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Summary
Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Despite the name, the department will not be a government agency. Trump said the pair will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”
Trump has tapped Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.
Trump has confirmed that he has chosen South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, to serve as the next secretary of the homeland security department. The choice was widely reported yesterday, but not yet announced by Trump.
The Biden administration said Tuesday it won’t limit weapons transfers to Israel because the US says its key ally has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. That is despite eight international aid groups saying Israel has failed to meet US demands for greater humanitarian access to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where hunger experts say the north may already be experiencing famine.
Donald Trump named the former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as the next US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has a track record of hardline, occasionally provocative, pro-Israel rhetoric and previously said Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, which he refers to by its Hebrew and biblical name of Judea and Samaria.
Trump chose a real-estate mogul as Middle East envoy. Donald Trump has picked Steven Witkoff, a New York City-based real estate executive and longtime friend, to serve as Middle East envoy in his upcoming administration.
Trump will reportedly oppose a US law that could lead to popular social media app TikTok being banned, despite bipartisan support for the measure.
Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde refused to concede defeat on Tuesday to Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in their US Senate race, saying he was “deeply concerned” about the election results but that seeking a recount was a “serious” decision and he was still reviewing his options, the Associated Press reports.
The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money case has paused legal proceedings at the request of prosecutors and the president-elect’s attorneys, both of whom pointed to his victory in last week’s presidential election.
Samuel Alito, a long-serving conservative justice on the supreme court, has no plans to step down, the Wall Street Journal reported. If he changes his mind, Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate could confirm a replacement and likely prolong the court’s conservative supermajority.
Updated
Elon Musk has been posting busily on X, even by his own standards, in the hours after president-elect Donald Trump announced he will head up the newly created government efficiency department.
Posting on X, which the billionaire owns, Musk pledged to document all actions of the department online for “maximum transparency”.
“Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!” he said, while also promise to keep “a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars”.
The Associated Press has also called the race in Colorado’s 8th congressional district for Republican Gabe Evans. Evans flipped the seat north of Denver for the Republicans, defeating Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo in one of the nation’s most-watched races.
The toss-up race for Colorado’s 8th congressional district, which was created after redistricting in 2020, was a crucial part to Republican’s goal of retaining control of the House. It also tested Republicans’ and Democrats’ appeal to Latinos, who make up nearly 40% of the district’s population.
The AP’s tally now has the Republicans on 216 seats, just two shy of the 218 needed to secure control of the House of Representatives.
Republicans have already secured a majority in the 100-member US senate, though it is shy of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in that chamber. That means Democrats will retain some leverage in Washington next year even if Republicans win the House majority.
But keeping hold of the House would give Republicans sweeping powers to potentially push through a broad agenda of tax and spending cuts, energy deregulation and border security controls.
Republican David Valadao has won reelection in California’s 22nd congressional district, Associated Press reports, defeating Democrat Rudy Salas for the second time. Valadao is an anomaly – an elected Republican in a heavily Democratic district in a heavily Democratic state.
Democrats hold a 14-point registration edge in the Central Valley district, but Valadao has kept a grip on the seat nonetheless. Valadao held the seat from 2013 until 2019, lost it for a term, then won it back in a 2020 rematch with Democrat TJ Cox. Valadao stressed his efforts to secure more water for farmers and his willingness to work across the aisle, while painting Salas as a tax-and-spend Democrat.
Who is Kristi Noem, Trump's nomination for the department of homeland security?
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Gover Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security, one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation.
The 52-year-old was born in Watertown, South Dakota, and raised on a ranch and farm outside the city. Her father died in a grain-bin collapse at the age of 49.
She was involved in a number of family businesses before successfully running for the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2006. In 2010, she won the state’s at-large House seat, and in 2018, she was elected the state’s first female governor. She was reelected in 2022.
After becoming governor, Noem started working closely with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. Then, during the pandemic, she rose to prominence in conservative circles for resisting most government regulations to slow the spread of infections. She has since become a regular presence in Trump’s political world and at one point was considered to be his running mate.
She was criticised this year for a story she told in her book about killing her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket.
Noem has been a key Trump supporter, including backing his tough immigration talk.
“President Trump will deport the most dangerous illegal aliens first – the murderers, rapists, and other criminals that Harris and Biden let into the country. They do not belong here, and we will not let them back in,” Noem said in a post on X after Trump was elected.
Here is our full story on Trump selecting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead his efficiency department:
Donald Trump, president-elect of the US, announced on Tuesday that he has selected Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, with plans to reduce bureaucracy in the federal government by roughly a third.
Musk had pushed for a government efficiency department and has since relentlessly promoted it, emphasizing the acronym for the agency: Doge, a reference to a meme of an expressive Shiba Inu. Trump said the agency will be conducting a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government, and making recommendations for drastic reforms”.
In a video posted on X two days after the election, Trump said he would “immediately re-issue my 2020 executive order, restoring the president’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats”. He wants to “clean out the deep state”. His promises echo his slogan on The Apprentice: “You’re fired!” And Project 2025, an influential and controversial blueprint for Trump’s second term, lays out ways to make bureaucrats fireable.
Musk has extensive experience slashing corporate spending, and he has promised to cull federal payrolls in much the same way. He cut staff at X, formerly Twitter, by 80% after buying it in 2022, a move he said prevented a $3bn shortfall, but which has not otherwise paid off. Revenue is in steep decline and advertisers have absconded, making a comeback seem unlikely. As the CEO of SpaceX, however, he has garnered a reputation for launching rockets more cheaply than competitors by negotiating with suppliers and keeping operations lean.
The billionaire does not seem to be under any illusions of what will happen after his proposed cuts, admitting that reducing spending “necessarily involves some temporary hardship”. Americans do want to spend less – of their own money. Do they want austerity and less financial assistance from the federal government? Do they want the world’s richest person admonishing them to cut their expenses?
A senior adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump has fuelled speculation about the future of Australia’s ambassador to Washington, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, by reposting Rudd’s congratulatory statement to Trump on social media with a gif of an hourglass.
The provocative time-is-running-out post by former Trump deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino reignited suggestions that the incoming president may prefer another Australian representative in Washington when he takes office in January.
Scavino spoke at Trump’s now-infamous Madison Square Garden rally in New York ahead of the election and was billed as a “senior adviser”.
