As Donald Trump continues to form his administration ahead of his inauguration in January, the president-elect met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
They discussed the range of global security issues facing the alliance and Rutte also sat down with Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser.
The president-elect has also announced that he wants the job of treasury secretary to go to hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.
Trump called Bessent “one of the World’s foremost International Investors and Geopolitical and Economic Strategists.”
In a flurry of announcements on Friday night, Trump revealed his picks to lead the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FDA, the CDC, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the Department of Labor.
Meanwhile, Trump is set to fire the attorneys who worked alongside Special Counsel Jack Smith on two federal investigations into the president-elect and use the Department of Justice to probe the 2020 election, according to The Washington Post.
He intends to put together teams of investigators to look for evidence of fraud in battleground states in the 2020 election. There’s no evidence that fraud affected the results.
ICYMI: Trump’s hush money sentencing indefinitely postponed as judge considers tossing conviction
New York Justice Juan Merchan will hear legal briefs from Trump’s attorneys who claim that the conviction and sentencing of the president-elect will disrupt the “orderly transition of executive power” and be “uniquely destabilizing” to the country.
Trump’s sentencing date was postponed to November 26. That date is now off the calendar.
Instead, Judge Merchan has asked Trump’s attorneys to file their arguments by December 2, according to a filing in Manhattan criminal court on Friday.
Prosecutors will have until December 9 to reply.
Alex Woodward, who closely followed the case for The Independent, filed this report on Friday.
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 20:00
Scott Turner (contd.)
Headed council in Trump’s first term
Trump introduced Turner in April 2019 as the head of the new White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. Trump credited Turner with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.”
The mission of the council was to coordinate with various federal agencies to attract investment to so-called “Opportunity Zones,” which were economically depressed areas eligible to be used for the federal tax incentives.
HUD is responsible for addressing the nation’s housing needs. It also is charged with fair housing laws and oversees housing for the poorest Americans, sheltering more than 4.3 million low-income families through public housing, rental subsidy and voucher programs.
The agency, with a budget of tens of billions of dollars, runs a multitude of programs that do everything from reducing homelessness to promoting homeownership. It also funds the construction of affordable housing and provides vouchers that allow low income families pay for housing in the private market.
During the campaign, Trump focused mostly on the prices of housing, not public housing. He railed against the high cost of housing and said he could make it more affordable by cracking down on illegal immigration and reducing inflation. He also said he would work to reduce regulations on home construction and make some federal land available for residential construction.
What to know about Scott Turner, Trump’s pick for housing secretary
Scott Turner, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is a former NFL player who ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term.
Turner, 52, is the first Black person selected to be a member of the Republican’s Cabinet.
Here are some things to know about Turner:
From professional football to politics
Turner grew up in a Dallas suburb, Richardson, and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a defensive back and spent nine seasons in the NFL beginning in 1995, playing for the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos.
During offseasons, he worked as an intern then-Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. After Turner retired in 2004, he worked full time for the congressman. In 2006, Turner ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in California’s 50th Congressional District.
Turner joined the Texas House in 2013 as part of a large crop of tea party-supported lawmakers. He tried unsuccessfully to become speaker before he finished his second term in 2016. He did not seek a third term.
Motivational speaker and pastor
Turner also worked for a software company in a position called “chief inspiration officer” and said he acted as a professional mentor, pastor, and councilor for the employees and executive team. He has also been a motivational speaker.
He and his wife, Robin Turner, founded a nonprofit promoting initiatives to improve childhood literacy. His church, Prestonwood Baptist Church, lists him as an associate pastor. He is also chair of the center for education opportunity at America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers to lay the groundwork if he won a second term.
Trump ally warns UK PM over any Netanyahu arrest
Senator Lindsey Graham said the US should “crush” the economies of all those who comply with the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Israeli prime minister faces arrest if he enters Britain, Downing Street has said.
Kate Devlin reports from London.
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 19:00
Watch: Trump treasury pick like ‘beauty pageant’ of Wall St players
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 18:40
Who’s who in Trump’s cabinet picks so far
President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, rewarding longtime loyalists, aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign and in his legal battles.
A week after he was nominated, Trump’s first pick for attorney general — now-former congressman Matt Gaetz — withdrew his name from consideration amid a looming congressional report into allegations of sexual misconduct.
Here’s a look at who he’s selected so far.
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 18:30
Revealed: How Donald Trump’s alleged assassin tapped up UK-trained Afghan commandos to fight in Ukraine
Holly Bancroft and May Bulman report on the extraordinary story of how Ryan Wesley Routh apparently messaged Afghan special forces hiding in Iran just three days before being arrested with an AK-47 at Trump’s Florida golf club.
The UK is still dragging its feet over offering safe haven to these desperate men — paid and trained by the British — now being enticed to fight in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Revealed: How Trump’s alleged assassin tapped up UK-trained commandos for Ukraine
This is the extraordinary story of how Ryan Wesley Routh apparently messaged Afghan special forces hiding in Iran just three days before being arrested with an AK-47 at Trump’s Florida golf club. The UK is still dragging its feet over offering safe haven to these desperate men – paid and trained by the British – now being enticed to fight in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Holly Bancroft and May Bulman report
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 18:00
Trump expected to pick former adviser Brooke Rollins for agriculture, report says
Donald Trump is expected to select Brooke Rollins, a former Trump administration policy adviser, to lead the Agriculture Department, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Rollins is the president of the America First Policy Institute, a group led by former Trump administration officials that spent months planning for a potential second term. An ally of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, Rollins was once considered a contender to be White House chief of staff. But Susie Wiles, who helped run Trump’s campaign, was chosen for that role.
During Trump’s first term, Rollins led the Domestic Policy Council. A Texas native, she previously ran the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank.
If confirmed, Rollins would likely play a role in discussions about Trump’s plans for sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports, which could affect American farmers.
There was earlier speculation that the department could be led by former Georgia senator and businesswoman Kelly Loeffler.
Rollins has a degree in agriculture development and grew up on a farm.
If confirmed, Rollins would lead a 100,000-person agency with offices in every county in the country, whose remit includes farm and nutrition programs, forestry, home and farm lending, food safety, rural development, agricultural research, trade and more. It had a budget of $437.2 billion in 2024.
With reporting from Reuters
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 17:40
Hegseth’s odds of being confirmed almost halved after Gaetz withdrawal
Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, D.C.
Oliver O’Connell23 November 2024 17:30
He views tariffs as a sanctions tool
Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports. Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.
Bessent told Bloomberg in August that he views tariffs as a “one time price adjustment” and “not inflationary,” and tariffs imposed during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China. “I think that tariffs in a way can be regarded as an economic sanction without a sanction. If you don’t like Chinese economic policy, flooding the market with over production, you could put a sanction on them, or a tariff. Its also an answer to currency manipulation.”
And he wrote in a Fox News op-ed this week that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy objectives. Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.”
He told CNBC that “I would recommend that tariffs be layered in gradually.”
He would be the first openly gay treasury secretary
If confirmed to the role, he would also be the first openly LGBTQ Senate-confirmed cabinet member in a Republican administration.
In 2020, Trump named Richard Grenell, who is openly gay, acting director of national intelligence. However, the role was not subject to Senate confirmation.
In 2015, Bessent told the Yale Alumni Magazine: “If you had told me in 1984, when we graduated, and people were dying of AIDS, that 30 years later I’d be legally married and we would have two children via surrogacy, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Pete Buttigieg is the first openly LGBT Senate-confirmed Cabinet member, nominated by President Joe Biden to lead the transportation department.
