Trump chooses Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence

Ex-Hawaii congresswoman ran for president as Democratic candidate before quitting party to support Trump

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to serve as his director of national intelligence.

Gabbard, who served in the US military in Iraq, served four terms as a Democratic congresswoman representing Hawaii, and ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2020, before quitting the party in 2022, and becoming a supporter of Trump.

Continue reading...

Trump meets with Biden and promises ‘smooth as it can get’ transfer of power

Trump also suggests to House Republicans he might seek a third term in office, which is prohibited by US constitution

Donald Trump met with Joe Biden on Wednesday and promised a transfer of power that is “as smooth as it can get”, as the outgoing US president pledged his administration’s every possible resource to pave the way for his successor.

The two men, longtime political rivals who must now work together again to pass the reins of power, shook hands as they met in the Oval Office. Introducing Trump as both a former president and now president-elect, Biden congratulated him on his victory.

Continue reading...

Trump picks far-right congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general

Controversial Florida congressman is latest in slew of nominations by president-elect

Donald Trump has named the controversial Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be attorney general for his second administration.

The shock appointment aims to fill a post that had been eagerly awaited as Trump and his allies pick names for a raft of top jobs to serve under the victor of November’s US presidential election.

Continue reading...

Senior Trump adviser suggests Rudd’s time as US ambassador could be up with hourglass gif

Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott defend suitability of former PM after Dan Scavino social media post, despite Rudd’s past criticism of president-elect

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.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk handpicked by Trump to carry out slash-and-burn cuts plan

World’s richest man has been an enthusiastic cost-cutter – but he may find the public sector an entirely different beast

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”.

Continue reading...

Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department

Musk and ex-presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head up Department of Government Efficiency (Doge)

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 in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy 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.” He added that the move would shock government systems.

Continue reading...

Trump nominates Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new efficiency department to ‘restructure federal agencies’ – live

Tesla CEO and onetime Republican presidential hopeful put forward to lead department to ‘dismantle government bureaucracy’

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.

Continue reading...

Trump reportedly picks Kristi Noem to run homeland security department

South Dakota governor, whose VP chances evaporated after admitting shooting her dog, tipped as DHS secretary

President-elect Donald Trump has picked the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing two sources.

Noem, once seen as a possible running mate for Trump, is currently serving her second four-year term as South Dakota’s governor after a landslide re-election victory in 2022. She rose to national prominence after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Continue reading...

Trump to appoint Stephen Miller, immigration hardliner, as deputy chief of policy

Miller worked in the first Trump administration as a senior adviser and is known for his extremist rhetoric

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce that he will appoint immigration hardliner and close adviser, Stephen Miller, as his White House deputy chief of staff for policy.

Miller worked in the White House during Trump’s first administration, serving as a senior adviser to Trump and as director of speechwriting. He played a key role in developing several of Trump’s immigration policies, including the Muslim travel ban and the family separation policy.

Continue reading...

Trump to reportedly appoint immigration hardliner Stephen Miller to top White House job – live

The architect of Trump’s immigration policy is expected to become the deputy chief of staff for policy, CNN reports

US president-elect Donald 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’s areas of control will include “the southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump added that “border czar” Homan will be in charge of the deportation of illegal immigrants.

Continue reading...

US climate envoy says fight against climate crisis does not end under Trump

Even if president-elect rolls back climate progress, John Podesta reaffirms commitment to a clean planet at Cop29

The US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under a re-elected Donald Trump even if some progress is reversed, speaking at the Cop29 UN climate talks on Monday as they opened in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“Although under Donald Trump’s leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue,” said Podesta, who is leading the Biden administration’s delegation at the annual talks.

Continue reading...

Trump demands Senate allow him to circumvent hearings to appoint cabinet

Trump urges support from Rick Scott, John Thune and John Cornyn for ‘recess appointments’ while US Senate is paused

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.

Continue reading...

Trump reportedly tells Putin to not escalate war in Ukraine; Rick Scott emerges as front-runner for Senate leader role – live

Trump told Russian president to not escalate war with Ukraine, Washington Post reports; multiple conservatives endorse the Florida senator as the next leader

Here is a video report on the protests against Donald Trump in New York and Washington DC mentioned earlier:

Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.

Continue reading...