A new video emerged earlier this week of Rudd in an interview in 2021 describing Trump as “a village idiot” and “not a leading intellectual force”. Rudd last week – following the US election – deleted old social media posts criticising Trump.
How will the efficiency department operate – and is Trump required to disclose conflicts of interest?
It’s not clear how the new efficiency department will operate. The Associated Press reports that it could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.
Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets and entanglements to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work. Because Musk and Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.
The president-elect has often said he would give Musk a formal role overseeing a group akin to a blue-ribbon commission that would recommend ways to slash spending and make the federal government more efficient. Musk at one point suggested he could find more than $2tn in savings – nearly a third of total annual government spending.
Trump had made clear that Musk would likely not hold any kind of full-time position, given his other commitments.
“I don’t think I can get him full-time because he’s a little bit busy sending rockets up and all the things he does,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan in September.
“He said the waste in this country is crazy. And we’re going to get Elon Musk to be our cost cutter.”
Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump.
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk have responded to the announcement on X, the social media platform owned by Musk.
Ramaswamy said, “We will not go gently, @elonmusk” and added an American flag emoji.
Musk said, “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”.
Musk and Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency: what we know
Here is what we know about the new Department of Government Efficiency, and the two men Trump has chosen to lead it:
Trump said on Tuesday Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump said their work would conclude by 4 July 2026, adding that a smaller and more efficient government would be a “gift” to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The appointments reward two Trump supporters from the private sector. Musk leads electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX, while Ramaswamy is the founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support behind the former president after dropping out.
Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign and made public appearances with him. Trump had said he would offer Musk, the world’s richest person, a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.
The acronym of the new department – DOGE – coincides with the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Musk promotes, and the internet meme after which the cryptocurrency is named.
“This will send shock waves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said, according to Trump’s statement, which called the new government initiative “potentially ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” referring to the US plan to build the atomic bomb that helped end the second world war.
Updated
Who is John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick for CIA director?
John Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence (DNI) for the final months of Trump’s first term, leading the US government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
His position as DNI also made him responsible for detecting and countering foreign efforts to interfere in American politics. That experience makes him a more traditional pick for the job, which requires Senate confirmation, than some rumored loyalists pushed by some of Trump’s supporters.
As DNI, Ratcliffe participated in an unusual night-time news conference just weeks before the 2020 presidential election in which he and other officials accused Iran of being responsible for a barrage of emails meant to intimidate voters in the US.
Also while in that role, Ratcliffe faced criticism for declassifying Russian intelligence that purported to reveal information about Democrats during the 2016 election even as he acknowledged it might not be true. Democrats decried the move as a partisan stunt that politicized intelligence.
Ratcliffe was elected to Congress in 2014, but his visibility rose in 2019 as an ardent defender of Trump during the House’s first impeachment proceedings against him.
He was a member of Trump’s impeachment advisory team and strenuously questioned witnesses during the impeachment hearings.
When former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared before the House judiciary ommittee to testify about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Ratcliffe was one of the more ardent Republican interrogators, forcefully questioning the prosecutor and blasting the report he produced.
Ratcliffe has repeatedly sounded the alarm about China, calling the country the top threat to US interests and the rest of the free world.
Updated
The Associated Press has called the race for Democrat George Whitesides.
The former Nasa chief of staff, who had the support of national Democrats, has won a tough race to unseat Republican incumbent represenative Mike Garcia in California’s 27 congressional district.
As we reported earlier, Garcia conceded on Monday, saying he had congratulated Whitesides and would ensure a smooth handoff.
Whitesides said on Monday in a statement that he had spoken with Garcia and thanked him for his service to the district and the nation. He said he would fight in Congress for good jobs and lower household costs.
Whitesides, who is also a former CEO of Virgin Galactic, said during the campaign that he would use his business experience to solve problems. He spotlighted Garcia’s opposition to abortion rights, calling him an extremist.
Updated
Some background: Elon Musk’s super political action committee (Pac) spent about $200m to help elect Donald Trump to a second presidency, according to a person familiar with the group’s spending, funding an effort that set a new standard for how billionaires can influence elections.
The billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla and SpaceX provided the vast majority of the money to America Pac, which focused on low-propensity and first-time voters, according to the Associated Press source, who was not authorized to disclose the figure publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. In turn, as CNBC reported, Musk’s net worth jumped $70bn since Trump’s victory in the 5 November election.
Updated
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, whose companies have billions of dollars of federal contracts, has been a constant presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this week. Some see Musk as the second-most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit after his campaign chief-turned-incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
The “Department of Government Efficiency” – essentially an independent advisory panel – that Musk will help lead, is intended to “drive out the massive waste and fraud”.
“This will send shockwaves through the system,” said a statement from Musk.
As we reported, Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for president himself, is helping Musk lead the department.
Trump is expected to return to public view on Wednesday, when he goes to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden and visits Capitol Hill to consult with House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican legislators. Overall, Trump is laying the groundwork for his second presidency at a much faster clip than his first.
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Who is Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense?
More now on Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host Trump has just announced as his nominee for secretary of defense, via the Associated Press:
Trump’s selection of Hegseth, who lacks senior military or national security experience, was sure to draw questions about his qualifications to lead the department.
Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.
Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year.
The book, according to its promo, combines “his own war experiences, tales of outrage, and an incisive look at how the chain of command got so kinked,” and bills itself as “the key to saving our warriors — and winning future wars.”
While the Pentagon is considered a key coveted post in any administration, the defense secretary was a tumultuous post during Trump’s first term. Five men held the job during his four years only to resign, be fired or serve briefly as a stopgap. Just two of them were actually confirmed by the Senate.
Trump’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to temper or even simply interpret presidential tweets and pronouncements that blindsided them with abrupt policy decisions they weren’t prepared to explain or defend. Many of the generals who worked in his first administration — both on active duty and retired — have slammed him as unfit to serve in the Oval Office and he has condemned them in return.
Hegseth was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and served overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012.
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump said in a statement. “Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”
Hegseth has “an excellent background as a junior officer but does not have the senior national security experience that secretaries need,” said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think Trump was tired of fighting with his secretaries of defense and picked one who would be loyal to him.” Cancian said the lack of experience might make it more difficult for Hegseth to get through Senate confirmation.
Trump confirms Kristi Noem as pick for Department of Homeland Security
Trump has confirmed that he has chosen South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, to serve as the next secretary of the homeland security department. The choice was widely reported yesterday, but not yet announced by Trump.
