■ President-elect Donald J. Trump acknowledges that Mexico will not be paying for that wall, at least not for now.
After CNN reported Thursday night that the incoming Trump administration would seek taxpayer funding for his promised border wall with Mexico, the president-elect took to Twitter on Friday morning acknowledging that Mexico would not be paying for it — at least not at first.
And whom did he blame? The news media.
Making Mexico pay for the border wall was a central campaign promise and a common chant at his rallies.
Now, Mr. Trump is working with congressional leaders to find the money on this side of the border. The multibillion-dollar building effort would most likely use authority approved in 2006, when President George W. Bush signed legislation to construct a “physical barrier” on the southern border. Mr. Trump’s transition team is already scoping out locations for the first legs of the “Great Wall.”
And the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, says he told Mr. Trump during the campaign that his country had no intention of paying for it.
Ahead of his intelligence briefing, Trump seethes on Twitter
Mr. Trump will be briefed on Friday by the heads of the nation’s intelligence agencies on their conclusion that Russia meddled in the election to help him win the presidency.
But before he learns how the C.I.A., the F.B.I., the National Security Agency and other agencies reached their conclusions, he continued to seethe about the report, condemning leaks of its findings, casting doubt on its conclusions and saying on Friday that Russia had nothing to do with his victory.
She did beat him by nearly three million in the popular vote, but on Friday, Mr. Trump will officially be declared the winner of the Electoral College vote.
Mr. Trump appears to be worried about the turnout at his Jan. 20 inauguration as well.
A flurry of posts on Twitter on Thursday night captured Mr. Trump’s mood:
The first post was a reference to an NBC News report that United States intelligence agencies heard senior Russian government officials cheering Mr. Trump’s victory on election night. That was first reported by The Washington Post.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall at Trump Tower as the president-elect learns more.
President-elect denounces TV successor
The incoming president wants the country to know that the man who succeeded him on his reality television show, “The Apprentice,” is not doing so well. But hey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, supported Hillary Clinton, so what could we expect?
New rule allows lawmakers to target a single federal worker’s salary
Congressional Republicans appear to be preparing for battle — with the federal work force.
House Republicans reached back to 1876 to revive an obscure rule that gives Congress the power to cut an individual federal worker’s salary to as low as $1, The Post reported. Under the Holman Rule, resurrected by Representative Morgan Griffith, Republican of Virginia, any member can add an amendment to a spending bill targeting one or several government employees, or a single government program.
Trump still dislikes AT&T and Time Warner dealThe amendment would need to clear both chambers of Congress, but in huge appropriations bills, small amendments do slip through.
Mr. Trump recently told a close associate that he was still opposed to AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, reiterating a public call during the campaign to block the mega media deal, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
The president-elect’s apparent objection to the $85.4 billion merger sent Time Warner’s stock down nearly 4 percent on Thursday, as reported by Bloomberg.
Mr. Trump’s negative view toward the deal is largely because of his frustration with CNN, which is owned by Time Warner. Like other news media organizations he has criticized, Mr. Trump has repeatedly called out CNN for what he believed was unfair coverage during the presidential campaign.
Analysts, however, had viewed the incoming Republican administration as a benefit for AT&T and Time Warner because of the general free-market ideals of conservatives. The deal was also seen as a test for all mergers in the new administration.
The companies filed weeks ago for regulatory review at the Justice Department, but they are still weighing whether they will need to also seek approval from the Federal Communications Commission. A review at the F.C.C. could be tougher because of its public interest standard that is subject to broad interpretation.
Mr. Trump’s administration would appoint members of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, giving him potentially great control over mergers.
AT&T declined to comment, and Time Warner did not respond to a request for comment.
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