What a difference a week makes.

As Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s defense secretary nominee, returns to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with more Republican senators, his once apparently teetering nomination now seems to be on much firmer ground.

While Hegseth’s confirmation is still far from a sure bet, a very public pronouncement of support from Trump, behind-the-scenes efforts by Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance, and Hegseth’s own determination seem to have resuscitated a nomination that appeared to be headed toward life support.

‘We look forward to earning these confirmation votes,’ a confident Hegseth said Monday night in an interview on Fox News’ ‘Hannity.’

In the wake of former Rep. Matt Gaetz,  the president-elect’s first attorney general nominee, ending his confirmation bid amid controversy, there has been a full-court press by Trump’s political orbit to bolster Hegseth in order to protect him and other controversial Cabinet picks.

‘If Trump world allowed a couple of establishment senators to veto a second nominee, it would have led to a feeding frenzy on Trump’s other nominees, and so the thinking in Trump world was we have to defend Pete not just for the sake of defending Pete, but also for the sake of defending our other nominees,’ a longtime Trump world adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News.

Hegseth, an Army National Guard officer who deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and who until last month was a longtime Fox News host, has been the focus of a slew of reports spotlighting a series of drinking and sexual misconduct allegations, as well as a report alleging he mismanaged a veterans nonprofit organization that he once led.

Hegseth has denied allegations that he mistreated women but did reach a financial settlement with an accuser from a 2017 incident to avoid a lawsuit. He has vowed that he won’t drink ‘a drop of alcohol’ if confirmed as defense secretary.

Trump’s defense secretary nominee was interviewed hours after meeting a second time with Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate and a member of the Armed Services Committee, which will hold Hegseth’s confirmation hearings.

Ernst, a conservative lawmaker first elected to the Senate in 2014, is considered a pivotal vote in the confirmation battle over Hegseth, who in the past has questioned the role of women in combat.

The senator is also a survivor of sexual assault who has a strong legislative record of addressing sexual assault and harassment in the military.

After meeting with Hegseth, Ernst wrote in a statement Monday that ‘as I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.’

Ernst emphasized that ‘following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women – based on quality and standards, not quotas – and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.’

Hegseth, speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, noted that ‘it was a great meeting. People don’t really know this. I’ve known Sen. Ernst for over 10 years. 

‘You get into these meetings, and you listen to senators – it’s an amazing advise and consent process – and you hear how thoughtful, serious, substantive they are on these key issues that pertain to our Defense Department,’ he continued. ‘And Joni Ernst is front and center on that. So to be able to have phone calls and meetings time and time again to talk over the issues is really, really important. The fact that she’s willing to support me through this process means a lot.’

Last week, after her first meeting with Hegseth, Ernst said in a social media post that she and Trump’s defense secretary nominee had a ‘frank and thorough’ conversation. 

A day later, when asked in an interview on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’ if she wasn’t ready to vote to confirm Hegseth, the senator replied, ‘I think you are right.’

Even Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime Trump ally in the Senate, was expressing serious concerns about Hegseth’s nomination.

Fox News and other news organizations late last week reported that Trump was potentially considering nominating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as defense secretary as a possible replacement should Hegseth’s nomination falter.

But on Friday, Trump took to social media to praise Hegseth.

‘Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News,’ the president-elect wrote. And he praised Hegseth in a high-profile network TV interview over this past weekend.

Vance, who remains a senator from Ohio until he steps down to assume the vice presidency, has been working behind the scenes to consolidate support for Hegseth among his Republican colleagues in the Senate.

‘It’s fair to say that JD has been Pete’s biggest champion internally in Trump world and has spent a lot of time over the last two weeks helping shore up support for Pete among his colleagues in the Senate,’ a source in Vance’s political orbit told Fox News.

Meanwhile, Trump’s political team and allies – fueled by grassroots support for Hegseth – turned up the volume.

‘There will be no resource that we won’t use to go after those U.S. senators that vote against Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks or his other nominees,’ longtime Trump outside adviser Corey Lewandowski told Fox News.

Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s oldest son and MAGA powerhouse, took to social media to target wavering Republican senators.

‘If you’re a GOP Senator who voted for Lloyd Austin [President Biden’s defense secretary], but criticize @PeteHegseth, then maybe you’re in the wrong political party!’ Don Trump Jr. wrote in a social media post.

