| | | | Donald Trump just keeps making history! |  | | Donald Trump is fond of reminding you -- well, everyone really -- that he is making history all the damn time.
"Nobody's done what I've done, and what this administration has done in the first two years, and we're not even that close to two years," Trump told Fox News' Harris Faulkner last week.
In at least one respect, Trump is 100% right! What is it, you ask? The record number of senior people leaving his administration!
(OK, that last exclamation point was, admittedly, gratuitous.)
According to the indispensable Kathryn Dunn Tenpas at Brookings, 65% -- 65%!!!! -- of Trump's senior staffers and Cabinet officials have left the administration over the course of the past two-ish years.
How does that compare to past Republican presidents? Trump has already passed the 63% attrition rate of Cabinet members and top staffers in the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency and has nearly matched the 66% of top-level departures in George H.W. Bush's first term.
Trump is on pace -- if the departures keep up at anything close to this rate -- to shatter the record for senior level departures in a first term, currently held by Ronald Reagan.
Trump has already tied the record for the number of Cabinet officials who have left his administration at 12; he shares that mark with Bill Clinton, who saw 12 Cabinet members leave over his first four years in office. Trump has already eclipsed both Barack Obama (nine Cabinet officials left in first term) and George W. Bush (four Cabinet departures) even though he is not yet through two full years in office.
Trump and his surrogates -- those who remain, that is -- will insist the level of attrition is born of the breakneck pace he keeps that is hard for anyone (and everyone) to keep up with.
The real reason? Trump brought in a number of people for Cabinet jobs that either a) were badly under-qualified b) carried major conflicts of interest or c) quickly realized the perils of serving such a mercurial president.
The Point: This amount of change at the top of an administration is nothing even close to normal, and it speaks to the chaotic world that Trump seems to cultivate.
-- Chris | | "It's Christmas, magical things happen."
-- Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, when asked if a deal to keep the full government open by the Friday night deadline was possible. He replied that he didn't know, but left the door open with this twinkle-in-his-eye caveat. | | | COUNTDOWN TO SHUTDOWN 🗓 | | It's a lot less fun or festive than the New Year's countdown (tune in to watch Anderson do the fun one in a few weeks!) but the countdown to a potential government shutdown is ON.
Here's what you need to know: - Friday deadline: Congress has five days to act before funding for parts of the government runs out at midnight on Friday.
- We're at a standstill: Lawmakers left Washington last week without a resolution in an ongoing standoff over funding for President Trump's long-promised border wall.
- There's a small window to make a deal: The Senate is in session today, but the House isn't expected to return until Wednesday evening.
- What happens if the government shuts down? This shutdown would be limited in scope. Congress has already funded about 75% of the federal government through September 2019, including the Pentagon.
Follow CNN.com for live updates. | | What 2018 looked like for the Mueller investigation, from Marshall Cohen and Tal Yellin
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Beto O'Rourke really wants to take a hike alone, and other notes from Beto-Mania
Ulysses S. Grant: SCOFFLAW!
So bagels are OK again???
I'm a total Samantha
RIP in peace, nonsense HOLLAND TONNEL holiday decor | | | Sufjan Stevens has covered A LOT of Christmas tunes. I think his version of "Friendly Beasts" is my favorite. | |  | | Today's topic: What Donald Trump's tweetstorm gets wrong. | | 🚀TO INFINITY AND BEYOND 🚀 | | Donald Trump is expected to launch a new military space command this week -- that's right, Trump's sought-after "space force" that has captured the attention of both supporters and detractors could be headed for liftoff.
We don't know much about it yet, but we do know Vice President Mike Pence will make two space-related stops this week, first to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday and second to the Pentagon later this week.
"The new Space Command will be only the 11th combined combatant command, joining the ranks of Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, and Special Operations Command, which oversees elite troops known as Special Operations Forces," per CNN's Ryan Browne and Elizabeth Landers. | |
HOW TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 4 EASY STEPS | | Step 1: Announce you're not seeking re-election (like Pete Buttigieg, who announced today he won't seek a third term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana).
Step 2: Go to Iowa (Also like Pete Buttigieg, who's one of the headliners at a Thursday event with Democrats in Des Moines)
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit! JK. Run for president! | |  | Tennessee Sen. Lamar (!) Alexander is calling it quits.
The original exclamation-marked Republican announced today he will retire after this current term and will not seek re-election in 2020.
Alexander is iconic for a number of reasons, including for wearing a red-and-black plaid shirt and walking across the entirety of Tennessee while successfully campaigning for governor in the '70s. Alexander also served as secretary of education from 1991 to 1993 and ran for president in 1996 and 2000. | |
TWO ACTUAL HEADLINES FROM TODAY | | Point editor Leigh HATES when we write "a tale of two" anything ... but this really is the tale of two headlines. Both of these heds were really published today:
Real headline 1: "I voted for Trump. Now his wall may destroy my butterfly paradise."
Real headline 2: "Witches to Trump: Stop Calling the Mueller Investigation a 'Witch Hunt.'"
Whatta world. | |  | | From Brenna: "Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith decided against an entourage and held her own Bible at her swearing-in re-enactment today. 'That's good enough for me,' Sen. Orrin Hatch said upon seeing it would just be the two of them. Send your best no-frills friend The Point!" | | | | | | |
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