Principals

1. Dems soften anti-Trump vibes
2. Lebanon ceasefire
3. Trump’s economic team
4. Tax cuts, and more?
5. Democrats go on tariff offense
6. MAGA funds
7. Treasury pick divides rights groups
8. China’s tech investment

PDB: Trump team signs White House transition agreement

Biden in Nantucket … FT: Chinese defense minister under investigation for corruption … WSJ: Musk’s quest to beat OpenAI

Principals will be off for Thanksgiving this Thursday and Friday. We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday, Dec. 2.

Democrats rethink Trump resistance

Should Democrats rebuild their wall of anti-Trump resistance in 2025 as the president-elect takes office? Not if you ask John Fetterman. “If you vote against everyone, then you lose whatever value or whatever statement that you’re trying to make,” Fetterman said. “Has anyone checked? If you win, you pick the people. And it’s like, if you’ve got the votes, [opposition is] not going to really change the outcome.” Indeed, the Senate Democratic Caucus doesn’t seem inclined to delay or fight Donald Trump’s Cabinet tooth and nail the way the party did in 2017, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Democrats from across the ideological spectrum say that delay is not their goal, although it is still very early in the process. “I am not for foot-dragging. The president ought to have this team in place,” Democratic whip Dick Durbin said.

A late foreign policy victory for Biden

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire to end a 14-month conflict along the border, President Biden announced from the Rose Garden. The agreement took effect at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, stopping the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah across the border. Now comes the hard part: over the course of 60 days, Lebanese forces will deploy south and Israeli troops will withdraw, a phased-approach that a senior Biden administration official said was designed to “prevent any vacuums from being formed.” Biden emphasized that Israel would have the right to defend itself if Hezbollah violates the deal, and said his administration would renew efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden’s team briefed Trump’s national security team on the deal, the senior official said, describing them as “supportive.”

— Morgan Chalfant

Hassett, Greer tapped for Trump economic team

Trump tapped veterans of his first administration to fill out his economic team. Kevin Hassett, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, was named director of the National Economic Council. Hassett will play a key role in the coming battle over the Trump tax cuts. Trump also selected Jamieson Greer as US Trade Representative, elevating a longtime protégé of Bob Lighthizer to play a central role in his administration’s tariff policy. Greer, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, has advocated for “strategic decoupling” from China and for ending “permanent normal trade relations” with Beijing. Trump also named his speechwriter Vince Haley as director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Republicans weigh size of tax bill

As congressional Republicans weigh expanding the scope of their tax legislation next year, some are more comfortable with political risks than others. It’s a divide that will come to a head as the GOP moves to circumvent a Democratic filibuster of its still-unwritten tax bill — which potentially allows changes to other programs. “Some would argue that the entire exercise should be reconstrued as a fiscal reform rather than a tax reform effort. If we do that, I think it would be natural for us to figure out how to make solvent the largest programs of government, which would be Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., told Semafor recently. Looking at entitlement programs would open the party up to backlash, though, and Young knows it: “I don’t know if our members will have an appetite for those conversations.”

— Burgess Everett

‘They’re going to increase your prices’: Trump tariff pushback

Democrats want voters to think about what Donald Trump’s tariff threats to Mexico, Canada and China really mean. “They’re going to increase your prices,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said, adding that it’s too early to judge whether Republicans will try to stop the threatened tariffs, but that his party wants to highlight the possibility that the GOP might use Trump’s tariffs to finance tax cuts. “These tariffs will raise the retail price of most of the stuff you buy,” he said. “They’re going to take that revenue and use it to subsidize further tax cuts for multinationals. And I just think that’s a big loser.” Mexico’s president vowed to respond “in kind” to any new tariffs, suggesting it is prepared for a trade war. Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, downplayed Trump’s threat as merely a “negotiating tool.”

— Burgess Everett

Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein, Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and KKR Co-Chairman Henry Kravis will serve as co-chairs of Semafor’s World Economy Summit on April 23-25, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

The third annual event will bring together US cabinet officials, global finance ministers, central bankers, and Fortune 500 CEOs for conversations that cut through the political noise to dive into the most pressing issues facing the world economy.

Join the waitlist for more information and access to priority registration.

