Category Archives: Donald Trump

Trump says he will block Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid to acquire US Steel

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Acquisition of Pittsburgh-based steel producer by Japanese company has faced opposition from steelworkers and Biden

Donald Trump said on Monday that he intends to block Japan’s Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid to acquire US Steel in a move that will fuel further fears about a global trade war when the Republican returns to the White House next month.

“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan” the US president-elect said in a statement on Monday, adding: “Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST! As President, I will block this deal from happening. Buyer Beware!!!”

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Trump picks Republican mega-donor Warren Stephens as ambassador to UK

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Investment banker has donated regularly to conservative causes although not always in favor of the president-elect

Donald Trump announced on Monday he has picked investment banker and Republican mega-donor Warren Stephens to serve as ambassador to the UK.

“Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time,” wrote Trump in a social media post. “I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies.”

Reuters contributed reporting

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Special counsel defends prosecution of Hunter Biden as more Democrats signal discomfort with pardon – as it happened

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President-elect Donald Trump - as we reported earlier - responded angrily to Joe Biden’s pardon.

But he himself pardoned several allies and friends in own final days in office among the 70 people granted clemency in 2021.

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Raskin seeks to lead Democrats on House judiciary in ‘fight of our lives’ against Trump

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Congressman launches bid to unseat colleague from key role in committee to sharpen resistance to Trump

Jamie Raskin, the Maryland congressman who spearheaded the second impeachment of Donald Trump, has announced a bid to unseat a veteran Democratic colleague from a key role in a Capitol Hill committee as part of a party drive to sharpen its opposition in preparation for Trump’s return to the White House.

After days of speculation, Raskin said he would challenge Jerrold Nadler of New York for the post of ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives’ judiciary committee.

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Starmer rejects false choice between Trump’s US and EU in key speech

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At lord mayor’s banquet in London, British PM says ‘national interest demands that we work with both’

Keir Starmer has “utterly rejected” the idea that the UK must choose between the United States and Europe when Donald Trump comes to power, arguing that it is in the national interest to work with both.

The prime minister said the UK would “never turn away” from its relationship with the US, despite the difficulties the new administration could pose, as it had been the “cornerstone” of security and prosperity for over a century.

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Ad campaign comparing Peter Dutton to Donald Trump sees Climate 200’s donations surge by $380,000

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Organisation asked supporters if they ‘want to feel different on our election night’ in an ad with half of Trump’s face and half of Dutton’s

Climate 200 has reported a surge in first-time donors in November off the back of a donation-matching campaign comparing the Coalition and Peter Dutton to the politics of Donald Trump.

The funding aggregator claims to have raised $377,000 from 3,900 donations including 1,373 people who donated to it for the first time, the biggest wave of first-time supporters since it was launched in 2021.

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Justin Trudeau promises Trump that Canada will increase border surveillance

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Canadian PM dines with Trump, who vowed tariffs unless country stops migrants and drugs from entering US

Justin Trudeau promised Donald Trump that Canada would increase surveillance over the long undefended joint border, a senior Canadian official said on Sunday. The Canadian prime minister flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with the US president-elect, who has promised to slap tariffs on Canadian imports unless Ottawa prevents undocumented people and drugs from crossing the frontier.

Canada sends 75% of all goods and services exports to the United States and tariffs would badly hurt the economy.

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Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler joins race for Democratic National Committee chair

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In announcement, state’s Democratic chair touts grassroots and new media organizing success in closely divided state

Wisconsin Democratic leader Ben Wikler joined the race to lead the Democratic National Committee on Sunday, promising “to take on Trump, Republican extremists, and move our country forward”, as the party looks to rebuild from its losses in the November election.

In a video posted on social networks, Wikler, 43, touted his state party’s success in organizing to flip 14 state legislative seats and send Senator Tammy Baldwin back to Washington DC in November, and in previously campaigns to win control of the state supreme court and re-elect governor Tony Evers. Wikler, a former podcaster, Air America radio producer and headline writer for The Onion, also stressed his new media expertise.

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Conspiracy theorist Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead FBI, faces Senate blowback

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‘Deep state’ critic who has threatened to shut down agency’s headquarters could face tough confirmation battle

Donald Trump’s plan to nominate as FBI director the “deep state” conspiracy theorist Kash Patel, a virulent critic of the bureau who has threatened to fire its top echelons and shut down the agency’s headquarters, is facing blowback in Congress as US senators begin to flex their muscles ahead of a contentious confirmation process.

Politicians from both main parties took to the Sunday talk shows to express starkly divergent views on Patel, whom Trump announced on Saturday as his pick to lead the most powerful law enforcement agency in the US. The move is dependent on the incumbent FBI chief, Christopher Wray, who Trump himself placed in the job in 2017, either being fired or resigning.

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Trump threat of 100% tariffs against Brics nations raises trade war fears

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President-elect threatens retaliation if emerging economies create new currency to rival US dollar

Fears of a global trade war have risen after Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries in the Brics group if they create a new currency to rival the US dollar.

Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump declared that he would also act if they supported another currency to replace the dollar.

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‘The EU wants Ukraine to win this war’: who is its new chief diplomat Kaja Kallas?

