The Stock Act, passed in 2012, explicitly forbids the president, members of Congress and executive branch officials from using insider knowledge to help their family members make money. Most people can easily comply with the law, but Donald Trump’s immense conflicts of interest and the fact he has not divested from his holdings in his company, make compliance difficult.

In an ominous sign of what may be coming, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have traded statements, both saying they aim to bolster each of their nuclear arsenals. It is unclear what they hope to do as far, as building up their WMD arsenals, but the rhetoric around the issue is not going away.

Donald Trump is having a hard time finding people to perform at his inauguration. The Radio City Rockettes have agreed to perform on January 20, in celebration of Trump’s inauguration, while it is still unclear during what part of the festivities they will perform.  

The Trump team has been relatively mum on the issue of a Muslim ban or registry during the transition period. That ended when Trump spoke loud and clear about his plans at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he told reporters: “You know my plans all along.” Referring to the attack in Berlin on a Christmas market, Trump said: “I’ve been proven to be right. One-hundred-percent correct.”

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s last campaign manager and top adviser during the transition, has been tapped as counselor to the president. Many considered Conway a strong choice for Press Secretary, given her visibility among reporters during the campaign. One of her major responsibilities will be to oversee messaging from the White House.

A new study has found that if Donald Trump repeals DACA, which allows hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in the United States to work and study legally, the cost to businesses could be up to $3.4 billion. If DACA is repealed, almost 650,000 people could lose the right to work and study legally in the U.S.

David Simas, Obama’s director of political strategy and outreach, has been chosen to serve as CEO of the Obama Foundation. “In the year ahead, the Obama Foundation will continue the important work of creating a Presidential Center that inspires citizens and communities to take on big challenges,” Simas stated. The nonprofit center, located in Chicago, is the latest indication that Obama intends to engage in political activism after leaving office.

A team of computer-savvy researchers is in a rush to collect all the data they can from the Obama-era that is on .gov websites. The team includes researchers from the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive in California, and the University of North Texas. The archive is called the End of Term Web Archive.

Due, in large part, to Donald Trump's scant advertising on TV, Borrell Associates has said political spending on TV in 2016 was $1 billion lower than in 2012. Despite the decrease in TV ad spend, political spend on digital saw a strong bump, up $1.3 billion. “Digital has hit one of the last protected advertising segments: political,” said Borrell.

Donald Trump was clearly the media winner of 2016. Others during the campaign cycle seriously damaged their reputations. From Billy Bush to Nate Silver to Donna Brazile, many formerly respected celebrities, politicians and media executives are now, unlike the new president-elect, facing questions about their behavior.