Election 2024 live updates: Trump begins transition as Republicans expected to win House
President-elect Donald Trump names his victorious 2024 campaign manager as first-ever female White House chief of staff as he works on transition to Oval Office
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Your support makes all the difference.President-elect Donald Trump has begun preparing for the Oval Office by naming Susie Wiles as his new White House chief of staff.
The Republicans are expected to retain control of the House, likely handing the GOP a trifecta as they’re set to take back the Senate, possibly handing Trump full control of the levers of power in Washington.
Trump and President Joe Biden both had a trifecta for their first two years in office.
Wiles spearheaded Trump’s successful 2024 campaign and is the first of many appointees who will help to push his agenda, which includes the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, more trade tariffs and extended tax cuts.
The Republican also looks to be on course to win Nevada as he nears the completion of an astonishing clean sweep of the swing states, with only Arizona still to declare.
Trump shared several late-night election victory posts on Truth Social on Thursday – his first since his return to power was confirmed early on Wednesday morning.
The wave of posts included an Electoral College map, newspaper front pages recounting his triumph over Democrat Kamala Harris and a photo of a MAGA cap-clad Trump with the caption: “Get ready for the Golden Age.”
Meet Susie Wiles, the ‘ice maiden’ who propelled Trump to victory – and is his new chief of staff
I reported from across Pennsylvania through the election. The key to Trump’s victory was staring us right in the face
After Trump wins the ‘influencer election’, why some Democrats want to create their own Joe Rogan
‘The will of the people always prevails’: Biden promises ‘peaceful and orderly’ transition to Trump
Putin congratulates ‘brave man’ Trump on his election victory
Trump projected to have won Nevada by NBC
The president-elect is now projected to have won the western state by NBC News (we’re still waiting on the AP for their confirmation), a victory that would see him pick up a state he lost in both 2020 and 2016.
Trump campaigned often in Las Vegas and appears to have benefited from bolstering his support among Latino men to secure its six Electoral College points and near a clean sweep of the swing states with only Arizona still to report.
Democrats turn their rage on one man: Joe Biden
The blame game for Kamala Harris’s loss is already in full flow, with top Democratic staffers in Washington DC reportedly placing the blame at President Biden’s door.
Katie Hawkinson has more.
Democrats turn their rage on one man after crushing election defeat: Joe Biden
‘Biden should have stepped aise earlier,’ one strategist said
Democrats can still win House of Representatives, Jeffries insists
While the Republicans are currently leading the race to control the House by 211 to 199 (with 218 needed for a majority), according to the AP, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries insists his guys can still win and prevent a complete Trumpian takeover of Congress, which would greatly smooth the passage of the new president’s legislative agenda.
“We still have a clear pathway to taking back the majority,” Jeffries told Spectrum 1 News on Thursday.
“Of course that runs through Arizona and Oregon and five races that are flip opportunities in California that are too close to call and too early to call.”
Responding to gains in his native New York, Jeffries said: “Well, certainly the biggest Democratic wins were right here in New York, and I’m so thankful to the coordinated campaign effort that was put together from the very beginning in the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections… It was an all hands on deck effort.”
Democrats cling to false hopes of huge ‘vote gap’ between Biden and Harris
Less than 24 hours after Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, social media users began pushing two conflicting narratives to suggest election fraud.
One revived false claims by the Republican that the 2020 vote was stolen from him and the other questioned how Vice President Kamala Harris could have received so many fewer votes in 2024 than President Joe Biden in 2020.
Both narratives hinge on a supposed 20 million vote gap between Harris and Biden.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
Where are the ‘20m missing votes’? Democrats cling to false hopes of Biden-Harris gap
Social media has been awash with claims of ‘missing’ votes after Donald Trump’s sweeping victory - but there’s a simple explaination for the apparent gulf between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ vote tallies
Jubilant Trump allies joke prosecutors ‘need’ death penalty and threaten Letita James
Shocking stuff on Fox News’s The Five yesterday, when the following exchange took place between co-hosts Greg Gutfeld and Dana Perino as they basked in the glow of Trump’s win and wondered how the “lawfare” prosecutors who indicted the Republican in 2023 are coping.
