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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

📈 Trump's favorability with young Americans soared 19 points. A new YouGov poll shows that 57 percent of Americans aged 18-29 now view President-elect Donald Trump favorably, marking a net increase of 19 points since early November. Trump's outreach through popular podcasts, and inclusion of out-of-the-box figures like RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have helped drive this historic generational realignment.

🤫 Biden is quietly loosening immigration rules. The Biden administration is rushing to implement new policies that weaken immigration enforcement, like allowing migrants to skip in-person ICE check-ins in New York City. Additional changes allow migrants to request case reviews and challenge their monitoring and tracking — all while ICE officers are overwhelmed with a backlog extending to 2032.

🏞 Texas offered Trump 1,400 acres for a mass deportation operation. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered 1,402 acres near the Rio Grande to the Trump administration for a facility to process and detain illegal migrants. The land, originally purchased for border wall construction, is being repurposed to support what Buckingham calls "the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history."

📣 FEMA whistleblower said Trump supporters were viewed as “domestic terrorists.” After reports surfaced of FEMA workers being told to avoid homes displaying Trump signs, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) just revealed a whistleblower's account claiming that a FEMA official advised an elderly disabled veteran in Georgia to remove Trump signage, citing the agency’s view of his supporters as "domestic terrorists.”

WHAT WE’RE HEARING

• Mark Levin said that “life in prison is too good” for the “heinous bastard” who murdered Laken Riley.

• Nikki Haley disapproves of Tulsi Gabbard leading National Intelligence (DNI): “DNI is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.”

• Donald Trump Jr. said Nikki Haley “wants a cabinet filled with neocon warmongers to satisfy the billionaire donors that control her.”

• Nate Silver thinks Joe Biden should resign and allow Kamala Harris to become president.

NARRATIVE TRACKER

• Several mainstream media sources omitted the fact that Laken Riley’s killer is an illegal migrant. Screenshots show how outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Associated Press did not mention in their top-line coverage that Ibarra illegally entered the US from Venezuela.

• David French wrote in The New York Times that “Donald Trump Is Already Starting to Fail.” Donald Trump swept into power with the approval of a majority of voters, and his cabinet picks like Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr. are also viewed favorably. French attacks Trump’s cabinet picks as being unserious — but the polling shows Americans disagree.

• CNN reported that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy want to crack down on remote work for federal workers, and how many employees are threatening to quit over this change. However, this tactic has long been used in the private sector to slash workforces, and is the express goal of the Department of Government Efficiency.

• The View’s Sunny Hostin was forced to read a legal note on air to walk back her comment that the allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) were “fact.” Hostin reflexively presumed guilt with a conservative she doesn’t like, though she has often remained mum on Democrats; to date, she has offered no commentary on the credible assault allegations against Doug Emhoff.

IN THE LOOP

• Laken Riley’s murderer was found guilty on all 10 counts and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

• The Biden administration is seeking to forgive nearly $4.7 billion of Ukrainian loans to the US.

• Strikeman is a dry-fire training solution that allows you to dry-fire target practice at-home or on-the-go, using your actual firearm. Don’t miss Strikeman’s biggest sale of the year—30% OFF sitewide with code: BF30!*

• House Republicans blocked the release of the Matt Gaetz ethics probe.

• Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that men will be barred from using all women’s facilities on the House side of the Capitol complex.

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WASHINGTON

The food industry’s secret effort to tank RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has thoroughly alarmed the medical industry with his willingness to push back against its years of misleading the public. Now, the corporate food industry — or Big Food — is signaling its discomfort with RFK Jr.’s calls to ban harmful additives, crack down on seed oils, and change the way ultra-processed foods are made.

According to journalist Lee Fang, lobbyists for major companies like PepsiCo and McDonald’s are already meeting to strategize how to counter Kennedy’s planned reforms. One lobbyist representing snack and beverage companies even suggested using the federal funding process to limit what RFK Jr. would be allowed to implement into law.

Kennedy has criticized certain food dyes used in products like Doritos and Cap’n Crunch, and its links to behavioral problems in children and health risks that prompted warning labels in Europe. Opponents of Kennedy’s agenda assert that banning such food dyes and other chemicals from America’s food would be a major hit to the industry and force companies to spend vast resources adjusting.

Lobbyists are focusing on diluting RFK’s efforts by exploiting the breadth of his agenda, arguing that he will be too spread thin to implement them all efficiently. In addition, they are considering using the Senate confirmation process to extract concessions from Kennedy in exchange for securing votes.

Despite this, Kennedy’s ideas have gained traction in Trump’s coalition, especially among popular influencers like Joe Rogan, who has hosted Kennedy and others critical of processed foods on his podcast.

The new Make America Healthy Again agenda represents a sharp pivot from Trump’s first term, where regulations on pesticides and school lunch standards were relaxed in favor of business interests. Food industry leaders now face an energized Republican base increasingly aligned with Kennedy’s calls for healthier food and stricter regulations on Big Food practices.

OUR QUESTION TO YOU

POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY

Do you think the Matt Gaetz ethics report should be released?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👍 Yes (612)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 👎 No (562)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (193)

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