Trump delivers first rally-style speech since election win as he threatens to retake Panama Canal: Live
The president-elect addressed a Phoenix crowd on Sunday
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump gave his first rally-style speech since his election victory in Phoenix on Sunday.
At the event — AmericaFest 2024 — he discussed immigration, defended some of his most controversial cabinet picks, and laid out his plans for when he takes office on January 20, which he referred to as “liberation day.”
Trump also repeated his threats of retaking the Panama Canal.
“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else,” he said.
On Truth Social Saturday, Trump accused Panama of charging American vessels “exorbitant prices” to use the vital waterway that acts as a shortcut linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US,” Trump vented.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” he stridently added, referring to a 1977 treaty.
The 78-year-old Republican also echoed his plans to impose tariffs against the European Union, Canada and Mexico. He said he wouldn’t let the E.U. turn the U.S. into a “dumping ground.”
Elon Musk endorses German far-right AfD party as saviours of country
Elon Musk has described the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country’s saviour, sparking calls from Berlin for the US billionaire to “stay out” of their politics.
In a post on X, Mr Musk’s social media platform, the mogul wrote that “only the AfD can save Germany”. His message topped a video, which he retweeted, of a German right-wing influencer, Naomi Seibt, known for her closeness to the AfD and for denying human-caused climate change.
The AfD is running second in opinion polls and may be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at a national level.
Read more:
Elon Musk endorses far right AfD party as ‘saviour’ of Germany
Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismisses the intervention, saying Germany has freedom of speech and that ‘also goes for multibillionaires’
VOICES: Peter Mandelson is a gamble as US ambassador – but exactly what Trump needs
One of the hardest things about being the British ambassador to Washington is giving it up at the end of your term.
You are living in one of the finest private addresses in DC – the only Lutyens built house in North America – with its fabulous art collection, swimming pool, tennis court and hot and cold running servants; with your chauffeur driven Bentley, manicured gardens – and you’re right next door to the vice president’s official residence on Massachusetts Avenue. Trading that for your semi in Balham, or wherever your civil service salary has allowed you to buy, is quite the readjustment.
And our embassy in DC has just been totally refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. Yes, there can still be a bit of a sewery smell on the lower ground floor, and the fireplace in the drawing room when lit invariably smokes out the whole house so that guests have to retreat to the terrace. But these are small details.
Read more:
Peter Mandelson is a gamble as US ambassador – but exactly what Trump needs
Tony Blair may think being in charge of the British embassy in Washington is like running an up market B&B, writes Jon Sopel. But with Trump back in charge, the job has never been more important or more difficult – and Mandelson is a class act
Senate Republicans are not asking RFK Jr about his stance on vaccines
Robert F Kennedy Jr came to prominence and broke away from just being his famous father’s namesake on the back of his promotion of the idea that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy has met with multiple Republicans throughout the week about his confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. This also came the week that President-elect Donald Trump said “There’s something wrong” about the increase in autism rates and that “we’re going to find out about it.”
That earned a rebuke from Sen Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who will be chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“It’s not true and it’s been widely shown that it’s not true,” he told The Independent on Tuesday.
Eric Garcia has the story.
Senate Republicans are not asking RFK Jr about his stance on vaccines
Kennedy has met with multiple Republicans throughout the week about his confirmation to lead the Department of Health and Human Services
Watch: Fox News host insists Jill Biden ‘voted for Trump’ because she’s been ‘wearing red’
Will the Senate vote before midnight? TBD
The Senate is headed for a long night.
The upper chamber is expected to pass the government spending bill that cleared the House earlier today, but they have yet to vote on it.
Asked about whether the Senate will vote before midnight, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t quite give a straight answer.
Here’s what he said, courtesy of CSPAN.
Trump moves his entire $4 billion stake in Truth Social into his trust ahead of White House move
Donald Trump has transferred all 114.75 million of his shares in the parent company that runs his Truth Social platform into a revocable trust before he returns to the White House.
His shares in Trump Media & Technology Group are currently worth roughly $4 billion, representing the lion’s share of his roughly $6 billion net worth. He is the group’s largest shareholder.
Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the president-elect transferring the stake into the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust earlier this week. His oldest son Donald Trump Jr is the sole trustee, and has sole voting and investment power over securities held by the trust, according to filings.
Read more:
Trump moves his entire $4 billion stake in Truth Social into his trust
The incoming president moved shares that make up the lion’s share of his net worth
WATCH: Senate confirms record 235th Biden admin judge
The Senate just voted to confirm the Biden administration’s 235th federal Article III judge, one more judicial nomination than the previous Trump administration was able to get through.
Hakeem Jeffries celebrates defeat of ‘billionaire boys club’ spending proposals
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries celebrated the lower chamber’s passage on Friday of a spending bill to avert a government shutdown, just a crucial midnight deadline.
Jeffries said the package, which passed the House without any Democratic opposition, helped ensure the “future of working class Americans” and pointed to provisions like $100 billion in disaster assistance.
The leader also said the bill, which will keep the government funded through mid-March, was a rebuke to the “billionaire boys club” of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who pushed to scuttle a bipartisan spending plan earlier in the week, and considered a plan that would suspend the debt ceiling to further enable the Trump administration’s plans.
Get all the details on the House version of the spending plan.
House narrowly averts government shutdown — and rejects Trump’s debt ceiling commands
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approve a third attempt at a short-term funding bill to keep the government running before Christmas
Watch: GOP Representative Malliotakis voices her frustration with Speaker Johnson
Trump’s Congress chaos is a reminder we should brace for ‘unknown unknowns’
With a month to go before he officially becomes the 47th president of the United States, Donald J Trump is already causing mayhem. His rejection of a bipartisan budget deal in Congress has threatened a federal shutdown and triggered huge anxiety for employees and those dependent on public services just before Christmas.
It’s not the first such game of fiscal “chicken” indulged in by America’s politicians – but it serves as a pointed reminder, were it needed, of what may be expected in the coming four years or so.
Read more:
Trump’s Congress chaos is a reminder we should brace for ‘unknown unknowns’
Editorial: After US lawmakers struggled to prevent a government shutdown – prompted by the president-elect’s budget intervention that even divided his own party – the pandemonium has been a salient reminder about what is surely in store for his second term
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