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White House chief of staff Susie Wiles also said that the Trump team had its own ethics plan, rather than the formal government one, leaving unclear whether all relevant transition aides would be eligible to receive full government briefings that included classified information.
That caveat on the ethics plan dovetailed with reporting by the Guardian that the Trump team is planning for political appointees to receive temporary security clearances on the first day and only face FBI background checks after it had taken over the bureau.
Trump’s lack of interest in engaging with the formal transition stems from the first Trump administration, when officials turned over transition team records to the Russia investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump has previously broken convention with the transfer of power. In 2016, his campaign organized what appeared to be a standard process, until Trump fired his transition team’s leadership after he won the election and cut off communications with the Obama administration.
In 2020, Trump again seemed to follow standard procedure until immediately after the election, pressuring the General Services Administration to not recognize Joe Biden’s election win so his team could not access the federal financial assistance.
Here is more on the Trump transition team finally signing a memo to start the process of transitioning from the Biden administration.
Signing the MOU normally unlocks up to $7.2m in government funding to help staffing costs and other expenses, as well as the use of government office space through the nonpartisan General Services Administration.
The financial assistance comes with strings attached – the transition team has to agree to disclose its donors and impose a $5,000 limit on contributions – and the agreement was supposed to be signed months before the election.
The transition team is normally supposed to sign an ethics agreement, which paves the way for transition aides to start receiving government information such as classified briefings and the granting of security clearances.
The announcement by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in a press release suggested that the Trump team had negotiated its own language around some of those restrictions.
While the Trump team was committed to making the identities of its donors public, and would not accept any foreign contributions, Wiles said that it would not be using any government money and its entire operation would be privately funded.
Government ethics experts have previously noted that such an arrangement would allow people seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House to donate directly to him, raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest.
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A little more information now on that Bloomberg report that Trump is expected to name Jamieson Greer as the US Trade Representative.
Greer, an attorney who has practised international trade law, served as chief of staff to the USTR Robert Lighthizer during the first Trump administration.
Trump has already announced Howard Lutnick as his choice for commerce secretary. Lutnick will have “direct responsibility” for the Office of the US Trade Representative, he said last week.
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Three weeks after Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, the state moved a step closer to allowing it Tuesday when a judge ruled that the petitions that put the question on the ballot were valid, the Associated Press reports.
The decision by Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong was a victory for advocates of medical marijuana, but opponents are likely to appeal it to the state supreme court.
“To prevail in this action, the plaintiff and Secretary had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the legalisation Petition and 3,357 signatures on the Regulatory Petition are invalid. The Plaintiff and Secretary are well short,” Strong wrote. Fewer than 1,000 signatures on each petition were shown to be invalid.
A spokesperson for the Nebraska attorney general said the office’s lawyers were reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal.
More than two-thirds of Nebraska voters supported legalisation at the polls on 5 November. The results are scheduled to be certified on 2 December.
Here is Biden announcing that Israel and Hezbollah have accepted a ceasefire deal, which will commence at 4am local time on Wednesday:
Bloomberg reports that Trump is preparing to announce Jamieson Greer as United States Trade Representative. It cites people familiar with the matter.
Politico, in a previous article on who Trump might choose, wrote of Greer, “Despite helping to upend global trade paradigms, Greer is well respected by both parties in Washington, industry groups and foreign governments. Since leaving office, he has served as a point of contact in Washington for foreign dignitaries seeking insight about what a second Trump term would mean for trade. He is a partner for international trade at the King & Spalding law firm.”
Tim Walz accepted the symbolic presentation of a turkey Tuesday as he eases back into his duties as Minnesota’s governor following the Harris-Walz ticket’s defeat in the presidential election, the Associated Press reports.
Unlike the Minnesota-grown turkeys that President Joe Biden pardoned at the White House on Monday, Walz didn’t pardon this turkey, he said, “because in Minnesota we know turkeys are delicious.”
The 41.8-pounder (19 kilograms) named Tom was raised by Paisley VonBerge, a Future Farmers of America leader from Hutchinson, and it will star in her family’s Thanksgiving dinner.
“After today, this bird will go back to my farm to be enjoyed the way that turkeys are intended,” Paisley said.
“That is very Minnesotan,” Walz added to loud laughter. “We don’t hide the fact we love our turkeys.”
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Today So Far
Thanks for joining us so far today. Here’s a short summary of the biggest headlines we’ve covered today:
Speaking at an emergency gathering of the Canadian parliament today, prime minister Justin Trudeau urged unity while members of the country’s conservative and new democratic parties called for Canada First policies and preparations for a trade war in response to Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs. Earlier in the day, Trudeau said he had “a good call” with the US president-elect.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to Trump, warning him that his pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “To one tariff will come another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference earlier today.
Speaking from the White House, Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. “Under the deal reached today, effective at 4am tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end,” he said. “This is designed to be a permanent cesation of hostility.”
The White House has confirmed that the incoming Trump administration has signed transition paperwork, called the White House memorandum of understanding. Trump’s team declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, and negotiations are still ongoing regarding an agreement with the Department of Justice.
Speaking in Eagle Pass, Texas today, Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” promised to secure the Texas-Mexico border. Tom Homan praised Operation Lone Star, a $11 billion border security initiative, and pledged to fight Democratic governors and mayors who try to block Trump’s proposed mass deportations.