In his statement, Trump says:
I am pleased to announce that the Governor and former congresswoman from South Dakota, Kristi Noem, will be appointed to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times.
She will work closely with “Border Czar” Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries. I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects - She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again.
Trump, in his statement, lays out a vision of the department as “potentially ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time”. The Manhattan Project was the second world war research program that developed nuclear weapons. Only this one is named after an internet meme and type of cryptocurrency.
Here is more from Trump’s statement:
It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of “DOGE” for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.
I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans. Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to “WE THE PEOPLE.” Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 - A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!
Updated
Trump announces Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as heads of Department of Government Efficiency
Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
In a statement, Trump said:
I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said.
Updated
Here is a bit more on Trump’s Pentagon pick:
Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. He is also the author of The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.
Hegseth was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and served overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012.
Updated
Hegseth deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012 before joining Fox News.
Trump chooses Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense
Trump has just announced another cabinet pick: Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense.
Hegseth is a Fox news host. We’ll have information shortly.
In a statement, he says:
I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense. Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice - Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.
Updated
A pregnant woman in Kentucky seeking an abortion filed a lawsuit on Tuesday asking a court to strike down the state’s abortion bans.
The woman, who is known in court records as Mary Poe and is about seven or eight weeks pregnant, is challenging Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban and the six-week ban simultaneously in effect. These bans, Poe argues, violate the Kentucky constitution’s rights to privacy and self-determination and should not be enforced.
“For many individuals, the bans altogether foreclose the ability to access abortion, thus forcing them to carry their pregnancies to term and give birth, which carries a risk of death up to 14 times higher than that associated with abortion,” the lawsuit alleges. “Others, pushed by the bans to travel out of state for legal care, bear the burdens both of increased health risks from being pushed later into pregnancy and of the cost and logistical difficulties of long-distance travel.”
The lawsuit also requests class-action status for all people who may be pregnant or can become so but are unable to get a abortion in Kentucky.
“I feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I cannot access abortion care here in my own state, and I have started the difficult process of arranging to get care in another state where it’s legal,” Poe said in a statement. “This involves trying to take time off work and securing child care, all of which place an enormous burden on me. This is my personal decision, a decision I believe should be mine alone, not one made by anyone else.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the law firm Kaplan, Johnson, Abate & Bird are representing Poe.
Read the full story here:
Updated
After spending four months in federal prison for snubbing a congressional subpoena, conservative strategist Steve Bannon has spoken to media outside a New York court where he’s facing a state conspiracy trial as soon as next month.
“You wait. The hunted are about to become the hunters,” Bannon said, according to the Associated Press.
He stepped into a waiting car without elaborating on what “the hunters” intend to do.
The longtime Trump ally’s latest trial is scheduled to start 9 December – but could be postponed after a hearing Monday – at the same Manhattan courthouse where the past-and-next president was convicted in his hush-money case. Separately, a judge Tuesday delayed a key ruling in the hush-money case for at least a week as prosecutors ponder how to proceed in light of Trump’s impending presidency.
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Trump has spent most of his first week as president-elect behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, where he’s working the phones, reconnecting with foreign leaders and building his new administration, the Associated Press reports.
Trump is hardly in seclusion. He’s surrounded by advisers, friends and paying members of his club, who weigh in with advice as he selects people for top government jobs. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, whose companies have billions of dollars of federal contracts, has been a constant presence. Some see Musk as the second-most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit after his campaign chief-turned-incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
“Very productive day of work by the transition team,” Musk posted on X, his social media company, on Monday evening.
Trump is expected to return to public view on Wednesday, when he goes to the White House to meet with Joe Biden and visits Capitol Hill to consult with House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican legislators. Overall, Trump is laying the groundwork for his second presidency at a much faster clip than his first.
Trump is also expected to meet with Republicans on Capitol Hill as they prepare for his day one priorities in a potentially unified government with a sweep of GOP power in Washington.
Updated
Biden won't limit US weapons transfers to Israel
Eight international aid groups said on Tuesday that Israel has failed to meet US demands for greater humanitarian access to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where hunger experts say the north may already be experiencing famine, the Associated Press reports.
However, the Biden administration said Tuesday it won’t limit weapons transfers to Israel because the US says its key ally has made good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Last month, Washington told Israel to boost aid to Gaza within 30 days, or else it could trigger US laws requiring it to scale back American military support as Israel wages war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes killed at least 46 people in Gaza in the past 24 hours, and killed at least 33 people in Lebanon, local health officials said Tuesday. Two people in northern Israel also died from rockets fired from Lebanon.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. More than half of those killed were women and children.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on 8 October 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Since then, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,200 wounded, the country’s health ministry reported.
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Hovde pointed to what he claimed were irregularities with the vote results. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing in the election, the results of which are still being reviewed by counties before they submit the canvassed totals to the state by 19 November for certification by 1 December.
Democrats, and even some Republicans, immediately called out Hovde for what they said was a perpetuation of lies about the integrity of the election.
“Stop trying to erode trust in our elections (and I say that as someone who supported Hovde),” said Jim Villa, a longtime Republican who previously worked in the legislature and Milwaukee county executive’s office under Scott Walker before Walker became governor.
“That grift needs to stop!” Villa posted on X.
Baldwin campaign spokesperson Andrew Mamo accused Hovde of “sowing doubt about our very democracy”.
“Leaders on both sides of the aisle should condemn the lies he’s spreading and the pathetic campaign he continues to run,” Mamo said. “Tammy Baldwin has won this race and there is only one thing for Eric Hovde to do: concede.”
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Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde refuses to concede to Democrat Tammy Baldwin in Senate race
Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde refused to concede defeat on Tuesday to Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in their US Senate race, saying he was “deeply concerned” about the election results but that seeking a recount was a “serious” decision and he was still reviewing his options, the Associated Press reports.
Hovde can request a recount because his margin of defeat was less than 1 percentage point, at about 29,000 votes. But he hasn’t said yet whether he will request one, explaining in a video directed at his supporters that he wants to review all of the information and options that are available.
“This is a difficult decision because I want to honor your support and, at the same time, bring closure to this election for our state,” Hovde said in the video posted on X.
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Today so far
Here is a summary of the key recent developments:
The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money case has paused legal proceedings at the request of prosecutors and the president-elect’s attorneys, both of whom pointed to his victory in last week’s presidential election.
