Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Most Wonderful Time of the Year (?) 🎄

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NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 p.m. ET show, delivered straight to your inbox.

Dateline🐶: Emergency Vet floor — Dutch is having a hard time, so Rachel and I are staying with him in the hospital.

🦴Give your four-legged family members an extra treat for us tonight.
🙏🏼Please forgive an abbreviated War Notes today.
📺I'll see you tonight at 9 p.m. ET, then back to the hospital.

It's the Most Wonderful (?) Time of the Year 🎄

🎅🏽Above all, Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time

🗣️But this is also the time of year people take stock of how they feel
- 💵They decide how much they will spend buying Christmas presents.
- ✈️They are (or are not) going on vacation
- 📊They look to next year and what their family budget looks like

🛍️This is one of the top three shopping weekends before Christmas

JOY🛒: Black Friday shoppers spent around $11.8 billion online shopping this year — that's up 9.1% from last year.
Bah humbug💰: The rich spent a lot more than last year — the rest of America used buy now, pay later
- 🎤"Black Friday 2025's record came from the collision of three forces: wealthy consumers financing discretionary luxury purchases they don't need credit to afford, young consumers financing everything on mobile because that's their primary shopping channel, and financially stressed consumers financing essentials just to maintain baseline consumption," posted Tracy Schuchart, a senior economist at Ninja Trader.

Reality🎁: There are few things more acutely painful for a family than explaining to kids why there won't be a lot of Christmas presents.

✈️When President Trump heads to the battleground state of battleground states (Pennsylvania) next week, he must let Americans know he feels they are hurting.
🗳️A lot of these are going to be families that voted for Trump because he promised to make things better than when they had that conversation two Christmases ago.
- 🤷🏼‍♂️Things are better than two years ago
  - ⬇️Gas prices are down
  - 🔨There is a promise of a massive construction boom
  - 💵There is a promise of tariff rebates
- Together👀: Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Vice President JD Vance all promise an explosion of economic growth and a reduction in prices next year.
IF👀: All of this is on the come — the stock market is a leading indicator — polling is a lagging indicator

‼️That is a problem for Trump and Republicans.

Credibility🤷🏼‍♂️: Democrats face their own problems — especially since the affordability crisis started under Joe Biden.

Plan🗣️: Axios reports Democrat senators will start hammering on affordability.
- ✏️"Schumer wants lawmakers to push legislation aimed at lowering costs in four areas: health care, housing, food and energy."

The Clock⏰: Time stops for no one (or political party)

☀️If things turn around before summer, Democrats will have no time to pivot
⏳If things stay the same or get worse by summer, Republicans will be left with asking for more time

Watch tonight📺: NewsNation Chris Cillizza, Madeline Summerville and Alex Swoyer on how Americans want show, not tell, when it comes to lowering costs.

Accommodation Nation 📝

🎄At Christmas parties across elite America, a magazine and website called The Atlantic is required reading.

Look back🔙: These are the same parties where parents spent the past few decades talking about all the diagnoses and accommodations they have gotten their kids
- ⏱️Extra time on tests
- ✏️Different grading standards
- 🏫Quiet and distraction-free rooms
- 💻Using electronic aids is forbidden for other students

📰Now, The Atlantic is out with an article saying we're a nation of accommodators

🗞️It headlines: "Accommodation Nation"
- 🎤"So many students now take their exams in the school's low-distraction testing outposts that they have become more distracting than the main classrooms," says Juan Collar, a physicist at the University of Chicago.
Even worse🤦🏼‍♂️: The accommodations and diagnosis culture is hurting kids.
- 📝Last week, we showed you a Columbia University paper admitting that accommodations for anxiety were just producing more anxious kids.

Watch tonight📺: Professor Juan Collar from the University of Chicago joins us on how much of the problem is culture vs parents.

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