A federal judge rejected Rudy Giuliani’s request to reschedule a January trial date for after Donald Trump’s inauguration.
A day after Elon Musk claimed to have met with “senior military officers,” the Pentagon told reporters it was not aware of any meetings with Trump transition officials, the Washington Post reports.
Research by ING has estimated that if the costs of the new tariffs are fully passed on to consumers, then Americans will face having to pay $2,400 more per capita annually for goods. The report says that also taking into account potential labour shortages due to Trump’s plans to crackdown on immigration – with a vow to stage the “largest deportation operation in American history” – there could be a 1% increase in inflation in the US.
Donald Trump is expected to name Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, Bloomberg and Politico report. Hassett served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first administration and has supported Republican tariff proposals. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Trump's incoming 'border czar' promises secure border in Texas visit
Speaking in Eagle Pass, Texas today, Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” promised to secure the Texas-Mexico border. Tom Homan spoke to Texas State Guard members and state troopers alongside Texas governor Greg Abbott and the head of the US Customs and Border Protection union.
“It’s a shame the taxpayers of Texas had to spend billions of dollars to do the job this administration would not do,” Homan said, referencing Operation Lone Star, a $11 billion border security initiative. Under the incoming Trump administration, Homan said “we’re going to secure this nation to the highest level ever seen.”
Referencing steps Democratic governors and mayors are taking to prepare for Trump’s second presidency, and possibly block Trump’s proposed mass deportations, Homan said: “Don’t cross that line. Don’t test us.”
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Trump team signs transition paperwork, White House confirms
The White House has confirmed that the incoming Trump administration has signed transition paperwork, called the White House memorandum of understanding.
Trump’s team declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, and negotiations are still ongoing regarding an agreement with the Department of Justice.
White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said the White House and General Services Administration “repeatedly made the case” to Trump’s team to sign the agreements beginning in September.
Joe Biden and his chief of staff reiterated the importance of the transition agreements, which allow confidential briefings to begin, in a 13 November Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump and his chief of staff Susie Wiles, CNN reports. Biden’s chief of staff emphasized the importance of the agreement in a second meeting with Wiles on 19 November.
The White House agreement “will allow for certain, authorized members of the Trump transition team to have access to agency and White House employees, facilities, and information,” said Sharma.
By refusing to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration, the Trump transition team will forgo federal funding, equipment, office space and security.
Updated
In an election post-mortem today, top Harris campaign officials said there was little else Kamala Harris could have done to win the 2024 election.
Speaking on the podcast “Pod Save America”, David Plouffe, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Stephanie Cutter said Harris couldn’t have distanced herself further from Joe Biden because she was loyal and faced backlash over inflation that’s hurt incumbent politicians across the globe this year.
“She had tremendous loyalty to President Biden,” Cutter said. “Imagine if we said, ‘Well, we would have taken this approach on the border.’ Imagine the round of stories coming out after that, of people saying, ‘Well, she never said that in the meeting.’”
Plouffe added that the campaign’s internal polling never showed Harris leading president-elect Donald Trump.
“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”
Fulks noted that Democrats could learn from how Republicans support their own, even amid controversy.
“Democrats are eating our own to a very high degree, and until that stops, we’re not going to be able to address a lot of the things that just need to be said,” he said.
During a thank-you call today, Kamala Harris told small-dollar donors that they helped to raise $1.4 billion over the course of her 107-day campaign.
“The outcome of the election, of this election, obviously, is not what we wanted. It is not what we worked so hard for, but I am proud of the race we ran and your role was critical — what we did in 107 days was unprecedented,” she said. “The fight that fueled our campaign, a fight for freedom and opportunity, did not end on November 5th.”
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, joined the call and urged supporters to “find the place in your community to heal both yourselves and your community.” He acknowledged feels of grief that supporters might be feeling and added, “You did everything that was asked.”
Donald Trump’s team has announced that it has signed transition paperwork with the White House, which the incoming administration appeared to be dodging after failing to sign the agreement by its 1 October due date. The agreement, which directs $7.2m in federal funding to the transition, requires the incoming presidential administration to agree to an ethics pledge and cap private donations.
The announcement that Trump’s team had signed the memorandum of understanding with the White House came in a press release from Trump’s chief-of-staff Susie Wiles.
“After completing the selection process of his incoming Cabinet, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition by executing a Memorandum of Understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House. This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” she said.
Biden says Israel and Hezbollah have accepted ceasefire deal
Speaking from the White House, Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Under the deal reached today, effective at 4am tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end,” he said. “This is designed to be a permanent cesation of hostility.”
Explaining the terms of the deal, Biden said, the Lebanese army will take control of the region as Israel withdraws its forces over the next 60 days. Hezbollah will not be allowed to rebuild its infrastructure. “There will be no US troops deployed in southern Lebanon,” he said, adding that the US and France would continue to provide support to Lebanon. If Lebanon fails to abide by the terms of the agreement, Biden said, Israeli retains the right to defend itself.
“Now Hamas has a choice to make,” Biden said, gesturing to the ongoing war in Gaza. “Over the coming days, the United States will make another push - with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and others – to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Updated
Pentagon rebuts Musk's claim of meeting with 'senior military officers' - report
A day after Elon Musk claimed to have met with “senior military officers,” the Pentagon told reporters it was not aware of any meetings with Trump transition officials, the Washington Post reports.
