Good morning – nice to be with you again! Welcome to White House Watch. Let’s get in:

• How company bosses are trying to win over Trump

• Mexico is caught in the middle of Trump’s trade war with China

• The dangers of ABC’s deal with Trump

Tech executives are lining up to kiss the presidential ring and show off their corporate money to Donald Trump to get into his good graces.

Billionaire SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son stood next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago yesterday to announce the Japanese tech giant’s plans to invest $100 billion and create 100,000 jobs in the US. The two men are both known for their pompous statements.

As the two showered each other with praise – Trump’s love language – from the podium, it was unclear how exactly Son would be able to finance this mega-promise.

SoftBank made a similar pledge after Trump won his first term in 2016, pledging to inject $50 billion into the U.S. economy and create 50,000 jobs. With the backing of Saudi Arabia, the investor raised $100 billion this year for the SoftBank Vision Fund to support US companies such as Uber and WeWork. However, it is not clear how many jobs were created while Trump was in the White House.

The technology company’s announcement came as US colleagues have courted Trump by donating millions of dollars to his inaugural fund. Amazon, Meta and Perplexity each contributed $1 million, as did OpenAI boss Sam Altman.

Executives flock to Mar-a-Lago to curry favor with the president-elect. Yesterday, Trump hosted TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew at his Florida compound as he seeks to save the app from an impending ban. On today’s agenda: Trump plans to meet with Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos.

Trump said yesterday that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would also travel to Florida to see him and that he recently had dinner with Apple’s Tim Cook.

“Everyone fought against me in the first semester. “Everyone wants to be my friend this term,” Trump said during the press conference. “I don’t know – my personality changed or something.”

Team 47: Who did it?

Trump loyalist Ric Grenellwho previously served as his intelligence chief and ambassador to Germany, will be the president’s envoy for special missions.

Devin NunesHead of Trump’s social media platform Truth Social and former lawmaker, has been named head of the president’s intelligence advisory board. (Politico)

Transitional times: the latest headlines

What we hear

ABC News’ $15 million defamation settlement with Trump has set a dangerous precedent for journalistic freedom, according to legal experts and news executives, as the president-elect continues his crusade against the “corrupt” press (free to read).

Genevieve Lakier, a law professor at the University of Chicago, told Anna Nicolaou of the Financial Times:

I really don’t know what ABC was thinking when they agreed to do this. . . Unless we know, it looks like it was a faint color.

If ABC gives in so quickly and calms down, it will certainly encourage similar lawsuits. I’m disturbed.

While we may not know some information, the bar to prove defamation in the US is extremely high, so the settlement has fueled speculation that ABC has reached a settlement to avoid further wrath.

Trump has recently doubled down on his attacks, threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of news networks like ABC. Yesterday, he said during a press conference that he would “probably” sue the Iowa newspaper Des Moines Register over a poll released just before the election that showed Kamala Harris leading in the state.

ABC’s decision to settle is “dangerous,” said Samantha Barbas, a law professor at the University of Iowa. “It will embolden Trump and his allies to continue to bring these defamation suits.”

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