Photo illustration by Emma Spainhoward with photograph by Getty Images.
Good morning. It’ll be rainy and warm this morning, then the temperature will plummet from a high of around 56 to around 39. Frequent, often gusty, winds will make things feel much colder. Clear overnight with a low near 26. The Wizards host Phoenix tonight. The Capitals visit the Panthers. 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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Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
“Big Lie” update: The Department of Justice says Brian J. Cole Jr. confessed to planting pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic headquarters in DC on January 6, 2021. Cole told investigators he believed President Trump‘s lies about the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. (Politico) Cole’s apparent confession contradicts years’ worth of conspiracy theories that “had long been promoted by some of the very same F.B.I. officials unveiling a breakthrough in the case this month,” including outgoing Deputy Director Dan Bongino. (NYT)
Administration perambulation: The US struck “a big facility” in Venezuela, Trump said Friday. While specifics are scarce, such an operation “would be the first known attack on land since he began his military campaign against Venezuela.” (NYT) Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, met Sunday in negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine that the US President called “very complicated stuff” as well as ““pretty complex, but not that complex.” (Washington Post) Trump told Politico that next year’s midterm elections will be about “pricing.” (Politico) He had a bunch more stuff to say about the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files. (CBS News) The White House will present the National Capital Planning Commission with plans for Trump’s ballroom on January 8. Trump tore down the East Wing to build the addition in October. (Reuters) The Kennedy Center threatened to sue Chuck Redd, who canceled his annual jazz concert at the Kennedy Center after Trump slapped his name on the building. (NPR) If you can bear it, here’s a look at which politicians are in play for 2028. (Politico) Vice President JD Vance talked Elon Musk out of forming a third party after he fell out with Trump. (Washington Post) Trump’s Top 25 lies of 2025. (CNN)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• The Willard’s holiday décor was the perfect backdrop for a December wedding.
Local news links:
• The FBI will vacate the Hoover Building, Director Kash Patel said Friday, though he didn’t say when. (WTOP)
• Two drivers were arrested on charges of impaired driving after a US Park Police officer was struck on the BW Parkway Saturday by the vehicle belonging to one of them while he looked into a breakdown experienced by the other. The officer is out of the hospital. (WUSA9)
• Some former employees of Rush, a nightclub at 14th and U streets, Northwest, “have not been paid since mid-December.” (WUSA9) The bar reopened last week; it had lost its liquor license because its check bounced, ABCA said. (Washington Blade)
• Five people were shot near the Convention Center Friday. (WTOP)
• Old Christmas lights and a faulty power strip likely contributed to a Christmas tree fire in Bethesda that injured four people and a dog and displaced a family. (NBC4 Washington)
• Virginia’s minimum wage will go up by a whole 36 cents per hour next month. (WUSA9) Related: Here are some of the laws that will go into effect in DC, Maryland, and Virginia on January 1. (WTOP)
• You have until 8 PM today to bid on St. Mary’s County’s old water taxi. (WTOP)
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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.