Trump meets with NATO secretary general; hedge fund manager Scott Bessent tapped to lead treasury: Live
President-elect pledges to fire attorneys who worked alongside Special Counsel Jack Smith as he names hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to head treasury
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Your support makes all the difference.As Donald Trump continues to form his administration ahead of his inauguration in January, the president-elect met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
They discussed the range of global security issues facing the alliance and Rutte also sat down with Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser.
The president-elect has also announced that he wants the job of treasury secretary to go to hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.
Trump called Bessent “one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists.”
In a flurry of announcements on Friday night, Trump revealed his picks to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FDA, the CDC, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the Department of Labor.
Meanwhile, Trump is set to fire the attorneys who worked alongside Special Counsel Jack Smith on two federal investigations into the president-elect and use the Department of Justice to probe the 2020 election, according to The Washington Post.
He intends to put together teams of investigators to look for evidence of fraud in battleground states in the 2020 election. There’s no evidence that fraud affected the results.
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Gaetz says he won’t be rejoining Congress next year
Here’s the latest on the thwarted former Florida congressman, who tells Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk in a new interview that he will not be trying to get himself re-elected in 2025 and again denies the “smears” against him, saying he would be in jail if they were true.
“If the things [in] the House Ethics report were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell, Gaetz tells The Charlie Kirk Show, according to advance clips seen by The Daily Mail.
What Trump’s cabinet picks have said about abortion
Here’s Maya Oppenheim on what the likes of RFK Jr, Doug Burgum, Linda McMahon and Kristi Noem have had to say about reproductive rights.
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Narrow majority of Americans approve of Trump’s agenda, poll finds
A new Pew Research Center survey conducted in the wake of the Republican’s November 5 election victory over Kamala Harris has found that Americans narrowly approve of the president-elect’s plans and policies for the future.
Approximately half of Americans (53 percent) say they approve of his plans while 46 percent disapprove.
According to the poll, conducted from November 12-17 among 9,609 adults, nearly six Americans in 10 (59 percent) say they are very or somewhat confident that Trump will make good decisions about economic policy.
Majorities also express confidence in Trump on law enforcement and criminal justice (54 percent), immigration (53 percent) and foreign policy (53 per cent).
Understandably, people are less confident about the incoming president’s handling of abortion policy (45 percent) or his ability to bring the country closer together (41 percent).
Trump team weaponizes Elon Musk in threat to senators who won’t confirm cabinet picks
Donald Trump’s team has threatened to weaponize Elon Musk against any Republican senators who plan to block the confirmation of his cabinet picks, according to an ABC report.
One of the president-elect’s senior advisers warned senators that if they vote against his nominees, they could be forced to face primary challenges funded by Musk.
“If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary,” a senior adviser told ABC’s chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl.
“And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.”
Rhian Lubin and James Liddell have more.
Trump team weaponizes Elon Musk in threat to senators who won’t confirm cabinet picks
Musk was instrumental in bankrolling Trump’s presidential campaign
Breaking: Judge indefinitely postpones Trump’s hush money sentencing
The president-elect’s sentencing date, which was scheduled for next week (Tuesday November 26) is now officially off the calendar.
In a filing on Friday, Judge Juan Merchan has agreed to adjourn the sentencing while setting deadlines on Trump’s new motion to dismiss the verdict in his hush money trial for December 2.
Manhattan prosecutors will have until December 9 to reply.
This was all in the cards after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office agreed to pause sentencing so they can address the defense’s incoming argument for throwing the case out.
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