THE WAR ROOM:  Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration are fighting off reports that the peace deal the US is trying to impose on Ukraine was written by Russia. It certainly looks like it, but US officials say the draft agreement has already been revised.

  Both Ukraine and the US said they made progress yesterday.

  The deal made public so far would force Ukraine to reduce its army, surrender territory that Russia hasn’t even taken by force, and bar the presence of NATO troops.

  Rubio said yesterday that, “This is a living, breathing document. Every day, with input, it changes.” Trump gave Ukraine Thursday to agree. 

  Trump on his Truth Social feed yesterday repeated his tiresome claim that the war never would have started if he had been President at the time. He also revived his complaint that Ukraine has not been sufficiently grateful for the US military aide that has now been cut off. “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS, AND EUROPE CONTINUES TO BUY OIL FROM RUSSIA,”  he posted.

  Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine, is the one man on earth who could end the war with an order despite Trump’s repeated pre-presidential claims that he could do it in a day. Within 24 hours of meeting with Trump in Alaska to talk peace, Putin sent missiles and drones into Ukraine. 

THE MEANING OF IT ALL: Talking heads and political analysts spent the weekend parsing the meaning of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s announcement that she will resign in January rather than face the revenge of President Trump over their political differences.

  “Could it be the beginning of the end for Trumpism?” they ask.

  Greene split with the administration by opposing military aid to Israel, demanding release of the files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and  supporting the extension of the health insurance subsidies passed during the Biden administration.  She said in her announcement last Friday, “Americans are used by the Political Industrial Complex of both Political Parties, election cycle after election cycle, in order to elect whichever side can convince Americans to hate the other side more.”

  She said it’s impossible to get anything done in Congress … “Nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman.”

  Megan Mineiro writes in The NY Times that Greene’s exit, “and the break between the two that preceded it — also underscored dissatisfaction in Mr. Trump’s base with parts of his agenda, and how at least some Republicans in Congress are beginning to look past him as the first signs of his lame duck status emerge.”

  Trump posted on his Truth Social that, “The Republican Party has never been so UNITED AS IT iS RIGHT NOW! Other than Rand Paul, Rand Paul Jr.(Massie!), Marjorie “Traitor” Brown, and a couple of other “lowlifes.”  When he says things like that the opposite is likely to be true.

  Greene arrived in Congress  nearly five years ago spouting Q-Anon conspiracy theories and now she says Washington is essentially a conspiracy against the common American. She’s leaving in January three days after qualifying for a modest lifetime pension, making her not so different from the colleagues she has come to detest. 

THE REGIME:

— FBI Director Kash Patel is under scrutiny for using a government jet to fly to see his girlfriend, 27-year-old Alexis Wilkins, an aspiring country music singer in Nashville, and for assigning FBI SWAT Teams to protect her when she’s in public. 

  It’s unusual, to say the least, for a non-married romantic interest to get government protection. The NY Times reports that, among other events, a SWAT team was assigned when Wilkins sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Atlanta last spring.

THE KENNEDY LEGACY: A granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy announced over the weekend that at age 35 she has terminal cancer with as little as a year to live. Tatiana Schlossberg,  the younger daughter of Caroline Kennedy, revealed a terminal cancer diagnosis in an essay published Saturday on the anniversary of her grandfather’s assassination.

  A writer about environmental issues, Schlossberg said in her essay that an aggressive blood cancer was discovered in May 2024 while she was in the hospital giving birth to her second child.

  “I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote. of her diagnosis. “I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I know.”

  Schlossberg has an older sister, Rose, and a brother jack, who recently announced a run for Congress from New York City.

  In a nod to the history of family tragedy, Schlossberg wrote, “For my whole life, I have tried to be good,” to spare her mother further suffering. “Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”  

THE OBIT PAGE: Jimmy Cliff, one of the biggest names in reggae music, has died at age 81. Cliff  was one of the musicians who brought reggae to the world through his appearance in the 1972 movie “The Harder They Come,” and with the songs Wonderful World, Beautiful People, and You Can Get It If You Really Want.

THE SPIN RACK: The airlines say they expect to fly 31 million people for Thanksgiving. — Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah militant leader in its first strike inside Lebanon in months. — A University of Alabama at Birmingham football player is under arrest after stabbing two teammates Saturday morning before the team’s game against the University of South Florida. The two players were listed in stable condition.

BELOW THE FOLD: Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has issued a video encouraging civility among air travelers. He says flyers need to stop brawling in the aisles and wearing pajamas on passenger jets.

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