MAGA allies quickly targeted Ernst, with talk of a primary challenge when the senator faces re-election in 2026.

‘This is the red line. This is not a joke.… The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched,’ said Charlie Kirk, an influential conservative activist and radio and TV host who co-founded and steers Turning Point USA.

Kirk, on his radio program, warned that ‘if you support the president’s agenda, you’re good. You’re marked safe from a primary. You go up against Pete Hegseth, the president repeatedly, then don’t be surprised, Joni Ernst, if all of a sudden you have a primary challenge in Iowa.’

State Attorney General Brenna Bird, a top Trump supporter in last January’s Iowa presidential caucuses, wrote a column on Breitbart urging Hegseth’s confirmation.

While she didn’t mention Ernst by name, Bird took aim at ‘D.C. politicians’ who ‘think they can ignore the voices of their constituents and entertain smears from the same outlets that have pushed out lies for years.’

And longtime Iowa-based conservative commentator and media personality Steve Deace took to social media and used his radio program to highlight that he would consider launching a primary challenge against Ernst.

Deace, who supported DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses, said, ‘I am willing to primary her for the good of the cause if I’m assured I have Trump’s support going in. Or I am willing to throw my support and network behind someone else President Trump prefers to primary Joni Ernst instead.’

Also helping Hegseth is his defiance.

Hegseth told reporters on Thursday that ‘this will not be a process tried in the media. I don’t answer to anyone in this group. None of you, not to that camera at all. I answer to President Trump, who received 76 million votes on behalf… and a mandate for change. I answer to the 100 senators who are part of this process and those in the committee. And I answer to my Lord and Savior and my wife and my family.’

And on Fox News’ ‘Hannity,’ Hegseth charged that ‘the left is trying to turn this into a trial in the media, a show trial. And we’re not going to let that happen.’

Fox News’ Emma Colton, Cameron Cawthorne, Tyler Olson, and Chad Pergram contributed to this story

Seventy-seven Nobel Prize winners have come out against the nomination of environmental and health activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

In a letter first reported by the New York Times, the Nobel Laureates urge members of the United States Senate to reject RFK Jr.’s nomination, raising concerns about his ‘lack of credentials’ in health science or administration, opposition to vaccines and promotion of ‘conspiracy theories’ about mainstream medical treatments.  

‘Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences,’ the letter cautions.

Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, is an environmental lawyer and activist who founded the Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group accused of spreading misinformation on vaccines, including debunked claims that vaccination causes autism. President-elect Trump declared his intention to nominate Kennedy to lead HHS in November after Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent, endorsed Trump for president.  

The letter cites Kennedy’s opposition to widely-accepted public health interventions, including vaccination and the fluoridation of drinking water, to suggest his confirmation could lead to public harm. The Nobel Laureates also allude to his rejection of scientific evidence that shows H.I.V. causes AIDS. 

Additionally, the Nobel Laureates call Kennedy a ‘belligerent critic’ of the agencies he would oversee as Health Secretary, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy has accused the FDA of ‘corruption’ and called for ‘entire departments’ at the agency to be cleared out. He has also called the CDC’s vaccine division a ‘fascist enterprise’ and accused health agencies of being captured by the pharmaceutical industry, according to NBC News.  

The Nobel Laureates insist the next health secretary ‘should continue to nurture and improve — not to threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees.’ 

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee a vast health policy bureaucracy that includes 13 agencies, operates with a $2 trillion budget and administers Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and other crucial federal health programs. 

The Department of Health and Human Services guides public health policy for disease treatment and prevention; provides grants for medical research and community health programs; assists with child welfare programs, including adoption, foster care, child care and child abuse; develops bioterrorism defense strategies; resettles refugees who seek asylum in the United States and much more.

‘President Trump has asked me to do three things: 1. Clean up the corruption in our government health agencies. 2. Return those agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. 3. Make America Healthy Again by ending the chronic disease epidemic,’ Kennedy posted on X after his nomination.

Kennedy is not the only recent HHS nominee to face public scrutiny over his apparent lack of health credentials. Conservative groups opposed President Biden’s 2020 nomination of then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the department on grounds that Becerra, a former congressman and lawyer, had no related health experience. 

The Senate confirmed Becerra 50-49, with the support of all Democrats and just one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. 

