Trump cabinet live updates: President-elect joins Musk for SpaceX launch and taps Dr Oz for key role
TV doctor joins Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as latest additions to new Trump administration, as Treasury role remains vacant
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump joined Elon Musk in Texas to watch this afternoon’s SpaceX Starship test launch as his proposed administration continues to take shape.
On Tuesday, the president-elect named Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary. Lutnick was under consideration for treasury secretary, with reports that there is a “free for all” and a “mad dash to find someone pro-tariff” to take up the role.
Trump also tapped Dr Mehmet Oz as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator — working closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr.
On Capitol Hill, the controversial choice of Matt Gaetz as potential attorney general continues to cause a stir, with reports that a hacker has accessed a file of damaging testimony about the former congressman from an ethics investigation.
In other developments, Trump confirmed his intention to deploy the military to carry out his mass deportation plan in a Truth Social post, and on Fox News, his incoming border czar Tom Homan threatened prosecution for anyone who hides migrants.
Finally, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has told Judge Juan Merchan he will not oppose postponing Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case but rejects attempts by the defense to throw out the conviction.
Trump joked about a third term in 2028. So can he run again?
Helping out the First Buddy: Musk’s Tesla stock soars after reports Trump will ease rules on driverless cars
Doctors worry about RFK Jr’s anti-Ozempic stance (and many of his other views)
Trump’s Cabinet and staff tracker: Here’s who is among the White House appointments so far
Republican introduces bill to stop trans women using female bathrooms on Capitol Hill
GOP Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation that would ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill, just as the first transgender woman is about to be sworn into Congress.
Mace, serving in her second term, unveiled the bill on Monday evening.
Her proposal would prohibit members of Congress, officers and employees of the House of Representatives from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex” and require the House sergeant at arms to enforce it.
Earlier this month, Delaware elected Sarah McBride to be its sole member of Congress, making her the first openly transgender woman to serve in either chamber of Congress.
Eric Garcia has more.
Republican writes bill to ban transgender women from using proper bathrooms
‘This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions,’ Sarah McBride says in response
Rudy Giuliani demands court delays his trial to attend Trump’s inauguration
The former New York City mayor’s trial is scheduled for January 16 2025, four days before President-Elect Trump’s big day.
The cash-strapped Giuliani has now asked the court to adjourn the proceedings, related to the $150m bankruptcy court judgment against him, until on or after January 22 so that he can attend the ceremony.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Giuliani demands court delays his trial so he can attend Trump’s inauguration
The former mayor has relinquished control of his Mercedes-Benz — a move he called ‘wholly improper’
Gaetz took two women to see Pretty Woman on Broadway after flying them to NYC and paying them for sex, lawyer says
Rhian Lubin has more here from Joel Leppard, the attorney for the two women who gave closed-door testimony to the House Ethics Committee about their experiences with Trump’s would-be attorney general.
Matt Gaetz took women to Pretty Woman show after paying them for sex, lawyer says
Joel Leppard, an attorney for the two women who gave closed-door testimony to the House Ethics Committee, revealed new details about his clients’ alleged encounters with the man who could soon become the nation’s top law enforcement officer
Trump joked about a third term in 2028. So can he run again?
The president-elect has repeatedly mused about the prospect of serving a constitutionally-barred third term as commander-in-chief, although his Republican colleagues have so far insisted he’s just joking.
“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something,” Trump reportedly told his GOP House colleagues as they met ahead of congressional leadership elections last week.
“Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”
The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution states that presidents can only serve up to two full terms, although Trump has said he may feel “entitled” to more (while also saying he doesn’t want to run again after his next term ends in January 2029).
Republicans in the room when he addressed his House colleagues later moved to reassure reporters that the president-elect had only been kidding about his future – but was he?
Josh Marcus and Alex Woodward take a closer look.
Trump joked about a third term in 2028. So can he run again?
The 22nd amendment bars presidents from a third term in office. Is it enough to stop Trump?
Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ mandate is actually much smaller than he claimed
Let’s just sail breezily past the possibility of a double entendre in that headline and review the numbers with CNN’s data bod Harry Enten, after it emerged yesterday that Trump actually picked up less than 50 percent of the popular vote on Election Day.
Here’s more on Trump’s mandate from our own Richard Hall, who has been speaking to presidential historians about its significance.
Despite what he says, Trump actually has a very small mandate
Trump doesn’t have the mandate he thinks he does, presidential historians tell Richard Hall — and Democrats should stop acting like he does
Elon Musk’s bromance with Trump is starting to irritate MAGAworld
He may have reached “uncle status” with Trump’s granddaughter Kai but Musk has already started to fall out with the people surrounding the president-elect.
That hasn’t stopped him continuing to push to influence cabinet picks, John Bowden reports.
Elon Musk’s bromance with Trump is starting to irritate MAGAworld
He may have reached ‘uncle status’ with Trump’s granddaughter Kai, but Musk has already started to fall out with the people surrounding the president-elect. That hasn’t stopped him continuing to push to influence Cabinet picks, John Bowden reports
Who is Sean Duffy?
Here’s Io Dodds with a profile to answer that very question on Trump’s nominee for transport secretary.
Trump names his transportation secretary – a former reality TV star turned Fox host
Sean Duffy is one of several current or former Fox News hosts appointed to Trump’s new cabinet
Trump ‘personally calling senators’ to lobby for Gaetz
So says CNN, which reports that the president-elect has stressed to his Republican allies that he is determined to get Matt Gaetz confirmed as attorney general regardless of the allegations against him (which the former congressman denies) and has been putting in calls to a number of unnamed senators to argue the case directly.
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee is meanwhile due to meet on Wednesday to discuss whether or not to release the report it compiled on Gaetz prior to the curtailment of its investigation in February 2023.
Republicans are “weighing whether to bury” the dossier in order to help Trump get his man, according to CNN.
However, the panel’s chair, Michael Guest, has told Politico that its members all have full access to the report and will not be swayed in their opinion on what to do with it by Trump-affiliated House speaker Mike Johnson.
“We did talk this weekend,” Guest said of Johnson.
“I appreciate Mike reaching out. I don’t see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”
The speaker has meanwhile denied trying to influence the matter either way, commenting: “I’m not telling the Ethics Committee what to do.
“It is not my place to do so. I’ve been very clear. I’m merely responding to the questions that every single media outlet in America is asking me.”
Here’s more from James Liddell on Trump’s pressure campaign.
Trump personally calls senators to pressure them to confirm Gaetz as attorney general
House Ethics Committee report into Gaetz has now been made available to all committee members
Watch: Jon Stewart argues Morning Joe visit to Trump reveals Democrats have ‘learned nothing'
The Daily Show host observed last night that the Trump GOP has become the party of “loopholes”, which leaves its opposition hopelessly insisting that the “norms” be obeyed.
Or, to put it another way: “Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because they glued their balls to their thighs.”
Here’s James Liddell with more from Stewart.
Jon Stewart tells Morning Joe’s Mika and Joe why Trump meeting was a bad idea
MSNBC anchors are facing backlash for visiting the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago to ‘restart communications’
Trump Media ‘in talks’ to buy cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt
The president-elect’s Trump Media company is reportedly in “advanced talks” to buy the cryptocurrency trading firm Bakkt according to The Financial Times.
Shares in both companies soared on the news, with the parent company behind Truth Social shooting up by as much as 15 percent in the minutes after the report was published, CNBC reported.
Shares of Bakkt, created by Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, leaped more than 162 percent, triggering repeated trading due to volatility in the price.
The share price of Trump Media has been on a rollercoaster ride since it went public earlier this year in the run-up to the presidential election.
The company has reported a $363m net loss on revenues of just $2.6m so far this year, it boasts a market cap above $7bn.
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