Trump’s second administration set to be filled with losers

WASHINGTON — For someone who has made winning a key part of his personal, professional and political brand, Donald Trump is set to rely on a large stable of losers in his second term. The president-elect has tapped more than a dozen people who previously lost elections to join his administration next year.

Even though both parties love to deride unsuccessful candidates who run again, the term “loser” doesn’t have to be a pejorative. Losing candidates regularly get elected later, including in the 2014 and 2020 election cycles. It also isn’t a disqualifying factor to serve a president, or even to serve as president.

Of the eight most recent presidential winners, all have had prior election losses on their résumés, including Trump (2020 presidential general election), Joe Biden (1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential primaries), Barack Obama (2000 Democratic primary for U.S. House in Illinois), George W. Bush (1978 House race in Texas), Bill Clinton (1974 House loss and 1980 reelection defeat as Arkansas governor), George H. W. Bush (1964 and 1970 Senate races in Texas and 1980 GOP presidential primary), Ronald Reagan (1976 GOP presidential primary) and Jimmy Carter (1966 Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia).

But the large number of losing candidates potentially coming into the second Trump administration is striking compared with recent presidents.

—CQ-Roll Call

Missouri ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors to continue after judge’s ruling

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri judge on Monday upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, allowing the state to continue prohibiting treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers for people under 18.

Circuit Court Judge Robert Craig Carter from southern Douglas County wrote in a 74-page order on Monday that the ban was constitutional. The ruling rejects a lawsuit brought on behalf of families of trans youth, medical providers and national LGBTQ advocacy organizations.

In addition to ruling that the ban was constitutional, Carter went a step further, finding that there was “an almost total lack of consensus as to the medical ethics” of treating adolescent gender dysphoria, which is typically defined as the feeling of distress when a person’s gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth.

“The evidence at trial showed severe disagreement as to whether adolescent gender dysphoria drug and surgical treatment was ethical at all, and if so, what amount of treatment was ethically allowable,” Carter wrote in the order.

—The Kansas City Star

98% of Illinois residents drink water with fluoride. Why is this mineral’s longtime role being rethought?

One of the most common elements on Earth, fluoride is naturally present in human bodies and water, and common in toothpaste and mouthwash. And for decades, the mineral has been added to the water supplies of thousands of communities across the United States to help prevent dental cavities and decay.

Dental professionals believe this practice is an effective and affordable approach to oral well-being, and consider it among the country’s 10 most significant public health achievements of the 20th century.

Fluoride’s long-standing presence in many public water systems has not gone uncontested, but questions about its safe ingestion have been rekindled with the election of Donald Trump. Former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., named by Trump last week to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has vowed to ban the practice on the federal level.

Kennedy has called fluoride “industrial waste” and linked it to a variety of negative health outcomes — some of which anti-fluoridation advocates have highlighted for decades but many dental professionals say have been debunked.

—Chicago Tribune

Egypt says 17 missing after tourist boat sinks in Red Sea

Egyptian authorities are searching for 17 people missing after a tourist boat sank off the country’s Red Sea coast.

Twenty-eight others have been rescued, Amr Hanafi, the governor of Egypt’s Red Sea governorate, said in a statement. The vessel, identified as the Sea Story, foundered at about 5:30 a.m. Monday in waters near the coastal town of Marsa Allam, he said.

No immediate cause was given. Authorities said the boat’s passengers included nationals of Belgium, Slovakia, Switzerland, the U.S., Spain, the U.K., Germany, Poland, Norway, Ireland, Finland and China. There were also four Egyptian tourists, as well as the local crew.

The boat set off from Marsa Allam on Sunday and was scheduled to arrive at the tourist hub of Hurghada, further north on the coast, on Nov. 29.

—Bloomberg News