The House Task Force investigating the assassination attempts on President-elect Trump’s life has released its final report on Tuesday, detailing ‘preexisting conditions and leadership failures’ that led to the deadly campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.

While the bipartisan panel was given ample information on that shooting, the report suggested requests for documents on the second attempt on Trump’s life – this one at his Palm Beach golf course in September – were seemingly stonewalled.

‘The Task Force notes that as of the date of publication of this report, [the Department of Homeland Security], [U.S. Secret Service], FBI, and [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] have not produced any documents responsive to the Task Force’s requests regarding the preparation for, events of, and response to the second assassination attempt that occurred on September 15,’ the report said.

Lawmakers found ‘critical vulnerabilities’ in the security of that site. The report said Secret Service agents identified the golf course’s outer perimeter as ‘a favorable position for potential snipers.’

The report also called on the Secret Service to review its protocols for golf courses – which would be a significant policy overhaul, given Trump and past presidents’ historic penchant for golfing.

Other recommendations in the 180-page report include calling on Congress to consider taking the Secret Service out from under the purview of DHS.

‘The current structure potentially weakens USSS, a small but critically important agency, in advocating for its budget and other priorities inside a much larger entity,’ the report said.

‘The failure in [Butler, Pennsylvania] was far from the first significant USSS failure in recent history, and it is fair to question whether USSS should continue to be housed within DHS.’

The Secret Service was under the Treasury Department until 2003, when it was moved to the newly formed DHS, but the task force advocated for it to be its own structure entirely.

‘A fresh look at whether USSS might benefit from the status of an independent agency, with more freedom to make budget requests and advocate for itself, would be a healthy discussion for former USSS leaders to have with Congress,’ the report said.

The Task Force also recommended conserving resources by limiting who gets Secret Service protection. 

‘The number of individuals being protected has greatly expanded, a resource demand which becomes further taxed during the longer and more intensive modern presidential campaign seasons,’ the report said.

Foreign dignitaries’ Secret Service protection particularly strains resources during the United Nations General Assembly, the report said. That takes place in September, the same month of the second attempt on Trump’s life.

‘As a result, Congress, DHS, and the USSS should jointly consider the protective role the USSS plays for foreign leaders and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS’s primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders,’ the report said.

The House voted unanimously to form the committee earlier this year. The Secret Service was barraged with scrutiny after a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania from just outside the rally perimeter.

Trump was injured along with two others, and one attendee was killed.

Later in September, USSS agents opened fire on a 58-year-old man who had a rifle aimed at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where the president-elect was out for the day.

The task force contrasted both events in its report, however, and cast the latter incident in a better light.

‘The various failures in planning, execution, and leadership on and before July 13, 2024, and the preexisting conditions that undermined the effectiveness of the human and material assets deployed that day, coalesced to create an environment in which the former President — and everyone at the campaign event — were exposed to grave danger,’ the report said.

‘Conversely, the events that transpired on September 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida, demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination.’

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital in response to the report, ‘The U.S. Secret Service appreciates the diligence and dedication displayed by Chairman Kelly, Ranking Member Crow and the distinguished members of the House Task Force as they investigated and identified the factors that contributed to the assassination attempt of President-elect Donald Trump and the Secret Service’s failures during the protective advance leading up to July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania.’

‘The findings of the House Task Force align with our internal Mission Assurance Inquiry. Today’s report reinforces our resolve to bring change to the Secret Service. We continue to take action to acquire new technologies, strengthen training, develop our personnel, and seek resources to fortify the Secret Service,’ Guglielmi said.

Fox News Digital also reached out to DHS for comment.

President-elect Trump’s assistant Natalie Harp said ‘confidentiality, speed, accuracy, and adaptability’ are key to delivering for the president, as lawmakers who communicate with her regularly told Fox News Digital that she is ‘critical’ in ensuring Congress is a ‘real partner’ for the incoming administration. 

Harp has worked alongside the president-elect throughout his campaign and the transition, since 2022. The 33-year-old is expected to join the president at the White House for his second term, and Trump Transition Team sources say she will have an ‘important role’ in the White House. 

But according to several top lawmakers, governors and members of Trump’s team, Harp is more than just an assistant. 

Sources close to the transition team told Fox News Digital that Harp has been a ‘valuable resource’ for getting information to the president ‘in a timely manner.’ 

