Closing summary
Here is a summary of the key recent developments:
Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the US House of Representatives, a critical element for Donald Trump to advance his agenda when the president-elect returns to the White House in January. With votes still being counted from the 5 November general election, Republicans had won 212 seats in the 435-member House, according to Edison Research, which projected on Friday night that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to keep Republican control of Colorado’s third congressional district.
Voter rights groups on Saturday petitioned the Arizona supreme court to extend the deadline for voters to fix problems with their mail-in ballots following delays in vote counting and notifying voters about problems. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center asked the state’s high court in an emergency petition that the original 5pm Sunday deadline be extended up to four days after a voter is sent notice of a problem.
Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has won reelection to Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District, the Associated Press reports. Her victory gives the Democrats 201 House seats to Republicans’ 212 as the final votes are tallied to determine which party will control the House with 218 votes. Gluesenkamp Perez was first elected to the Senate two years ago when she won a close race for a seat that hadn’t been held by a Democrat in more than a decade.
Joe Biden has invited Donald Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11am ET. The meeting will be the first between the current and former president after the 2024 election.
Trump announced the formation of the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, which will be chaired by real estate investor Steve Witkoff and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler. As the president-elect begins to select his cabinet, he shared on Truth Social today that the administration will not include either former UN ambasssador Nikki Haley or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Thousands of New Yorkers gathered for the Protect Our Futures march, protesting Trump’s re-election as president from outside Trump Tower, as more demonstrators gathered outside the offices of the Heritage Foundation (which authored the controversial Project 2025) in Washington DC.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee has been fired after she instructed her team to avoid dispatching aid to houses with Trump signs following Hurricane Milton.
More than two months after the deadline to sign presidential transition paperwork passed, Trump’s incoming administration still has not signed the agreement with the General Services Administration. The agreements coordinating the transition, which were due 1 September, mandate that the incoming president agree to an ethics plan and limit and disclose private donations.
A record 13 women will lead their states as governor next year, breaking the previously held record of 12 set after the 2022 election.
Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.
Thousands of people in major cities including New York City and Seattle demonstrated against the former president and now president-elect amid his threats against reproductive rights and pledges to carry out mass deportations at the start of his upcoming presidency.
In New York City on Saturday, demonstrators from advocacy groups focused on workers’ rights and immigrant justice crowded outside Trump International Hotel and Tower on 5th Avenue holding signs that read: “We protect us” and “Mr President, how long must women wait for liberty?” Others held signs that read: “We won’t back down” while chanting: “Here we are and we’re not leaving!”
Similar protests took place in Washington DC, where Women’s March participants demonstrated outside the Heritage Foundation, the rightwing thinktank behind Project 2025. Pictures posted on social media on Saturday showed demonstrators holding signs that read: “Well-behaved women don’t make history” and “You are never alone”. Demonstrators also chanted: “We believe that we will win!” and held other signs that read: “Where’s my liberty when I have no choice?”