“The president-elect’s transition team has not contacted the department yet to conduct those transitions, so I’m not aware of any official meetings,” Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder told reporters. Donald Trump’s transition team has declined to sign paperwork that would require the incoming administration to agree to an ethics pledge and cap private donations, which has slowed the transition.
Yesterday, Musk claimed to have met with “senior military officers today” in a social media post responding to a statement from Vivek Ramaswamy about government efficiency.
“In a meeting with senior military officers today, they told me that it now takes longer to renovate stairs (24 months) in the Pentagon than it took to build the WHOLE Pentagon (16 months) in the 1940s!!” Musk wrote.
Updated
Speaking at an emergency gathering of the Canadian parliament today, Justin Trudeau urged unity while leaders of two of the country’s largest industrial and oil-rich provinces raised concerns over US-Canada relations, Reuters reports.
The premier of Ontario, the country’s industrial heartland, said Trump had good reason to be worried about border security.
“Do we need to do a better job on our borders? 1,000 percent ... we do have to listen to the threat of too many illegals crossing the border,” Doug Ford told reporters. “We have to squash the illegal drugs, the illegal guns.”
Ford has called on Trudeau to abandon the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal in favor of a bilateral agreement with the US, and called Trump’s comparison of Canada to Mexico “the most insulting thing I have ever heard”.
Likewise, the premier of the oil-rich province of Alberta said yesterday that Trump had valid concerns over border security.
“We are calling on the federal government to work with the incoming administration to resolve these issues immediately, thereby avoiding any unnecessary tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.,” Danielle Smith said in a social media post. She added, “The vast majority of Alberta’s energy exports to the U.S. are delivered through secure and safe pipelines which do not in any way contribute to these illegal activities at the border.”
A federal judge has rejected Rudy Giuliani’s request to reschedule a January trial date for after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The judge has ordered Giuliani to pay two Georgia election workers $148 million for spreading falsehoods after the 2020 election. The 16 January trial had been set to determine whether Giuliani would have to relinquish assets such as a Palm Beach condo and Yankees World Series rings to pay the judgement.
“My client regularly consults and deals directly with President-elect Trump on issues that are taking place as the incoming administration is afoot as well as inauguration events,” Giuliani’s attorney Joseph Cammarata said. “My client wants to exercise his political right to be there.”
“The defendant’s social calendar does not constitute good cause [to delay the trial],” US District Court Judge Lewis Liman said. He did suggest that he would be open to moving the trial forward a few days.
Justin Trudeau under pressure to stand up to Trump on tariffs
Other members of Canada’s parliament are calling on prime minister Justin Trudeau to ready a “war room” for the coming battle over tariffs with the United States.
“The only thing a bully responds to is strength. So where is our plan to fight back?” Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, asked Trudeau. “Where is the war room?”
“I don’t think the idea of going to war with the United States is what anyone wants. What we will do is stand up for Canadian jobs,” Trudeau said. “Stand up for the prosperity we create when we work together.”
Meanwhile, members of Canada’s liberal and conservative parties are debating ways Trudeau could promote a “Canada First” policy or work collaboratively with “our US partner.”
Updated
Canadian PM questioned on Trump's tariff plans
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is discussing the United States’ proposed tariffs with the leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilievre, before the Canadian parliament. Poilievre has criticized Trudeau, calling on him to “put Canada first” in its relations with the United States and do more to fix Canada’s “broken borders” and “liberalization of drugs”.
“The prime minister’s disastrous legalization and liberalization of drugs has the Americans worried,” Poilievre said. “Where’s the plan to stop the drugs and keep our border open to trade?”
Updated
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is expected to speak shortly at today’s gathering of the nation’s parliament, just a day after Donald Trump threatened to levy 25% tariffs against the US’s northern neighbor.
Trudeau spoke with Trump earlier today, and said “it was a good call,” adding that they “obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth.”
Trump missed Kim?
Donald Trump’s team is discussing pursuing direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, hoping a fresh diplomatic push can lower the risks of armed conflict, according to two people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports.
Several in Trump’s team now see a direct approach from Trump, to build on a relationship that already exists, as most likely to break the ice with Kim, years after the two traded insults and what Trump called “beautiful” letters in an unprecedented diplomatic effort during his first term in office, the people said.
The policy discussions are fluid and no final decisions have been made by the president-elect, the sources said.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
What reciprocation Kim will offer Trump is unclear. The North Koreans ignored four years of outreach by outgoing president Joe Biden to start talks with no pre-conditions, and Kim is emboldened by an expanded missile arsenal and a much closer relationship with Russia.
We have already gone as far as we can on negotiating with the United States,” Kim said last week in a speech at a Pyongyang military exhibition, according to state media.
During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump held three meetings with Kim, in Singapore, Hanoi, and at the Korean border, the first time a sitting US president had set foot in the country.
Their diplomacy yielded no concrete results, even as Trump described their talks as falling “in love.” The US called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, while Kim demanded full sanctions relief, then issued new threats.
North Korea has sent troops to fight alongside Russia in its war with Ukraine.
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Trump tariffs on crude oil imports threatens higher gas prices for US motorists
Donald Trump’s pledge to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports in his first day in office does not exempt crude oil from the trade penalties, two sources familiar with the plan told Reuters today.
Oil producers already warned that tariffs on crude would drive up the price of gas for US motorists, the FT reported earlier.
