Trump fills his top posts with loyalists and government skeptics as he readies move to White House: Live
President-elect taps protégé of first term trade chief as US trade representative after announcing proposed tariffs on US’ three biggest trade partners
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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 threatened double-digit tariffs from the three countries – which account for about 40 percent of goods brought into the US – would likely have major impacts on the economy, including auto manufacturing, crude oil and agriculture.
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
A controversial Trump loyalist is ‘in battle’ to be CIA No. 2
Some members of Donald Trump’s transition team are reportedly frustrated that Kash Patel and Cliff Sims, both MAGA insiders, appear to be using their positions to promote themselves for deputy director of the CIA.
Patel and Sims are both going head-to-head for the No. 2 position at the CIA, Politico reports. The CIA’s deputy director wields immense influence over the intelligence community but does not have to be confirmed by the Senate, unlike cabinet members.
However, some transition team members in their orbit are frustrated that the men are advocating for themselves while making staffing decisions, Politico reports.
“The issue that a lot of us have is that these people are involved in staffing national security jobs, and at the same time they’re also promoting themselves for the same roles,” an unnamed insider told Politico.
Katie Hawkinson and Rhian Lubin report.
Controversial Kash Patel said to be ‘in battle’ to be No. 2 at CIA
Patel is a long-time Trump loyalist who said the president-elect will ‘come after’ some members of the press
ANALYSIS: Trump doubles down on his tariff threat. Mexico and Canada are taking him seriously and literally
Eric Garcia writes:
On Monday evening, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico on his first day in office. He also announced he would levy an additional 10 percent tariff on products from China until its government begins to address the smuggling of fentanyl into the United States.
None of this should be surprising, as Trump repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs throughout the 2024 campaign. When he spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago in October, he brushed off concerns about the economic impact the heavy fees would have on Americans, calling China a “very stupid country.”
Continue reading...
Trump doubles down on his tariff threat. Mexico is taking him seriously and literally
Other countries can’t afford to play guessing games with Trump. The American public would be wise to respond in kind
How to survive political debates at Thanksgiving dinner
Meredith Clark writes:
Thanksgiving is nearly here, but this year’s turkey-filled holiday may be a bit more contentious than years past; the 2024 U.S. presidential election was only three weeks ago, after all.
Ever since President-elect Donald Trump claimed victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, some Americans may not be feeling so jolly and bright this holiday season, what with the merry-go-round of controversial cabinet picks and concerns over Trump’s anti-immigration policies and stance on LGBTQ+ rights.
For some Americans, Thanksgiving serves as a time to gather with friends and family and acknowledge what it is we’re truly grateful for. But for others, the holidays can prove to be difficult, especially when your political views greatly differ from your relatives.
Continue reading...
How to survive political debates at Thanksgiving, according to a family therapist
This Thanksgiving, avoid heated political debates by setting boundaries and remembering the true meaning of the holiday season
What can American consumers expect from Trump’s proposed tariffs plan?
While Donald Trump claims his tariffs plan will hurt U.S. trade partners, what does it actually mean for American consumers?
Rhian Lubin investigates.
What do Trump’s tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada mean for American shoppers?
On the campaign trail, Trump claimed to his supporters that tariffs are ‘not going to be a cost to you, it’s a cost to another country.’ Economists warn this isn’t the case
Is Matt Gaetz prepping run for Florida governor?
While former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s attempt to become attorney general may only have lasted eight days, he could be making a run for governor in 2026.
Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote in a post on X on Saturday that he predicts that Gaetz will be the Sunshine State’s next governor at the end of Governor Ron DeSantis’s second term. Gaetz responded to Sabatini’s post using a gif of the Florida state flag.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
Is Matt Gaetz teeing up a run for Florida governor?
Former Florida’s representative’s candidacy for attorney general lasted only eight days
Poll: Harris still fared better against Trump than any other potential Democratic nominee
Though Vice President Kamala Harris did not defeat Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, she was still the strongest Democratic candidate to take him on, according to recent polling.
