President-elect picks Fox News personalities and key loyalists as he looks to fill crucial agency and advisory roles
In a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him.
Continue reading...Cool change expected to push through state late on Saturday, bringing intense rain and thunderstorms across the wider region into next week
Extreme fire danger alerts are in place in parts of Victoria, as swathes of south-east Australia continue to swelter through a heatwave sweeping across the region.
However, the weather system driving the warm conditions is expected to bring a cool change by late on Saturday for much of Victoria, before it triggers intense rain and thunderstorms by the end of the weekend and into the middle of next week.
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Continue reading...Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, commerce and Treasury nominees respectively, are sure to ignore economist’s warnings and follow Trump’s lead
Certain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.
Sure enough, the veteran boss of JPMorgan Chase – Wall Street’s de facto ambassador to the world – was, indeed, linked with the role this time around as the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns mulled their options in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election.
Continue reading...Job is one of most powerful in Washington with huge influence over US economy and financial markets
Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.
The move to select Bessent is the latest as the president-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House. The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.
Continue reading...Vought, who led Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, deeply involved in rightwing manifesto
Donald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.
Vought, who was OMB chief during Trump’s first term, would play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump’s campaign promise to roll back government regulations.