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Plus, is Mueller going to interview the president?
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Following the recent protests across Iran and the impending deadlines related to the nuclear deal, President Trump faces a few big choices this week—and on some of them, his staff in the White House still isn’t quite sure what he’s going to do.

Trump is expected to decide once again not to recertify that the Iran deal is in the national security interests of the United States, as he did for the first time in October. That certification decision is required by the federal law governing the U.S. involvement in the deal.

But a set of separate deadlines, starting Wednesday and extending through Saturday, compel the president to determine whether to extend or rescind waivers on sanctions against Iran. The waivers were granted and have been renewed regularly as part of the agreement among the United States, the European Union, and Iran. One administration source says it’s likely—but not guaranteed—that Trump will extend those waivers in a last-straw effort to toughen up enforcement of the deal. Read more...
Mueller Watch—From my colleague Andrew Egger:

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling is continuing to tighten, with NBC News reporting Monday that Mueller has informed the White House that he will seek an interview with the president.

Mueller reportedly told Trump’s legal team he was considering requesting an interview in late December, provoking a discussion among the White House lawyers of how and what kinds of limits Trump could set on such a session—or even whether he could refuse to participate entirely.
President Trump traveled to Nashville Monday to address the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation, touting his administration’s record on economic deregulation and tax reform and offering dire warnings of the policy reversals that Democrats would push for if they take back Congress in November.

“Under our huge tax cuts Americans will be paying less in taxes and keeping more of their own money to do what they want,” Trump said. “I’m truly proud to report that over the first 11 months, my administration has canceled or delayed over 1,500 planned regulatory actions, more than any president in history.” Read more...
Photo of the Day

Donald Trump arrives at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on January 8, 2018. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
2018 Watch—Another day, another Republican House retirement. On Monday Ed Royce, the longtime California Republican and outgoing chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee, announced he would also not seek reelection in November. Royce is the seventh GOP committee chair in the House to say he plans on retiring in 2018, joining nearly 30 Republican congressman overall. That’s not exactly a show of confidence that the party will hold onto its majority following this fall’s midterm elections.
Fred Barnes, on the other hand, thinks Democrats are in danger of counting their eggs before they hatch. “Not everything will be working on behalf of a Democratic victory next fall,” he writes in the current issue of the magazine. Here’s more Barnes:

The biggest drag on their prospects is Democrats themselves, their tactics and their policies. They have allowed their anti-Trump feelings to get out of hand. The party’s liberal base now casts itself as the Resistance. And their chosen tactic, as if they were the Sandinistas of North America, is to resist everything associated with Trump and Republicans in even the tiniest of ways.

This got them nowhere in 2017 and threatens to prevent them from having an impact in Washington this year as well. In Congress, they harass Republicans, slowing down approval of Trump administration officials and judges.

On tax reform, they insisted on veto power over any provision. Republicans weren’t about to accept that, as Democrats must have known. The result was that Democrats played no part in drafting the bill. Not only did blue states suffer, but the individual mandate was eliminated from Obamacare, nearly crippling it.
Here’s one thing to like about The Last Jedi: the score. At the New Yorker, Alex Ross offers an interesting (at least to me) “field guide” to the Star Wars movie scores and how John Williams changed the film score game by adopting leitmotifs as a storytelling tool in big blockbusters.
Oprah Watch—Should Oprah Winfrey run for president? Politico asks the pundits, including our editor at large, Bill Kristol.
Mark It Down—"We welcome the challenge, whether it be Oprah Winfrey or anybody else." —Hogan Gidley, deputy White House press secretary, January 8, 2018
 
Song of the Day— “Dixieland Delight” by Alabama