Steven Cheung, spokesman for the Trump Transition Team and incoming White House communications director, told Fox News Digital that Harp is ‘a trusted and valued member of President Trump’s team.’ 

‘And she is certainly a big reason why his operation has been as successful as it has ever been,’ Cheung told Fox News Digital. ‘Her work ethic and dedication to helping President Trump achieve his historic victory is second to none.’ 

‘I believe she is an extra set of eyes and ears for President Trump,’ Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wy., told Fox News Digital. ‘Every time I have been with him, she has been close at hand.’ 

Barrasso explained that Harp is in regular communication with him and other senators and members of Congress via text message. 

‘I text her if I need to get to the president,’ Barrasso explained. ‘If he doesn’t pick up the phone, I know to go to Natalie, and he gets the message.’ 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said he goes to Harp to set up anything from ‘golf to the most sensitive foreign policy matters.’ 

‘You want to get something to President Trump, she’s the person to talk to,’ Graham told Fox News Digital. ‘I trust Natalie to keep anything I communicate to President Trump confidential. She is very dedicated to the president – she is very loyal and always professional and always polite.’ 

Graham added: ‘She will promptly respond to requests by senators – I’ve heard that from others – and I feel like when I am communicating with Natalie, I am communicating in a sense of trust.’ 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Harp touted the president for having ‘truly invested time in building a network of allies, in Congress, media, and business, that is unrivaled.’ She said those relationships have ‘deep roots’ and credited them to accessibility. 

‘Communication by phone and by text is always open,’ Harp said.  

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster told Fox News Digital he’s worked with Harp directly ‘on many occasions.’ 

‘She is the ultimate professional – highly driven, disciplined and loyal,’ McMaster said. ‘She has and will continue to serve President Trump and our country well.’ 

Harp created a ‘mobile office’ for the president during the campaign, telling Fox News Digital that she did so because the president wants to stay ‘accessible.’ 

‘Breaking news has no consideration for where you are. That’s how our mobile office started,’ Harp said. ‘Many times, the president wants to get his thoughts out on paper, so I’ll take dictation, print, and then he works on it until he has the words just right for a viral Truth.’ 

Harp said she had the idea to get a mobile printer to ‘speed up the process,’ noting that printers ‘aren’t always accessible’ on the golf course or on the road.

And Harp said the set-up is how they ‘get breaking information we can act on, in real time, and vice versa.’ 

Harp told Fox News Digital she regularly communicates with that network of allies, sending news clippings and even polling members of Congress on timely issues and legislation. 

‘He can virtually whip votes in a matter of minutes,’ Harp said. 

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that Harp ‘keeps us in the loop’ on Capitol Hill. 

‘If you want a Congress that represents a real partner for the incoming president, it’s important to share information,’ Jackson told Fox News Digital. ‘Natalie is critical in making sure members of Congress feel like they’re part of the president’s team.’ 

But in working for the president, Harp said ‘confidentiality, speed, accuracy, and adaptability’ are ‘the nature of the job.’ 

‘The president deserves nothing less,’ Harp told Fox News Digital. ‘Yes, he works 24/7, but it never feels like he’s driving or pushing us to work harder. Rather, he inspires us to be more, and do more, because he sets the example himself.’ 

When asked what type of information Harp brings the president or shares with his allies, she said, ‘It depends.’ 

‘During the various witch hunts, I researched what legal experts and scholars were writing about the cases. When we were out campaigning, I monitored reviews to see what parts of the president’s messaging were resonating best,’ she explained. ‘I have a big database of websites that I source from. Sometimes I go through back-to-back, checking top headlines and, if I see one on an issue the president has been talking about or that he’s interested in, I grab it.’ 

Harp traveled with the president throughout the campaign, spent days in court as he battled now-dismissed cases against him, and was even with him during both assassination attempts in July in Butler, Pennsylvania, and September at Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach, Florida.

‘We share a deep faith in God, but now, a ‘miracle’ is something we’ve not just read about, but lived, not once but two times,’ Harp said. ‘Some have said that they see a ‘changed’ Donald Trump after two assassination attempts. I disagree. These gut-wrenching experiences have not left him a different person, but only revealed to the world who he has always been.’ 

Harp said that is ‘the same misunderstanding that the 2024 presidential election is the story of Donald Trump’s comeback.’ 

