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President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Friday to complain that the American flag will be flown at half-staff for his inauguration due to the period of mourning for the recently deceased former President Jimmy Carter.

In the immediate aftermath of Carter's passing, Trump actually surprised some observers — and annoyed his own supporters — with a heartfelt tribute to the 100-year-old former president, who was controversial in his day but became beloved in his later years for his devotion to charitable causes around the world.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) managed to defeat a GOP rebellion and retain his position on Friday afternoon, following an initial vote in which a small group of Republicans had previously voted against him, reported Politico.

Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Keith Self (R-TX) flipped their votes to back the speaker following a break, according to the report.

Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) attempt to carry over his leadership to the 119th Congress struggled to pass its first vote Friday thanks to three Tea Party Republicans — in a move with strikingly similar parallels to Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) battle for the position in 2023.

Johnson's critics took to social media to mock his difficulties in the first vote as the speaker stormed off the House floor into the cloakroom.

During 2024's U.S. presidential race, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the country's economy was in terrible shape and that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were to blame. But even though inflation has been a source of frustration for many Americans, the U.S. has enjoyed low unemployment rates during the Biden era.

On December 6, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent.

UPDATE: During a long break, Mike Johnson managed to convince Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Keith Self (R-TX) to change their votes, returning him to the speakership.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) had hoped to win the speakership easily in the first round of voting.

A wide swath of the normally politically-engaged celebrities in Hollywood are being called out for tempering their criticism of Donald Trump since he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

In a scathing column written by the Hollywood Reporter's Steven Zeitchick, two of the stars of the critically acclaimed "The Apprentice," which documented Donald Trump's association with controversial lawyer Roy Cohn, expressed dismay that the film is being ignored post-election.

Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade appeared dumbfounded after falling for a joke by now-former U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), the once-powerful chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus who lost his seat in the GOP primary last year after Donald Trump supported his Republican opponent.

In the lead up to this afternoon's vote for Speaker of the House, where Mike Johnson has a razor-thin majority and his re-election is controversial among some in the GOP, Good posted a tweet jokingly declaring, "I will NOT be voting for Mike Johnson for Speaker todat [sic]."

The way that President-elect Donald Trump responded to the terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day says a lot about how he is likely to behave when it comes to terrorism in his second term.

Writing for The Guardian, Robert Tait said that Trump's reaction "especially when combined with his false accompanying message that the episodes confirmed his frequent warnings against open borders and illegal immigrants."

The U.S. House of Representatives opened Friday morning to begin the 119th Congress with a cheer for the missing Florida man who now works for the far-right OAN channel.

House Clerk Kevin McCumber began the session by announcing that new members from American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands were present. Then, he mentioned Gaetz.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are making big claims about leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but one conservative columnist warns that it's all for show.

"There is little chance Elon Musk will save us from debt. It's all a show," wrote Dace Potas, who leads Lone Conservative, which purports to be the largest conservative student publication in America.

Donald Trump could very well be in a battle for control of the MAGA movement because he has lost the plot on how social media works while Elon Musk –– who has his ear –– hasn't.

That is the opinion of political analyst Andrew Eggers writing for the Bulwark who asserted that, while Trump is repeating his "greatest hits" on Truth Social, Musk is using his X platform, and his wealth, to overshadow the president-elect with rage-bait that has connected with the MAGA base.