Category Archives: Donald Trump

Republican support wavers for Mike Johnson’s re-election as House speaker

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Despite Donald Trump’s endorsement, Johnson is facing criticism for his handling of the government budget battle

A senior Texas Republican congressman has said that the House speaker, Mike Johnson, does not yet have the votes to be re-elected to the speakership ahead of an election to be held later this week.

Representative Chip Roy told Fox Business’s Varney & Co that he was undecided on supporting the Louisiana Republican, despite Donald Trump issuing a full-throated endorsement of Johnson on Monday.

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Trump endorses Mike Johnson for another term as House speaker

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President-elect gives ‘total endorsement’ amid discontent among fellow Republicans with speaker’s leadership

Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Johnson for another term as speaker of the House of Representatives, following intense speculation that the Louisiana congressman could face a challenge amid unhappiness with his leadership among fellow Republicans.

The president-elect – whose own continued support had appeared uncertain – trumpeted his backing in a social media post that appeared to assure Johnson’s re-election speaker after the new Congress is sworn in on Friday.

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Republican congressman says party should drop ‘food fight’ over leadership

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Mike Lawler says Mike Johnson should remain speaker as cracks appear between Trump’s team and far right

The US House member Mike Lawler attempted on Sunday to tease out two pressing issues facing the new Congress beginning in 2025, telling an American political talkshow that this was not the moment for his fellow Republicans to have a “food fight” over leadership in Capitol Hill and that the country “needs an immigration system that works”.

Both issues have dominated political headlines in recent days, as potential policy splits become apparent between far-right congressional Republicans and the executive team being assembled for their party leader Donald Trump’s second presidency beginning in January.

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Trump sides with Musk on support for H-1B visas for foreign tech workers

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Remarks follow social media posts from Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who vowed to go to ‘war’ to defend program

Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.

Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.

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Biden reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump

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President also regrets picking Merrick Garland for attorney general, as he was slow to prosecute Trump for January 6

Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.

The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general – reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively prosecuted Biden’s son Hunter.

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Trump versus trade: the global economic outlook for 2025 in five charts

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Unpredictable change will sweep through America, while old problems, from war to inflation, are likely to afflict other countries

The global economy is entering the new year with rising geopolitical tensions looming over its prospects, as the world’s leading central banks attempt to cut interest rates after the worst inflation shock in decades.

Donald Trump’s second term in the White House is expected to dominate the economic agenda. Global trade tensions are on the horizon as the president-elect threatens to impose sweeping tariffs on US imports.

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Trump asks US supreme court to pause ban-or-divest law for TikTok

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Court will hear arguments in case that could see app banned in US if not sold to American firm by 19 January

President-elect Donald Trump has urged the US supreme court to pause implementation of a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its sale, arguing he should have time after taking office to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

The court is set to hear arguments in the case on 10 January.

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Trump tells 37 people on death row with commuted sentences to ‘go to hell’

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On Truth Social, president-elect also lashes out at Chinese troops in Panama Canal and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Donald Trump has told 37 people on death row who had their sentences commuted by Joe Biden to “go to hell” in a lacerating Christmas Day social media post.

The president-elect – long a vocal advocate of capital punishment – lashed out at Biden’s decision on his Truth Social platform, after wishing a merry Christmas to political opponents he addressed as “Radical Left Lunatics”.

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Family detentions to return in migration crackdown, says Trump ‘border czar’

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Tom Homan also said that undocumented parents of US-born children will be deported, with or without their kids

US immigration authorities will resume the controversial policy of putting families with children in detention centres as part of a drive to deport undocumented immigrants, the incoming Trump administration’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, has said.

Homan, regarded as the “architect” of the widely vilified family separation policy applied to undocumented immigrants in the first Trump administration, also said officials would not hesitate to deport parents whose children were American citizens because they had been born in the US.

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Trump nominates Miami-Dade official as Panama ambassador amid canal row

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Announcement comes as Trump has threatened to reassert control over canal, which US handed to Panama in 1999

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the Miami-Dade county commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama.

Trump described Cabrera as “a fierce fighter for America First principles” who he said has been instrumental in driving economic growth and fostering international partnerships.

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US business leaders set to break record on donations to Trump inaugural fund

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Donations, not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries seek favor with incoming administration

US business leaders are spending big on Donald Trump’s second inaugural fund, which is predicted to exceed even the record-setting $107m raised in 2017.

The donations, which are not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries and business leaders seek to curry favor with the incoming administration after the president-elect decisively won a second, non-consecutive term in November.

