AP

It’s the annual turkey pardon day at the White House. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump are participating in the 78-year-old tradition by pardoning Gobble and Waddle. 💻 Watch it live

The two birds checked into the Willard Hotel in Washington Monday night before the celebration. Yes, they’re given a room at the Willard!

📹 Gobble and Waddle roaming around their luxurious hotel room

Ghislaine Maxwell must be watching like 👁️👄👁️

💬 Follow today’s live blog

Ukraine has agreed to the core components of a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the more than three years of fighting with Russia.  

A Ukrainian official posted online: “Our delegations reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva,”  wrote Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. “We now count on the support of our European partners in our further steps.”

Now, what?: Umerov signaled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may visit the White House to finalize the agreement.

And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “tremendous progress” has been made but noted there are still “delicate” details to be worked out.

What about the Thanksgiving deadline Trump gave Ukraine?: Well, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave Ukraine some breathing room, saying the actual date isn’t important as long as it happens soon.

Read more: ‘5 takeaways from the Ukraine deal’

^ Daniel Fried, a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council and former ambassador to Poland, described the first draft as a “hot mess.”

In the wake of MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) abrupt resignation amid her feud with President Trump, Punchbowl News reported Monday that a few other Republican members said over the weekend that they’re also considering retiring from Congress.

Read the text message a senior House Republican told Punchbowl — whoa: “This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all — appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened. They don’t even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile, the regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms.” 👀

Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman later posted that in the several hours after this reporting ran, he’s received “countless text messages from House Republicans agreeing with this sentiment.”

For what it’s worth: Greene says House Republicans have been sidelined by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), accusing him of only obeying the Trump administration. Read what Greene had to say

That means Johnson will lose a key vote in his already razor-thin margins. Most government funding now expires in January and Johnson was counting on every Republican to pass key funding bills to avoid another shutdown.

For now, the math is OK for Johnson, just uncomfortably close: “Greene’s resignation on its own doesn’t change how many votes Johnson can afford to lose on any party-line vote. The GOP’s 219-213 majority means he can afford to lose two Republican votes on any legislation, assuming that all members are present and Democrats are unified in opposition. And that calculus is not expected to change much in the weeks ahead.”

Yes, but: Johnson has already had trouble unifying House Republicans. The tight margins could embolden other GOP lawmakers who now yield a lot of power by withholding their vote.

Read Sudiksha Kochi’s reporting: ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene’s exit from Congress could spell trouble for Speaker Johnson’

The Defense Department says it is looking into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), claiming it has received “serious allegations of misconduct.”

Timing: This comes just days after Kelly and a handful of other Democratic lawmakers with military and national security backgrounds called on U.S. service members to disobey any illegal orders issued by the Trump administration.

Kelly said he learned of the review from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s post on social platform X. In an interview on MS NOW, he called the investigation “absurd.”

Trump has deemed the lawmakers in the video as the “Seditious Six” and Hegseth called it a “politically-motivated influence operation.”

“President Trump’s heated rhetorical attacks on Democratic lawmakers, whom he called out as 'traitors' who deserve to be jailed, have left his Republican allies in Washington dumbfounded and skeptical about any bipartisan dealmaking at the end of 2025,” The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.

How so?: “Republican lawmakers and strategists fear Trump is undermining his own credibility and ability to get anything done before the midterm election.”

Read more, including how Republicans are distancing themselves from the president: ‘Republicans dumbfounded by Trump’s calls for harsh retribution against Democratic lawmakers’

Tatiana Schlossberg, the 35-year-old daughter of Caroline Kennedy and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, revealed in a devastating New Yorker essay that she has terminal cancer.

“My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me,” she writes.

BTW: Her brother, Jack Schlossberg, is running for Congress.

Read the New Yorker essay: ‘A Battle with My Blood’: When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family.’

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there’s a “good chance” Trump names a new Federal Reserve chair before Christmas.

— Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) agreed to pay more than $5 million in back taxes to settle a Justice Department lawsuit from nearly two decades ago.

The Washington Post: After a week of reprimands, some in Congress are having second thoughts

The New York Times Magazine: America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?: From A.D.H.D. to anxiety, disorders have risen as the expectations of childhood have changed.

The Hill: Trump’s emerging health care plan could put GOP leaders in a bind