It's the Brian Lera Show on WNYC. Good Friday morning, everyone. You know, if real people's lives

weren't being affected, this moment in the Trump transition would be a pretty hilarious comedy

of palace intrigue. To my eye, the main thing President-elect Trump has been doing since the election

is trying to demonstrate how much he can throw his weight around. Right? It's not about policy yet.

It's how much can I show that I'm the boss of you with other countries, with the

media, which the segment will mostly be about, with the stock market and with other branches

of government. And frankly, he's won some and he's lost some. He does seem to have Ukraine

cowering and ready to give up some of its country to Russia. He's threatening Hamas that there

will be, quote, all hell to pay, unquote, if they don't free the remaining October 7th hostages

by his inauguration on January 20th. We'll see if that threat makes a difference to anything in the

region. His invitation to Xi Jinping, did you hear about this, to attend his inauguration,

seems on one level at least, like a warning to democracy advocates everywhere. Like,

we strongman types might link arms and sing each other's praises if it helps both of us increase

our power over you.

Dissidents and human rights advocates, you are on notice.

Trump actually called Xi an amazing guy the other day.

But the power play scorecard reveals that Xi Jinping hasn't accepted the invitation so far,

kind of changing the narrative of who's in

charge as Trump is relegated to just waiting for an answer from him.

Trump asked Senate Republicans to give up their power to confirm or reject Trump cabinet

nominees. You probably know about that. We've certainly talked about it here.

So far, at least, the Senate Republicans have refused to give up that constitutional privilege

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