| All eyes are on Trump Tower ahead of the great transition | By Washington bureau chief Zoe Daniel
Trump Tower is now the centre of the known universe.
It's there that Donald Trump has been meeting and greeting everyone from former secretary of state Henry Kissinger to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week, as well as vetting a long list of potential cabinet members.
The glistening foyer and golden elevators have also welcomed New York mayor Bill de Blasio, Brexit architect Nigel Farage, former boxing champion (and convicted domestic abuser) Floyd Mayweather and professional skateboarder, Billy Rohan (or so he says).
I know, and no, I cannot explain that.
Our own Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, got a phone call to President-elect Donald Trump via Greg Norman no less.
Meanwhile, long-suffering New Yorkers are navigating their way around road blocks and armed guards as they go about their daily lives.
Welcome to the new normal, until late January that is, when Donald, Melania and 10-year-old Barron will move into their new digs in DC.
I reckon the transition from Penthouse-living on 5th Avenue in the heart of Manhattan to the faux rural White House with its rolling lawns and rose gardens on Pennsylvania Avenue will be quite a shock.
Not to mention taking on the leadership of the free world. There's a lot to do on that front.
PEOTUS (aka President-elect of the United States) has to spill and fill 4,000 government jobs as well as choosing his secretaries of state and defence as well as an attorney-general and appropriate people to head up homeland security, treasury, trade and all the domestic portfolios like health, education, intelligence, housing, environment, agriculture and on and on.
It's a YUGE task.
It's said that presidential changeovers are akin to a $4 trillion corporate takeover.
That's the approximate size of the US budget.
Goes without saying, it's complicated.
Further to that, there's the staffing of the White House which has already triggered consternation with the appointment of former Breitbart boss Stephen Bannon as chief Trump strategist.
Breitbart is a conservative website that has been blamed for fanning far right (and potentially racist) sentiment.
This has therefore raised questions about what kind of tone Mr Bannon may bring to a Trump administration.
House Democrats have been particularly opposed while various defenders have spoken out saying that Mr Bannon is not a racist, nor anti-Semitic.
In fact he has previously said that Breitbart is a 'platform for the Alt-Right' but has denied that he or the news service is racist, xenophobic or misogynist and says that he rejects the ethno-nationalist principles of the Alt-Right.
Here are two pieces on what the Alt-Right is:
Exhibit A from Breitbart itself.
Exhibit B from a random sample of many similar pieces, this one from The LA Times.
I'll leave that with you to ponder.
He said:
"And I say, 'Stop it.' If it -- if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: 'Stop it'," Donald Trump said last Sunday in his first television interview on 60 Minutes since being elected in relation to election-related violence.
She said:
"I will admit, coming here tonight wasn't the easiest thing for me," Hillary Clinton told the crowd at the Children's Defence Fund's "Beat The Odds" Gala on Wednesday night.
WHERE'S BERNIE?
Seemingly everywhere. If he's not giving rousing speeches to the masses, he's promoting his new book and he's also taking a leadership role in sticking the Democratic Party back together.
It's never too late to make an early run for the next election, by which time The Bern will be 79 years old.
Oh and Bernie got more than 18,000 votes for president in Vermont by the way!
THE GREAT STATE OF ... APPALACHIA
A lot has been made of who Donald Trump voters are, where they are and what they are.
Well here's a good geographic profile.
His strongest showing was in Appalachia — a cultural region consisting of around 25 million Americans across 13 states from Mississippi in the south all the way to New York State in the north.
Look how support for Democrats has haemorrhaged in West Virginia, for example, where Bill Clinton won in 1996 — that's an 18-point swing in 20 years.
A TALE OF TWO AMERICAS
The New York Times has visually represented a very divided America in two maps: Trump's America and Clinton's America.
Not surprisingly, it consists of a series of heavily populated islands — the major cities of America for Clinton and the rest of America for Donald Trump.
DEMOCRATIC CRISIS
A month ago, Democrats were scheming a situation where they'd win the White House, the House and the Senate … well, now, they're scrambling for a new chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Check out how Democratic positions of power have tanked since 2008:
BY THE NUMBERS
1,341,642 — That's Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote at the time of writing with about 131.2 million votes counted.
The total number of votes is up 1.7 per cent on the 2012 election. However, Clinton is down nearly a million votes to Trump in the 13 key swing states.
According to The Washington Post, about 107,000 votes in three key states are what cost the former secretary of state the election.
Like we've been saying all year, it was about state races, and that's the way it will be unless America changes its Electoral College system, and can you see that happening? Nope.
LOOKING BACK
Just over 16 years ago, Trump sent this letter to Clinton congratulating her on her election to the US Senate.
Who would've thought we'd end up here now.
BUILD THE WALL ... OF NOTES
Trump has promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border but the first wall to appear since the election is this one in New York.
The art installation is titled "Subway Therapy" and is beneath Manhattan's Union Square.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A NEW GOVERNMENT MAKES ...
Asked for their perceptions on whether the economy is getting better or worse before and after the election, Republicans overwhelmingly told Gallup that the economy is getting better — even though all of the decision-making power still rests with the current President.
Magic!
OBAMA-BIDEN MEMES
It's been described as a Presidential-Bromance between Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden.
Now, their time together in the White House is coming to an end, the mischievous Biden memes are coming in hot and fast.
Here are five of the best:
Tiny hands:
Holding hands:
Pens:
Birth certificate:
Wifi:
WILL WORK FOR CASH
While President-elect Trump is working towards appointing his cabinet (and subsequently the 4,000 or so Federal Government positions that come along with it), there are thousands of Obama administration staffers who are now facing imminent unemployment.
According to Associated Press, the Obama team has brought in representatives from Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to help White House staffers identify ways to market their skills.
Also, Georgetown University (located near the White House) has designed a professional development program called "Future44" (Obama is the 44th president) to help staffers transition into life after the White House.
DOG DAYS
Meanwhile, George W Bush didn't vote for Trump but he did pick a new puppy.
Awwww.
And speaking of random things, check out this bird called Little Red that's taken the internet by storm because of its resemblance to the new PEOTUS.
Still on birds, we may have some cabinet appointments by this time next week when the carving of the turkeys will be underway.
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