Trump has ‘great meeting’ with DC mayor ahead of inauguration and suggests Canada could become 51st state: Live

Incoming president planning swearing-in ceremony for January 20 and continuing to float idea of merging North American neighbor into United States

Musk vs MAGA war: Trump camp in bitter fight over immigration, foreign worker visas

Donald Trump has met with Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to plan for his inauguration on January 20.

Mayor Bowser wrote on X that she had a “great meeting” with the president-elect and hoped they would find “common ground” after clashing in the past over the policing of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in D.C. in response to the killing of George Floyd in summer 2020 and then the Capitol riot six months later.

Trump is meanwhile continuing to circulate articles from right-wing media on his Truth Social feed hinting at the prospect of the United States entering merger talks with Canada about it becoming America’s 51st state, capitalizing on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s rocky end to the year.

The idea was also entertained on Fox News on Monday when Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary expressed his enthusiasm for the idea in conversation with Trump’s former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

The president-elect has also sought to revive talk about his acquiring Greenland from Denmark in recent days.

Congress will reconvene on Friday after the New Year’s celebrations, when House Speaker Mike Johnson is up for re-election — and appears to be short of support.

Key Points

• Donald Trump and DC Mayor report ‘great meeting’ ahead of his inauguration
• Trump floats prospect of making Canada the 51st state and smears Bidens over China links
• Mike Johnson’s future is still anything but certain
• Republican who won’t vote for Johnson says he ‘will lose us the majority in 2026’ if he stays on
• Elon Musk leans into ultra-right memes with ties to fascist groups

[31 December 2024 12:55 · Joe Sommerlad]

Georgia’s top Republicans call on state’s highest court to shut down Fani Willis

The Peach State’s Attorney General Chris Carr is calling on the state’s Supreme Court to reject an appeal from Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who was removed from prosecuting the sprawling criminal case against Trump and his allies.

Governor Brian Kemp then jumped in: “Agreed!... Georgians deserve safe communities and partisan politics out of our courtrooms.”

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who is expected to jump into the race for governor, joined in, occusing Willis of having “orchestrated a political charade against President Trump.”

Earlier this month, Georgia’s Court of Appeals struck down a lower court decision and argued Willis should be taken off the case, arguing that her former romantic relationship with a special prosecutor amounted to a “significant” conflict of interest that warranted her dismissal.

Willis filed a notice of appeal shortly after the ruling.

Here’s Alex Woodward with the full story.

[31 December 2024 12:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Exclusive: Cash advance firm sues Mike Lindell for refusing to pay back $1.5m loan

Election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is being dragged into court by a merchant cash advance firm that accuses the MyPillow CEO of ducking out on nearly $1.5m in outstanding debt.

Justin Rohrlich has more.

[31 December 2024 12:05 · Joe Sommerlad]

DC Mayor says she had a ‘great meeting’ with Trump

Muriel Bowser had this to say about her latest encounter with the president-elect ahead of his inauguration next month:

The duo first met in late 2016 to discuss Trump’s last swearing-in and started out on friendly terms, until falling out badly over the policing of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Washington in response to the killing of George Floyd in summer 2020 and then the Capitol riot six months later.

Speaking of which, US attorney Matthew Graves, the chief federal prosecutor charged with taking action against the pro-Trump insurrectionists, announced yesterday that he will be stepping down on January 16, four days before the Republican is sworn-in once again.

Here’s Alex Woodward again with a look at some of the most notorious January 6 defendants that Trump could now pardon when he returns to the White House.

[31 December 2024 11:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Nearly half of Republican voters support using military to lock up immigrants in camps

Almost 50 percent of conservatives believe the US military should be used to detain undocumented immigrants in camps until they can be deported, according to polling from the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute.

Trump has already suggested that his administration would deploy the Armed Forces for what he is calling the “largest mass deportation operation” in American history.

He also has vowed to invoke a 226-year-old law to detain immigrants in camps.

The poll shows that Trump’s base appears to support the plans, even as most Americans likely oppose them.

Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.

[31 December 2024 11:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump’s border czar derides Jasmine Crockett for saying he is in over his head

Tom Homan, the former acting director of  has been Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tapped by Trump to lead the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, has hit back at Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett after she said he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Crockett warned MSNBC on Saturday that the plan would see the separation of families in her state and many others and result in people being held in encampments.

Homan took to Newsmax last night to dismiss her criticism.

“So, look, I don’t know who this lady is,” he said.

“I don’t care about what they say about Tom Homan, because I’ve done this job for a long time.”

