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Trump signs tax cuts before flying to Florida for Christmas

Trump holds up a document during signing of military defense funding and tax reform. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images.

President Trump signed a bill Thursday ordering $4 billion in "top of the line missile defense," before signing the $1.5 trillion GOP tax legislation. Now he's jetting off to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays.

Timing: Trump said he was planning to sign the bill in January, but after watching the news this morning and seeing "every one of the networks" ask if he will he keep his promise and sign it before Christmas, he "called everyone up and said get ready we have to sign this now ... I didn't want you folks to say I wasn't keeping my promise."

What's next: Trump said they'll have a formal signing ceremony in two weeks.

Key quotes:

  • Trump said his friend Robert Kraft, CEO of the New England Patriots, called him to praise him for the tax bill, and promised to build a "tremendous paper mill" in North Carolina after the news.
  • "I think that essentially Obamacare is over because we got rid of [the individual mandate]."
  • He made nice with reporters: "Many of you have worked very fairly."
  • He wants to see a lot more bipartisanship in 2018.

Go deeper

Rebecca Falconer
Updated 1 hour ago - World

Mexican President López Obrador tests positive for coronavirus

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a press conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, on Wednesday. Photo: Ismael Rosas/Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Sunday evening that he's tested positive for COVID-19.

Driving the news: López Obrador tweeted that he has mild symptoms and is receiving medical treatment. "As always, I am optimistic," he added. "We will all move forward."

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Alayna Treene, author of Sneak Peek
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Sarah Huckabee Sanders to run for governor of Arkansas

Sarah Huckabee Sanders at FOX News' studios in New York City in 2019. Photo: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will announce Monday that she's running for governor of Arkansas.

The big picture: Sanders was touted as a contender after it was announced she was leaving the Trump administration in June 2019. Then-President Trump tweeted he hoped she would run for governor, adding "she would be fantastic." Sanders is "seen as leader in the polls" in the Republican state, notes the Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, who first reported the news.

Felix Salmon, Stef W. Kight
3 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus has inflamed global inequality

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

History will likely remember the pandemic as the "first time since records began that inequality rose in virtually every country on earth at the same time." That's the verdict from Oxfam's inequality report covering the year 2020 — a terrible year that hit the poorest, hardest across the planet.

Why it matters: The world's poorest were already in a race against time, facing down an existential risk in the form of global climate change. The coronavirus pandemic could set global poverty reduction back as much as a full decade, according to the World Bank.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow