In today’s newsletter: Ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Donald Trump for not delivering on campaign promises. The Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that could impact the structure of the federal government. And Notre Dame bows out of postseason college football entirely.
Here’s what to know today.
Marjorie Taylor Greene knocks Trump for not focusing on domestic issues
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bashed President Donald Trump in an interview, accusing him of failing to live up to his campaign pledge to focus on improving the lives of Americans.
“For an ‘America First’ president, the No. 1 focus should have been domestic policy, and it wasn’t,” the Georgia Republican said on CBS News’ “60 minutes.”
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The White House rejected Greene’s accusations. “President Trump has already delivered on many of the promises he was elected to enact,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said last night, citing immigration enforcement and inflation.
Greene, who will resign next month, also recounted a phone call in which Trump tried to persuade her to back off supporting the Epstein files release.
“He was extremely angry at me that I had signed the discharge petition to release the files,” she said. “I fully believe that those women deserve everything they’re asking.”
Greene said that as Trump was fighting the release and calling her a traitor, he was taking meetings with controversial foreign leaders and New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani.
And because of Trump’s ire, Greene said, she and her son faced numerous death threats. She said she sent the president these messages and described his response as “extremely unkind.”
More politics news:
- Trump said the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the amount of market share the resulting company would have.
- Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended the Sept. 2 strike that killed the survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the survivors “were not incapacitated.”
- Trump criticized Rep. Henry Cuellar for a “lack of loyalty” for running as a Democrat after receiving a presidential pardon.
Supreme Court weighs Trump’s power over independent agencies
Trump’s battle with independent agencies is back at the Supreme Court today in a case that has deep implications for the structure of the federal government and executive power.
The conservative-majority court is hearing arguments on whether Trump had the authority to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission regardless of a law enacted by Congress to insulate the agency from political pressures.
The court has already signaled that the president is likely to win the case by allowing the Democratic-appointed commissioner to be removed from office while the litigation continues.
Bodies set up by Congress to be independent of the president have been a particular focus of Trump as he seeks to dramatically remake the government. Many of those agencies wield considerable regulatory power and have long been loathed by business interests.
Notre Dame skips postseason after being left out of College Football Playoff
After being snubbed by the College Football Playoff, Notre Dame has pulled itself out of the postseason entirely.
Hours after being left out of the 12-team playoff, the Fighting Irish announced that “as a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season.”
The team played in last season’s national championship game but were on the playoff bubble this fall after a 10-2 record. Notre Dame was in the top 10 of every ranking by the playoff selection committee until yesterday, when it fell to 11th and was the first team left out.
Iowa State and Kansas State also declined bowl bids despite being eligible as both are going through coaching transitions. The Big 12 Conference fined them $500,000 for saying no to the postseason.
More football news:
- The Houston Texans defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 20-10, a critical loss that puts the Chiefs in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.
- One controversial call may ultimately knock the Baltimore Ravens out of the NFL playoffs.
- It was a Sunday of injuries, with Colts quarterback Daniel Jones suffering a torn Achilles tendon and Commanders tight end Zach Ertz carted off likely with a torn ACL.
Read All About It
- A woman who was recorded shouting racist slurs at a couple in Wisconsin has been fired from the Cinnabon franchise where the outburst occurred.
- China’s trade surplus for the first 11 months surpassed the $1 trillion mark, at nearly $1.08 trillion. That’s a record high for any single year and is more than the $992 billion surplus in all of 2024.
- Hundreds of works were damaged at the Louvre in Paris when a pipe burst because of flooding, the museum’s deputy general administrator said.
- More than a third of the roughly 220,000 people arrested by ICE officers between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15 had no criminal histories, according to new data.
- McLaren driver Lando Norris captured his first ever Formula 1 world championship in the final race of 2025.
- A kindergartener has become the youngest chess player to earn an official rating from the sport’s international governing body.
Staff Pick: Migrant caregivers who pulled children from Hong Kong fire are hailed as heroes
One of the most striking moments in the aftermath of Hong Kong’s fire that killed 159 people was the story of Rhodora Alcaraz, a migrant worker who saved a three-month-old baby in her arms. Thousands of migrant workers live in the international finance hub, coming mostly from low-income countries like Philippines and Indonesia, often becoming the primary caregiver for the elderly or young children.
Walking around on Sundays you see them in parks or open public spaces, enjoying a picnic or doing each other’s nails. But that’s because they get one day off a week, are contracted at sub-minimum wage level, live in cramped conditions and enjoy far fewer rights than a typical resident. So when I heard about Alcaraz, I wanted to show how her bravery highlighted the critical role migrant workers play in several megacities, like Hong Kong.
— Mithil Aggarwal, reporter/producer
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
Holiday deals aren’t slowing down. Ulta’s beauty sale is packed with editor-approved finds, and Shutterfly’s offers make photo gifts easier to check off your list. On the wellness side, our team revisited the Oura Ring 4 to see how it stacks up for sleep and recovery this season.
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