WSJ What’s News - Trump Has Been Complaining About Attorney General Pam Bondi

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

P.M. Edition for Jan. 12. President Trump has complained to aides repeatedly in recent weeks about Pam Bondi, describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda, according to administration officials and other people familiar with his complaints. Plus, Google parent Alphabet has become the latest company to cross the $4 trillion mark as investors are optimistic about the company’s AI business. And dozens of Silicon Valley elite are part of a Signal chat called “Save California” where they exchange criticism and tips about a proposed wealth tax in the state. WSJ enterprise reporter Emily Glazer takes us inside the group chat. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump has been criticizing his Attorney General Pam Bondi, describing her as weak and ineffective. Plus, some lawmakers and former officials criticized the investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell. And think your group chat is spicy? This one is full of billionaires worried about a possible tax on billionaires. We're aware of dozens of billionaires that were in this signal chat called Save California. and they were complaining about the proposed tax. They were trying to suggest alternatives. And in some cases, they were sharing efforts to weaken their ties to California.

It's Monday, January 12th. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening in Washington, We're exclusively reporting that administration officials and other people familiar with the matter say that President Trump has complained to AIDS about Attorney General Pam Bondi repeatedly in recent weeks, describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda.

Some of the officials say Trump's criticism of Bondi appears to be part of his pressure campaign on the Justice Department to more aggressively pursue his priorities. Among his grievances is what he sees as Bondi's failure to quickly and effectively prosecute former FBI director James Comey and New York's Democratic Attorney General Letitia James. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he thinks Bondi is doing an excellent job. A spokesman for Bondi says she's been focused on executing Trump's directive to make America safe again. Over on Capitol Hill, Democrats' hopes of retaking the Senate in midterms got a boost when former Democratic Representative Mary Peltola said today she would challenge incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in Alaska.

Right now, Republicans control the Senate 53 to 47. So even if Alaska's seat is now in play for Democrats, winning a majority remains a long shot. In the House, it's a different story, says WSJ reporter Anvi Bhutani. The numbers are definitely looking a lot better for Democrats on the House side. Usually midterm elections end up resulting in a swing to the party that's opposite to who's in the White House. There's about 60 or so competitive seats in play, but Republicans currently hold a really small majority in the House, 218 seats compared to 213 for Democrats. So even if Democrats were to flip a handful of seats, that would push them over the edge

and win them the speakership. For instance, in New York, we have Republican representative Mike Lawler, but Kamala Harris won that district. And so potentially, Democrats are thinking that that's a place that they could win. The Trump administration's criminal. investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is drawing criticism from some lawmakers and former officials. Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, and other former officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations defended Powell. They said the investigation was

an attempt to undermine the Fed's independence to set monetary policy. Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, also criticized the investigation and said he would block any new nominee to the Fed until it's resolved. Tillis doing that could make it harder for Trump to influence the central bank. Meanwhile, Kevin Hassett, a top White House Economic Advisor and a finalist for President Trump's nomination to succeed Powell as Fed Chair, said that the DOJ investigation is a move to promote accountability. In an interview last night, Trump said he didn't know about the Justice Department subpoena and that any criminal investigation isn't related to disagreements the White House has had with Powell over interest rates.

The stock market reaction to the Powell investigation was muted, with the three indexes all finishing slightly higher. The NASDAQ led gains and closed up 0.3%. But what's known as the debasement trade got a revival. That's when investors worried about inflation sell the U.S. dollar and buy up gold and silver as safe havens. The dollar today slipped compared with a basket of foreign currencies, while gold rose 2.5% and silver jumped more than 7%. Google Parent Alphabet rose above $4 trillion in trading today, joining a small club of companies to cross that mark. Google's pulled ahead in the AI race with its latest Gemini 3 model. And in an example today of Google's abilities,

