Trump’s transition team condemn ‘violent threats’ against cabinet picks: Live updates
FBI on case as 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.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.” The FBI is now investigating.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has announced a string of nominations for his incoming administration opting for loyalty over experience, including several hires who are critical of the agencies they are supposed 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.
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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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Democratic megadonor says Harris campaign spending spree should disqualify her ‘forever’
A Democratic megadonor has said the Harris campaign’s $1.5 billion spending spree should disqualify the vice president “forever.”
John Morgan argued that those who donated to the Harris campaign were attempting to beat Trump, not elect the vice president, adding that the massive spending by the campaign should worry Democrats.
“All of a sudden, everybody’s got the keys to the candy store, ad buyers, talent consultants,” Morgan told NewsNation on Monday night. “There’s 100 days to do it, and the money started pouring in.”
The attorney claimed that “ego” and a craving to get commissions on placed ads motivated large parts of the spending spree.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Dem donor says Harris campaign’s spending spree should disqualify her ‘forever’
‘The same thing is going to follow Harris for the rest of her career. She cannot be trusted with the money,’ John Morgan says
Watch LIVE: Trump’s incoming border czar serves meal to Texas National Guard
Full story: Trump team reaches deal with White House to begin transition process
Nearly one month after he won the 2024 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump and his team have reached a deal to formally begin the transition process while avoiding the use of any federal resources or taxpayer dollars.
Andrew Feinberg reports from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump team reaches deal with White House to begin transition process
Trump and his aides have wanted to avoid using government systems that could be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests or other federal oversight
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