Trump endorses Johnson for speaker re-election; President-elect loses appeal of E Jean Carroll verdict: Live
Incoming president hails incumbent as ‘a good, hard working, religious man’ and backs him to hang on to gavel ahead of Friday’s crucial vote
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has endorsed the current speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, for re-election ahead of Friday’s crucial vote when Congress returns from its holiday recess.
Johnson, who narrowly averted a government shutdown before Christmas, hopes to hold onto the gavel but cannot afford more than one Republican representative voting against him in the GOP’s narrow majority.
Taking to Truth Social to call for Republican unity, the president-elect backed the incumbent by hailing Johnson as “a good, hard working, religious man.”
“He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN,” Trump said. “Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
Elon Musk, whose antics derailed the stop-gap spending bill before Christmas, also said he is giving his “full support” to Johnson.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling against the president-elect after he challenged a jury’s verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E Jean Carroll.
Jurors “could reasonably infer” that Trump engaged in “a pattern of abrupt, nonconsensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew,” three appellate judges wrote in their decision Monday.
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Fox News admits that Trump’s take on H-1B visas ‘left a lot of people confused’
As Trump returns to the White House, and Putin’s forces advance – what next for Ukraine in 2025?
Family detention, raids and ‘no price tag’: Trump’s mass deportation plan comes into focus
Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to arrest, detain and deport people living in the country without legal permission as part of his “day one” agenda. The president-elect promises to deploy federal, state and local law enforcement into immigrant communities he says are “poisoning the blood of the country,” relying on stories of violent crime to support a brutal crackdown that could impact millions of families.
Here’s a look at what steps Trump plans to take when he enters office:
Family detention, raids and ‘no price tag’: Trump’s deportation plan comes into focus
Migrant families will be given impossible choices under Tom Homan’s agenda while Trump invokes wartime law and surges law enforcement across the country, Alex Woodward reports
Exclusive: Cash advance firm sues Mike Lindell for refusing to pay back $1.5 million loan
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has once again found himself staring down the wrong end of a seven-figure lawsuit, this time being dragged into court by a merchant cash advance firm that accuses the election fraud conspiracist of ducking out on nearly $1.5 million in outstanding debt.
Justin Rohrlich has more:
Cash advance firm sues Mike Lindell for refusing to pay back $1.5 million loan
Exclusive: Lindell said his legal woes are not his priority, telling The Independent, “I’m trying to run companies and get rid of the electronic voting machines. That’s my focus.”
Just in: Jack Smith hands over Trump’s classified docs case to U.S. attorney’s office in Florida
Special counsel Jack Smith has handed over what remains of the classified documents case against Donald Trump to the U.S. attorney’s office in Florida.
The filings with the U.S. court of appeals show Smith’s team of prosecutors formally withdrawing from the case, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe taking over.
Trump is accused of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago state and obstructing efforts from federal law enfrocement agenices to retrieve them after he left office. The case was dismissed by Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, which Smith’s team appealed. Following Trump’s election victory, and the likelihood he would fire Smith and order the investigations to come to an end, Smith announced he was effectively shutting them down.
He is expected to issue a report with his office’s findings.
Georgia attorney general urged state’s top court against hearing Fani Willis appeal
Georgia’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.
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.
DA Fani Willis booted from Trump’s election interference case in Georgia
Appeals court ruling determined her relationship with special prosecutor warrants dismissal
U.S. attorney whose team led January 6 prosecutions is stepping down before Trump can fire him
U.S. attorney Matthew Graves is stepping down as the chief federal prosecutor in Washington D.C., effective January 16, four days before Donald Trump takes office.
Graves’s office has overseen the largest investigation in Justice Department history with the prosecution of hundreds of people in connection with the January 6 attack on the Capitol — defendants Trump has promised to pardon as soon as he enters office.
“Serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has been the honor of a lifetime,” Graves said in a statement Monday. “I am deeply thankful to Congresswoman Holmes Norton for recommending me; to President Biden for nominating me; and to Attorney General Garland for placing his trust in me.”
To date, roughly 1,600 people have been charged in connection with the attack, with nearly 1,100 receiving sentences, including sentences for the convictions of the first seditious conspiracy cases in decades.
“Because politically motivated violence and destruction rip at the fabric of our society, Mr. Graves made federally prosecuting such crimes a priority,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Here’s a look at some of the most notorious January 6 defendants that Trump could pardon when he returns to the White House.
The notorious January 6 rioters Trump could pardon
Hundreds of defendants admitted to their crimes or were convicted by juries after attacking police, threatening lawmakers or conspiring against the government. Trump could wipe their slates clean, Alex Woodward reports
Steve Bannon says there’s no MAGA ‘civil war’ because Elon Musk is ‘not tough enough’
After calling Elon Musk a “toddler” after the X owner profanely attacked his right-wing critics, Steve Bannon declares there isn’t a MAGA “civil war” on immigrant workers because Musk is “not tough enough” and “folded” on the issue amid the far-right backlash.
Jusin Baragona reports:
Steve Bannon says there’s no MAGA ‘civil war’ because Elon Musk is ‘not tough enough’
“They folded – I mean, it was embarrassing,” Steve Bannon said on Monday, referencing Elon Musk’s tweets over the weekend when he said the H-1B visa program needed to be “reformed.”
What are H-1B visas and what has Trump said about them in the past?
Rhian Lubin explains the visa program driving a wedge between Trump’s MAGA base and big business Republicans and Silicon Valley billionaires.
What are H-1B visas and what has Trump said about them in the past?
H-1B visas are for highly skilled immigrants typically working in tech, healthcare, engineering and finance
Elon Musk appears to cast doubt on Johnson as speaker moments after offering his ‘full support.
Moments after telling Mike Johnson he has his “full support,” Elon Musk is already entertaining doubts about the House Speaker ahead of a crucial election for the speakership, with Republican representatives desperate for the approval of Trump and the world’s wealthiest person taking their cues from them.
Musk told Johnson that he has his “full support” after Trump gave johnson his endorsement.
Then Musk responded to a post from Republican congressman Thomas Massie, the only Republican representative who has said outright he will not be supporting Johnson.
“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Massie said Monday. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”
“You might be right,” Musk replied, “but let’s see how it goes.”
Former speaker Newt Gingrich on Johnson: ‘I could never do his job'
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is among GOP voices throwing their support to Mike Johnson’s bid to hang on to the speakership.
“I tell everybody, I was a pretty effective speaker. I could never do his job,” Gingrich told 77 WABC. “He has no margins. Any two or three members can rebel at any moment.”
This Friday, House members will gather to cast their votes for speaker in the new Congress, and Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican vote from his extremely slim caucus. Republicans hold only a 219-215 majority.
At least one Republican representative, Thomas Massie, has said outright he will not be supporting Johnson.
Watch: Peruvian shamans share bizarre Trump-Putin predictions for 2025
Peruvian shamans share bizarre Trump-Putin predictions for 2025
Peruvian shamans have predicted a bizarre alliance in 2025 between US President-elect Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin which would exclude China and potentially trigger a third World War. In an annual ritual on Friday, 27 December, the group also predicted natural disasters in Canada and Japan and advised wearing gold to prevent betrayals in the upcoming Year of the Snake. The shamans blew smoke and waved flowers on images of world leaders such as Mr Trump, Mr Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during cleansing rituals atop San Cristobal Hill in Lima.
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