Apple said Gemini would power a new, more personalized version of Siri that's coming later this year. The company finished the day at $4.009 trillion. Paramount continues to push its hostile bid for Warner Brothers Discovery. Paramount said today that it plans to launch a proxy fight for Warner's board seats and also filed a lawsuit seeking to force Warner to release more information about its merger agreement with Netflix. Warner says the lawsuit has no merit. And there's also AI news from Meta today, which says it's created a top initiative focused on getting the computing power it needs for AI. The Facebook and Instagram parent also named a new president and vice chair,

Dina Powell McCormick. She's a Wall Street veteran and former Trump advisor, and she'll work on developing government partnerships for data centers around the world. She'll report directly to Mark Zuckerberg. Coming up, the group chat where Silicon Valley's elite are planning for a possible billionaire tax, plus President Trump weighs how to proceed with Iran. That's after the break. A proposed 5% tax on California billionaire's wealth has rattled some Silicon Valley Titans. They're complaining about the tax in a signal chat called Save California. I'm joined now by WSJ Enterprise reporter Emily Glazer.

Emily, some of the people in the chat are Andrew co-founder Palmer Lucky, Trump administration CryptoZar, David Sacks, and Ripple co-founder Chris Larson. That's a wide spectrum of politics here, but what are they saying in this group chat? Well, our reporting shows that a number of people are pretty agitated. We're aware of dozens of billionaires that were in this signal chat called Save California, and they were complaining about the proposed tax. They were trying to suggest alternatives, and in some cases, they were sharing efforts to weaken their ties to California. it. How common is this negative sentiment about this proposed tax among California's billionaires?

Like, are there people who say they're fine with it? There are. One of the most public examples is Jensen Wang, the NVIDIA CEO who recently said that he supported it. But the Wall Street Journal reported that Larry Page has been buying up properties in Florida and his Google co-founder, Sergey Briniz talks on a property in Florida. So we're seeing a range. Why are these billionaires so mad? Like, why do they feel the need to, as the name of the chat is, save California? Some of them are frustrated with how California is being run. They feel that California should first root out fraud and waste before they look for new sources of funds.

There's a sense that if California won't do what it needs for them, they're going to move elsewhere. This billionaire tax is still a proposal. It is not implemented. Why is it causing concerns now? So the proposal needs about 875,000 signatures to get on the ballot in November. And then it would need a simple majority to pass. It would retroactively apply to billionaires who are residents of the state of California on January 1st, 2026. So that is why we saw some billionaires like Peter Thiel or Larry Page or David Sacks even make announcements prior to January 1,

establishing residency or their offices of certain companies elsewhere. So it sounds like they're not just venting to the group chat, which like honestly relatable there. It sounds like some people are actually doing stuff about it, right? That's true. And I would say they're still doing things about it. There are some ideas that have been floated by billionaires and conveyed to labor leaders. Our reporting shows that includes giving the government illiquid stock for around 10 years as a no or low interest loan, taxing the loans on assets or applying the tax to stock that is already public. I think that's a pretty important part because entrepreneurs, tech founders, their wealth is really tied up in their company stock,

and that might not be public stock either. It might still be a private company. Phone calls are slated for this week to explore a possible consensus, but they're also still phone calls slated to explore how the billionaires could defeat the tax proposal. Definitely something to be keeping an eye on in the coming weeks and months. That was WSJ Enterprise reporter, Emily Glazer. Thanks, Emily. Thank you. U.S. officials say President Trump is leaning toward military strikes on Iran, but some senior aides led by Vice President J.D. Vance are urging the president to try a diplomatic route before hitting Iran over its recent killing of protesters. Iran has made a last-minute offer for negotiations

over curbing its nuclear program. Officials say Trump hasn't made a decision and is media with senior aides tomorrow to determine his approach. And finally, does that sound make you immediately think of clean floors? Then you may be a fan of the robot vacuum Roomba, which has had a dedicated following for years. People loved them like a pet and gave them names like Merrill Sweak. But now, competitors are offering fancier, cheaper vacuums, and some of the fandom has switched over. And as for Roomba, last month, its parent company declared bankruptcy and will be taken over by a Chinese manufacturer. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon.

Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname with supervising producer Tali Arbel. I'm Alex Oceloved for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.