SIGNIFICANT CONTEXT: The White House is in defense mode after Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles was quoted in Vanity Fair magazine saying President Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality” and other unflattering things about the President’s inner circle, including that Vice President JD Vance has been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and budget director Russell Vought is a “right wing absolute zealot.”

  The quotes come from a series of 11 interviews Wiles gave to journalist Chris Whipple over the year since Trump was inaugurated.

  Wiles went on Twitter/X yesterday saying the article was “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me”  and that “significant context was disregarded.”

  Wiles is quoted saying that although Trump does not drink, he has an alcoholic personality and operates with “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

  Wiles is a power hitter who designed Trump’s comeback campaign. She said some of the administration’s criminal prosecutions of Trump opponents may be an “element” of retribution by Trump and, “Who would blame him? Not me.”

  She also said that Trump’s claims that former President Bill Clinton had visited Jeffrey Epstein’s sex island is not true. She said Attorney General Pam Bodi “whiffed” on understanding the right wing’s fervor about releasing the Epstein files.

  Wiles is also quoted saying Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is “an odd duck” and “an avowed Ketamine user.” She decried his dismantling of the US Agency for International Development. “I was totally aghast.” 

  In her social media post Wiles defended the “unmatched leadership and vision of President Trump.”

SABRE RATTLING: President Trump issued what may be his biggest military threat so far to Venezuela , saying on his social media that the country “is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America” and that sanctioned oil shipments coming out of the country will be stopped.

  Trump went on to say that, “The shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.” He did not say what oil and assets Venezuela has stolen.  But he said, “For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”

PARENTICIDE: Thirty-two-year-old Nick Reiner has been charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents, Hollywood actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. The first-degree designation with “special circumstances” means that prosecutors believe the killing of more than one person was done with forethought, making the Reiner son eligible on conviction for life without parole or even the death penalty.

  The NY Times reports that the Reiners were discovered by their daughter Romy after a massage therapist had showed up at the house and no one answered the door.

ECON 101: The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate ticked up to a four-year high of 4.6 percent even though it’s still low,  according to the latest figures.

  The federal government lost 105,000 employees as deferred resignations were removed from the payrolls.

  The unemployment rate is being fed by an increasing number of people looking for work, an indication that the economy is softening.

THE REGIME:

— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is refusing to allow the full Congress to see unedited video of the so-called “double tap” attack in which two survivors of an air strike on a suspected drug boat were later killed as they struggled in the water to survive.

  Hegseth said he plans to share the video of the September 2nd strike only with members of the congressional national security committees. There’s a serious question of whether US forces committed a war crime and violated their own rules of engagement killing survivors who posed no threat.

  Although Hegseth has proudly posted videos of other boat strikes, he said, “Of course, we’re not going to release a top-secret, full unedited video of that to the general public.”

— Speaker Mike Johnson said he will not bring to the floor a vote on extending Obamacare health insurance subsidies for about 10 million Americans who face a steep increase in premiums at the turn of the year. Johnson said, “We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.” 

— President Trump announced travel bans for citizens of another 20 countries, bringing the list to 35. Newly banned as of January 1 would be travelers from Syria, South Sudan, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and anyone with documents issued by the Palestinian Authority.

THE OBIT PAGE: The curly-haired actor Anthony Geary, who in the 1970s and ’80s played half the romantic couple Luke and Laura on the daytime soap opera “General Hospital,” has died. He was 78.

  The courtship of Luke and Laura was a television phenomenon culminating in a wedding watched by an estimated 30 million people. In real life, Geary was married to a man.

THE SPIN RACK: Providence police yesterday released more security video of a man they believe might be the shooter who killed two students Saturday at Brown University. Police say they believe the man was “casing” the area before the shooting. — Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is reported to have had a successful surgery on two major ligaments in his left knee torn during Sunday’s game. The Chiefs say Mahomes can be back next year, but knee injuries for quarterbacks and running backs can be career enders. — 

BELOW THE FOLD: Donald Trump is still complaining on his social media about the  2022 FBI raid on his Florida home: “Unreasonable Search and Seizure!!! That was the FBI’s CRIMINAL RAID on Mar-a-Lago. This can never be allowed to happen again!!!”

  The FBI found more than 300 classified documents Trump should not have been holding.