Trump Turns His Attention to DC’s Golf Courses, Congress Continues to Flail on Health-Care Fix, Bear Cat Bites Humans at Zoo

Good morning. Biting cold again today, with wind chills that will make the nominal high of around 31 feel quite aspirational. A low near 20 overnight. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.

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I can’t stop listening to:

El Mantis, “Sol Inquieto.” I like to imagine visiting 1950s LA nightclubs where music like this plays as I try to solve a mystery. The Houston-based “Heavy Psychedelic Jazz” band plays Rhizome tonight alongside Mark Cisneros’s Space-Fire-Truth and Sarah Hughes.

Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of my daily music recommendations this year.

Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:

• A weekend of tragedies overshadowed political news. Here’s the latest on the Brown University shooting and manhunt for the shooter. (NYT) The latest on the awful shooting in Sydney. (Sydney Morning Herald) Updates on the apparent murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. (LAT) President Trump promised the US would retaliate after the three Americans were killed in Syria. (AP)

Trumptown news: Trump’s efforts to remake DC’s landscape will include the city’s public golf courses amid what appears to be a declining relationship with the National Links Trust. (WSJ) The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the administration Friday, hoping to halt construction on Trump’s ballroom. (Washington Post) The administration is considering the demolition of four federal buildings, according to a different lawsuit. (NBC4 Washington) The mood within DC’s European embassies is decidedly not festive this holiday season. (Politico)

The health-care mess: The House GOP released a health-care plan Friday that doesn’t extend Covid-era Obamacare subsidies but makes some other changes. (NYT) Moderates in the House could be the key to forcing a vote on extending the subsidies. (Punchbowl News) Republicans are “struggling to define an easily digestible message on health care costs heading into next year’s elections, as Democrats stay mostly unified around extending the ACA subsidies.” (Politico)

Administration perambulation: Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles must end today, an appeals court ruled. (NYT) A federal judge in Maryland forbade ICE from re-arresting Kilmar Abrego García when he attended a check-in with the agency Friday. (Washington Post) The Department of Justice is considering charging the suspect in Charlie Kirk‘s fatal shooting with federal hate crimes, a novel legal theory that “would likely turn on equating anti-trans views with Christianity.” (NBC News) The administration’s star-crossed prosecution of Trump’s bête noir James Comey took another blow Friday when a judge said prosecutors had shown “callous disregard” toward handling materials from his friend, law professor Daniel Richman. (Politico) Trump said he might name Kevin Warsh or Kevin Hassett to lead the Fed. (WSJ) The VA plans to eliminate tens of thousands of mostly vacant health-care positions this month. (Washington Post) The SEC has “eased up on more than 60 percent of the crypto cases that were ongoing when Mr. Trump returned to the White House.” (NYT) Mark Paoletta is the “lawyer sidekick” to OMB director Russ Vought in Vought’s quest to remake the federal bureaucracy. (Politico)  Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that Cuba will be weakened if the US hobbles Venezuela. (NYT) Trump said he’d add a “fake news wing” to his presidential library in Miami. (Washington Post)

The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert:

Recently on Washingtonian dot com:

• Riff Raff, Jon Schott‘s intimate cocktail bar behind Adams Morgan’s Johnny Pistolas, serves innovative drinks while striving to be a zero-waste establishment.

• Ayat, a “Palestinian soul food” mini chain that started in Brooklyn, will open in Foggy Bottom early next year.

• This wedding took inspiration from DC’s Brookland neighborhood.

• The Bethesda location of Andy’s Pizza has begun to bake and serve bagels.

Local news links:

• The Wizards and the Commanders won yesterday, a twofer that hasn’t occurred since 2022. (WizardsMuse/X) How the Commanders won. (Washington Post) How the Wiz did it. (Washington Post)

• A United flight to Tokyo returned safely to Dulles this weekend after an engine failure. (NYT)

• National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, who was injured in a deadly DC shooting just before Thanksgiving, is “breathing on his own and can stand with assistance,” a doctor reported. (WUSA9)

• Capital Pride will move next year’s celebration to avoid conflicts with a planned UFC fight at the White House and other events on Trump’s birthday. (NBC4 Washington)

• House Republicans issued a report claiming outgoing DC Police Chief Pamela Smith “propagated an ecosystem of fear, retaliation, and toxicity.” (Washington Post)

• Teachers in Arlington will join a boycott of Starbucks, which has not yet reached a contract with workers. (ARLnow)

• A former worker at Camden Development says the company’s culture of encouraging hugs among employees “played a role in a sexual assault by a co-worker.” (Washington Post)

• Police in Arlington say a request for a Metro passenger to remove a mask led to two arrests. (ARLnow)

• A former DC high school teacher is accused of “climbing through a student’s bedroom window and filming child sex abuse material.” (WUSA9)

• John Cena‘s final match, held here over the weekend, put some WWE fans in a philosophical mood. (WTOP)

• A mass kissing event downtown set a world record Saturday. (Washington Post)

• The bizarre story of a local bar owner who masqueraded as an advisory neighborhood commissioner. (Washington Post)

• Lola, a binturong at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, bit two staff members Friday. Binturongs are known as bear cats. (WTOP)

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.