‘It isn’t. He’d be the first to say so – he never went anywhere. It is others who left, only to return or, who never gave him a chance, that are finally coming around,’ Harp said. ‘None of this is to say that the president hasn’t changed at all through the years, but rather that the essence of who he is has only become more visible.’ 

Harp recalled being in court with the president, when he would ‘occasionally close his eyes and listen.’ 

‘He is on a totally different plane, at peace with God, and unshakably focused. Nothing gets to him, because he puts his comfort second, and his purpose first,’ Harp said of the president. ‘If people could just tune out the noise and prejudice coming from those who, whether purposefully or unintentionally, misunderstand him, you will see the heart of a man who had everything, but continues to risk it all, for love, of country, and the American people.’ 

Harp studied business finance at Point Loma University and received her Master of Business Administration from Liberty University. 

Harp, who battled and survived stage 2 bone cancer, credits Trump’s 2018 ‘Right to Try’ law with saving her life. The measure allows terminally ill patients to access drug treatments that have not yet been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Harp penned an op-ed in 2019 about her experience with Right to Try, which went viral. She appeared on ‘Fox & Friends’ to share her story in June 2019.  After her appearance, Trump tweeted, ‘Proud of Natalie!’ and invited her onstage at his next event, in Washington D.C., at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference, where she called him her ‘Good Samaritan.’

‘Donald Trump isn’t just a believer in miracles, he helps to make them happen,’ Harp told Fox News Digital. 

Barrasso, a physician, echoed Harp’s sentiment about Right to Try, saying she ‘is a great success’ of the legislation. 

‘It is possible she would not have been able to survive,’ Barrasso said. ‘The fact that she is still with us is a miracle itself, and she wants to spend every day thanking God for what she has, and she does an awful, awful lot with and for President Trump.’ 

Harp later joined the Trump 2020 presidential campaign’s advisory board and spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

‘She keeps everybody in a really good mood, and most importantly, she keeps the president in a really good mood, and I think she has been key to his success throughout the campaign,’ Rep. Ronny Jackson told Fox News Digital. ‘As a physician, from a psychological standpoint, when you are around people who are in a good mood, that are laughing, that are smiling, it makes you feel better as well – that’s just human nature – and I think it’s important to have someone like Natalie around, who never gets down about anything.’  

‘She’s the first person up in the morning and the last person to go to bed,’ Jackson said. ‘The unbelievable work ethic, combined with her bubbly personality, is a unique combo that is really good for President Trump and really good for our country.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he still has lingering doubts about a children’s online safety bill that Elon Musk threw support behind this weekend.

‘There’s still some concern about the free speech components of that, and whether it might lead to further censorship by the government of valid, you know, conservative voices, for example. So we’re working through all that,’ Johnson told reporters at his weekly press conference Tuesday.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is the most significant social media reform pushed by the Senate in decades. 

It breezed through Congress’ upper chamber in a 91 to 3 vote but hit a snag in the House of Representatives, where leaders have expressed concern about possible censorship and about the power it bestows on the Federal Trade Commission.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the Musk-owned social media platform X, announced over the weekend that they have worked with the Senate sponsors of the bill to alleviate some of those issues.

‘We’ve heard the pleas of parents and youth advocates who seek sensible guardrails across online platforms, and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) addresses that need. After working with the bill authors, I’m proud to share that we’ve made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online,’ Yaccarino wrote on the platform this weekend. ‘We urge Congress and the House to pass the Kids Online Safety Act this year.’

It precipitated a pressure campaign over the weekend by allies of President-elect Donald Trump pushing the House to take up the bill. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and Donald Trump Jr., were among those who sounded off, as well as Musk himself, who posted on X, ‘Protecting kids should always be priority #1.’

Johnson said Tuesday that he appreciated the efforts behind the legislation. He also suggested the effort could be renewed next year, with only two weeks left in the current congressional term.

‘I’m grateful for the hard work that’s been done. I’m grateful for the support behind it. Certainly, I think all of us, 100% of us, support the principle behind it,’ the speaker said.

‘But you’ve got to get this one right when you’re dealing with the regulation of free speech. You can’t go too far and have it be overbroad, but you want to achieve those objectives. So it’s essential that we get this issue right.

‘We are very optimistic that if it’s not done this year, that we can do that early next year with our Republican majorities, because it’s the Republican Party that has been working aggressively to protect children online.’