Republicans are getting ready for Trump’s visit to the White House, with House speaker Mike Johnson saying he planned to have Trump address his lawmakers. Speaking of Congress, we still do not know for sure which party will control the House for the next two years. Counting of ballots in key races remains ongoing, though Republicans seem on track to keep their majority.
Samuel Alito, a long-serving conservative justice on the supreme court, has no plans to step down, the Wall Street Journal reported. If he changes his mind, Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate could confirm a replacement and likely prolong the court’s conservative supermajority.
Trump will reportedly oppose a US law that could lead to popular social media app TikTok being banned, despite bipartisan support for the measure.
Despite taking office with Republicans in control of Congress in 2017, Trump’s first years in office were marked by legislative chaos. Johnson vowed that won’t happen again when Trump returns to the White House in January.
Trump chose an ex-national intelligence chief as CIA director. Trump has named John Ratcliffe, who served as the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, as his pick for CIA director, and William Joseph McGinley, who served as cabinet secretary in the first term, to serve as White House counsel.
Trump chose a real-estate mogul as Middle East envoy. Donald Trump has picked Steven Witkoff, a New York City-based real estate executive and longtime friend, to serve as Middle East envoy in his upcoming administration.
Trump announced that he will nominate Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to be the US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday.
Trump advisers mulling a ‘warrior board’ to organize purge of top military officers – report. Donald Trump’s transition team is working on an executive order that would create a new body tasked with naming military leaders who should be demoted, the Wall Street Journal reports. The reported proposal for a “warrior board” staffed by former military officers loyal to the president-elect is the latest sign that Trump may make due on his threat to retaliate against leaders at all levels of government who have broken with him, or who are perceived as disloyal.
Trump issued a statement announcing his appointment of Mike Waltz to serve in his cabinet as the national security adviser. Waltz “has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Trump chooses ex-national intelligence chief as CIA director
Trump has also named John Ratcliffe, who served as the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, as his pick for CIA director, and William Joseph McGinley, who served as cabinet secretary in the first term, to serve as White House counsel.
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Trump picks real-estate mogul as Middle East envoy
Donald Trump has picked Steven Witkoff, a New York City-based real estate executive and longtime friend, to serve as Middle East envoy in his upcoming administration.
“Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous,” Trump said in a statement announcing the appointment. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”
Witkoff has longtime ties to Trump and the Trump organization, serving as a major donor and as an adviser. He testified as an expert witness in the New York attorney general’s case against the Trump family and its namesake business.
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Trump’s cabinet picks and likely contenders – so far
Donald Trump has tasked Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda. During his first term, several of Trump’s key appointees tried to convince Trump out of his more extreme plans.
Here’s a look at those who have been and could be offered key positions when Trump takes office:
The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill targeting non-profit organizations deemed to be supporting “terrorism”.
Civil rights advocates have raised alarm that bill, which was first introduced in response to nationwide protests on college campuses against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, could be used against pro-Palestinian groups as well as those that environmental groups, reproductive rights groups and other human rights organizations during the upcoming Trump administration.
The language in the bill would give the Treasury Department broad authority to determine which organizations are “terrorist-supporting” without requiring evidence, and allow the agency to revoke tax-exempt status from those non-profits.
Republicans drafted the policy as part of a popular measure to prevent the IRS from issuing fines and tax penalties to Americans held hostage by terrorist groups. The measure, which is being fast-tracked in the House, would need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to pass.
“This bill requires no oversight. No due-process. No justification. In Trump’s hands, it would be a weapon of mass destruction against dissent,” said Andrew O’Neill, legislative director of the group Indivisible. “The vote today requires a two-thirds threshold to pass, so Democrats really do have agency here. The question is whether they’ll use it to stand up against authoritarian overreach, or if they’ll sit back and hand Trump more power.”
“Passing this bill would hand the incoming Trump administration a dangerous new tool it could use to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU. “The freedom to dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, which is why Congress must block HR 9495 before it’s too late.”
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Trump advisers mulling 'warrior board' to organize purge of top military officers – report
Donald Trump’s transition team is working on an executive order that would create a new body tasked with naming military leaders who should be demoted, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The reported proposal for a “warrior board” staffed by former military officers loyal to the president-elect is the latest sign that Trump may make due on his threat to retaliate against leaders at all levels of government who have broken with him, or who are perceived as disloyal.
Here’s more on the proposal, from the Journal:
If Donald Trump approves the order, it could fast-track the removal of generals and admirals found to be “lacking in requisite leadership qualities,” according to a draft of the order reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. But it could also create a chilling effect on top military officers, given the president-elect’s past vow to fire “woke generals,” referring to officers seen as promoting diversity in the ranks at the expense of military readiness.
As commander in chief, Trump can fire any officer at will, but an outside board whose members he appoints would bypass the Pentagon’s regular promotion system, signaling across the military that he intends to purge a number of generals and admirals.
The draft order says it aims to establish a review that focuses “on leadership capability, strategic readiness, and commitment to military excellence.” The draft doesn’t specify what officers need to do or present to show if they meet those standards. The draft order originated with one of several outside policy groups collaborating with the transition team, and is one of numerous executive orders under review by Trump’s team, a transition official said.
The warrior board would be made up of retired generals and noncommissioned officers, who would send their recommendations to the president. Those identified for removal would be retired at their current rank within 30 days.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman, declined to comment on this draft executive order but said “the American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”
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At the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre is taking questions from reporters who are asking for an idea of what to expect when Joe Biden meets Donald Trump tomorrow.
But the US press secretary does not have much to say. Responding to a reporter who wanted to know if they would discuss foreign policy issues such as US assistance to Ukraine and Israel, she said:
I’m not going to get into the details of what’s going to be discussed tomorrow. That’s not something I’m going to get into here.
What about concerns about Trump’s contacts with foreign leaders, many of whom have spoken to him by phone since he won the election? Jean-Pierre didn’t have much of a comment on that question, either:
He’s the president-elect. Every president-elect receives calls from world leaders, takes calls from world leaders, has calls from world leaders. It is not unusual. [I] don’t have a comment beyond that, any specifics or details. That’s something for the … Trump transition.
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Donald Trump plans to begin his second presidential term with a bang, the Guardian’s Robert Tait reports:
Donald Trump will mark the first day of his return to the White House by signing a spate of executive orders to reinstate signature policies from his first presidency that were revoked by Joe Biden, according to his incoming chief of staff.