“A 25% tariff on oil and natural gas would likely result in lower production in Canada and higher gasoline and energy costs to American consumers while threatening North American energy security,” Lisa Baiton, head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, told the business-focussed newspaper.
In the vagaries of the markets and geopolitics, oil prices rose earlier on news of Trump’s tariffs pledge, over predictions they would discourage production, thereby raising prices, but now have dropped slightly, Reuters reports, on news of a pending ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, apparently because Wall Streeters, leaping 10 steps ahead, imagine it could lead to a relaxing of sanctions on Iran and therefore a glut of oil supply, suppressing prices….
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Interim summary
Hello, US politics blog readers, it’s been a lively day for news so far, and we’ll continue to bring you all the developments as they happen.
Here’s where things stand:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he spoke to Donald Trump about potential tariffs on Canadian exporters to the US. This after Trump laid out his vision for tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China on the Truth Social social media platform last night, which would see the US’s neighbors to the north and south get slapped with 25% tariffs, special fees, essentially, on all of their exports to the US in the new administration. Trudeau said he had “a good call” with the US president-elect. Many today view leaders as seeing this more as the opening salvo of a negotiation than an ultimatum from Trump.
Tom Homan, Trump’s pick for what would be a newly-created position of ‘border czar’ is visiting the US-Mexico border today with Texas governor Greg Abbott. Both republicans are fiercely anti-immigration in favor of mass deportation of undocumented people in the US, and are longtime Trump loyalists. Homan told Fox News that he is willing to jail the mayor of Denver, Colorado, Mike Johnston, for saying he would resist federal attempts in a Trump administration to round up people for deportation in his city.
Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the White House said. “The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election. He and the first lady are going to honor that promise and attend the inauguration,” the White House’s senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told reporters yesterday.
Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, suggests that the country could retaliate with tariffs of its own against the US and international observers believe such a stance could indicate that Trump faces a much different Mexican leader than he did in his first term, 2016-2020. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whom Sheinbaum succeeded earlier this year, ended up quite chummy with Trump. They struck a deal in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border with the US – and received other countries’ deported migrants from the US – and Trump backed down on tariff threats against Mexico in return. Sheinbaum might not be so acquiescent.
Sheinbaum said she will send a letter to Trump to warn him that his pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “To one tariff will come another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference earlier today.
Trump argues that tariffs will not only bring more production back to the US but will also coerce Mexico and China, in particular, to crackdown on migrants heading for the US-Mexico border and on illicit fentanyl producers, dealers and smugglers who then get the addictive and dangerous opioid taken into the US for sale on the illegal market. Meanwhile a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said that the US should not “take China’s goodwill for granted” in counternarcotics cooperation and that “fentanyl is an issue for the US”.
The Canadian province of Quebec’s premier, François Legault, says Canada must do “everything possible” to avoid Trump imposing a tariff of 25% on Canadian products. In a post on X, he said the move by Trump “poses an enormous risk to the Quebec and Canadian economies”. He calls for border integrity to be a federal government priority. Earlier, Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, said tariffs would be “devastating” to workers and jobs in the US and Canada.
Research by ING has estimated that if the costs of the new tariffs are fully passed on to consumers, then Americans will face having to pay $2,400 more per capita annually for goods. The report says that also taking into account potential labour shortages due to Trump’s plans to crackdown on immigration – with a vow to stage the “largest deportation operation in American history” – there could be a 1% increase in inflation in the US.
Beijing has told Trump that “nobody will win in a trade war” after the president-elect vowed to sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all products coming in to the United States from Mexico and Canada, with additional tariffs on China.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing his nation and the world now over ceasefire talks that could end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken a little earlier, at a G7 meeting in Italy, said he was hopeful of a ceasefire and also that it could help bring on in Israel’s war in Gaza, following the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that was lead by the Hamas group that controls the besieged Palestinian territory.
Hamas and Hezbollah are powerful proxies of Iran in the Middle East. Both are categorized as terrorist organizations by the United States.
You can follow all the developments in our global live blog, with my US colleague Léonie Chao-Fong at the helm. Click here.
Updated
Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin has in a video released today personally invited incoming Trump administration officials and workers to move to Virginia instead of Washington DC, touting lower taxes and better schools.
“To the new members of President Trump’s administration moving to the area, I want to personally invite you to make Virginia your home,” Youngkin said. “Virginia is right across the Potomac. We offer a great quality of life, safe communities, award-winning schools where parents matter.”
Since US house representative Michael Waltz was tapped as Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Florida state senator Randy Fine announced today he intends to run for his seat to represent Florida’s 6th district.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Fine has his “Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, RANDY, RUN!”
Trump added Fine “will be an INCREDIBLE Fighter who will work tirelessly with me to Stop Inflation, Grow our Economy, Secure the Border, Champion our Military/Vets, Restore American Energy DOMINANCE, Protect our always under siege Second Amendment, and Restore PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
Fine indicated his intention to be a vocal supporter for strong US-Israel relations should he be elected to Congress.
“Donald J. Trump needs fighters who will Make America Wealthy Again, Make America Safe Again, and someone who will stand up for Israel. That is why today I’m announcing my candidacy for FL 6th Congressional District,” Fine wrote in Facebook post.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he spoke to Donald Trump about potential tariffs on Canada
Trump laid out his vision for tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China on the Truth Social social media platform last night, which would see the US’s neighbors to the north get slapped with 25% tariff on all of its exports to the US.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump wrote.