Sweep of swing states rubs salt in Democrats’ wounds as Trump prepares to meet Biden

Trump to visit Oval Office on Wednesday as Biden says he will ‘ensure a peaceful and orderly transition’

Donald Trump was declared the winner in Arizona early on Sunday, completing the Republicans’ clean sweep of the so-called swing states and rubbing salt in Democrats’ wounds as it was announced that the president-elect is scheduled to meet with Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the presidential handover.

In a national campaign that was projected as being extremely close but he ended up winning handily, the result in Arizona gives Trump 312 electoral college votes, compared with Kamala Harris’s 226. The state joins the other Sun belt swing states – Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina – and the three Rust belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in voting Republican. All were expected to be extremely competitive but all went for Trump, though by fairly close margins.

Continue reading...

Republicans on the verge of clinching control of the US House

With votes still being counted from general election, a win would be critical for Trump to advance agenda

Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the US House of Representatives, a critical element for Donald Trump to advance his agenda when the president-elect returns to the White House in January.

With votes still being counted from the 5 November general election, Republicans had won 212 seats in the 435-member House, according to Edison Research, which projected on Friday night that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to keep Republican control of Colorado’s third congressional district.

Trump wins the presidency – how did it happen?

With Trump re-elected, this is what’s at stake

Abortion ballot measure results by state

Continue reading...

Anti-Trump protests erupt across US from New York City to Seattle

Thousands of people take to streets to protest threats to reproductive rights and pledges of mass deportations

Protests against Donald Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election.

Thousands of people in major cities including New York City and Seattle demonstrated against the former president and now president-elect amid his threats against reproductive rights and pledges to carry out mass deportations at the start of his upcoming presidency.

Continue reading...

Thousands protest in New York and Washington – as it happened

This blog is closed, thanks for following along. You can find our latest US politics coverage here.

Russia’s foreign ministry sees no grounds for talking about resuming dialogue on strategic stability and arms control with the US at the moment, Interfax news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russia’s deputy foreign minister.

Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow and Washington “are exchanging signals on Ukraine” through closed channels at the military and political levels, according to Interfax. He also said that Russia was ready to listen to US president-elect, Donald Trump’s proposals on resolving the crisis in Ukraine, adding that there could be no simple solution.

Continue reading...

Iranian man charged in plot to kill Trump; judge grants special counsel’s request to pause Trump’s 2020 case – live

Unnamed official of Iranian guard told a contact in September to create a plan to kill Trump, complaint says; judge grants Jack Smith’s ask to pause proceedings after election result

A federal judge has struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to US citizens.

The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of US citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country.

The temporary relief from deportation brought a brief sense of security to some 500,000 immigrants estimated to benefit from the program before Texas-based U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker put it on hold in August, days after applicants filed their paperwork.

Barker ruled yesterday that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority by implementing the program and had stretched the legal interpretation of relevant immigration law “past its breaking point.”

The short-lived Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together” would have been unlikely to remain in place after Donald Trump took office in January. But its early termination creates greater uncertainty for immigrant families as many are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House.

CNN’s latest projection of the crucial races to gain control of the House has Republicans ahead in ten of the contests, with, according to their projections, only six victories needed to tip them over the magic 218 for control.

Continue reading...

Trump says vow to deport millions of undocumented people has ‘no price tag’

President-elect’s plan to quash undocumented migration through mass deportations met with Democratic resistance

Donald Trump’s vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants has no “price tag”, the president-elect has said, setting the scene for a confrontation between his incoming administration and Democratic officials across the US.

As Democratic state governors and mayors signalled their determination to resist the most extreme elements of his agenda, Trump promised that his campaign pledge to expel an estimated 11 million people – though Trump himself has given a figure as high as 21 million – would be implemented come what may.

Continue reading...

Trump allies say Project 2025 is on as Heritage affiliates vie for cabinet posts

Clear links to president-elect and rightwing document emerge after his attempts to distance himself from project

Cheerleaders for Donald Trump have gleefully raised the prospect of the extremist Project 2025 policy blueprint being implemented by the new administration as they taunted Democrats after the Republicans’ victory over Kamala Harris.

Project 2025 is an initiative coordinated by the rightwing Heritage Foundation and presented to the American public in the form of the Mandate, a 900-plus page policy plan. Proposals for a second Trump administration include political purges of the federal government and attacks on minority rights and environmental protections among many other hard-right policy ideas.

Continue reading...