Susie Wiles’s disclosure came in a closed-door meeting in Las Vegas of the Rockbridge Network, a group of conservative donors co-founded by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, the New York Times reported.
She did not specify which policies were likely to be reintroduced in the flurry of signing that is expected on Trump’s first day back in the Oval Office.
But several of Trump’s higher-profile executive orders that Biden revoked include leaving the Paris climate agreement, withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) and banning entry to citizens from a list of predominantly Muslim countries.
Did a majority of Latino men support Donald Trump, as some national exit polls suggest?
No, according to the researchers behind the 2024 American Electorate Voter Poll, a survey of more than 9,400 voters that emphasizes accurately representing Black, Latino and AAPI voters.
“The national exit polls are wrong about Latinos in general and Latino men in particular. They did shift more Republican, however a majority of Latino men continued to vote Democrat in 2024,” said Matt Baretto, a co-founder of BSP Research, told reporters on a call in which he presented the survey’s findings.
“We’re extremely confident that our sample is accurate – that it is an accurate portrait of Latino men and Latino women and that it is balanced to measure the demographics and that it was available in Spanish at every stopping point in the survey.”
According to the survey, Hispanic men supported Kamala Harris over Trump by a 13-point margin, compared with the 34-point margin among Hispanic women. Among Hispanic men under 40, Harris held an only four-point margin.
Baretto said it was “incorrect, categorically” to suggest that any cohort of Latino men supported Trump over Harris.
Even as he acknowledged Trump had made clear gains with Hispanic voters, he noted that Democrats performed worse this election cycle with “every single racial and ethnic group” than they did four years ago.
The poll also found an uptick in support for Harris among Puerto Ricans, particularly in Pennsylvania, which Hispanic organizers attributed to a surge in fundraising after a shock-jock comic made disparaging comments about the island during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
“The participation rate of Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Pennsylvania increased noticeably after the Madison Square Garden rally – a nine-point shift in Latino voter sentiment in Pennsylvania towards Harris,” said Frankie Miranda, president and CEO at Hispanic Federation, on the call.
“The effect is undeniable, but it took a fluke very late in the game to get the attention of the campaigns and funders to provide investment desperately needed to ensure mobilization.
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Newly elected senators are in Washington DC for orientation, and true to form, West Virginia’s Jim Justice brought along his bulldog, Babydog.
The dog has been by Justice’s side throughout his term as West Virginia’s governor, and the senator-elect was hoping to bring Babydog into the Senate chambers. But Axios reports that is against the rules:
Justice was told by Senate floor staff that only service dogs are allowed onto the floor of the Senate, and that even in that case there would need to be an analysis on potential allergies.
Justice had no such problems at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee this past summer, where Babydog was by his side throughout.
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Mike Johnson has congratulated congressman Mike Waltz on being selected as Donald Trump’s national security advisor.
“Congressman Mike Waltz is a brilliant and faithful patriot, who has served our country as a Green Beret and a member of Congress. It has been his life’s mission to help protect the United States, and he will continue to do so as the President’s National Security Advisor,” the Republican House speaker said.
He added that the Florida congressman is “the perfect person to advise President Trump and defend our interests on the world stage. I look forward to continuing to engage with him as Congress works to implement America First national security policies under the new Trump administration”.
Waltz just won re-election to his district just north of Orlando, and his departure from Congress will trigger a special election to replace him. But Democrats are unlikely to win in Waltz’s district, which is sharply Republican.
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A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by the beginning of 2025 has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.
The judge said the law was “unconstitutional on its face” – and plaintiffs were likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the US constitution’s first amendment, which bars the government from establishing a religion and guarantees the right to religious freedom.
The ruling marks a win for opponents of the law, who argue that it is a violation of the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
They also argue that the poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments would isolate students, especially those who are not Christian.
Proponents say that the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance to the foundation of US law.
Trump says he will nominate Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel
Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to be the US ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump added.
Huckabee, who served as Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007, is two-time Republican presidential hopeful and father to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the current governor of the state and Trump’s former White House press secretary.
He is an outspoken settlement backer; in 2018, he said he dreamed of building a “holiday home” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Several hundred White House staffers loudly cheered for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was arriving for her lunch with Joe Biden.
Staffers shouted “MVP”, for Madame vice-president, as she got out of her SUV and clapped and waved, per pool report.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Harris addressed staffers. “So thank you all very much.
“Listen, we do the best work anybody could do, which is to dedicate ourselves to the people, to public service, to lifting folks up, knowing we have the power, and when we do that work, we make a difference, and you all are a part of doing that work every single day, and I am so grateful to each of you.
“So let’s get back to work, because we still have work to get done. And I am sending all my love and thanks. Thank you, everyone.”
Joni Ernst, the Republican senator for Iowa, has privately expressed interest in becoming Donald Trump’s defense secretary, according to multiple reports.
If nominated and confirmed, Ernst, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Iraq War veteran and member of the Senate’s armed services committee, would be the first woman to serve in the role.
National security leaders have told Ernst that she would be a good fit for the job, but those conversations have not yet escalated to anything official, Notus reported.
A source told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the idea started “gaining a life of its own yesterday”, but it’s not clear whether Trump will consider her for the role.
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Trump confirms appointment of Mike Waltz as his national security adviser
Donald Trump has issued a statement announcing his appointment of Mike Waltz to serve in his cabinet as the national security adviser.
Waltz “has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday.
Waltz, a Republican congressman representing east-central Florida and Trump loyalist who served in the national guard as a colonel, has criticized Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific and voiced the need for the US to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.
Waltz is a combat-decorated Green Beret and a former White House and Pentagon policy adviser. He was first elected in 2018, replacing Ron DeSantis, who ran for governor, in Florida’s sixth congressional district.
Waltz served multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, and he was awarded four bronze stars. He was one of the lawmakers appointed in July to serve on a bipartisan congressional taskforce to investigate the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
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The day so far
The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money case has paused legal proceedings at the request of prosecutors and the president-elect’s attorneys, both of whom pointed to his victory in last week’s presidential election. Republicans are getting ready for Trump’s visit to the White House, with House speaker Mike Johnson saying he planned to have Trump address his lawmakers. Speaking of Congress, we still do not know for sure which party will control the House for the next two years. Counting of ballots in key races remains ongoing, though Republicans seem on track to keep their majority.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Samuel Alito, a long-serving conservative justice on the supreme court, has no plans to step down, the Wall Street Journal reported. If he changes his mind, Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate could confirm a replacement and likely prolong the court’s conservative supermajority.