New ‘anti-woke’ fund tries to ride Trump wave

Here come the MAGA funds: A Wall Street investor who has earned plaudits from figures in Trump’s orbit is launching a new ETF that will shun companies that use diversity quotas in hiring or promotion, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman reports. “An S&P 500 fund without the woke sh*t” is how James Fishback’s Azoria Meritocracy ETF was described in a recent pitch to prospective investors. The new fund is the latest example of how some on Wall Street are trying to ride the post-election wave of backlash to the perceived liberal establishment. Trump’s win has given this “anti-woke” investment movement new energy, propelling ventures like the firm 1789 Capital backed by Don Trump Jr. that focuses on investing in conservative companies.

LGBTQ groups wrestle with Bessent reaction

Donald Trump’s choice of the gay, married financier Scott Bessent to lead the Treasury put Washington’s powerful, and Democrat-aligned, LGBTQ rights groups in a bind. Human Rights Campaign, after what one supporter described as a heated internal debate, put a statement on the platform Threads acknowledging that Bessent “marks the first time an LGBTQ+ person has been nominated for Treasury Secretary” but avoiding any praise for him or the appointment. The supporter groused to Semafor that it might not be hard, “if you are trying to be bipartisan, which they claim to be, to find something positive to say.” LGBTQ Victory Fund — which attacked Trump’s previous most prominent openly gay appointee, Ric Grenell, in 2020 – had warm words for Bessent; the group’s sister organization LGBTQ+ Victory Institute called the news “historic and commendable” in a Tuesday afternoon statement.

— Ben Smith

An alternative Washington view on China tech controls

In the Semafor spirit, here’s some Room for Disagreement with virtually everyone else in Washington: What if US industrial policy in general, and the attempt to curtail China’s technological development in particular, are backfiring? Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies argues in Foreign Affairs that the US has underestimated China’s ability to develop domestic industries and global trade networks beyond the US and in some cases incentivized Chinese development: “China has seen improvements across multiple sectors, in terms of research and development, manufacturing output, and greater domestic content in exports. My own recent visits to Chinese electric vehicle battery firms and automakers revealed companies that have a clear sense of the global competitive landscape, strong capabilities in product and process innovation, and the financial resources to get ahead.”

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: A “Havana Syndrome” victim claims the State Department punished him for raising concerns to Congress about the mysterious illness and is now asking lawmakers for an investigation into possible whistleblower retaliation.

Playbook: House Republicans are looking like they’ll have a one-seat majority in January, after expected wins and departures.

Axios: Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer discussed the Lebanon ceasefire negotiations with Donald Trump when the two met at Mar-a-Lago days after the presidential election. Trump “offered no objections, and even signaled support” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden cementing a deal before the inauguration.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: Donald Trump’s favorability rating grew to 54% following his election, according to an Emerson College poll.

What the Right isn’t reading: Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., described herself as “pro-transgender rights” last year, CNN reported.

Congress

• House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul announced plans for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to appear before the committee on Dec. 11 for long-delayed testimony about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Transition

• Donald Trump’s transition team signed an agreement with the White House to allow them to start formal briefings with departing staffers at federal agencies, but it still hasn’t signed an agreement with the Justice Department to permit the FBI to perform security clearances for members of the transition team.
• Trump nominated John Phelan to be secretary of the navy, and COVID-19 mandate critic Jay Bhattacharya to be director of the National Institutes of Health.
• Trump’s team is weighing direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. — Reuters

Outside the Beltway

• Andrew Cuomo is preparing to launch a bid for New York City mayor. — Jewish Insider

Economy

• Federal Reserve officials are confident of easing inflation and a strong labor market, and they see further interest rate cuts, but at a slower clip, minutes of their meeting earlier this month showed.
• New home sales in the US declined to the lowest level in nearly two years last month.

Business

• Qualcomm is losing interest in buying Intel. — Bloomberg

Courts

• The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request to drop the classified documents case against Donald Trump.

Campaigns

• Senior advisers to Kamala Harris’ campaign suggested the vice president couldn’t have done much more to beat Donald Trump.

National Security

• Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is blocking the promotion of Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who was the commander of US forces during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Foreign Policy

• President Biden is seeking $24 billion in aid for Ukraine to replace US weapons that have been sent into that country’s fight against Russia. — Politico

Technology

• Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched a tech innovation institute. — Axios

Principals Team

• Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Elana Schor, Morgan Chalfant
• Reporters: Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Paula Dobriansky is a former under secretary of state for global affairs and the current vice chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.