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She stepped down as Estonia’s prime minister to take up foreign policy role replacing tough talker Josep Borrell

It was no surprise that Kaja Kallas went to Ukraine on her first day as the EU’s chief diplomat.

Kallas, who stepped down as Estonia’s prime minister to take up the role, was accompanied in Kyiv on Sunday by the new European Council president, António Costa, and European enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, marking the leadership changeover at the EU institutions on 1 December.

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American-Israeli hostage urges Trump to free Gaza captives in new video

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Edan Alexander, who was taken prisoner on 7 Oct, asked Donald Trump to secure his freedom in a Hamas video condemned by the White House

The White House has condemned a Hamas-issued propaganda video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander urging president-elect Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal to free remaining hostages in Gaza, calling it “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own”.

In the video, titled “Soon … Time is running out” and posted on Saturday on the Telegram channel of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, Alexander calls on Trump to use his “influence and the full power of the United States to negotiate for our freedom”.

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Trump maintains hard line on Canada after meeting with Trudeau

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Prime minister becomes first G7 leader to visit president-elect amid concerns over tariff threat

Donald Trump said he had a “productive” meeting with Justin Trudeau after the Canadian prime minister paid a surprise trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate amid fears about Trump’s promised tariffs.

Trudeau became the first G7 leader to meet with Trump before his second term amid widespread fears in Canada and many other parts of the world that Trump’s trade policy will cause widespread economic chaos.

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Trump nominates Jared Kushner’s father for ambassador to France

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Businessman pleaded guilty to illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005

Donald Trump has nominated Charles Kushner, a businessman who is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, to serve as US ambassador to France, the president-elect said on Saturday.

Kushner, whose job requires Senate confirmation, is the latest of Trump’s picks to have close ties with the incoming president. Kushner’s son, Jared Kushner, is married to Ivanka Trump, and was a close advisor to Trump during his first presidency.

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Trump defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s mother called him ‘an abuser of women’

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Email from mother, published in the New York Times, said he mistreated women and displayed a lack of character

The family dynamics of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, have burst out into the open after an email from his mother criticizing her son over his treatment of women and calling him an “abuser of women” was leaked to a newspaper.

A 2018 email from Penelope Hegseth accused her son of routinely mistreating women and displaying a lack of character.

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Musk could use the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ for self-enrichment

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He’s said $42.45bn spent by the US for rural internet isn’t efficient. His Starlink company stands to benefit if he reduces that investment

Elon Musk, named by Donald Trump to co-lead a commission aimed at reducing the size of the federal government, is poised to undermine funding for rural broadband services to benefit his satellite internet services company, Starlink.

Musk has long been a critic of the Biden administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (Bead) Program, which provides $42.45bn through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to expand high-speed internet access in rural communities. Starlink, the satellite internet services subsidiary of SpaceX, has largely been shut out of this funding after government agencies deemed it too slow to qualify.

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Smell like Trump: ‘victory cologne’ for sale as president-elect hawks his wares

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President-elect’s list of branded products continues to grow – and he seems to be profiting from his eclectic range

Donald Trump raised eyebrows earlier this month when he announced he was selling a line of $11,000 guitars – the musical instrument becoming the latest item in a string of Trump-endorsed products that include sneakers, a Bible and a “victory cologne”.

Billed as “the only guitar officially endorsed by President Donald J Trump”, the acoustic and electric axes bear all the gaudy insignia of Trump’s political campaigns, and have been developed “with the help of a master luthier”.

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Trudeau in Florida to meet Trump after tariffs threat – reports

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Canada’s PM to dine with US president-elect at Mar-a-Lago resort, news reports say, days after Trump threatens 25% tariff on Canadian imports

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has arrived in Palm Beach, Florida, ahead of a meeting Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to media reports, days after the US president-elect threatened the US’s neighbour with import tariffs once he takes office.

The Canadian prime minister’s public itinerary does not list a scheduled visit to Florida. Neither Trudeau’s office nor Trump’s representatives immediately responded to requests for comment.

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Trump cabinet picks shaped by new power centers in his orbit

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Boris Epshteyn, Susie Wiles and JD Vance hold outsized influence in the president-elect’s administration selections

Donald Trump’s picks for the incoming administration are being shaped by a combination of different power centers including one-man influences like top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and combined groups led by chief of staff Susie Wiles and vice-president-elect JD Vance.

The president-elect appears to have settled on a number of cabinet nominees himself without being aggressively pushed by advisers, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

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Tesla owners turn against Musk: ‘I’m embarrassed driving this car around’

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The electric car brand was once a liberal favourite – but the CEO’s embrace of Trump has led to an angry backlash

As Elon Musk has embraced Donald Trump and various far-right conspiracy theories, he has left behind an aghast cohort of Tesla owners who suddenly feel embarrassed by their own cars. Many of them are now publicly displaying their dismay at Musk on their vehicles.

Sales of anti-Musk stickers have boomed since the world’s richest man declared his support for Trump and helped propel him to victory in the US presidential election, as owners of Teslas, the car brand headed by Musk, try to distance themselves from the South African-born multibillionaire.

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