In a Say24 / YouGov survey of 5,136 registered voters, 46 percent said they cast their ballot for Harris. That figure wasn’t enough to win her the White House, as Trump secured an easy Electoral College win. But, the poll found that Harris had a higher percentage of votes against Trump than other potential Democratic candidates did against the Republican nominee.
Ariana Baio has the details.
Harris fared better against Trump than any other potential Dem nominee, poll finds
New poll indicates any Democratic candidate would have had a near impossible time defeating Trump
Don Jr get fact-checked by Buttigieg on electric vehicles — and Musk appears to approve...
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took to X on Monday to fact-check misleading claims about the state of a Biden administration initiative to build more electric vehicle charges.
Josh Marcus has the story.
Donald Trump Jr. gets a fact check dressing down from Pete Buttigieg over EV chargers
Variety of voices have questioned slow rollout of Biden administration priority of electric vehicle charging stations
What do economists think of Trump’s tariffs proposal?
Economists are generally skeptical, considering tariffs to be a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money. They are especially alarmed by Trump’s latest proposed tariffs.
Carl B. Weinberg and Rubeela Farooqi, economists with High Frequency Economics said Tuesday that energy, automobiles and food supplies will be particularly hit hard.
“Imposing tariffs on trade flows into the United States without first preparing alternative sources for the goods and services affected will raise the price of imported items at once,” Weinberg and Farooqi wrote. “Since many of these goods are consumer goods, households will be made poorer.”
High Frequency Economics believes the threats are not meant to support new trade policy and are instead a tool to elicit some changes along the borders and for imports from Canada, Mexico and China.
Though Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Trump’s tariff threats as unserious during her failed bid for the presidency, the Biden-Harris administration retained the taxes the Trump administration imposed on $360 billion in Chinese goods. And it imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.
Indeed, the United States in recent years has gradually retreated from its post-World War II role of promoting global free trade and lower tariffs. That shift has been a response to the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, widely attributed to unfettered trade and an increasingly aggressive China.
Economists generally consider tariffs self-defeating
Tariffs raise costs for companies and consumers that rely on imports. They’re also likely to provoke retaliation.
The European Union, for example, punched back against Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum by taxing U.S. products, from bourbon to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Likewise, China responded to Trump’s trade war by slapping tariffs on American goods, including soybeans and pork in a calculated drive to hurt his supporters in farm country.
A study by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Zurich, Harvard and the World Bank concluded that Trump’s tariffs failed to restore jobs to the American heartland. The tariffs “neither raised nor lowered U.S. employment’’ where they were supposed to protect jobs, the study found.
Despite Trump’s 2018 taxes on imported steel, for example, the number of jobs at U.S. steel plants barely budged: They remained right around 140,000. By comparison, Walmart alone employs 1.6 million people in the United States.
Worse, the retaliatory taxes imposed by China and other nations on U.S. goods had “negative employment impacts,’’ especially for farmers, the study found. These retaliatory tariffs were only partly offset by billions in government aid that Trump doled out to farmers. The Trump tariffs also damaged companies that relied on targeted imports.
If Trump’s trade war fizzled as policy, though, it succeeded as politics. The study found that support for Trump and Republican congressional candidates rose in areas most exposed to the import tariffs — the industrial Midwest and manufacturing-heavy Southern states like North Carolina and Tennessee.
Reporting by the Associated Press
RFK Jr says he went to top of class after he started taking heroin
Robert F Kennedy Jr, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, said in a resurfaced clip that he became a star student after he started taking heroin.
The former 2024 independent presidential candidate, known for his anti-vaccine record and health conspiracies, claimed in a July interview with the Shawn Ryan Show that his grades improved in high school once he started taking the opioid.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Bottom-of-the-class RFK Jr says he went to the top after he started taking heroin
Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services said his introduction to drugs happened the summer after his father was assassinated
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