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Pete Hegseth says Donald Trump ‘supports us fully’ as he arrives on Capitol Hill to charm senators – US politics live

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Trump’s Pentagon pick says president-elect spoke to him on Thursday morning as media reports say Hegseth faced HR investigation over Fox Christmas party antics

Pete Hegseth has continued promoting his nomination for defense secretary on X, writing:

Maybe it’s time for a [defense secretary] who has…

Led in combat. Been on patrol for days. Pulled a trigger. Heard bullets whiz by. Called in close air support. Led medevacs. Dodged IEDs.

We’re going to confirm @PeteHegseth !

The importance of a warrior for the war fighter cannot be overstated. The Secretary of Defense must be clear-eyed, mission-oriented, and vigilant on behalf of the men and women they lead. I appreciate @PeteHegseth’s willingness to serve. The scrutiny of the nomination process and transparency matter. I look forward to his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Bitcoin price hits record-high $100,027 as Trump win fuels crypto fever

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Largest cryptocurrency, prone to volatile market surges, lifts amid hopes of lighter regulation with Trump’s return

Bitcoin has crossed $100,000 for the first time, scaling a fresh record high amid a euphoric rally sparked by Donald Trump’s election victory.

The world’s largest and most valuable cryptocurrency – prone to volatile market surges and routs – has been lifted in recent weeks by hopes that the president-elect’s return to the White House will usher in a new era of lighter regulation and supportive policies.

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Trump names Peter Navarro, jailed for contempt of Congress, trade adviser

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President-elect says Navarro, his former White House trade adviser, will focus on tariffs

Donald Trump said he would name former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.

Navarro made headlines earlier this year when, in March, he was jailed for contempt of Congress.

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Mexico announces record drug seizure one week after Trump threatens tariffs

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Soldiers and marines discover drugs in Sinaloa, while separately authorities arrest more than 5,200 migrants

Mexican security forces have impounded more than a ton of fentanyl pills in what officials have called the biggest seizure of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history.

Soldiers and marines found the fentanyl at two properties in the northern state of Sinaloa, late on Tuesday – exactly a week after Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless the two neighbouring countries cracked down on the flow of immigrants and drugs across their borders with the US.

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Mexico says Canada wishes it had its ‘cultural riches’ amid tariffs feud

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Leaders cast the other as ill-prepared after Trump threatens to apply 25% taxes on goods from both countries

Mexico’s president has said Canadians “could only wish they had the cultural riches” of her country as tensions mount between the two nations, caught in a feud over tariffs and trade exacerbated by Donald Trump.

The US president-elect threatened in a social media post last week to apply devastating levies of 25% on all goods and services from both countries, and to keep them in place until “such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!”

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Trump’s DEA pick Chad Chronister withdraws from consideration

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Florida sheriff cites ‘gravity’ of responsibility days after Trump taps him to lead Drug Enforcement Administration

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Chad Chronister, said on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from consideration.

“Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister, a Florida sheriff, said in a social media post.

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Trudeau meets rivals as he seeks united front in face of Trump tariff threat

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Canadian government scrambles to ward off tariffs as prime minister briefs politicians on meeting with Trump

Canada’s federal government has redoubled its efforts to ward off potentially disastrous tariffs from its closest ally, but provincial leaders have hinted at divergent strategies in response to the protectionist threat from president-elect Donald Trump.

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, convened a rare, in-person meeting with his political rivals on Tuesday to brief them on a surprise meeting with Trump at his Florida resort over the weekend.

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Trump team signs agreement on background checks for nominees; lawyers push for hush-money case dismissal – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can read our Trump hush-money story here

Notre Dame Cathedral will reopen in Paris on Saturday with incoming US president Donald Trump set to attend the ceremony marking the resurrection of the Gothic masterpiece five years after a devastating fire.

The Republican confirmed Monday he had accepted an invitation from French president Emmanuel Macron to attend the grand re-opening of the 850-year-old edifice which was nearly lost to flames in April 2019.

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Defense head pick Pete Hegseth now dogged by questions over alcohol use

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Questions have also been raised over reports the embattled former Fox News host mismanaged two veterans groups

Questions continued to dog Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, on Monday following reports he was twice ousted from previous organisations he led over financial mismanagement and improper behavior, with reporters asking him directly if he had an alcohol problem.

Hegseth, 44, who was visiting Capitol Hill to drum up support for his troubled nomination, did not respond when a journalist asked “Do you have an alcohol problem?” as he arrived for a meeting with Republican senators.

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