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. Trump is also set to name former WWE CEO Linda McMahon as education secretary, according to a report.
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
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.
Two women told House panel Matt Gaetz paid them for sex via Venmo, lawyer alleges
The House Ethics Committee – which investigated Trump’s attorney general pick, the now-former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz – heard from two women who told investigators that Gaetz paid both of them for sex, according to their attorney Joel Leppard.
One of his clients also told the committee that she had witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman, who was 17 years old at the time.
“She testified that in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Representative Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard told ABC News.
The statements follow Trump’s nomination of Gaetz and the latter’s subsequent resignation from Congress, days before the anticipated release of an ethics committee report into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The claims are coming under closer scrutiny before confirmation hearings in the Senate next year.
Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor, has demanded that the committee release a report with its findings.
But CNN pundit Chuck Rocha believes there’s no chance Gaetz will ever be approved by the Senate anyway because he is “an a**hole” who is not popular with senators.
Here’s more from Alex Woodward.
Two women told House ethics panel Matt Gaetz paid them for sex, lawyer says
Attorneys for women who testified to ethics panel are putting pressure on lawmakers to release report
Judge Merchan to rule on future of Trump’s hush money case
In New York City today, Judge Juan Merchan will hear from prosecutors on the future of Trump’s hush money case after he was convicted on all 34 counts earlier this year of paying off Stormy Daniels to the tune of $130,000 to stop her making her allegation about their having a sexual encounter in summer 2006 public and potentially thwarting his 2016 presidential bid into the bargain.
Judge Merchan had been set to offer a ruling a week ago – taking into account the Supreme Court’s subsequent granting of broad presidential immunity – only to delay in order to grant the prosecution and defense more time to submit their latest filings in light of Trump’s election win.
The prosecution will now offer what it considers to be the most “appropriate steps going forward”, which could potentially include further suspending or even scrapping the case in the greater interest of national unity.
At it stands, Merchan is currently scheduled to sentence Trump next Tuesday but that could now all change in light of his election win.
Of the four indictments Trump was hit with in 2023, the Manhattan case was the only one to reach a verdict, with special prosecutor Jack Smith’s two federal cases now being quietly wrapped and another brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia on hold pending appeal.
Here’s Alex Woodward’s most recent reporting on the case.
Judge delays decision on Trump’s attempt to throw out hush money conviction
A jury unanimously voted to convict the former president on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records
Trump nominates Sean Duffy as transport secretary
The president-elect has meanwhile announced that Sean Duffy is his nominee to be America’s next transport secretary, the second Fox alumni to be picked after Pete Hegseth was chosen as defense secretary.
Trump said in a Truth Social statement on Monday that the former Wisconsin congressman and fellow reality TV star was a “tremendous and well-liked public servant”, who was “admired across the aisle” for his work with Democrats on expanding US infrastructure.
“He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness, and Beauty when rebuilding America's highways, tunnels, bridges, and airports,” the Republican wrote.
“He will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] for pilots and air traffic controllers... and fulfil our Mission of ushering in The Golden Age of Travel.”
Like Trump, Duffy got his start on TV, appearing on MTV’s The Real World and Road Rules series in the late 1990s before winning office as a prosecutor in Ashland County, Wisconsin, in 2002.
You can check out our Trump 2.0 staffing tracker below.
Trump’s Cabinet tracker: Here’s who is among the White House appointments so far
Here is who Donald Trump has chosen to fill key cabinet positions in his second administration
Donald Trump spills details about controversial Morning Joe meeting
Good morning!
Donald Trump has offered an insight into his surprise meeting at Mar-a-Lago last week with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, telling Fox News the sitdown was “extremely cordial” and “ended in a very positive manner... We agreed to speak in the future”.
Scarborough and Brzezinski were highly critical of the Republican during the election campaign and had not met with him in seven years but Trump said he had agreed with them that “it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press”.
He added: “I am not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly.”
The duo, often viciously mocked by Trump in the past, took to the air yesterday morning to explain their decision to “restart communications” with the 47th president but were immediately attacked by other media figures for backing down from their earlier hostility in the wake of his resounding election victory over Kamala Harris.
Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly was particularly vicious in her denunciation of them while Trumpworld pariah Nikki Haley was all cynicism.
Here’s Kevin EG Perry on what The View host Sunny Hostin had to say about it all.
Sunny Hostin accuses Morning Joe hosts of ‘kissing the ring’ after Trump meeting
‘America needs a free press that is willing to speak truth to power right now, more than ever,’ said Hostin
How the Heritage Foundation is creeping back into Trump’s sphere
After Donald Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail, the organization behind it “kind of went dark,” an official admitted.
Kamala Harris linked the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 – a radical conservative 900-page blueprint for the second Trump administration, which includes proposals for shutting down the Department of Education and federal limits on abortion – to the Trump campaign.
After Democrats hit Project 2025 hard in campaign ads, the organization faced widespread backlash and had no choice but to quietly back away. Trump’s campaign also publicly shunned the proposals. “We did not anticipate that,” a Heritage official told Politico’s Playbook. “And wish it didn’t happen. But you know, we had to do what we had to do.”
Rhian Lubin has the story.
‘We’re so back’: How the Heritage Foundation is creeping back into Trump’s sphere
After the Democrats hit Project 2025 hard in campaign ads in the summer, the think tank had no choice but to quietly back away
Does Trump’s choice of Rubio mean fiercer US-China rivalry?
Donald Trump belittled him as “Little Marco” and “choke artist”, only to nominate him as his US secretary of state. The incoming president even described Marco Rubio as “a strong advocate for our nation, a true friend to our allies and a fearless warrior who will never back down to our adversaries”.
Rubio’s appointment as arguably the most powerful diplomat in the world will likely reshape American foreign policy towards allies and rivals alike—and dealing with China’s continued economic, diplomatic and military rise is set to be one of his top priorities.
Shweta Sharma reports.
Trump’s pick of Marco Rubio ignites fears of tougher US-China rivalry in second term
Florida senator, who sees China as America’s No 1 enemy, will be a major headache for Beijing but will also present it an opportunity, Shweta Sharma reports
Right-wing backlash as 60 minutes airs brutal takedown of Trump cabinet picks
CBS’s 60 Minutes has sparked a right-wing backlash over its brutal takedown of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.
Host Scott Pelley began Sunday’s show with a monologue dissecting Trump’s choices for his future administration, detailing one-by-one how the likes of Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr have “no compelling qualifications” and “no government experience” to take up the jobs they’ve been nominated for.
“Some nominees appear to have no compelling qualifications other than loyalty to Trump,” Pelley said.
James Liddell reports.
60 Minutes sparks right-wing backlash over brutal takedown of Trump’s cabinet picks
Elon Musk took a swipe at CBS correspondent Scott Pelley for his ‘trash propaganda piece’
Even Matt Gaetz’s dad was surprised Trump picked him for attorney general
A number of President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominations to his new cabinet have raised eyebrows among political observers, but none more so than Matt Gaetz, who has been tapped to become America’s next attorney general.
Gaetz, 42, is known as a MAGA firebrand on Capitol Hill who was instrumental in the ousting of previous House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
He is also known for being the subject of a Department of Justice sex trafficking investigation and House Ethics Committee probe. He has never been criminally charged and denies the allegations.
Few, it seems, saw him as a likely head of the DOJ – and, it turns out, that includes Gaetz’s his own father.
Joe Sommerlad has the story.
Even Matt Gaetz’s dad was surprised Trump picked him for attorney general
When asked if he thinks his son will get approval from the Senate, Don Gaetz said that ‘confirmation is always a dice roll’
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