Donald Trump’s transition team is spending the final working week before Christmas sending some of his most controversial nominees for cabinet posts to meet with senators on Capitol Hill.
Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard, the president-elect’s choices for health secretary and director of national intelligence respectively, will seek to shore up support and attempt to dispel doubts over some of their controversial past statements, which, it is feared, could imperil their confirmation hearings come January.
Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son announced a $100 billion investment in the U.S. over the next four years during a Monday visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The billionaire investor also promises to create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure.
A similar announcement was made in 2016 after Trump was elected president for the first time.
Over the weekend, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement in response to Trump’s defamation lawsuit launched against the network after it erroneously claimed in a broadcast that the president-elect had been found “liable for rape” at the civil trial brought against him by the writer E Jean Carroll over an incident dating back to 1996.
Trump was actually found “liable for sexual abuse,” not rape.
Watch: Trump asked if Jan 6 defendants will get blanket pardon
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:45
Watch: Trump says defamation cases can expand to individuals and newspapers
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:35
Lindsey Graham breaks with Trump on jailing Jan 6 committee members
Graham, a staunch Trump supporter, told Kristen Welker of Meet the Press on Sunday that he disagrees with the presidency-elect.
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:30
Watch: Trump asked if Ukraine should cede territory to Russia
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:15
Trump says ‘something strange going on’ with drones over New Jersey
“Something strange is going on. For some reason they won’t tell the people,” says President-elect Donald Trump when asked about the New Jersey mystery drones, asserting President Joe Biden and the US military know who is flying them.
Trump jokes because of the drones he won’t travel to his golf property in New Jersey.
“They’re very, very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won’t spend the weekend in Bedminster. I decided to cancel my trip,” he tells reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from,” he said. “And for some reason, they don’t want to comment.”
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:10
Watch: Trump says he will consider pardoning New York mayor Eric Adams
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:05
Ignoring the Constitution, Steve Bannon is pushing the idea that Trump can run in 2028
MAGA acolyte Steve Bannon is currently floating the idea that Donald Trump could run for a third presidential term, even though the United States Constitution says otherwise.
During a speech at the New York Young Republican Club’s Gala on Sunday night, the former Trump chief strategist suggested that the 22nd Amendment – which states that presidents can not be elected more than twice – didn’t apply to Trump because the president-elect’s terms are non-consecutive.
Justin Barangoa reports from New York.
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 17:00
Watch: Trump says US had ‘no problems’ when he left office in midst of pandemic
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 16:42
Trump complains about two events during transition
“My confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased because of his victory,” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, standing next to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, says as he announces the $100 billion investment in the U.S. by his Japanese tech investment firm.
After the remarks at the top of the press conference, Trump brought up two further points.
“We’re talking about a friendly takeover, a friendly transition, as they like to say, this is a friendly transition, and it is, but there are two events that took place that I think are very terrible,” he said.
First, Trump says his administration will go to court to try and undo a five-year deal allowing certain work-from-home rights for some federal workers. He appears to be referring to the deal President Joe Biden’s administration made this month with tens of thousands of Social Security workers.
“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump says of federal employees.
Second, he complained that materials for the border wall are being sold off at five cents on the dollar: “I’m asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall.”
Oliver O’Connell16 December 2024 16:39