Roughly 77% of Canadian exports go to the US, according to the Toronto Region board of trade. Trade experts warned of sweeping economic consequences for all those involved.
Trudeau hopped on a call with the president-elect today, and afterward said “it was a good call,” adding that they “obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth.”
Homan was the architect of the family separation policy when he led ICE during Trump’s first presidential term, which meant authorities were permitted to separate parents and legal guardians from minors held in immigration detention so that they could prosecuted.
When questioned about policies in the previous Trump administration that led to family separation in CBS interview, Homan said there was a simple solution: “Families can be deported together.”
Trump's border czar nominee to visit US-Mexico border with Texas governor
Trump’s pick for border czar, Tom Homan, is visiting the US-Mexico border today with Texas governor Greg Abbott.
Both republicans are immigration hawks and longtime Trump loyalists.
Homan told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he is willing to jail Denver Mayor Mike Johnston for protesting his mass deportation.
The acting former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said: “Me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing – he’s willing to go to jail. I’m willing to put him in jail because there there’s a statute. It’s Title 8 United States Code 1324 (iii). And what it says is it’s a felony if you knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. It’s also a felony to impede a federal law enforcement officer.”
Homan is also a former Heritage Foundation fellow and Project 2025 contributor.
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Donald Trump’s transition team is planning for all cabinet picks to receive sweeping security clearances from the president-elect and only face FBI background checks after the incoming administration takes over the bureau and its own officials are installed in key positions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move appears to mean that Trump’s team will continue to skirt FBI vetting and may not receive classified briefings until Trump is sworn in on 20 January and unilaterally grant sweeping security clearances across the administration.
Trump’s team has regarded the FBI background check process with contempt for months, a product of their deep distrust of the bureau ever since officials turned over transition records to the Russia investigation during the first Trump presidency, the people said.
But delaying FBI vetting could also bring ancillary PR benefits for the Trump team if some political appointees run into problems during a background check, which could upend their Senate confirmation process, or if they struggle to obtain security clearances once in the White House.
Read more
Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the White House said.
“The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election. He and the first lady are going to honor that promise and attend the inauguration,” the White House’s senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told reporters on Monday.
10 observations and ramifications about Trump's tariff announcement
Deutsche Bank has published ten conclusions, ramifications and observations following Donald Trump’s announcement of the impending imposition of a 25% tariff on products from Mexico and Canada, and 10% on Chinese imports, that he intends to make policy when he formally enters the White House on 20 January.
1. Free trade agreements (FTAs) are not safe
Canada and Mexico are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) which was negotiated by Trump himself. It is clear that even countries with existing agreements with the US can be subject to tariffs.
2. Right after the Treasury Secretary announcement
Tariffs are being announced just a few hours after the nomination of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. This is pushback to the argument that tariffs are taking a backseat to the Trump agenda.
3. The tariffs cover 40% of total US trade
While only limited to three countries, the impact is economically large at it applies to America’s three largest trading partners after the Euro-area.
4. Presidential authority, for now
It is explicitly mentioned that executive authority will be used to impose these tariffs rather than the legislative route. We suspect that the most likely avenue will the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).
5. Tactical and transactional, for now
The announcement is only targeted at three countries and leaves the prospect of tariff removal open. There is no mention of tariffs as a strategic tool to deal with trade imbalances or as a revenue-raiser.
The optimistic take is that this means that some of the most extreme scenarios under universal tariffs will not happen. The pessimistic interpretation (which we favour) is that this is an opening salvo and the targeted focus on immigration and drugs is required to trigger broad-based executive authority under the IEEPA.
6. Watch the China legislation in Congress
Just last week a new bill was submitted to the Senate removing permanent trade relations with China and targeting 50%-100% tariffs. There is already a similar bill in the US House of Representatives. For us, whether the tariff discussion turns strategic via legislation is a big outstanding question to be resolved.
7. Beware complex supply chains
EUR/USD is reacting with relief that no mention of European trade was made. But note for example that German car manufacturers have huge production capacity in Mexico that is then on-sold to the US. Also note the complex inter-play of Chinese and Mexico trade which makes the negative impact of tariffs on Mexico even bigger.
8. Canada most under-priced
The Canadian dollar has had the largest risk-adjusted weakening move since the tariffs were announced. Canada is the most vulnerable developed market country to extra tariffs but also the least under-priced in terms of risks.
9. The softer the market reaction, the greater the likelihood of more tariffs
The equity market reaction has so far been very benign, we would argue likely on the back of the transactional interpretation. That US domestic small-caps have been leading the recent market rally also helps reduce the impact.
The first Trump administration showed that the more benign the market reaction, the greater the likelihood of further escalation.
10. Truth Social is the new avenue for announcements
During the first Trump administration, it was Twitter. Market participants need to be watching the President’s new social media platform now.
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Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum’s suggestion that the country could retialiate with tariffs of its own could indicate that Donald Trump faces a much different Mexican leader than he did in his first term.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former Mexican president, was a charismatic, old-school politician who developed a chummy relationship with Trump, according to Associated Press.
The two were eventually able to strike a deal in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border – and received other countries’ deported migrants – and Trump backed down on the threats.