The bill’s leaders, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., thanked Musk and Yaccarino for their work over the weekend.

‘These changes should eliminate once and for all the false narrative that this bill would be weaponized by unelected bureaucrats to censor Americans,’ Blackburn and Blumenthal said. ‘We appreciate that this endorsement and revised text reflects their publicly stated goal of furthering free speech without fear of censorship. We reiterate X’s call to pass KOSA by the end of the year – it is clear that this legislation has overwhelming support from Congress.’

KOSA would put the onus on social media companies to prevent and mitigate potential harm that could be caused to users under age 17.

The bill would also force platforms to block addictive components for minor users and make it easier for minors to protect their information, among other measures.

Donald Trump is making a deliberate effort to soften his tone.

Or is he?

I’ve given this a lot of thought, having interviewed Trump twice this year, including two weeks before the election. He was focused and substantive, trying to reach a more independent audience, and while he took some campaign-style shots, he was relatively restrained by Trumpian standards.

Now that he’s the de facto president, I saw a similar Trump on display in the ‘Meet the Press’ interview. Kristen Welker’s follow-ups must have annoyed him, because he told her she had asked ‘nasty’ questions.

During the campaign, such episodes were overshadowed by Trump’s rock-n-roll rallies, where he’d ramble on about the great Hannibal Lecter or Arnold Palmer’s genitalia. But his declaration on NBC that he also wants to represent those who didn’t vote for him is a long way from his 2017 ‘American carnage’ inaugural address.

And yet, the president-elect has also mastered the art of saying things that can be interpreted two ways, or sending not-so-coded messages.

The Washington Post editorial board, not a big fan, says Trump ‘tried to sound a conciliatory tone’ with Welker, backed by substance.

Trump declared he wouldn’t oust Fed chief Jerome Powell, and wants to work with Democrats to protect the Dreamers. Trump said he ‘would not restrict the national availability of abortion medication, and that the United States will ‘absolutely’ remain in NATO, as long as other member states spend what they have pledged on defense.’ 

And why shouldn’t he appear more reasonable? He’s got the job he believes was unfairly taken from him. He can’t run again. He knows his first term was savaged by the left-leaning media establishment. If he can have a more successful second term – after turning on some top aides in the last go-round – he could modify history’s verdict.

And that brings us to the question of retribution. He said on NBC that the best retribution is success, the same line he used with me. On ‘Meet the Press’ he even retracted a campaign declaration that he would name a special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. 

When Welker asked whether he’d order the Justice Department, which he sees as having persecuted him, to investigate Biden and his administration, Trump gave a response that I doubt he would have offered in the first term.

No, he said, that would be up to his attorney general and FBI director, which will definitely be Pam Bondi and probably Kash Patel. Would he tell them to do it? Nope.

It’s called distancing.

Now one could argue that he was in effect suggesting they do it by announcing it on national television. But I’m sure they knew his views anyway. 

Trump’s one misstep on NBC was lashing out at members of the House Jan. 6 Committee. He said Liz Cheney ‘did something that’s inexcusable, along with [Bennie] Thompson and people on the Un-Select Committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,’ Trump told moderator Kristen Welker, arguing without proof that they ‘deleted and destroyed’ testimony. ‘Honestly, they should go to jail.’

So that was a gift to his critics, enabling most journalists to lead with him wanting the lawmakers behind bars. By the way, their investigation and hearings are protected by the Speech and Debate clause, which gives the members immunity.

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told CNN that his boss’ words had been taken ‘out of context,’ that he ‘wants everyone who he puts into key positions of leadership … to apply the law equally to everybody,’ mentioning Bondi and Patel.

In a similar vein, Trump has mainly avoided attacks on individual journalists, this after saying he would reach out to even hostile outlets. But he made an exception and mocked Maggie Haberman of the New York Times when she co-authored a couple of stories he didn’t like.

So will we be getting Trump 2.0, or Trump 1.0 with plenty of fancy packaging?

Veteran Trump watchers know that he can slip off the high road when he gets angry, that it’s not just about mass deportations, slashing inflation and drill, baby, drill. 

But I still believe we’re seeing a more disciplined, restrained and moderate Trump so far. He campaigned on shaking things up, so there are plenty of clashes to unfold. What’s fascinating is that he’s already essentially running the country while Biden has faded and, since the pardon fiasco, is refusing to talk to the press.