Donald Trump's Conservative Dream Team, Why Tennis Players Live Longer, Fidel's Ashes Go on Tour and More

President-elect Donald Trump is inching toward a set of Cabinet picks and other top appointments who are capable of fulfilling several of his campaign promises. As early as Wednesday, Trump is expected to name former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department — a potentially dangerous option to pick an industry insider with no government experience to take charge of the nation's finances.

While many pointed to Mnuchin's ability to rapidly fund raise for the Trump campaign after joining in May as finance chairman, others point out that an ex-Goldman executive is exactly the wrong person to become treasury secretary.

“So much for draining the swamp,” Adam Hodge, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, told The Washington Post. “Trump is already heading into office as the most corrupt, conflicted and unpopular president-elect in history, and now he’s breaking his signature promise to the voters who elected him.”

Top Stories

Trump's Conservative Dream Team: "Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee is a huge critic of public schools and has pushed to steer taxpayer dollars to charter schools and voucher programs. His Health and Human Services pick wants to dismantle Obamacare and privatize Medicare. His attorney general nominee would crack down on 'sanctuary cities' and increase deportations of undocumented immigrants. And his choice to run the CIA believes shutting down 'black site' prisons was a mistake, while his national security adviser contends Islam is a threat to Western civilization." (Politico)

Trump Expected to Name Financier Steve Mnuchin to Treasury: "President-elect Donald Trump is planning to name investor and former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary, opting for an industry insider with no government experience to helm the agency in charge of the nation’s finances, according to people familiar with the matter." (The Washington Post)

Tennis Players Net Longer Lives Than Other Jocks: "Good news for swimmers, tennis players and Zumba dancers: you may be sweating your way to a longer life than other jocks. Swimming, racquet sports and aerobics were associated with the best odds of staving off death from any cause, as well as from heart disease and stroke, in a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine." (New York Daily News)

Cubans Line Streets as Fidel Castro's Ashes Begin Journey: "Fidel Castro's ashes began a four-day journey across Cuba on Wednesday from Havana to their final resting place in the eastern city of Santiago. A small, Cuban-flag covered cedar coffin containing the remains of the 90-year-old leader was taken out of Cuba's Defense Ministry just after 7 a.m. and placed into a flower-bedecked trailer pulled by a green military vehicle for the more than 500-mile (800-kilometer) procession. The ashes will be interred Sunday, ending the nine-day mourning period for the man who ruled the country for nearly 50 years." (AP/ABC)

From the Twitterverse

A meeting turned into dinner:

Today's Numbers

• New York City’s MTA wants to spend $9 million over the next four years on “24/7 social media.”
• Watch humans destroy the Earth in 30 years with Google Earth time lapse.
• Japan is trying to deal with an estimated 541,000 “hikikomori,” young people who avoid school, work and interactions with people outside their families.
• Among pro-Trump registered voters, 79 percent want the wall he promised during the election season actually built.

Quote of the Day

Media personality Sean Hannity on why Donald Trump shouldn't have a White House press office:

“People don’t need them any more. They’re done. I suggested the other day that if any of these organizations were involved in collusion with the Clinton campaign, why do they get a seat in the White House press office? Why does Donald Trump need a White House press office? He doesn’t. You know, you can have a pool person that’s standing by if, God forbid, there’s any bad news about the president that the country needs to know, but his own staff could tweet it out, for crying out loud.”

Allen McDuffee is a politics and policy reporter, investigative journalist, blogger and podcast host. He has written for The Atlantic, Wired and The Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter: @AllenMcDuffee

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons