As honeymoons go, Donald Trump’s wasn’t much to write home about. He was voted in as the most unpopular president-elect in modern history and got slightly less unpopular in the weeks that followed, as the goodwill flowed. Even then, though, he clearly remained the most unpopular president-elect in modern history. Again, that was the honeymoon.

And now it’s over.

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Quinnipiac is the first high-quality pollster to poll on Trump twice since the election. And while its poll in late November showed his favorable rating rising from 34 percent to 44 percent, that number has dropped back to 37 percent, which is about where it stood for much of the campaign. That’s tied for Trump’s worst favorable rating in a poll since his election. And a majority — 51 percent — now have an unfavorable view of him.

Likewise, the Quinnipiac poll shows a drop in confidence in Trump across the board. Although 59 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Trump in November, today that number is 52 percent. While 41 percent thought he would be a better leader than President Obama, it’s now 34 percent. While 52 percent thought he would help the nation's economy, it’s now 47 percent. While 40 percent thought his policies would help their personal financial situation, it’s now 27 percent. While 53 percent thought he’d take the country in the right direction, it’s now 45 percent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/10/this-new-poll-has-all-kinds-of-bad-news-for-donald-trump/?tid=sm_tw_pp&utm_term=.8c5561ac0f7d&wprss=rss_the-fix

The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics on Saturday accused Senate Republicans of rushing confirmations for nominees in President-elect Donald Trump's administration.

In a letter to leading Senate Democrats, Walter Shaub, Jr., the ethics office director, said the busy hearing schedule had overwhelmed his office. He said it had not completed ethics screening reviews on several nominees, which he described as a concern.

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Shaub’s letter to the senators comes just days before the Senate is set to hold a flurry of confirmation hearings beginning on Tuesday. In the letter, Shaub said that the schedule could leave some nominees with “potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues.”

“I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process,” he said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/313175-ethics-office-accuses-gop-of-rushing-trump-cabinet-confirmations

Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who came under scrutiny last year for her office’s dealings with Trump University and President-elect Donald Trump, will take a job in Trump’s White House, according to a person familiar with the decision.

It was not immediately clear what her title would be. Bondi was not among a lengthy list of White House appointments Trump announced on Wednesday.

A Washington watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service last year charging that Trump’s charitable foundation violated its tax-exempt status by making a $25,000 donation to a political group associated with Bondi in 2013. Bondi later decided not to pursue claims by Florida residents that Trump University had defrauded them.

Trump’s foundation paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS last year for the donation to the Bondi-connected group. At the time of its complaint CREW’s board was led by David Brock, who ran two super-PACs backing Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump’s general election opponent.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-05/florida-attorney-general-bondi-said-to-have-job-under-trump

Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former lobbyist whose felony crimes eventually helped lead to the creation of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, ripped House Republicans for their move to gut the independent watchdog.

Abramoff, who emerged from prison as a self-styled ethics reformer, told POLITICO that the House GOP package adopted on Monday is “exactly the opposite of what Congress should be doing.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/house-ethics-panel-jack-abramoff-233126