President Biden's post-presidency now looks as bleak as his brutal final months, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Some top Democrats tell us they're so furious about Biden's abrupt, clumsy pardon of his son Hunter that they're threatening to withhold donations from his future presidential library.
• "If they had their sh*t together, they would have been doing the work on this over the summer — right after he announced he was stepping aside," one well-wired Democrat told us. "Now, it's just too late. Hopefully they are rightsizing their expectations and budget!"

Why it matters: Biden, 82, will limp away from the limelight — widely disliked by the public, and now loathed by many Democrats who blame him for twin sins of selfishness: running again, then pardoning Hunter after repeatedly saying he wouldn't.

Some in Biden's family have been shocked by the number of Democrats trashing his Hunter decision on the record, sources tell us. They expected some blowback — not a wicked backlash.

• But even Biden's best friends think it was nuts to pardon Hunter as a solo act on the same evening he left for a long-promised three-day trip to Africa.

🔎 Zoom in: As cover, the president could have pardoned President-elect Trump at the same time — or pardoned Hunter along with dozens of people whose convictions appear to result from injustices.

• The White House is considering "preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted" by the incoming Trump administration — potentially including Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci, Politico's Jonathan Martin reported yesterday.
• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One, en route to Angola, that they can expect more pardons and clemencies "at the end of this term."

📊 A snap YouGov poll found 64% of Democrats approve of the pardon — a reversal of earlier Democratic sentiment.

• Biden loyalists believe history will also credit Biden with his authentically historic legislative accomplishments, including gains on climate and other issues that Democrats had long fought for.

But the pardon uncorked the real rage that had been brewing among many powerful Democrats: his decision to wait so long to step aside. That kept Democrats from stress-testing potential nominees, and left Vice President Harris with a tiny window to make her case.

• To make matters worse, Trump is acting like a more public and present president even before he takes office.

Axios is told two very close aides — deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, First Lady Jill Biden's top adviser — will take the lead on planning for a presidential library, likely in Delaware.

• A person familiar with post-presidency planning told us about potential backers closing their wallets: "No, that sentiment hasn't come up in a single donor conversation, and work is well underway."
• Former President Obama, as a two-termer, announced a foundation to raise money and plan for a library three years before leaving office.

👂 What we're hearing: Some longtime Biden defenders just want his administration to end as soon as possible. They understand the party's anger — but also have sympathy for "the boss," as aides often call him.

• The timing of Hunter's pardon frustrated Democrats. Biden could have waited until closer to the inauguration. But he spared Hunter from going through sentencing for his convictions that had been scheduled for mid-December.

🗳️ The long game: Democrats with potential presidential ambitions — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — used the pardon to start distancing themselves from Biden.

• Some Democrats believe that by 2028, presidential aspirants will be running away from Biden's legacy rather than embracing it.

The other side: Eric Holder, who was attorney general under Obama, tweeted just over half an hour after the Hunter Biden pardon was announced that no U.S. attorney "would have charged this case given the underlying facts. ... Pardon warranted."

• Former President Clinton defended Biden yesterday at the New York Times DealBook Summit: "I think that the president did have reason to believe that the nature of the offenses involved were likely to produce far stronger adverse circumstances for his son than they would for any normal person ... I wish he hadn't said he wasn't gonna do it. I think it does weaken his case."
• Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on CNN that he urged Biden two weeks ago to issue the pardon: "He seemed to be a bit reticent about it."
• Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary, told us that Biden "continues to deliver historic progress every day, and his legacy will benefit the American people for generations."

The bottom line: A Biden friend said the president seems older by the day — slower in walk, more halting in talk. To some Biden loyalists, his decline is a sad metaphor for his presidency: He started strong but will finish diminished.

• Share this column ... Alex Thompson contributed reporting.

President-elect Trump unleashed more than a dozen nominations and appointments yesterday — many of which will be central to his economic agenda:

1. Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. He's a hardline China hawk who will likely play a key role in plans to impose heavy tariffs on imports.
2. Dan Driscoll, secretary of the Army. Driscoll served in the Army for three and a half years, including a deployment to Iraq in 2009, before attending Yale Law and befriending JD Vance.
3. Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator. The billionaire entrepreneur and close Elon Musk ally has been to space on SpaceX missions, giving Musk yet more insider access to key government funding.
4. Adam Boehler, special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Trump wrote that Boehler was the lead negotiator for the Abraham Accords.
5. Bill McGinley, counsel for DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. McGinley was picked to be White House counsel last month, but was swapped yesterday.
6. David Warrington, White House counsel. The Trump campaign's top lawyer is replacing McGinley.
7. Monica Crowley, assistant secretary of State and chief of protocol. The former Fox News star will represent the administration for major international events such as the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 L.A. Olympics.
8. Paul Atkins, SEC chair. Atkins is a staunch crypto advocate who has a long history of supporting the industry.
9. Gail Slater, assistant AG for the antitrust division. Slater was a key adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, whose deep criticism of Big Tech may show its hand in Slater's approach to (potentially) blocking mergers.
10. Michael Faulkender, deputy secretary of Treasury. He was the department's chief economist in Trump's first term, and has worked with groups working to advance Trump's policy goals since.
11. Billy Long, IRS commissioner. The former Missouri congressman's mission will be to downsize an agency that Trump wants to spend less time auditing people.
12. Kelly Loeffler, the former Georgia senator tapped to head the Small Business Administration, is a long-time Trump loyalist who was widely expected to feature somewhere in his Cabinet.
13. Frank Bisignano, Social Security Administration commissioner. Bisignano is the CEO of financial software giant Fiserv and a veteran of JPMorgan Chase.

Ben Berkowitz contributed reporting.

Yesterday's shocking murder in Midtown Manhattan of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson unleashed a wave of social media-fueled rage against health insurers, Axios' Maya Goldman writes.

• People lashed out over coverage denials and other business practices.

Why it matters: People tend to like their insurer but distrust the industry — and indeed, the health system at large.

The big picture: UnitedHealthcare is the country's largest private health insurer by market share. Like other big carriers, it has been targeted with lawsuits and criticism from regulators and lawmakers over allegedly denying claims to maximize profits.

• Thompson's wife told NBC News he had been receiving threats, possibly related to health care coverage. But investigators haven't identified a motive.

🚓 The latest: Police are still hunting for the masked gunman, who disappeared into Central Park on a bike.

• Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush as he walked into a Hilton, blocks from Radio City Music Hall, for the company's annual investor conference.

Firms that provide security to executives are bracing for an influx of calls, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• No executives at UnitedHealth received any personal security or protection benefits, Bloomberg reports.

Keep reading.

Bitcoin's price broke $100,000 last night for the first time — capping a bull run that has seen the original cryptocurrency rise more than 30% since Election Day, Axios' Brady Dale writes.

• Why it matters: The Trump effect, and the promise of a friendlier Congress, accelerated bitcoin's climb.

🔭 Zoom in: The landscape for digital assets, and bitcoin in particular, has never looked brighter.

• Wall Street, at one time an enemy crypto dreamed of slaying, has become a crucial ally, adding exponentially to the asset's staying power.

Keep reading.

Vivek Ramaswamy told me at the Aspen Security Forum yesterday that the new administration hopes to treat departing federal employees and their families "in a respectful way, in a way that doesn't leave them in a lurch — it might even be by private sector standards, generous in transitioning."

Why it matters: As President-elect Trump's co-leader with Elon Musk of the new outside advisory group DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), Ramaswamy hopes to dramatically reduce the federal government's headcount.

Ramaswamy, who flew to D.C. from Ohio for the event, said DOGE will look for efficiencies beyond cost-cutting — and will recommend investments in emerging defense tech, including drones and hypersonic weapons.

• Ramaswamy said that cutting the government workforce will improve U.S. productivity: "I don't believe that the highest and best use of any of those talented people is what they're doing in the federal government today."

Keep reading ... Watch our interview.

Google DeepMind scientists have developed an AI-based weather model that largely beats the world's most accurate modeling system, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes.

• Why it matters: AI-based weather forecasting is about to be further integrated into government weather and climate agencies along with private companies.

Researchers told reporters that the model, called GenCast, shows skill in anticipating extreme events outside the bounds of what occurred during the training period.

• That indicates it may accurately predict unprecedented events driven by climate change.
• A study published in the journal Nature yesterday found it beat the current gold standard on 97.2% of 1,320 metrics.

Go deeper with Axios Generate.

Americans need to make nearly $800,000 to be in the top 1% of households nationally — but the bar varies considerably by state, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

• D.C. has the highest threshold for one-percenters, at about $1.22 million.

🧮 By the numbers: Connecticut ($1.17 million), Massachusetts ($1.13 million) and California ($1.05 million) follow.

• West Virginians need to make $426,000 to be in their state's 1%.

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Swift's "Eras Tour Book" — carried exclusively by Target — sold 814,000 copies over the Thanksgiving weekend, making it one of the biggest book launches ever.

• Sales soared even though Swift skipped Amazon and other retailers. Some fans complained online that the $39.99 book was marred by typos in lyrics and mistakes in date. Some dubbed it the "Errors Tour Book."

The only bigger nonfiction launch was the first volume of Barack Obama's presidential memoirs, "A Promised Land," which sold 816,000 copies in its first week on shelves in 2020, AP reports from Circana Bookscan data.

• Keep reading.