The Headlines - Trump’s Department for ‘Drastic Change,’ and the Race for Senate Leadership

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Plus, the streaming services you never knew about.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Trump Taps Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Slash Government, by Michael D. Shear and Eric LiptonTrump Picks Pete Hegseth, a Veteran and Fox News Host, for Defense Secretary, by Helene Cooper and Maggie HabermanTriumphant Republicans Grapple With Trump’s Influence as They Return to Capitol, by Luke Broadwater, Carl Hulse and Annie KarniTrump’s Demand to Skirt Senate Confirmations Poses Early Test of a Radical Second Term, by Charlie SavageU.S. to Keep Sending Arms to Israel Despite Dire Conditions in Gaza, by Edward Wong and Farnaz FassihiMany Kids’ Melatonin Supplements Don’t Contain the Doses They Claim, by Emily SchmallThe Streaming Wars Didn’t Kill the Little Guys. In Fact, They’re Thriving, by John Koblin

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, November 13th. Here's what we're covering. Donald Trump has announced he's creating a new wing of his upcoming administration, the Department of Government Efficiency. The department has one overarching mandate, quote, drastic change.

In a statement yesterday, Trump said the newly created department will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and that they'll be tasked with making major cuts to the federal government. For any given expenditure, we have to say, well, what does this do for the citizens of America? How is this good for the people of America? That's, it's their money.

On the campaign trail, Musk, who was one of Trump's biggest backers, said he would slash trillions of dollars from the federal budget without explaining how. He's also talked explicitly about how less bureaucracy would benefit his companies, including SpaceX. If the current trend of strangulation by overregulation is not turned around, we will never get to Mars. companies, including SpaceX. For his part, Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical executive and former presidential candidate,

has previously floated eliminating the Education Department, the FBI, and the Internal Revenue Service. It's not clear how the new department will work. Trump said neither Musk nor Ramaswamy will become federal officials, but that they'll provide guidance from outside. Also yesterday, Trump announced more key roles for some of his most vocal supporters. He's chosen Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army veteran, to be the next Secretary of Defense, running the Pentagon

and overseeing 1.3 million active duty troops. Hegseth served at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming a co-host of Fox and Friends. On TV, he's called for the U.S. to withdraw troops from abroad, defended combat vets accused of war crimes, and blasted diversity initiatives, suggesting that the military has gone woke. We used to be focused on meritocracy and lethality and now it's a social experiment where commanders are walking on eggshells, standards are being lowered,

people aren't being held accountable. It's got to change. That's weird because mine's right side up. Meanwhile, Trump's pick for Secretary of Homeland Security is Christy Noem, the governor of South Dakota. She'll oversee U.S. immigration and customs enforcement, as well as the border patrol, making her a crucial player in Trump's promised crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Noem has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration's immigration policies, and she sent National Guard troops from South Dakota to the U.S.-Mexico border.

She'll be stepping into a job that was marked by turmoil during Trump's first term, when he cycled through six different DHS secretaries in four years. On Capitol Hill today, three Republicans are jockeying to become the next Senate majority leader, where their top priority will be maneuvering Trump's policies through Congress. For almost two decades, Senate Republicans have been led by Mitch McConnell, but he said he'd step back from the post earlier this year. The new contenders are John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, and Rick Scott of Florida. Trump has railed against Thune in the past.

He didn't go along with his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. And he's called both Thune and Cornyn weak and ineffective. Meanwhile, Scott is a favorite of the hard right, who see him as the candidate most likely to push the MAGA agenda. The Republicans will take a secret ballot vote later this morning. Time's congressional reporter, reporter Luke Broadwater is watching the race.

I actually believe that Donald Trump probably can't lose here. He has bent the will of the entire Republican Party to him. He has all three candidates pitching themselves as the best person to carry out Donald Trump's mission. Each one is pitching themselves as who can be more effective. And to me, any one of these guys is going to try to put in place Trump's policies. It's just a matter of who is more likely to push back against him if he gets extreme or when Senate Republicans

want to go in a different direction. One of the first tasks for the Senate majority leader would typically be rallying votes to confirm the president's picks for his new administration. But Trump is pushing a workaround. He wants Senate Republicans to essentially surrender their role in vetting nominees. He says the new majority leader should call for recesses,

which would allow Trump to unilaterally make his appointments based on an obsolete clause in the Constitution. People appointed during recesses can serve until the end of the next Senate term without being confirmed. If they use the loophole, it would be an extraordinary break with norms and an erosion of the system of checks and balances that's supposed to be in place between the White House and Congress. One month ago, the Biden administration gave Israel an ultimatum. Improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing U.S. military aid. You guys yourself set this 30-day deadline. Today is the deadline. Did they meet it or

did they not? But yesterday, a State Department spokesman said the U.S. does not plan to decrease military support for Israel, despite the fact that Israel didn't meet the goal. In fact, Israel let significantly less aid into Gaza over the past month than it did before the warning. All right, so essentially, there isn't going to be any consequence for Israel not meeting the... There isn't going to be any consequence for Israel not meeting the— I don't have—I certainly don't have a change in U.S. policy to announce today, Matt.

U.S. law prohibits supporting foreign military forces that the government says have committed, quote, gross violations of human rights. When questioned by reporters, the State Department spokesman said Israel has taken some steps to allow more aid in, and Israeli officials have denied holding up shipments. But overall, according to data from the Israeli military, there's been a sharp decline in the food and medical supplies entering Gaza. The Biden administration's own ambassador to the UN said that without an immediate surge

in aid, many of Gaza's residents may not survive the winter. A new study from the Food and Drug Administration shows that the melatonin supplements parents are giving their kids to sleep contain wildly inconsistent doses. Melatonin has been used as a sleep aid for adults in the U.S. for decades, but researchers have recently seen a big uptick in kids taking it, and products aimed at kids have flooded the market. The study tested over a hundred different products—melatonin gummies, chocolates, jelly beans, etc.—and found that only half matched what the label

claimed. Some contained no melatonin at all, while others contained up to 50 times the recommended amount, a potentially hazardous dose that could cause dizziness or stomach pain. One pediatric sleep medicine specialist called the study's results alarming but not surprising. Because the melatonin products are considered dietary supplements, they don't have to meet the same safety and testing standards as pharmaceuticals sold in the U.S. And finally, the rise of streaming platforms has meant trying to decide between Netflix and Disney+, Hulu or Apple TV, basically which media giant has what you want.

But smaller niche companies have been making a play. They don't pretend to have everything. Instead, they've gone hyper-specific. What if you stay here for a week so that my family can enjoy Christmas drama-free? Just this fall, Hallmark launched a streaming service to bring people their trademark Christmas kitch and snow-filled romances. Or there's a whole platform, Shudder, for campy horror.

You know who I am, Doctor. You can also watch what seems like every brooding British murder mystery ever made on BritBox. She was talking of murders in her village and now she's dead. And these kind of platforms are getting more popular. More than 51 million people subscribe to at least one niche streaming service. That's doubled since 2022. One key to their success, keeping the budget small.

Hallmark's head of programming pointed out that they don't make shows set in space. They keep it simple, setting things on Main Street or in a charming barn. Still, the smaller platforms are haunted by the same thing facing the big ones, cancellation rates. Customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated at hopscotching

between services, canceling one, getting a better deal on another, and data suggests that cancellation rates run even higher among the niche platforms. Apparently, some people decide at some point that there is such a thing as too many Hallmark movies. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, more about Elon Musk's relationship with Trump and what he may get out of a Trump presidency. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.