Trump will reportedly oppose a US law that could lead to popular social media app TikTok being banned, despite bipartisan support for the measure.
Despite taking office with Republicans in control of Congress in 2017, Trump’s first years in office were marked by legislative chaos. Johnson vowed that won’t happen again when Trump returns to the White House in January.
As Donald Trump appoints his cabinet, and searches for a treasury secretary, the billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson – a key backer of the president-elect – has withdrawn his name. He had been widely tipped as a likely candidate for the role.
“Although various media outlets have mentioned me as a candidate for secretary of the treasury, my complex financial obligations would prevent me from holding an official position in President Trump’s administration at this time,” Paulson told The Wall Street Journal in a statement.
He pledged to remain “actively involved” with Trump’s economic team, however, and in helping to implement the incoming administration’s policy agenda.
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Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey still is not conceding, despite grim signs for the Democratic senator’s prospects of re-election.
The Associated Press has already called the race for Republican challenger David McCormick, but ballot counting is ongoing. In a new statement, Casey signaled he is waiting for that process to finish:
My priority has always been standing up for the people of Pennsylvania. Across our Commonwealth, close to seven million people cast their votes in a free and fair election. Our county election officials will finish counting those votes, just like they do in every election. The American democratic process was born in Pennsylvania and that process will play out.
I want to thank the election workers across our Commonwealth who have been working diligently over the weekend. Their work will ensure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard.”
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If Donald Trump follows through on his promise to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrations, his “border tsar” Tom Homan will play a leading role. Here’s more about his rise to power, from the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang:
In 2018, then acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) Thomas Homan told HuffPost that Congress needed to fix immigration laws because: “I’m the first one to say, I can’t arrest 11 million people.”
Now, newly tapped as Donald Trump’s “border tsar”, he will be tasked with just that. The president-elect said on Monday that Homan, a former law enforcement official who has served in immigration enforcement under multiple presidencies, would be “in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin”.
Homan has been describing mass deportation in stark terms for the past year, angling for a role in helping Trump with his signature campaign promise. Asked about the high price tag of a mass deportation, he turned the question back on 60 Minutes: “What price do you put on our national security? Is it worth it?” When the outlet followed up to ask if there was a way for mass deportations not to separate families with mixed immigration statuses, Homan responded: “Families can be deported together.”
It is a likely next step for a man who served as acting director of Ice for 16 months under Trump in what was seen as a period of intense controversy for the agency. The Atlantic documented how Homan was the “father” of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, tracing its roots to a 2014 meeting during which Homan pushed the idea. He defended the policy to the outlet by saying: “The goal wasn’t to traumatize. The goal was to stop the madness, stop the death, stop the rape, stop the children dying, stop the cartels doing what they’re doing.”
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Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Tom Homan, a proponent of hardline immigration policies including separating migrant parents from their children, will become his “border tsar”.
Homan has made clear he’ll continue pushing for policies that would crack down on people who have entered the United States illegally. Yesterday, he told the New York Post that he would surge immigration officers onto the streets of cities that refuse to allow them into their jails:
Homan — whom Trump tasked with both securing the border and carrying out the deportation of millions of migrants who are in the US illegally — told The Post that he wants his boss to put maximum pressure on the leaders of New York and other sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to lock up and deport migrants who commit crimes in the US.
“I’m hoping the president files a lawsuit against them and withholds federal funding,” Homan said.
He said that he would rather work with local cops to identify migrants who have been arrested and take them into ICE custody.
But, if police are barred from helping the feds identify suspects, “then we’ll wait til they get out of jail, then we’ll go out into the neighborhoods and get them.”
He added: “If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming.”
Homan said enforcing immigration laws like that will require a lot of manpower, “so if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that’s what we’re gonna do.”
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Earlier, at the Capitol, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson pledged that his lawmakers will do all they can to help Donald Trump enact his policies.
“This leadership will hit the ground running to deliver President Trump’s agenda in the 119th Congress, and we will work closely with him and his administration to turn this country around and unleash, as he says, a new golden age in America,” Johnson said.
Trump began his first term in 2017 with both houses of Congress in Republican control, a situation that appears to be on track to happen again next year, since the GOP has recaptured the Senate and appears on course to preserve their house majority.
But Trump and the Republicans were criticized for a chaotic and disorganized approach during his first two years in office (before the GOP lost control of the House in 2018 and, with it, the ability to pass major Trump-backed legislation) that led to many legislative priorities stalling. Johnson said that once Trump takes office next year, he will not let that happen again:
When President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, we all look back and recognize that the Republican Party was not fully prepared for that moment, and precious time was wasted in the beginning of that Congress. I know it well, because that was my freshman year in Congress – we began in 2017. We are not going to make those mistakes again. We will be ready on day one. We are prepared this time. And as we wind down, the 118th Congress will be ready to take the ball and run full speed in the 119th Congress that begins in January.
Trump wants to halt US TikTok ban – report
Donald Trump will attempt to block a recently passed US law that could lead to popular social media app TikTok being banned, the Washington Post reports.
The measure enacted with bipartisan support earlier this year imposes a 19 January deadline for Chinese firm ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or face a ban in the United States on national security grounds.
The Post heard from Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor to Trump who now advocates for TikTok. She said:
He appreciates the breadth and reach of TikTok, which he used masterfully along with podcasts and new media entrants to win …
There are many ways to hold China to account outside alienating 180 million U.S. users each month. Trump recognized early on that Democrats are the party of bans — gas-powered cars, menthol cigarettes, vapes, plastic straws and TikTok — and to let them own that draconian, anti-personal choice space.
TikTok is currently in court over the law, though no decision has yet been made:
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Mike Johnson says House Republicans planning meeting with Trump
The Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said that their lawmakers are planning to meet with Donald Trump on Wednesday, before he heads to the White House to discuss the presidential transition with Joe Biden.
“President Trump is going to meet with President Biden at the White House. And so it was suggested – in fact … I think he said it first before I did – but that he wanted to come and visit with House Republicans. So, we’re working out the details of him gathering with us potentially tomorrow morning before he goes to the White House, and that would be a great meeting and a moment for all of us,” Johnson said.