But Sheinbaum, who took office in October, is a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appears less willing to pacify or mollify Trump, AP writes.
Donald Trump has quickly tapped big donors and political allies for top posts to roll back environmental and health regulations, cut taxes and government spending in ways that will benefit key backers, say government watchdogs.
Armed with blueprints to expand presidential power in aggressive ways and backed by a bevy of billionaire donors and ultra loyalists who helped him win, the president-elect’s transactional style of awarding powerful posts to backers such as X owner Elon Musk, or allies of others such as fracking mogul Harold Hamm, is seen as “unprecedented”, and will likely boost their bottom lines, say critics.
Among the super-rich donors helping shape the president-elect’s administration, no one seems to loom larger than Musk, who gave some $200m to a pro-Trump Super Pac.
Musk has become a ubiquitous adviser to Trump who tapped him to co-chair an outside federal advisory panel on “government efficiency”, an effort fraught with conflicts given the billions of dollars in government contracts that Musk’s companies now boast.
Mexican president to warn Trump tariffs will cause inflation and job losses
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said she will send a letter to Donald Trump to warn him that his pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will cause inflation and job losses in both countries.
“To one tariff will come another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
She said she would send the letter later in the day to the US president-elect urging dialogue and cooperation following his announcement on Monday.
Sheinbaum added that her administration had always shown Mexico’s willingness to help fight the fentanyl epidemic in the US and that apprehensions of migrants at the border were down and that migrant caravans were no longer arriving at the shared border.
Criminal gangs in Mexico were still receiving guns in the US, she said, adding that the region’s shared challenges required cooperation, dialogue and reciprocal understanding.
“We do not produce weapons, we do not consume the synthetic drugs. Unfortunately we have the people who are being killed by crime that is responding to the demand in your country,” she said.
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Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, has warned that Europe must prepare for Donald Trump to impose hefty tariffs on its exports and stick together to combat any such measures.
“We have to be prepared for the fact that something similar could also happen to Europe or Germany,” Habeck told a business conference in Berlin on Tuesday, AFP reported.
Trump’s tariffs announcement on Monday indicates that his previous campaign threats to hit goods from across the world with higher tariffs should be taken seriously, he said.
“The EU must react to this in a united manner (and) speak together as Europe,” he said, adding that EU leaders should seek dialogue before considering retaliatory measures.
“It must be made clear that in the end everyone loses” from tariffs, including the US, he said.
China tells US not to take 'goodwill' for granted on narcotics fight
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said that the US should not “take China’s goodwill for granted” in counternarcotics cooperation and that “fentanyl is an issue for the US”.
The spokesperson was responding to US president-elect Donald Trump’s statement that he would be imposing tariffs of 10% on Chinese imports as a punishment for “massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States” from China.
In 2019, at the behest of the US, China scheduled all forms of fentanyl, the only major country to do so on a permanent basis.
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Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on all products coming into the US from Canada, Mexico and China would have serious implications for American industries, the New York Times writes.
Affected industries would include auto manufacturers, farmers and food packagers, which busily ship parts, materials and finished goods across US borders, the paper writes.
Mexico, China and Canada together account for more than a third of the goods and services imported and exported by the US, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.
The costs could be particularly high for the industries that depend on the tightly integrated North American market, which has been knit together by a free-trade agreement for over three decades … That, in turn, could cause spiking prices and shortages for consumers in the United States and elsewhere, in addition to bankruptcies and job losses.
Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s pick for treasury secretary in his upcoming administration, would be one of several officials responsible for imposing tariffs on other countries.
Bessent has on several occasions said tariffs are a means of negotiation, according to Associated Press. In a Fox News op-ed last week, he wrote that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy objectives”.
“Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to US exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.”
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Analysis: what would US trade tariffs mean for Canada?
The imposition of 25% tariffs on Canada, particularly if they come suddenly, would be shattering to the Canadian economy, writes Chris Michael.
More than three-quarters of all of Canada’s exports go to the US – almost $600bn worth – including energy, lumber and auto parts. Successive decades of free trade have knitted the two countries together more or less seamlessly.
Canada would also likely retaliate, imposing tariffs of its own on US goods, driving up the cost of imported American items. Making matters worse for Canadians would be if the Canadian dollar falls as a result – and it has already taken an immediate hit, dropping about 1 cent against the US dollar following Trump’s announcement.
A 25% tariff on all goods would set off by far the largest trade war between the two allies – dwarfing the last one he started. In 2018, the first time Trump was president, he imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, before eventually relenting about a year later. Those tariffs pitted the US against all its major trading partners including the EU, China, Canada and Mexico.
Trump has often attacked Canada’s own protectionist policies, including calling Canadian quotas in the dairy industry a “disgrace” and blaming it for widespread hardship among US farmers – even though the American problem has been persistent overproduction that leads US farms to dump tens of millions of gallons of surplus milk.
In his first term, he pushed to renegotiate Nafta – the North American Free Trade Agreement – which many voters in the Rust belt states he won in 2016 blamed for gutting their manufacturing economies and sending factory jobs to Mexico and Canada. The three countries agreed on some substantial tweaks, and renamed the treaty the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
That deal itself now looks to be in tatters.
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Quebec’s premier, François Legault, says Canada must do “everything possible” to avoid Donald Trump imposing a tariff of 25% on Canadian products.
In a post on X, he said the move by Trump “poses an enormous risk to the Quebec and Canadian economies”.
