BIG THREAT: Still nearly two months from taking office, Trump yesterday on social media said he plans on his first day in office to impose steep tariffs on goods imported from China, Mexico, and Canada. 

  Trump said tariffs would be 25 percent on products imported from Canada and Mexico because the two countries are not doing enough to stop undocumented migrants and illegal drugs from crossing their borders into the United States. The tariffs on goods from China, which he also blamed for the import of drugs, would be 10 percent.

  The immediate effect would be to raise prices for Americans buying goods made in those three countries … if people buy them at all.

TOO BIG TO JAIL: Donald Trump has beaten the rap again.

  A federal judge in Washington dismissed the election meddling case against the former and future President just hours after Special Counsel Jack Smith moved to throw out the two federal indictments of Trump because the Justice Department will not prosecute a sitting president.

  Trump said on Twitter/X, “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought.”

  Smith wrote letters to judges in Atlanta and Washington. He wrote to the Washington judge in the election case that the dismissal request was not related to “the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind.” 

  That judge, Tanya Chutkan, only hours later, dismissed the election case. The secret documents case had already been dismissed by the presiding judge in Florida, but Smith was appealing that decision to a panel of judges in Atlanta.

  This leaves open two state cases, the sentencing of Trump on his 34 fraud convictions in New York, and the Georgia election fraud case, neither of which can be moved for dismissal by the Justice Department.

PAY FOR PLAY: Donald Trump’s legal team discovered that top adviser Boris Epshteyn had been asking for money from potential administration appointees in order to promote them for jobs, The NY Times Reports. Epshteyn coordinated the defense in  Trump’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition. Trump was alerted about the pay-for-play situation and ordered an internal investigation. 

THE BROTHERS MENENDEZ: A full hearing on whether the parent-murdering Menendez brothers will be freed from prison has been delayed until the end of January when Los Angeles County will have a new tough-on-crime prosecutor. 

  Judge Michael Jesic said a hearing scheduled for mid-December did not allow enough time for him to review 17 boxes filled with information about the case. Some family members of the victims, including sisters of both Jose and Kitty Menendez, have said it’s time to free Lyle and Erik Menendez after 34 years in prison.

SPIKED: A federal judge ruled that a transgender San José State volleyball player can compete starting tomorrow in the three-day Mountain West Conference women’s volleyball championship in Las Vegas  despite a lawsuit to block her.

  The suit filed by several volleyball players, including former students and a San José State associate head coach, sought to ban the player from being in the tournament and also to rescind wins granted to San José State’s volleyball team after rival teams forfeited matches rather than go against a transgender player. Four schools forfeited matches.

  “I just don’t think it’s right in women’s sports,” San Jose player Slusser Brooke Slusser told an interviewer. “It has nothing to do with the way someone wants to live their life day to day, that’s not an issue. But when it comes to the fairness and safety of women playing, there’s a reason there’s two different divisions for women and men.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, whose books about secrets, power, ambition, and strong women rising to wealth and power sold around the world, died in Manhattan at age 91.

  Bradford’s first novel in 1979, “A Woman of Substance,” was a runaway best seller. She published 40 works of fiction that sold more than 90 million copies in 40 languages. Ten of her books were adapted for television films and mini-series.

  The author’s own life modeled the rags to riches story for her books.  Born in England, her father lost a leg in World War I and her mother was born out of wedlock at a time when that was a major disgrace.

  Bradford did not write great literature, but she taught herself to write what sold. “I truly believe that learning the craft of fiction writing is vital and that you can’t do that at classes,” she once said. “You can perhaps learn techniques. But no one can teach you to write a novel. You have to teach yourself.”

 —  Chuck Woolery, the once ubiquitous game show host turned right wing podcaster, died Saturday at his home in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. He was 83.

  Among other shows, Woolery had been the host of  the “Love Connection” in the 1980s and was the original host of “Wheel of Fortune.” Woolery left “Wheel” in a contract dispute leaving the job open in 1981 for Pat Sajak, who hosted for the next 43 years. 

   When his game show days were over, Woolery became co-host of the podcast “Blunt Force Truth,” criticizing liberal values and the Democratic Party. 

THE SPIN RACK: The Macy’s department store chain announced that an employee “intentionally” misstated and hid up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the past few years, forcing the retailer delay its current earnings report. The employee, who’s been fired, did not steal the money and the reason for the legerdemain has not been explained. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Continuing a silly tradition at The White House, outgoing President Joe Biden, pardoned two turkeys, Peach and Blossom, instead of pardoning his criminally-convicted son, Hunter.

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