How Biden is preparing for a Trump presidency

President Joe Biden delighted Kyiv officials and war hawks — and infuriated the incoming Trump administration (and, separately, the Kremlin) — on Sunday by authorizing Ukraine to send long-range missiles into Russia. Ukraine had been begging for approval to conduct strikes deep into Russia with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMs) for years, only to receive the go-ahead in the final months of Biden’s lame-duck presidency. 

The decision is being reported as a response to Russia importing 10,000 North Korean troops a few weeks ago, but the timing feels curious. Is this intended to ramp up US involvement in the war ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House as the former president has signaled a more hands-off approach to the conflict? Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has spoken against continuing “to fund an effectively never-ending war in Ukraine,” alleging that the US had done more than its “fair share.” Congress has appropriated $175 billion in budgetary and weapons assistance since the start of the war in 2022. Trump allies now worry that Biden’s thumbs-up to escalation will make it even more difficult to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine. 

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted in response to news of the ATACMs approval.

“President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?” venture capitalist and Trump mega-donor David Sacks said.

Biden’s aggressive action raises the question: what else might he be doing to constrain a Trump presidency? In other Ukraine news, Biden is ensuring the remaining $6 billion of aid gets out the door before January and is considering a fresh round of sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry. According to reporting from Politico, the administration is also pushing the Senate to confirm more judicial appointments, awarding more grants to chipmakers under the CHIPS Act and preparing a communications strategy to ward off repeals of some measures in the Inflation Reduction Act. But even staunch allies of the president note the limited nature of the Biden #Resistance: “There just isn’t anything Biden can do today that isn’t reversible in ten weeks,” confirmed Ivo Daalder. 

-Amber Duke

On our radar

‘EXTENSIVE VETTING’ Florida governor Ron DeSantis explained how he intends to choose a replacement for Senator Marco Rubio, who is expected to join the Trump administration as its secretary of state. DeSantis will hold interviews with potential candidates and put them through an extensive vetting process, with a selection expected by January. 

OUT OF SPIRITS Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection after a judge blocked the company’s merger with JetBlue early this year, citing antitrust protections. Spirit’s CEO says they will continue to pay employees and allow customers to use points and credits during the Chapter 11 process. 

TRUMP: THEY HAVE TO GO BACK Trump confirmed in a social media post that he will carry out plans for mass deportations of illegal aliens. “TRUE!!!” he responded to conservative activist Tom Fitton, who wrote, “GOOD NEWS: Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.” 

HARD SELZER Well-known Iowa pollster Ann Selzer announced she will no longer conduct her presidential poll after twenty-five years in the business. Selzer claims her decision to step aside was made before the release of her final poll of the 2024 cycle. That poll had Vice President Kamala Harris winning Iowa by three points, sixteen points off the actual vote, which went thirteen points in favor of Trump. 

Morning Joe makes amends

President Joe Biden’s favorite morning show hosts are taking after their most famous viewer. MSNBC’s Morning Joe headliners, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the man that much of their audience thinks is the second coming of Adolf Hitler.

“Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him,” Brzezinski said. Biden, comparatively, was all smiles during his recent meeting with his predecessor and successor in office.

The news sent shockwaves through MSNBC’s viewership. Outgoing congresswoman Susan Wild, who touted her “bipartisanship” before being ousted by Republican Ryan Mackenzie in November, posted — then quickly deleted — her reaction to the news. Morning Joe is “dead to me,” the defeated lawmaker wrote.

Media critic Jeff Jarvis had some similarly apoplectic criticism, which he posted on Threads. The meeting, he said, represented a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance,” he wrote. Some Morning Joe viewers, Brian Stelter reported, planned to boycott the show altogether. 

A final, telling, embodiment of the meltdown has been from Keith Olbermann, who has been pasting the same reply to multiple people’s tweets about the Trump meeting, cautioning that the show has become “Vichy MSNBC.”

“Why is anybody surprised?” Olbermann wrote. “Since 1998 I’ve said Scarborough was the worst person I’d ever encountered in this business. He proves me right, year after year.”

–Cockburn

DoD vs. DOGE

The Pentagon just failed its seventh consecutive audit — and it couldn’t come at a worse time for the sprawling agency, which again can’t fully account for its nearly $1 trillion budget.

Michael McCord, the Pentagon’s CFO, took a glass-half-full view of the situation. “I do not say we failed, as I said, we have about half-clean opinions. We have half that are not clean opinions,” he said. “So if someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don’t know that you call the student or the report card a failure. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we’re making progress.”

This attitude is unlikely to pass muster with the incoming national security and government efficiency brass who are going to take office next year. Representative Mike Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security advisor, has repeatedly gone viral for his questioning of the military’s spending practices. At one juncture, he asked the Air Force secretary how much the military spends on a bag of bolts that normally costs $100. The Air Force paid around $90,000 for the bag.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s secretary of defense-designee, has been criticized by some in Congress, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, for not having the background she expects in a SecDef. However, his allies argue that his experience in combat and in his scholarship have given him exactly the right experience needed.

Finally, does anyone really expect that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming heads of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are going to accept these sorts of results from the Pentagon — or any other government agency, for that matter?

Most expect the pair to take an approach akin to that of the Bobs in Office Space: “What would you say… you do here?”

–Matthew Foldi