“A lot of the people that were on this and wanted it so badly, how are they going to survive? Do you think they need therapy?” Gutfeld asked.
“Yes, they definitely need therapy, and maybe also the death penalty,” Perino responded.
“Yes, I think the death penalty,” the former agreed.
Meanwhile, appearing on Benny Johnson’s online talk show, Mike Davis, reportedly a candidate to be America’s next attorney general, issued the following nasty threat against New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term. Because listen here, sweetheart: We’re not messing around this time, and we will put your fat a** in prison for conspiracy against rights, and I promise you that.
“So, think long and hard before you want to violate President Trump‘s constitutional rights, or any other American’s constitutional rights. It’s not going to happen again.”
Here he is during the same interview declaring the mass deportation of illegal immigrants will be “glorious”.
That came a day after Davis said he would like to drag Democrats’ “political dead bodies through the streets and burn them”, another disturbing statement on which Rhian Lubin has more below.
Trump AG hopeful ‘wants to drag Democrats’ political dead bodies through streets’
Mike Davis shared the graphic post shortly after Trump clinched victory in the presidential race
Joe Biden promises ‘peaceful and orderly’ transfer of power and praises Kamala Harris
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden yesterday, the president assured Americans there will be a “peaceful and orderly” transition to the new Trump administration.
“Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him, I will direct my entire administration work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition,” he said.
Biden also praised Harris, declaring: “She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.”
Here’s Andrew Feinberg’s report.
Biden promises ‘peaceful and orderly’ transition to Trump
President says he’ll ‘honor the constitution’ by preparing for a peaceful transfer of power in 74 days
Trump returns to Truth Social to cheer election win
The Republican shared a number of late-night election victory posts on Truth Social on Thursday – his first since his return to power was confirmed early on Wednesday morning.
The wave of posts included an Electoral College map, newspaper front pages recounting his triumph over Democrat Kamala Harris and a photo of a MAGA cap-clad Trump with the caption: “Get ready for the Golden Age.”
Donald Trump picks Susie Wiles for White House chief of staff in first cabinet appointment
Good morning!
President-elect Donald Trump has begun preparing for the Oval Office by naming Susie Wiles as his new White House chief of staff.
Wiles spearheaded his successful 2024 campaign and is the first of many appointees who will help to push his agenda, which includes the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, more trade tariffs and extended tax cuts.
Here’s Alex Hannaford with an introduction to the “Ice Maidan”.
Meet Susie Wiles, the ‘ice maiden’ behind Trump’s win - and his new chief of staff
On one hand, Susie Wiles is the generous neighbour who brings you casseroles and sends you flowers when you’re in the hospital. On the other, she’s a ruthless political operator who was the mastermind behind getting Donald Trump back to the White House. Alex Hannaford talks to those who know her to find out how she became one of the few people who can handle her boss...
Elon Musk: King of the MAGA media universe
Elon Musk is now unquestionably the king of MAGA media.
Tech journalist Charlie Warzel once named it “the new media Upside Down”, riffing on Stranger Things. Sean Illing at Vox referred to it as “the fantasy-industrial complex”. Wikipedia simply calls it the “right-wing alternative media”.
To Musk, a born-again MAGA crusader who has spent the last two years reshaping one of the world’s major social networks in his image, this parallel universe of algorithm-aided disinformation is simply “citizen journalism” — even if his description does sound a lot like traditional journalism.
And after Donald Trump’s victory this week, the MAGA media universe might just be the new mainstream media.
Io Dodds reports from San Francisco.
Elon Musk is now king of the MAGA media universe
Earth’s richest person has transformed Twitter into the cornerstone of the right-wing media ecosystem – which makes him one of the powers behind Trump’s throne, writes Io Dodds
Trump’s win teaches Joe Rogan that voting works
Joe Rogan elevated an election integrity conspiracy theory while celebrating Donald Trump’s presidential win, suggesting if the former president had not won the election, it may have been “rigged”.
“So, turns out voting works. It’s real,” Rogan said with delight on Thursday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.
Ariana Baio reports.
Joe Rogan now realizes voting works - but only because Trump won
Rogan, who hosted the former president on his podcast, endorsed Trump on Election Day
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