He calls for border integrity to be a federal government priority.
Earlier, Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, said tariffs would be “devastating” to workers and jobs in the US and Canada.
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Two-thirds of Americans think Donald Trump’s tariff plans will only add to rising costs if implemented, and many are planning purchases ahead of his inauguration anticipating higher prices, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian.
Trump has called tariffs the most “beautiful word in the dictionary”, yet about 69% of Americans think tariffs on imports will lead to higher prices, according to the poll.
The majority of Democrats (79%), independents (68%) and Republicans (59%) all believe that tariffs will increase the prices of the goods they pay for in the US. Nearly the same percentage of respondents said that tariffs will have a significant effect on what they can afford.
The Harris poll raises questions about the popularity of one of Trump’s key economic policy platforms. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump called for a broad 20% tariff on all foreign imports and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports.
Donald Trump has used the fentanyl crisis gripping the US to support his ambition to impose trade tariffs on China. It gives the incoming US president an opportunity to both appear to be addressing the narcotics emergency, while also reinforcing one of his key aims in terms of US trade.
China is the dominant source of chemical precursors used by Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl, while Chinese money launderers have also become key players in the international drug trade, US authorities say.
The Biden administration has attempted to crack down on both but diplomacy has yielded modest results. That has frustrated some US security officials and China hawks, Reuters says in a detailed report, who say the pressure must be increased on Beijing. They say the quickest way for Washington to get China’s attention is to sanction Chinese banks doing business with money launderers and corrupt chemical sellers.
Foreign banks hit with US sanctions can’t engage with American financial institutions or access the US dollar, severely curtailing their ability to transact business internationally. It’s a weapon that has been wielded against financial institutions in Iran and Russia, but never against banks in Mexico and China tied to drug trafficking.
A plan formulated by David Asher, a top former US anti-money laundering official and circulated in Trump transition circles, calls for criminal indictments of major Chinese and Mexican financial institutions allegedly laundering money for the cartels; mass sanctions on Chinese companies and people implicated in the fentanyl trade; beefed-up bounties on most-wanted traffickers; cyber warfare against Mexican cartels; and a US intelligence agency focus on fentanyl that’s commensurate with the war on terrorist organizations.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to designate Mexico’s drug cartels as terrorist groups and harness the US military to destroy them. But it’s not clear if Trump is willing to move beyond tariffs on Chinese goods.
There is growing consensus in Republican circles close to Trump that Beijing has exploited the synthetic opioid epidemic to harm Americans. They point to a bipartisan report issued in April by the House of Representatives’ select committee on China that calls that nation the “ultimate geographic source” of the fentanyl crisis. The report alleges that Beijing provides tax rebates to Chinese companies that export fentanyl chemicals.
Beijing has repeatedly dismissed the claims in that report. The Chinese Embassy said “the idea of China using fentanyl as a means to strategically weaken the US runs completely counter to facts and reality.”
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What Trump has announced on tariffs
In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump has announced he will apply new trade taxes on a number of the US’s closest trading partners from day one of his second term.
Trump has said that, as soon as he gets into office, he will impose a 25% tariff on “ALL products coming into the United States” from Mexico and Canada.
He says the tariffs will remain in place until both countries clamp down on migrants and drugs crossing the border into the US.
Trump also says he will impose a further 10% tariff “above any additional tariffs” on all products coming into the US from China.
It was not entirely clear what this would mean for China as Trump has previously pledged to end China’s most-favoured-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% - much higher than those imposed during his first term.
The reasons for the China tariff, Trump said, was their failure to curb the supply of drugs into the US. China is a major producer of the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.
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Joe Biden is to propose expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs for millions on Medicare and Medicaid, which could cut out-of-pocket expenses for some by as much as 95%, a White House official said on Tuesday.
This would enable more Americans to afford new weight loss medications that can help prevent type 2 diabetes and lower the risk of death and heart attacks by up to 20%, but cost as much as $1,000 a month without insurance coverage, Reuters reported.
Current rules for the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs cover the use of drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy for certain conditions like diabetes, but not for obesity as a condition on its own.
A new proposed regulation, to be published by the Department of Health and Human Services later on Tuesday, would require Medicare to cover these drugs as a treatment for obesity, expanding access for an estimated 3.4 million Americans with Medicare.
It would also ensure access to the medications for approximately four million adult Medicaid enrollees, the White House official said.
Reuters reported earlier this month that intense demand for anti-obesity drugs has triggered supply issues, with many patients turning to cheaper compounded versions sold online.
Trump considering naming AI czar but Musk not in frame, reports say
Away from the trade tariff news, Donald Trump is considering naming an “AI czar” in the White House to coordinate federal policy and governmental use of artificial intelligence, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
Tesla chief Elon Musk will not be the AI czar, but is expected to be involved in shaping the future of the debate and use cases, the report added.
Germany’s vice-chancellor Robert Habeck has urged the European Union to seek talks with the US to ward off a damaging trade war following Donald Trump’s vow to impose trade tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Habeck says the EU must “respond united, and not tear itself apart into two or three blocs of countries but speak as a united Europe”.
“We must make clear that ultimately, everyone loses: the United States, the United States’ economic area and Europe,” he said.
Proposed tariff would be 'devastating' to US and Canada, Ontario premier says
Ontario premier Doug Ford says a 25% tariff on all goods imported from Canada to the US would be “devastating to workers and jobs” in both countries.
