The Note: Trump Talks Tech
— -- NOTABLES
--TOP TECH CEOs SIT DOWN WITH TRUMP: Donald Trump met yesterday with some of the biggest names in the tech industry, touting them as an "amazing group of people" and appearing to institute an open-door policy, saying there is "no formal chain of command around here." Among the leaders at the meeting were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI. Trump was joined by his three eldest children, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Vice President–elect Mike Pence; and Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal who has been advising Trump; his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon. "We're gonna do fair trade deals and make it a lot easier for you to trade across borders," Trump said. Sandberg said she was "excited to talk about jobs," and Bezos said he was "super excited about the possibilities to come of innovation in the administration." http://abcn.ws/2htOJJ0
--5 TECH ISSUES DONALD TRUMP WILL FACE AS PRESIDENT: The president-elect, who is known for his prolific use of Twitter to disseminate his message, has been at odds with Silicon Valley at various points during the campaign, but there are a number of tech-related issues that he will have to face during his administration. ABC’s MEGHAN KENEALLY has a rundown of some of the biggest issues on which Trump and his team will likely have to work with the tech giants: http://abcn.ws/2gKl6DE
--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: The Trump Cabinet, now close to taking complete shape, has endorsed a particular worldview when it comes to oil and energy interests – and it’s looking like a boom time for them. Four years after President Obama made global warming a centerpiece of his second inaugural address, President-elect Trump’s win marked a repudiation of the concept that addressing climate change is more urgent than fostering economic growth through older and dirtier means. The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein writes of a carbon divide that’s now defining politics, and adds this about a Cabinet that’s formalizing the split: “Trump has indelibly endorsed the fear that reducing carbon emissions to combat the destabilizing threat of global climate change will undermine economic growth.” For Democrats, this is a conclusion that makes rebuilding more complicated than ever. Yes, demography still points toward a better destiny for the party. But the present looks murkier than ever, with questions of policy as well as tone and messaging likely to confront the Democrats.
SPEED READ with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI and ADAM KELSEY
HOW TRUMP TEAM IS CONSIDERING CHANGING WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFINGS. The Trump administration is considering doing away with the assigned seating in the White House briefing room, the president-elect's pick for chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told radio host Hugh Hewitt. Seats in the front row of the briefing room are coveted and occupied by the networks, cable outlets and wire services. Priebus also incorrectly asserted that the arrangement was put in place by the Obama White House. The seating assignments are actually controlled by the White House Correspondents' Association. More from ABC's JORDYN PHELPS: http://abcn.ws/2hzsteC
TRUMP TRANSITION BACKS AWAY FROM CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONNAIRE TO ENERGY DEPARTMENT. Donald Trump's transition team is backing away from a controversial questionnaire sent to the Department of Energy demanding names of employees who assisted in the Obama administration's climate policy efforts. ABC News obtained last week the 74-point memo, which asks for names of staff members who worked on climate-related projects, note ABC’s KATHERINE FAULDERS and ALEXANDER MALLIN. The Department of Energy hit back on Tuesday with a statement saying that the memo "left many in our workforce unsettled" and that it would not comply with questions asking for names of individuals. http://abcn.ws/2gC3WmS
HOUSE DEMOCRATS: GSA SAYS DONALD TRUMP MUST DIVEST COMPLETELY FROM DC HOTEL. House Democrats say in a letter they were told by a deputy commissioner at the General Services Administration that President-elect Donald Trump will be in breach of his contract for his Washington D.C. hotel if he does not completely divest from the property prior to being sworn in as president. But the GSA, from which Trump leases the hotel property, said it had not yet established a position on the matter, ABC’s JORDYN PHELPS reports. http://abcn.ws/2h20C5q
TRUMP TEAM: PRESIDENT-ELECT NOW RECEIVING 3 PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS A WEEK. Just days after President-elect Donald Trump cast doubt on the value of receiving the traditional presidential briefing on a daily basis, his transition team said he is upping the frequency to three times a week from roughly once a week as he moves closer to Inauguration Day, writes ABC’s ALEXANDER MALLIN. "The president is getting the PDB three times a week right now," said transition communications director Sean Spicer, using the acronym for the presidential daily briefing. "He is meeting with [his national security adviser, retired Lt.] General [Michael] Flynn on a daily basis to get an intel update." http://abcn.ws/2gKpiU6
YEAR IN REVIEW -- MEDIUM’S IMPACT ON POLITICS IN 2016. Medium, the online publishing platform, became a fixture of political discourse during the 2016 election cycle. Some data points from a Medium spokesperson: “Politics' was the top tag of the year - people spent 457 years reading about politics on Medium (this is an aggregate of the amount of time people spent reading stories that were tagged 'politics') … Donald Trump (303 years), 2016 Election (247 years) and Hillary Clinton (219 years) were among the top 10 tags of the year. … Medium readers spent 11 years (100,000 hours) reading posts tagged with Democrat-specific tags and 12.5 years (110,000 hours) reading posts tagged with Republican-specific tags. … During the week following the election we saw more new writers sign up on Medium than any other time in the history of the platform. This was 40% more than the previous week. … During the week following the election people spent 196 years reading Medium. This was nearly 100% more than the previous week. … Our most-read story of the year was 'History tells us what may happen next with Brexit & Trump'.”
WHO’S TWEETING?
@PhilipRucker: Today's A1: The oil and gas industry is quickly amassing power in Trump's Washington, w/ @eilperin @StevenMufson http://wapo.st/2gMUD8z
@mattwhouse: In place of canceled @realDonaldTrump presser on his biz, @SenateDems announce bill today requiring PEOTUS to divest http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2016-12-15_Conflicts_of_Interest_Fact_sheet.pdf …
@business: House conservatives want Trump to kill regulations on everything from fish to ceiling fans http://bloom.bg/2gOztpe
@tripgabriel: In highly unusual step North Carolina G.O.P. Moves to Curb Power of New Democratic Governor http://nyti.ms/2hRq8uc
@WashTimes: Matt Mackowiak says the best way to get rid of #Obamacare is to sunset the legislation http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/14/sunset-obamacare/ … #healthcare #politics