The speaker and other top Republicans just held a press conference at the Capitol to tout their victories in last Tuesday’s election. While all the ballots have not been counted yet, the GOP appears on course to continue their majority in the House.
New York prosecutors requested pause in hush money case after Trump re-elected
New York Judge Juan Merchan halted proceedings in Donald Trump’s hush money case after a request from the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who cited the former president’s victory in the presidential election, Reuters reports.
The president-elect had asked Bragg to agree to the delay, and Merchan paused all proceedings through 19 November. Trump had been scheduled to be sentenced on 26 November.
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Judge halts proceeding in Trump hush money case
New York judge Juan Merchan has paused the proceedings in Donald Trump’s hush money case, Reuters reports.
Merchan was today expected to decide whether Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges related to falsifying business documents would be thrown out under the supreme court’s ruling earlier this year granting presidents immunity for official acts.
The judge’s decision comes after Trump won the presidential election a week ago.
Alito not planning to leave supreme court – report
Samuel Alito intends to continue serving on the supreme court, the Wall Street Journal reports, despite fears from liberals that the 74-year-old conservative justice will soon step down and allow Donald Trump and the newly Republican-controlled Senate to confirm a younger replacement.
Such a decision by Alito could prolong the conservative dominance of the supreme court, where they have a six-justice supermajority and the liberals a three-justice minority. But the Journal says that Alito plans to stick around:
“Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,” said one person close to Alito. “The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is.”
Trump’s election last week set off renewed discussions over the future of the Supreme Court, where the three eldest justices are in their 70s.
With Republicans set to take both the White House and Senate come January, there will be at least a two-year span when the GOP can fill vacancies without need of compromise with Democrats. Some Republicans have suggested that would be a good time for Alito, appointed in 2006 by President George W. Bush, and Justice Clarence Thomas, 76, a 1991 appointee of President George H.W. Bush, to step aside for younger nominees who could perpetuate the court’s conservative direction for decades to come.
A majority of Americans view the Supreme Court as politically motivated, public opinion surveys have shown. But across the ideological spectrum, the justices prefer to see themselves as standing apart from partisan politics, and Washington’s postelection chatter is proving irksome within the court, people familiar with the matter said.
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Supreme court declines to hear Trump ally's bid to move Georgia election case to federal court
The supreme court has turned down an effort by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows to move the Georgia election meddling case to federal court.
Meadows first made the petition earlier this year, after the supreme court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts. The case brought by Atlanta-area district attorney Fani Willis against Meadows, Trump and more than a dozen others for allegedly plotting to overturn the results of the election in Georgia has since stalled, and it is unclear if it will continue now that Trump is headed back to the White House.
Here’s more about Meadows’s petition:
Republicans near House majority despite losing seat in California
The GOP is on track to maintain its majority in the House of Representatives, even as Democrats managed to claim a hotly contested seat in the Los Angeles suburbs.
Yesterday, Republican congressman Mike Garcia conceded to his challenger George Whitesides in California’s 27th congressional district, flipping a district that Democrats have wanted to conquer for the past two elections. But it may not be enough to return the party to the majority in Congress’s lower chamber, and give them the ability to block Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
The Associated Press reports that the GOP had won 214 seats in the House, four shy of the majority, while the Democrats have 205. Counting in 16 races is ongoing, many of which are swing seats where every vote will matter, but Republicans are generally seen as having the edge in several crucial races.
We’ll let you know if the AP calls any outstanding House races over the course of today.
Joe Biden is meeting with two foreign leaders at the White House today.
At 11.15am, he will speak with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, then with Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, at 2pm.
Biden is also scheduled to have a private lunch with Kamala Harris around noon. The vice-president has no other meetings publicly scheduled.
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Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic former Florida congresswoman who mounted an unsuccessful bid to unseat Republican Senator Rick Scott in last week’s election, had a few words for Marco Rubio as he heads to the state department.
“Congrats @marcorubio on your appointment as US Secretary of State. I’m sure in a few weeks, after January 20, you’ll finally take down Maduro’s narco-regime and free the Cuban people from Díaz-Canel’s communist dictatorship. It’s been all talk so far—let’s see if you’re actually ready to do something about it,” she wrote on X.
Those are references to Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, both of whom leads governments Rubio is opposed to.
Mucarsel-Powell lost badly to Scott last week, picking up just under 43% of the vote to the Republican’s 55%, further confirming the strength of the Republican party in Florida.
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Should Florida senator Marco Rubio become Donald Trump’s next secretary of state, Arkansas’s Tom Cotton is set to become the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, Punchbowl News reports.
Cotton, who is known for his hardline views on the US relationship with China, was seen as a potential contender for a cabinet post in a second Trump administration, but reportedly withdrew his name following the ex-president’s election victory.
Trump considering Doug Burgum for 'energy tsar' – report
Donald Trump is reportedly considering making North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, his new “energy tsar”. The Financial Times were the first to report this on Friday. The outlet said that Burgum, who last year ran a short-lived campaign for the Republican nomination for president, is the president-elect’s preferred candidate for the role, though former energy secretary Dan Brouillette is also said to be a strong contender. The role and its powers have yet to be finalised but the FT reports that role would likely replace the “climate tsar” – or National Climate Advisor – established by the Biden administration. You can read more on Trump’s (potential) cabinet picks here.
As my colleagues Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman note in this story, Trump has pledged to deregulate the energy sector, allow the oil and gas industry to “drill, baby, drill”, and pull the US from the Paris climate agreement, which committed countries to taking steps to avoid the worst impacts of the crisis.
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Vietnam’s Communist Party head To Lam has congratulated Donald Trump on his US presidential election victory in a phone call and the two discussed ways their countries could boost economic ties, according to the communist party.
The US is Vietnam’s largest export market, and the two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership last September, the highest level in Vietnam’s ranking.
“Vietnam is ready to promote stable and long-term development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the people of the two countries,” Lam said during the call, which took place on Monday, according to a statement posted on the communist party’s website.
Lam stated that Vietnam is ready to promote the stable and long-term development of the bilateral ties for the sake of the two peoples, as well as for regional and global peace, cooperation, and sustainable development…
Trump expressed his satisfaction with the positive development in the bilateral relations, and affirmed the importance he attaches to the relationship with Vietnam, particularly economic cooperation. He highlighted specific areas of economic and trade collaboration that the US seeks to advance.