He added that Trump has been given a mandate by the electorate to fix the border and save lives and denounced the Biden administration’s policies on immigration and border security.

“President Trump is going to secure this border and save lives just not of Americans, but of aliens, too,” Homan said.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, the czar said he plans to reinstate policies that will hold families in detention centers, a point Crockett cited in her interview with MSNBC.

“All of a sudden, the discussion goes from family detention to family separation,” Homan responded.

“Family detention is the complete opposite of family separation.”

With all of that in mind, here’s Alex Woodward with a look at what steps Trump plans to take to tackle the issue when he enters office on January 20.

[31 December 2024 10:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Bitcoin rally inspired by Trump stalls as year draws to a close

The president-elect’s comprehensive election win over Kamala Harris on November 5 inspired the world’s biggest digital currency to record highs, with investors excited by the prospect of a crypto-friendly commander-in-chief.

But the digital asset wavered at $92,556 in London at 6.44am this morning, according to Bloomberg, which is about $15,700 below the record high it set in mid-December.

Smaller rivals like Ether and Dogecoin, a favorite with the memestock crowd, also struggled for energy.

Trump’s support for more favorable regulations and a national Bitcoin reserve lifted digital assets considerably in response to the election but scaled-back expectations for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve have cooled that frenzy of late.

Donald Trump has been eyeing up more favorable trading conditions for cryptocurrencies (EPA)

[31 December 2024 10:25 · Joe Sommerlad]

Elon Musk has been staying at $2,000-a-night Mar-a-Lago cottage — hundreds of feet from Trump’s main house

The Tesla and SpaceX boss has actually been getting closer and closer to the president-elect, quite literally.

Mike Bedigan reports.

[31 December 2024 10:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Laura Loomer says Trump World ‘scared’ to anger ‘monarch’ Musk

The far-right activist, very much on Steve Bannon’s side in the spat over immigrant visas, gave an interview to conservative host Eric Bolling’s YouTube show yesterday in which she attacked Elon Musk’s influence over Trump, saying he had made “junkies” of the right with his generous donations to the cause.

“This is the problem when you allow a billionaire to make a $200m donation,” she told Bolling.

“And so maybe we really do need to have campaign finance regulations in this country. I mean, essentially, what is happening – and I love President Trump, I’m not saying that President Trump is bought and paid for – but it sounds like people are scared of crossing the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch. OK?

“Nobody wants to cross this guy, the richest man in the world who controls access to social media, the digital town square and is now basically has everybody in a codependent abusive relationship like they’re a bunch of junkies.

“Because he’s been able to monetize the platform so that all the conservatives using his platform are essentially addicted. They’re a bunch of addicts now. Addicted to social media because their voices were silenced for so long. And it’s like cutting a junkie off cold turkey, OK.

“You’re going to go crazy and you’re going to have withdrawals. And he understands now that he’s created this codependent, junkie versus supplier relationship where if you question or if you try to criticize Elon Musk, you will be demonetized.”

Here’s Mary Papenfuss with more on Loomer.

[31 December 2024 09:35 · Joe Sommerlad]

Elon Musk expresses doubt over Trump’s Mike Johnson endorsement

The president-elect’s influential new friend has expressed doubt about the current speaker of the House of Representatives as he seeks re-election later this week.

The Big Tech boss responded to an X post by Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, in which the latter warned against allowing Mike Johnson to hang on to the gavel given that the GOP had already witnessed him “partner with the Democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget”.

“You might be right, but let’s see how it goes,” Musk told Massie, undermining Trump’s call for party unity issued just yesterday.

Speaking of Johnson, Republican congressmen Jeff Van Drew and Thomas Burchett have been making fools of themselves attempting (rather tentatively) to support him on Fox.

[31 December 2024 09:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump floats prospect of making Canada the 51st state and smears Bidens

Good morning!

Since posting a full-throated endorsement of Mike Johnson’s candidacy for the House speakership yesterday, Donald Trump has been busy reposting titbits of media coverage favorable to his interests on Truth Social.

Among these were articles from conservative news sites promoting the prospect of his administration entering negotiations with Canada about becoming America’s 51st state (!) and acquiring Greenland, the president-elect seemingly floating these outre ideas to his supporters to see how they take.

Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary, for one, is all for the annexation of his homeland and has been busy talking up the prospect with Trump’s former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News.

Also on Truth Social, the president-elect has been getting revenge on Joe Biden for calling on him to learn some “decency” from the late Jimmy Carter by recirculating old pictures of his son Hunter meeting with Chinese business executives and Xi Jinping, alleging in the interest of influence peddling, for which Trump offers no evidence.