“We need a Team Canada approach and response - and we need it now,” Ford said on X. He urged Justin Trudeau to call an urgent meeting with Canadian premiers.
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Mexican senator tells US to 'stop consuming drugs' in response to Trump tariff threat
The head of Mexico’s Senate, Fernández Noroña, has responded to Trump’s vow by asking what tariffs Mexico should impose on the US to force people there to stop consuming drugs and illegally exporting weapons to Mexico.
Mexico’s finance minister has previously warned that any taxes imposed on Mexican goods could trigger retaliatory tariffs. “If you put a 25% tariff on me, I’ll have to react with tariffs and I’m your main importer,” Rogelio Ramírez de la O previously said.
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Trump’s threatened new tariffs could violate the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade, Reuters report. The deal, which Trump signed into law, took effect in 2020 and continued the largely duty-free trade between the three countries.
During the rancorous talks leading to the USMCA, Canada and the United States at one point imposed sanctions on each others’ products. Trump will have the opportunity to renegotiate the agreement in 2026, when a “sunset” provision will force either a withdrawal or talks on changes to the pact.
After issuing his tariff threat, Trump held a conversation with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau in which they discussed trade and border security, a Canadian source familiar with the situation told Reuters. “It was a good discussion and they will stay in touch,” the source said.
Trump could be counting on the threat of tariffs to prompt an early renegotiation of USMCA, said William Reinsch, a former president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
“This strikes me more as a threat than anything else,” Reinsch said. “I guess the idea is if you keep hitting them in the face, eventually they’ll surrender.”
Mexico’s lower house leader Ricardo Monreal, a member of the ruling Morena party, urged “the use of bilateral, institutional mechanisms to combat human, drug and arms trafficking.”
“Escalating trade retaliation would only hurt the people’s pocketbooks and is far from solving underlying problems,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
Trump’s announcement sparked a dollar rally. It rose 1% against the Canadian dollar and 1.6% against the Mexican peso, while share markets in Asia fell, as did European equity futures. S&P 500 futures eased 0.1%. The US dollar also rose to its highest level since 30 July 30 against China’s yuan
Donald Trump’s trade tariffs could cost US consumers $2,400 a year
Donald Trump’s vow to impose 25% import tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada, and 10% from China, when he takes power in January has sent global stockmarkets into a spin, Mark Sweney report in the Business live blog.
The US dollar rose but shares and European stock markets fell at the start of trading as investors worried about the ramifications of Trump’s threats. Copper prices fell, weighed down by a stronger US dollar and Trump’s pledge to levy more tariffs on Chinese products.
Research by ING has estimated that if the costs of the new tariffs are fully passed on to consumers, then Americans will face having to pay $2,400 more per capita annually for goods.
The report says that also taking into account potential labour shortages due to Trump’s plans to crackdown on immigration – with a vow to stage the “largest deportation operation in American history” – there could be a 1% increase in inflation in the US.
James Knightley, ING chief international economist for the US, said:
“President-elect Donald Trump has promised to implement sweeping new tariffs aimed at protecting American industries, promoting domestic manufacturing, and reducing reliance on foreign imports.
“However, tariffs imposed during the first Trump term – and continued and extended under Biden – did not achieve all of the promised outcomes. Furthermore, our research shows that if the new tariffs are fully passed on, they could increase inflation and cost American consumers up to $2,400 per capita annually.
The report points to policies implemented under the first Trump administration, such as a 20% tariff on all imported large residential washing machines introduced in 2018, which resulted in the retail cost climbing 12%.
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Beijing warns US 'nobody will win in a trade war' after Trump vows to impose tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada
Beijing has told Donald Trump that “nobody will win in a trade war” after the president-elect vowed to sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all products coming in to the United States from Mexico and Canada, with additional tariffs on China.
Trump accused China of failing to stop the number of drugs entering the US. China is a major producer of precursor chemicals that are acquired by drug cartels, including in Mexico, to manufacture fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: “I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail … Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.”
Liu Pengyu, a Chinese embassy spokesperson, said China had taken steps to combat drug trafficking after an agreement was reached last year between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.
“The Chinese side has notified the US side of the progress made in US-related law enforcement operations against narcotics,” he said in a statement. “All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality.”
Trump also posted: “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.” He cited what he called the “long simmering problem” of “thousands of people pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before”.
Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, released a statement on Monday evening saying that the country places the highest priority on border security and the integrity of its shared border with the US. Trump and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, spoke on Monday night about trade and border security, Reuters reported, citing a Canadian source directly familiar with the situation.
Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican diplomat, said the decision would violate the revised free trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico, known as the USMCA, and said the new tariffs would “put North American relations in a downward spiral”.
Mexico’s finance ministry said: “Mexico is the United States’ top trade partner, and the USMCA provides a framework of certainty for national and international investors.”
A tariff is a tax placed on goods when they cross national borders. Import tariffs such as those proposed by Trump can have the effect of protecting domestic industries from foreign competition while also generating tax revenue for the government. But economists widely consider them an inefficient tool that typically leave consumers and taxpayers bearing the brunt of higher costs.
Countries generally levy retaliatory tariffs of their own in response to tariffs such as those Trump is proposing, which can spark a trade war – as happened between the US and China during Trump’s first presidency.
