Today’s Big Story

Trump’s Plans

The president-elect talked tariffs and pardons in interview with “Meet the Press”

When Donald Trump sits down for an interview, you never know what you’re going to get, right? But the president-elect’s first network TV sitdown since winning the election was definitely something of a mixed bag. At times, he sounded almost measured: Trump told the “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker that he would work with Democrats to find a way to preserve Dreamers’ legal status. But he also said “you have no choice” but to deport everyone who is illegally in the U.S., including possibly removing the American citizen family members of those deported.

Trump’s comments about his mass deportation plan, a key promise of his presidential campaign, were the most expansive since he won the election in November. The program, he said, will begin with undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes and then advance to “people outside of criminals.” He did not detail which crimes would be included.

He said he would not ban abortion medication, fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell or order the prosecutions of his political opponents. That’s good news. But then he said the members of the House select committee on Jan. 6 “committed a major crime and they should go to jail.” He told Welker that he would “most likely” pardon rioters from the Capitol attack on his first day in office—saying those who stormed the Capitol and were convicted of everything from assaulting officers and seditious conspiracy have been put through a “very nasty system” and are currently “living in hell.”

Then he shifted to his threatened tariffs and said he didn’t believe economists’ predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that U.S. households won’t be paying more as they shop. “I can’t guarantee anything,” Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market. That’s a different approach from Trump’s typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign, when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation.

And while he focuses mostly on domestic issues, Trump clearly can’t escape the world’s problems as the American president. “It certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now,” he said. Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their own defense, Trump said he “absolutely” would remain in the alliance “if they pay their bills.” But he waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defense against Putin’s invasion. “Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure,” Trump said of reducing Ukraine assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire.

Syrians Celebrate Fall of Bashar al-Assad

How the decade-long civil war in Syria ended almost overnight

It’s been only twelve days since rebel groups in Syria seized 15 villages in Aleppo province under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Yesterday, after an astonishing blitzkrieg campaign, the government of al-Assad, which had kept rebel forces at bay for more than a decade with Iranian and Russian military support, collapsed with astonishing speed.

The authoritarian leader, who infamously gassed his own people during a 13-year civil war, then fled the country. As rebel fighters and civilians took selfies in the presidential palace, Russian state media outlets and two Iranian officials said al-Assad and his family had flown into Russia, where state media outlets reported they’d been granted political asylum.

Not even the most optimistic rebels could have expected such an overwhelming and rapid victory—and while the great majority of Syrians celebrated the end of more than five decades of brutality and repression under the Assad family, many were also wondering what will come next. According to CNN, experts wonder if the next phase will be a new dawn for a people strangled by a brutal autocracy or whether sectarianism will bring a different type of authoritarian rule.

Is a TikTok Ban Really Coming?

Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of app in the U.S.

On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a law that will ban TikTok in the U.S. in the coming months if its Chinese parent company doesn't sell its stake in the app—handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in America.

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance will, of course, appeal to the Supreme Court, though it’s unclear whether the court will take up the case. According to the New York Times, the decision also raises new questions for President-elect Trump, who has repeatedly signaled his support for the app, but who doesn’t have a clear path for rescuing it under the new law, which is scheduled to go into effect January 19, the day before his inauguration.

But banning TikTok is not as simple as flipping an “off” switch. The law targets app stores controlled by Apple and Google, forcing the tech giants to remove TikTok. And makes it illegal for web-hosting companies to support TikTok. And NPR reports that TikTok would “slowly wither on the vine.” Its 170 million American users would not see the app disappear from devices. Instead, software updates would stop being fed to the app. Over time, TikTok would become slow, glitchy and eventually unusable.

About Those Big Baseball Contracts

Juan Soto agrees to record $765 million deal with Mets

Noted free agent Juan Soto is staying in New York, but he won't be with the Yankees. Instead, the New York Mets, long believed to be a frontrunner to nab the 26-year-old superstar, have landed him on an MLB-record $765 million contract over 15 years, according to multiple reports.

In fact, that astronomical number gives Soto the largest contract in professional sports history. Of course, just last offseason, it was Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers that broke those records. You might remember, Ohtani's deal came with $680 million deferred. But for Soto, not a single dollar reportedly will be deferred. Every penny will be paid to him during the length of his deal, including a massive $75 million signing bonus.

Plenty of people were celebrating on Sunday, but not Deadspin. They said the deal represents “everything wrong with baseball” right now. They say MLB needs a salary cap. “As these salaries dramatically increase, we are just years away from the first $1 billion contract in baseball,” writes Nick Pedone. “That’s candidly ridiculous.” And while they’re certainly splashy, a lot of these big contracts don’t always work out the way teams hope. And as Just Baseball points out, “only a few teams can truly afford (both money and risk) more than one long-term deal.”

Your December Reading List

Get lost in personal memoirs of growth to historical fiction from the early 20th century

It's the final month of 2024. Are you proud of how much you read this year? Maybe you're thinking about making a resolution to read more in 2025? In any case, there are some great books out this month that will make ideal reads if you're looking for something to curl up with during the holidays. Get lost in personal tales of growth to historical fiction from the early 20th century.

Even a little progress is great.