Trump belittles Trudeau and Canada; Musk joins Mar-a-Lago meeting with Hungary’s Orbán: Live updates
Follow the latest on Donald Trump’s transition news ahead of his return to the White House on January 20, 2025
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump mocked Justin Trudeau in a late-night post on Truth Social, referring to the Canadian prime minister as a “governor” and the country as a “state”.
This follows reporting from their dinner together that the president-elect joked Canada could avoid his suggested tariffs by becoming the 51st state.
On Monday, Trudeau said Americans “are beginning to wake up to the reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive”.
The president-elect has also met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who visited him at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. They were joined by incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, set to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Trump has meanwhile backed a candidate to succeed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and named Harmeet Dhillon to lead the civil rights division of the Justice Department and Mark Paoletta as general counsel of the Office of Management & Budget.
He also has caused fresh disquiet after suggesting in an interview with NBC that members of the January 6 committee “should go to jail” for investigating the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol by his supporters.
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Trump backs candidate to replace daughter-in-law as co-chair of RNC
Also on Truth Social, the president-elect backed KC Crosbie to replace Lara Trump at the Republican National COmmittee after she announced her resignation late on Sunday, presumably with one eye on running for Marco Rubio’s soon-to-be-vacant Florida Senate seat.
Here’s Justin Baragona on what’s next for her.
Lara Trump is stepping down as RNC co-chair. So what’s next?
The incoming president’s daughter-in-law announced on Sunday night that she was stepping down from the RNC. So what lies ahead for the aspiring pop singer and clothing brand retailer?
Trump considering appointing Jan 6 rioter to transition team
The president-elect has already promised to issues pardons to convicted rioters on his first day in office and is now reportedly interested in appointing right-wing activist Pete Marocco – who was spotted among the mob that laid seige to the legislative complex in a bid to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results – to a key role in his transition team.
“Marocco, who drew internal fire when he worked in numerous agencies in the Trump administration and more recently was a conservative activist in Dallas, has been seen at the transition’s Florida headquarters working on hiring, including for the State Department,” Politico reports.
Marocco and his wife Merritt were reportedly spotted by the watchdog group Sedition Hunters inside and outside the Capitol on that infamous day after footage taken from social media was analysed.
The couple have called that a smear and Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Marocco has “valuable knowledge on national security policy has been a tremendous benefit to the Trump-Vance transition effort”.
Leavitt added: “Democrats and their allies in the media who think they are going to obstruct our ability to deliver on this mandate by going back to the same January 6 playbook of smears and faux outrage that was soundly rejected by the American people will be disappointed.”
Conservative law professor rebukes Trump for ‘rage rhetoric’ on jailing House Jan 6 committee members
The president-elect will not like the following one bit from Professor Jonathan Turley, who spoke out on his behalf during his first impeachment by the House of Representatives and whom he regularly quoted on Truth Social earlier this year during his now-historic legal wrangles.
But responding to Trump’s threat in his NBC interview on Sunday to jail the likes of Bennie Thompson, Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff for daring to investigate his part in the Capitol riot, the Fox News legal analyst wrote on his blog: “The fact, however, is that there is no viable criminal case to be made against the J6 Committee members for their investigation or report.
“We need to move beyond the rage rhetoric if this country is going to come together to face the tough challenges ahead.”
Cheney herself has already hit back at Trump over the same comments, declaring in a statement: “Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power.
“He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes.
“Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”
Trump announces two more nominees to new administration
Good morning!
Donald Trump has announced two more picks for his incoming administration, naming Harmeet K Dhillon as his choice for assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department and Mark Paoletta as general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget, a role he has held before.
Here’s what he had to say about them:
Trump’s claim that Democrats are ‘fighting hard’ to keep the Electoral College sparks confusion
President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday night and declared that Democrats were “fighting hard” to make all future presidential elections based “exclusively” on the Electoral College.
The curious late-night post prompted many to wonder if the incoming president was trolling liberals after finally winning the popular vote on his third try. At the same time, some progressives hoped that Trump’s assertion could lead conservatives to be “radicalized” against the notion of relying on states’ electoral votes to determine presidential elections.
Justin Baragona reports.
Trump’s claim that Dems are ‘fighting’ to keep Electoral College sparks confusion
While many figured that the president-elect was just trolling liberals with his post, some progressives hoped that Republicans would actually believe him and suddenly support getting rid of the Electoral College.
Trump calls on China to help end ‘madness’ between Russia and Ukraine: ‘World is waiting’
Donald Trump called on China to help broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine as the incoming US president revealed he had communicated with Xi Jinping.
The conflict had caused enormous losses to both Russia and Ukraine, Mr Trump said, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky “would like to make a deal” to end the “madness”.
Mr Zelensky was yet to respond to the claim.
Shweta Sharma has more.
Trump calls on China to help end ‘madness’ between Russia and Ukraine
Incoming US president says Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky ‘would like to make a deal and stop the madness’
Trump to launch two new Saudi Arabia projects weeks before White house return
The Trump Organization has said it has leased its brand to two new real estate projects in Saudi Arabia.
The news comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. His close ties to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and day-to-day ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, drew heavy criticism after the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for the Washington Post who had written critically about the monarchy.
The company will partner with Dar Global, a London-based luxury real estate developer that will lease the Trump brand but fully own and develop the projects in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The two have partnered on other projects in the region, including the development of a golf resort in neighboring Oman.
AP reports.
Trump to launch two new Saudi Arabia projects weeks before White house return
Trump’s company struck real estate licensing deals overseas before he entered the White House in 2017
Adam Kinzinger has three-word response after Trump threatens to put him in jail
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger gave a succinct response to President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Illinois Republican and his colleagues on the January 6 House panel should be jailed.
When asked during a wide-ranging Sunday interview on “Meet the Press” what he would do on his first day back in the White House, Trump said that each Congress member who sat on the bipartisan committee investigating the Capitol attack “should go to jail” for “what they did.” That group includes only two Republicans, Kinzinger and former Rep. Liz Cheney.
The retired Illinois congressman wrote on his Substack: “Bring it on.”
Kelly Rissman has more.
Adam Kinzinger has three-word response after Trump threatens to put him in jail
The president-elect’s threat is ‘is nothing more than the desperate howl of a man who knows history will regard him with shame’
Can Trump actually end birthright citizenship?
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to end birthright citizenship, which would undo 150 years of how the U.S. has handled the issue.
Trump made the comments during NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. He was asked if he still plans to end birthright citizenship, to which he said, “Yeah, absolutely.”
Read more:
Can Trump actually end birthright citizenship?
Move would require changing the Constitution by two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress, and an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of all state legislatures
President-elect gives his endorsement to co-lead RNC
Donald Trump is already throwing his support behind one candidate to co-lead the Republican National Committee.
The president-elect has backed KC Crosbie for the role after Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, stepped down. Lara Trump has been floated as a possible senate replacement for Marco Rubio, who was the president-elect’s pick to be secretary of state.
Crosbie is the current treasurer for the RNC.
“As Treasurer, she helped the RNC smash every fundraising record in History, and fortified our Party’s financial foundation. KC has been with me from the very beginning, helping REAL Republicans get elected across the Country, and would be a tremendous Co-Chair of the RNC! KC will work on continuing to ensure a highly functioning, fiscally responsible, and effective RNC that makes Election Integrity a highest priority,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday night.
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