Trump’s transition team condemn ‘violent threats’ against cabinet picks: Live updates
President-elect’s nominees and appointees victims of bomb threats and ‘swatting’ incidents this week
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has announced a string of nominations for his incoming administration as he continues to opt for loyalty over experience, including several hires who are critical of the agencies they have been assigned to lead.
On Tuesday, Trump picked Jamieson Greer as US trade representative, Jim O’Neill as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, Jay Bhattacharya as National Institutes of Health director, Kevin Hassett as National Economic Council director, Vince Haley as Domestic Policy Council chief and John Phelan as Navy secretary.
Bhattacharya, a Covid-19 lockdown skeptic, called for reduced powers of the 27 institutes and centers that constitute the NIH. Phelan, a businessman and Republican megadonor, has no military experience.
Grier will be charged with “reining in the country’s massive trade deficit,” in light of Trump vowing to impose massive tariffs on “all products” imported from China, Canada and Mexico – with growing fears it may set the stage for a bitter global trade war.
The Trump-Vance transition team says that several of the president-elect’s nominees and appointees have been victims of bomb threats and swatting incidents. In a statement, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: “With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us.”
Trump threatens China, Mexico and Canada with new tariffs. But what does this actually mean for Americans’ pockets?
Trump picks Covid lockdown skeptic as head of key national health agency
Trump escaped the consequences of his alleged crimes. Now his allies are after the prosecutors who brought the charges
‘A real horror show’: Democrats on the Hill react to Trump’s proposed tariffs
Trump’s Cabinet and staff tracker: Here’s who is among the White House appointments so far
What does the US import from Canada, Mexico and China?
Oil, toys, vegetables and electronics are just some of the items imported to the U.S. from Mexico, Canada and China that could soon cost Americans more under Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Trump has announced that Canada and Mexico could soon see a 25 percent tariff added to all imported goods while China could face an additional 10 percent – something Trump says is part of an effort to curtail “crime and drugs” coming into the U.S. and slow the number of illegal border crossings.
Though tariffs are designed to promote domestic production and purchasing by taxing imported goods, the increase in cost typically falls on consumers, not foreign governments.
Ariana Baio reports.
Trump’s new tariffs: What does the US import from Canada, Mexico and China?
Canada, Mexico and China are the U.S.’s three largest trade partners
How many migrants cross illegally into US from Canada?
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico in an effort to get them to crack down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling. But how many actually cross the U.S.—Canada border illegally?
Gustaf Kilander takes a look at the numbers.
Trump’s new tariffs: How many migrants cross illegally into US from Canada?
Trump border czar calls northern border ‘extreme national security vulnerability’ and says it ‘can’t be a gateway to terrorists coming to the United States’
Hunter Biden ‘whistleblower’ loses $30m defamation case against Fox host
A New York federal court on Tuesday dismissed a $30m defamation lawsuit from a former Hunter Biden business associate against a Fox News anchor.
In March, Tony Bobulinski sued Jessica Tarlov, one of the hosts of Fox’s The Five, after she said on air that month that Bobulinski’s legal fees to retain lawyer Stefan Passantino had been “paid by a Trump Super PAC,” after Bobulinski testified as part of the House’s inquiries into the Biden family.
The following day, after Bobulinski’s attorneys reached out to say this wasn’t correct, Tarlov issued a clarification on air.
More details in our full story.
Hunter Biden ‘whistleblower’ loses $30m defamation case against Fox host
Case revolved around clarified claim on air that Trump PAC paid for Biden critic’s legal fees
Mexico threatens to retaliate after Trump promises steep tariffs
President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.
Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem.
Continue reading...
Mexico threatens to retaliate after Trump promises steep tariffs
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose huge tariffs on Mexico
Eric Trump demonstrates he has no clue how tariffs work
Eric Trump appeared to mix up tariffs and sanctions during an appearance on Fox News on Monday night, aggressively going after Mexico, Canada, and China as his top targets.
“You want to allow drugs to come through our southern border? We’re going to tariff you,” he said. “You want to allow them to come through Canada? We’re going to tariff you.”
