Colleges across the country are shutting down expensive and expansive diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, some of which were put in place just a few years ago.

• Why it matters: Bans are prompting colleges to close cultural centers and rewrite course catalogs, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

🖼️ The big picture: DEI programs, many of which sprang up in 2020 amid Black Lives Matter protests and a national reckoning on race, often involve running cultural centers, ensuring diversity in hiring, and developing training programs to promote inclusiveness.

• They have become a favorite target for Republican governors, and President-elect Trump has promised a nationwide crackdown.
• Florida, Texas, Iowa and Utah have banned DEI offices and initiatives at universities. Alabama restricted them.

Institutions in these states are responding with sweeping changes — many of which are broader than what the laws dictate:

• The University of Utah and Weber State University in Ogden both eliminated all their cultural centers — including resource centers for Black students, LGBTQ students and women, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
• University of North Texas administrators made hundreds of edits to the titles and descriptions of courses to take out references to race and equity, according to the Texas Tribune.

👀 What we're watching: Universities in states that haven't yet implemented DEI bans are also cutting programs. "There's an epidemic of pre-compliance and over-compliance," says Jeremy Young, the Freedom to Learn program director for PEN America.

• The University of Missouri got rid of its DEI office to pre-empt anti-DEI legislation, notes Inside Higher Ed.
• The University of Michigan, which has one of the most ambitious and well-funded DEI programs in the country, is axing diversity statements in faculty hiring and promotion, the N.Y. Times reports.

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People's politics increasingly shape their views about the economy.

• If there was any doubt, the latest data from the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey removed it, Axios chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin writes.

Why it matters: Economists have long viewed consumer sentiment surveys as a way to gather new information about what's really going on in the economy.

• Maybe the mood of the public will tell you whether a recession is looming before anything shows up in the hard data. But it increasingly looks like people use survey questions about the economy to register their politics.

📈 Overall consumer sentiment ticked up to the highest level since April, with an index at 74, up from last month's 71.8. But that masks a stunning reversal in the partisan divide about the economy since Election Day.

• Democrats' outlook plunged from 93.1 in October to 48.7 in the preliminary December survey. The only previous times in the Michigan data that Democrats have been that gloomy about the outlook were in the 2008 financial crisis and the early months of the pandemic.
• Republicans' expectations have soared from 61.4 to 105.9. The last time Republicans were that optimistic was the last time President-elect Trump was in office, just before the pandemic hit, in early 2020.

The bottom line: There have always been partisan divides in views on the economy. But they've become way more pronounced.

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Elon Musk is America's largest political donor in at least 14 years.

• Musk gave $277 million to President-elect Trump and other GOP candidates this cycle, according to a Washington Post analysis of FEC filings.

That's more than any individual donor since at least 2010, excluding candidates who self-funded campaigns, per OpenSecrets.

• The bulk of Musk's money, $238.5 million, went to America PAC, the super PAC he founded to support Republican candidates, Bloomberg reports.

The second-largest donor — billionaire Tim Mellon, another Trump megadonor — trailed Musk by around $80 million.

Despite this week's onslaught of allegations about Pete Hegseth's past conduct, a top transition source says President-elect Trump's team is "confident a pathway exists" for Hegseth to be confirmed as SecDef.

• "If anything, his prospects are rapidly improving," the source told Mike.

📺 Trump told Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," yesterday during his first network interview since the election: "It looks like Pete is doing well now. I mean, people were a little bit concerned."

• Trump said Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran, "loves the military, and I think people are starting to see it. So we'll be working on his nomination along with a lot of others."
• "He's a very smart guy," Trump added. "I've known him through Fox, but I've known him for a long time. [A]ny time I talk to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. He's a military guy."

🏛️ Asked if he'd gotten assurances from senators that Hegseth will be confirmed, Trump said no. But he said he thinks Hegseth will prevail: "I've had a lot of senators call me up saying he's fantastic."

