we use any kind of anticoagulant, medications to prevent clotting, those don’t thin the blood. It’s not like changing something from gumbo to chicken soup. It doesn’t make it thinner. It makes you less likely to clot.”

… Trump posted this today: “The White House Doctors have just reported that I am in “PERFECT HEALTH,” and that I “ACED” (Meaning, was correct on 100% of the questions asked!), for the third straight time, my Cognitive Examination, something which no other President, or previous Vice President, was willing to take. Our great Country cannot be run by “STUPID” or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!”

… It seems a bit unusual for him to be given three cognitive exams in quick succession. They were also dementia tests, not cognitive exams.

… Reuters: “Drugmakers plan to raise US prices on at least 350 branded medications, even as the Trump admin pressures them for cuts. The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median of this year’s price hikes is around 4% - in line with 2025.”

… WaPo: “Trump and WH leaders say that American workers are winning because of his immigration crackdown. But the data doesn’t back that up. Since the summer, Trump officials have been trumpeting the idea that job creation is booming for US-born workers. Trump said so, too, during a prime-time address last month: ‘In the year before my election, all net creation of jobs was going to foreign migrants. Since I took office, 100% of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens. 100%.’”

… “Trump admin officials also said recently that more than 2.5 million US-born workers gained jobs in 2025 as 1 million immigrants left the workforce. But economists on both sides of the political aisle say they have seen no evidence that American-born workers are getting jobs by the millions or moving en masse into positions abandoned by deported immigrants. In fact, data shows that US-born workers are doing moderately worse under Trump than they were under Biden because the labor market has weakened.”

… Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Commerce Dept economist: “The unemployment rate has been rising for both native-born and foreign-born adults.”

… Trump was TACOing again. WSJ: “The US has stepped back from imposing trade-killing duties on Italian pasta makers, meaning that Italian-made pasta will most likely continue to be available in US stores. Previously, the Commerce Dept said it would slap antidumping duties of 92% on Italy’s main pasta exporters as soon as Jan—a measure that Italian pasta makers said would force them to pull out of the US market. Italy’s govt and the affected companies have been lobbying the Trump admin for weeks to revise the decision.”

… But the Commerce Dept just told the companies that it will now dramatically reduce the threatened tariffs. The two biggest pasta exporters to the US, La Molisana and Garofalo, will now face duties of 2.3% and 13.9%, respectively. 11 other Italian pasta makers will face a 9.1% tariff.

… CNN: “Trump has delayed new tariff increases on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities for a year, pushing their implementation to 2027. Trump signed a proclamation hours before the end of 2025, postponing the tariff hikes on these items, which were originally due to take effect on Thur. In Sept, Trump ordered 25% new tariffs on kitchen cabinets and upholstered furniture. Those took effect in Oct, with rates slated to rise to 50% and 30%, respectively, by 2026.”

What a brilliant idea for me to plan two specials to write over the past week - 25 Worst Villains of the Trump Admin, and 500 Worst Things The Trump Admin Did in 2025. 5 million hours of work over the holidays!

The truth is that I only planned originally to do Top 10 Villains. Then when I started working on the list it was impossible to get it to 10 because there we so many. As some of you pointed out, there were a few more left off even when I expanded it to 25. Which meant a bit more work than I thought.

I knew the 500 Worst Things was going to be a big project, but it was much more work than I expected because I had to go back and read over so much material, then decide how to narrow it down to only 500. I realize it was difficult for some to read, but I really thought it was important to document the entire year because seeing everything in full context like that really brings home the depths of depravity like nothing else.

Anyway, back to the normal routine with daily Bulletins on M, T, Th, and Fri with the weekend one on Sun and the two podcasts on Wed. We are headed to Boston tomorrow for an overnight museum trip where will be going to a few great ones. It’s 23 degrees here, so museums are a good option. This was my hike in NH on Wed.

… AP: “Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of Affordable Care Act enrollees expired overnight, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year. Democrats forced a 43-day govt shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their 2026 political aspirations. In the end, no one's efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date.”

… “A House vote expected in Jan could offer another chance, but success is far from guaranteed. On average, the more than 20 million subsidized enrollees in the ACA are seeing their premium costs rise by 114% in 2026. Those surging prices come