Trump says he wants to rename Gulf of Mexico and retake Panama Canal during press conference: Live
President-elect held baffling — at times alarming — press event at Mar-a-Lago, wandering from topic to topic and threatening allied nations
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump gave a bizarre, rambling press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, bafflingly leaping from one topic to another.
Ostensibly arranged to announce new foreign investment in the US, the president-elect also attacked President Joe Biden over the transition process and refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Trump further railed against windmills, electric heaters, water pressure and soap, Canada, dishwashers, and the legal cases against him. At one moment he said he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and then claimed Hezbollah might have been at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Meanwhile, his lawyers are attempting to block the “imminent” release of a final report by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith covering his classified documents and election interference cases. Aileen Cannon, the judge in the former case, has temporarily blocked the release of that final report.
Further, Judge Juan Merchan refused Trump’s latest attempt to delay the sentencing over his hush money conviction — still scheduled for Friday.
This all came just a day after Congress formally recognized the president-elect’s 2024 election win over Kamala Harris.
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‘That’s like the whole ocean!’: Trump rants about Biden’s offshore 625 million acre drilling ban
Donald Trump ranted about Joe Biden’s 625 million acre offshore drilling ban in the Atlantic and wrongly claimed it covered almost “the whole ocean.”
“Take an acre, you have a house on a half-acre or a quarter-acre, or an acre, you have a big deal,” the President-elect exclaimed during a wild press conference on Tuesday. “Now you multiply that by 625 million acres. That’s like... it feels like the whole ocean!”
However, Trump’s math was off by some margin, as Mike Bedigan reports.
Trump claims Biden’s offshore 625 million acre drilling ban covers ‘the whole ocean’
The President-elect’s math was off by large margin during latest wild press conference at Mar-a-Lago
Watch: Aguilar says Trump ‘not entitled to his own set of facts’ regarding Jan 6
White House reportedly negotiating with Taliban to swap Americans for alleged bin Laden ally
President Joe Biden is reportedly trying to negotiate a hostage deal with the Taliban to bring home three Americans in exchange for an alleged Osama bin Laden associate who has been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2008.
Among his last acts as president, and in keeping with his promise to bring home every wrongfully detained American, Biden is trying to work out a deal to bring home George Glezmann, Ryan Corbett and Mahmoud Habibi, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ariana Baio has the details.
U.S. reportedly in talks with Taliban to swap Americans for Guantanamo Bay prisoner
Three American men have been held by the Taliban since 2022
Jan 6 felony defendant allowed to attend Trump inauguration
William Pope has been granted permission by Judge Rudolph Contreras to attend Donald Trump's inauguration, the first January 6 Capitol riot felony defendant allowed to attend.
It is also the first time someone has been permitted to attend over an objection from the Department of Justice.
Former Proud Boys ringleader begs Trump for Jan. 6 pardon
The former leader of the Proud Boys has asked President-elect Donald Trump for a pardon.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio once served as the national chairman of the far-right group, which federal prosecutors said played a “central role” in the breach of the Capitol building four years ago.
More than a year after he was sentenced to 22 years in prison and 36 months behind bars for his role in the Capitol riot, Tarrio has asked to be pardoned by Trump, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
Kelly Rissman reports.
Former Proud Boys ringleader Enrique Tarrio begs Trump for Jan. 6 pardon
‘Henry is nothing more than a proud American that believes in true conservative values,’ his lawyer argued
Just in: New York appeals court judge rejects Trump’s attempt to postpone his hush money sentencing date
After a brief hearing with Trump’s attorneys and Manhattan prosecutors, a New York appeals judge has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to postpone his sentencing date in his hush money trial.
Tuesday’s order from Justice Ellen Gesmer follows Trump’s latest attempt to overturn his case citing presidential “immunity” from prosecution. “The claim is so baseless that there is no support for an automatic stay here,” prosecutor Steven Wu told the judge during Tuesday’s hearing. “Defense counsel has not cited any case … that supports the idea that a president elect has the same immunity as a sitting president.”
Gesmer appeared skeptical with Trump’s arguments, stressing that the case doesn’t involve presidential immunity but the proposed immunity “of a president-elect.”
Trump will be sentenced by Justice Juan Merchan on January 10 in Manhattan criminal court, more than seven months after a unanimous jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Merchan is not expected to issue a jail sentence or probation.
Full story: Donald Trump Jr visits Greenland as father calls acquisition ‘a deal that must happen’
Donald Trump has dispatched his eldest son Donald Trump Jr on a visit to Greenland as the president-elect continues to express an interest in acquiring the autonomous Arctic territory from Denmark.
The incoming commander-in-chief first trailed the visit on his Truth Social platform on Monday evening by posting: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’.
Joe Sommerlad reports.
Donald Trump Jr visits Greenland as father calls purchase ‘a deal that must happen’
President-elect’s son jets into freezing Nuuk as new commander-in-chief eyes legacy purchase
Watch: Bizarre moment Trump links Hezbollah to Jan 6 Capitol riot
Biden pays tribute to Trudeau: ‘Forever grateful for his partnership and leadership'
President Joe Biden has paid tribute to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who announced on Monday that he will be stepping down.
Biden wrote on X: “The last time I visited Ottawa, I said that the United States chooses to link our future with Canada because we know that we’ll find no better ally, no closer partner, and no steadier friend. The same can be said of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“The U.S.-Canada alliance is stronger because of him. The American and Canadian people are safer because of him. And the world is better off because of him.
“I am proud to call him my friend. And I will be forever grateful for his partnership and leadership.”
And he didn’t even float the idea of annexing the US’s northern neighbor.
Biden commuted 37 inmates’ death sentences. Why did two of them say no thanks?
Two death row inmates are refusing to sign paperwork accepting President Joe Biden’s commutation of their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to NBC News.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Biden commuted 37 inmates’ death sentences. Why two of them said no thanks
Two prisoners who insist they are innocent are worried the commutations could hinder their appeals
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