Donald Trump’s second son proceeded to rant about costing the economies of the three countries “billions,” while failing to acknowledge the impact tariffs have on American consumers as prices on imported goods are inevitably hiked in response.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Eric Trump demonstrates in 30 seconds he doesn’t have a clue how tariffs work
‘You want to allow drugs to come through our southern border? We’re going to tariff you,’ son of president-elect tells major U.S. trading partner
Breaking: Trump picks Covid lockdown skeptic as head of key national health agency
The next director of the National Institutes of Health will be a doctor who argued for allowing young and healthy people to become infected with Covid-19 long before a vaccine was available and later fought against mandating vaccination against the novel coronavirus.
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, currently a professor of health policy at Standard University and director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, to lead the National Institutes of Health, one of the world’s foremost medical research entities and oversee its $47 billion in funding.
In a statement, Trump said Bhattacharya would work with his Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, to “examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease.”
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Trump picks Covid lockdown skeptic as head of key national health agency
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a Stanford-educated physician who gained prominence after questioning the efficacy of social distancing at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic
Massive spike in searches for ‘who pays for tariffs’ after Trump’s announcement
Google users have a question: who pays for tariffs?
The phrase exploded in Google searches in late October and saw a massive spike again on Monday night. Those searches are no doubt driven by Trump’s insistence on levying tariffs on foreign-made goods. It appears a lot of people voted for Trump, but only thought after the fact to understand what those tariffs might mean for their wallets.
Graig Graziosi reports.
Searches of ‘who pays for tariffs’ sees massive spike after Trump’s announcement
Trump announced he plans to slap tariffs on products made in Canada and Mexico in addition to his planned tariffs on Chinese goods
Fed officials signal cautious path for rate cuts amid still-high inflation
With inflation still elevated, Federal Reserve officials expressed caution at their last meeting about cutting interest rates too quickly, adding to uncertainty about their next moves.
Even if inflation continued declining to the Fed’s 2% target, officials said, “it would likely be appropriate to move gradually” in lowering rates, according to minutes of the November 6-7 meeting.
Continue reading...
Federal Reserve officials signal cautious path for rate cuts amid still-high inflation
With inflation still elevated, Federal Reserve officials expressed caution at their last meeting about cutting interest rates too quickly, adding to uncertainty about their next moves
How Trump could take revenge on the prosecutors who charged him with crimes
Before he is sworn in as president on January 20, Donald Trump will likely walk through the same tunnel where a mob of hundreds of his supporters, wearing hats bearing his slogan, bore down on police for three hours with their fists, pepper spray, stolen police shields and flag poles with the American flag twisted around them.
Some of the worst violence on January 6, filmed on hundreds of devices and livestreamed to millions of people, was captured in that tunnel, where Washington DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone was pulled to the ground by his neck, tased and beaten, while rioters yelled “kill him with his own gun.” He had a heart attack and fell unconscious.
The violence in and around the Capitol that day was fueled by a false, ongoing narrative that the 2020 election was rigged against and stolen from Trump, who is accused of enabling a mob that set out to do what he failed to.
On November 25, the Department of Justice special counsel who led two sprawling criminal investigations against the former president filed motions to dismiss them both, effectively throwing in the towel after a years-long attempt to prosecute Trump for 44 crimes, spelled out in hundreds of pages of evidence. Neither case made it to trial.
Alex Woodward has the story.
Trump escaped the consequences. Now his allies are after Jack Smith and judges
The criminally convicted president-elect believes his election and the end of his federal cases exonerated him. Will his administration be able to stop the retribution he promised? Alex Woodward reports
CNN boss Chris Licht still regrets infamous unflattering magazine profile in The Atlantic
Former CNN CEO Chris Licht continues to eat crow over an unflattering June 2023 profile of him in The Atlantic, which captured the former Late Show producer alternatively bragging and appearing to take moves to make the storied cable news network more appealing to Trump fans.
“The Atlantic article I absolutely should not have done,” Licht said over the weekend at a New York Press Club event.
“Now, I hadn’t failed at anything before. So it was I absolutely thought, you know what, it’s been a year, they’re going to be writing about ‘wow, look at all these great things that have happened,’” he went on. “So, no, I should have done that. Definitely should not have taken a reporter to the gym. If I can say one thing to anybody, do not bring a reporter to the gym!”
In the profile, by Tim Alberta, Licht brags about his prowess in the gym, claiming, “Zucker couldn’t do this s***,” a reference to former CNN president Jeff Zucker.
More details in our full story
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