• About former co-workers' accounts of excessive drinking by Hegseth, Trump said: "I've spoken to people that know him very well, and they say he does not have a drinking problem."

Between the lines: A GOP pressure campaign is mounting against Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who hasn't committed to backing Hegseth, The Des Moines Register reports.

• She's on the Armed Services Committee, and is a sexual-assault survivor who is the Senate's first female combat veteran.

Ernst tweeted that she and Hegseth plan to meet again next week: "At a minimum, we agree that he deserves the opportunity to lay out his vision for our warfighters at a fair hearing."

• Video: Hegseth talks to Megyn Kelly about allegations of a drinking problem.

Police think the gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer likely left Manhattan on a bus after ditching his backpack in Central Park.

• As of last night, police still didn't know the gunman's name or whereabouts, or have a motive for Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, AP reports.

The latest: Video of the gunman showed him biking into Central Park, then taking a taxi to a bus terminal with commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and D.C.

• Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.
• Investigators found a backpack in the park that had been worn by the gunman during the shooting. Police said it was taken straight to a lab without being opened.

What to watch: Investigators are looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer.

• Zeynep Tufekci, a New York Times Opinion columnist and former computer programmer who focuses on the impact of technology on society, wrote: "I've been studying social media for a long time, and I can't think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated." (gift link)

Go deeper: Shooting shakes Corporate America.

It's National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two survivors of the bombing, now centenarians, will return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, today to mark the 83rd anniversary of the attack by Japan in 1941 that thrust the U.S. into World War II, AP reports.

• At least 16 survivors are known to be alive, according to the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated some 87,000 military personnel were on Oahu on the day of the attack. The bombing killed more than 2,300 U.S. service members.

⚓ One hero: Bob Fernandez thought he'd go dancing and see the world when he joined the Navy as a 17-year-old high school student in August 1941.

• Four months later, he found himself shaking from explosions, and passing ammunition to artillery crews so his ship's guns could return fire on Japanese planes.

"When those things go off like that, we didn't know what's what," Fernandez, 100, who now lives in Lodi, Calif., tells AP. "We didn't even know we were in a war."

• Fernandez was working as a mess cook on his ship, the USS Curtiss, the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and planned to go dancing that night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.
• He brought sailors coffee and food as he waited tables during breakfast. Then they heard an alarm. Through a porthole, Fernandez saw a plane with the red ball insignia painted on Japanese aircraft fly by.

Fernandez rushed down three decks to a magazine room. He and other sailors waited for someone to unlock a door storing 5-inch., 38-caliber shells so they could begin passing the ammo.

• Voices from Pearl Harbor.

Gardening, knitting, needlepoint — all activities typically enjoyed by boomers — are now taking off with younger generations, Axios' Brianna Crane writes.

• On TikTok, posts with #needlepoint increased by 400% for the first 10 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, the platform tells Axios.

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Four trends that will shape how we dress, eat and party in 2025, Axios' April Rubin writes from Pinterest's prediction report:

1. 🪝 Inspiration from the sea: Gen Z and Gen X are focusing on a "laid-back maritime attitude." Expect to see more cable-knit sweaters, striped tops and sardine tattoos. Plus, beauty trends inspired by mermaids — like sultry siren makeup and wet wavy hair.
2. 🥒 Pickles on our plates and sodas in our cups: Brine lovers, rejoice. "From sweet treats to tangy cocktails, the oh-so-humble pickle is about to be in absolutely everything," Pinterest said. Plus, unconventional sodas, like fruity flavors and floats, are in.
3. 🍼 Reimagining showers: "Nesting parties" are the new baby showers. These events are less about buying gifts and more about helping new parents prep for postpartum life, like setting up the home and cooking freezer-friendly meals.
4. 🍒 Cherry everything: Cherry red will be the "it" color in makeup and fashion. Search interest for "cherry vibe" increased by 325% from September 2022 to August 2024, also extending beyond beauty to "cherry car" and "cherry martini."

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