Last week, officials and supply chain experts told Reuters Vietnam could face trade volatility with a new Trump presidency, as it could become “collateral damage” of protectionist measures.
Both leaders invited the other to visit their country, according to the party statement.
Trump travelled to Vietnam twice in his first term as president, first to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and then for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
My colleague Rachel Leingang has done a profile on Tom Homan, the former law enforcement official who has been selected to be in charge of the country’s borders following Trump’s inauguration in January. Here is an extract from her piece:
Homan has been describing mass deportation in stark terms for the past year, angling for a role in helping Trump with his signature campaign promise. Asked about the high price tag of a mass deportation, he turned the question back on 60 Minutes: “What price do you put on our national security? Is it worth it?” When the outlet followed up to ask if there was a way for mass deportations not to separate families with mixed immigration statuses, Homan responded: “Families can be deported together.”
It is a likely next step for a man who served as acting director of Ice for 16 months under Trump in what was seen as a period of intense controversy for the agency. The Atlantic documented how Homan was the “father” of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, tracing its roots to a 2014 meeting where Homan pushed the idea. He defended the policy to the outlet by saying: “The goal wasn’t to traumatize. The goal was to stop the madness, stop the death, stop the rape, stop the children dying, stop the cartels doing what they’re doing.”
"I hear a lot of people say, 'The talk of a mass deportation is racist. It's threatening to the immigrant community,'" says Tom Homan, Trump’s former acting director of immigration enforcement. He argues it should only “be threatening to the illegal immigrant community.” pic.twitter.com/IsU7yrcxIb
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 27, 2024
This year, his speech to the Republican national convention started with a folksy “how you doin’” and a shoutout to New York, his home state. He then launched into an impassioned speech defending Trump and lambasting the Biden administration on immigration, saying Joe Biden’s policies were essentially “national suicide”.
“As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden’s released in our country in violation of federal law: you better start packing now – you’re damn right – because you’re going home,” he said, to raucous applause.
To the cartels in Mexico trafficking fentanyl, he said: “When President Trump gets back in office, he’s going to designate you a terrorist organization. He’s going to wipe you off the face of the earth. You’re done.”
The Republicans already have a majority in the Senate and need to win just a few seats to take control of the 435-member House (a party needs 218 seats to win a House majority). According to our latest tally, Republicans have 214 seats, while the Democrats have 205.
Keeping hold of the House would give Republicans sweeping powers to potentially enact a broad agenda of tax and spending cuts, energy deregulation and border security controls. As well as giving the party the power to initiate spending legislation, control of the House would allow Republicans to launch impeachment proceedings against officials.
Steve Bannon due in court over border-wall fraud trial
Steve Bannon is due in court today ahead of his trial on criminal fraud charges over a push to fund Trump’s border wall, weeks after he was released from prison on a separate conviction. Bannon, the 70-year-old former Trump adviser, is scheduled to stand trial starting on 9 December in New York state court in Manhattan.
Prosecutors allege that he deceived donors who contributed more than $15 million in 2019 to a private fundraising drive to build a barrier along the US-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty. He is set to appear for a final pretrial conference before acting justice April Newbauer at 2:15 pm EST (1915 GMT).
Last month, Bannon was released from prison, following a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena in an investigation of the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack.
Trump demands Senate allow him to circumvent hearings to appoint cabinet
Robert Tait is a journalist based in Washington DC
Donald Trump has demanded that the three frontrunners to lead the Senate allow him to appoint officials to his new administration without confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, as a future Republican government began to take shape the week after his election victory.
In a demonstration of his political muscle, the US president-elect urged support for “recess appointments”, which allow the president to make appointments while the Senate is temporarily paused, and can be used to circumvent the confirmation process, which can result in appointments being delayed or blocked.
The demand amounted to a full-frontal intervention in this week’s GOP’s election for a new Senate leader to replace Mitch McConnell, the party’s longtime leader who is retiring. The three men tipped to lead the Senate – Rick Scott, John Thune and John Cornyn – all quickly agreed to Trump’s request.
It also signalled Trump’s determination to press ahead with his agenda without being encumbered by congressional oversight, which is mandated by the US constitution.
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Trump poised to appoint Rubio; judge decides whether to overturn criminal conviction
Good morning, and welcome to our US politics blog.
US President-elect Donald Trump announced several new members of his incoming administration on Monday, and is reportedly expected to name Marco Rubio – a one time challenger in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries – as secretary of state.
It comes as justice Juan Merchan, a New York judge, is set to decide later today whether Trump’s criminal conviction on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star should be overturned in light of the US Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity.
Meanwhile, officials at the US justice department are assessing how to wind down the two federal criminal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith due to its longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
A separate case in Georgia involving state criminal charges concerning Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss remains in limbo.
We will give you more on the developments in the legal cases Trump faces when news breaks throughout the day.
Here are the main political appointments Trump has already made or is expected to announce shortly:
The New York Times reports that Trump is expected to name Florida senator Marco Rubio his secretary of state. The paper cites three unnamed sources “familiar with [Trump’s] thinking”. Rubio has said that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Moscow rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade. He was also one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, passed in April. Rubio serves as the vice-chairman of the Senate intelligence committee and sits on the foreign relations committee.
The US president-elect has reportedly asked US Representative Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser. Waltz, regarded by many in Washington as hawkish on China and Iran, has also been a member of the intelligence and foreign affairs committees.
Trump picked South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing two sources. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for a range of issues, including border protection, immigration, disaster response and the US secret service. Noem, once seen as a possible running mate for Trump, made headlines after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the pandemic.
Trump announced that the former New York congressman Lee Zeldin will be selected to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions”.
Stephen Miller, the author of Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” immigration policy during his first term, is set to be his deputy chief of staff with a broad portfolio.
Trump said on Sunday that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration. Homan told Fox News: “If sanctuary cities don’t want to help us, then get the hell out of the way, because we’re coming.”
New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, 40, has been made ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik, a Trump-skeptic turned Trump-ally, is the House Republican Conference chair, making her the fourth-ranking House Republican.
On Thursday, Trump made his first appointment, naming Susie Wiles, who has worked on Republican campaigns since the days of Ronald Reagan, White House chief of staff. She was previously the campaign manager for his victorious bid for re-election.
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