Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has promised sweeping action in a second administration.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-wins-second-term-policies-de3dcf0f173b42602b258042fd7aaafb?

Harris says nation must accept election results while urging supporters to keep fighting

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with a sweeping rejection by American voters, Kamala Harris conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump on Wednesday and encouraged supporters to continue fighting for their vision of the country.

https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-donald-trump-election-ddeae9fb378530159201ef4196cba9b3?

Donald Trump’s transition starts now. Here’s how it will work

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump ‘s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden. His team is also pledging that the second won’t look much like the first one Trump established after his 2016 victory.

https://apnews.com/article/presidential-transition-how-it-works-trump-biden-f9a5f4367fbc9a6a208f47ff3e25538d?

Trump promises to bring lasting peace to a tumultuous Middle East. But fixing it won’t be easy

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Donald Trump will return to the U.S. presidency at a time of unprecedented conflict and uncertainty in the Middle East. He has vowed to fix it.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-mideast-netanyahu-israel-gaza-iran-wars-2e37305522d19bdc34e956586cce99bd?

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Most powerful Republican of the modern era

Donald J. Trump has vanquished the Bushes, the Clintons, the Bidens, the Obamas — and the entire establishment of both parties, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: Trump is stronger than ever, backed by a party wholly remade in his image and opposed by demoralized and defeated Democrats.

Make no mistake: Trump will come to power better organized, better staffed and exponentially better positioned to dominate his party and the nation than he was last time.

• Trump promises to stretch the immense powers of the presidency, with historically wide latitude from a pliant, conservative Supreme Court.
• A new conservative media ecosystem — centered on Elon Musk's X — will amplify Trump's power and reshape America's information wars.
• And efforts to prosecute him are likely to end.

🧮 By the numbers: Trump's victory was astonishing in its sweep and scope. All but two states — Washington and Utah — went more heavily for Trump on Tuesday than in 2020 (Financial Times).

• Trump was backed by a remarkable 1 in 3 voters of color (NBC News exit poll).
• He improved over his 2020 performance among voters younger than 30, Black voters and Hispanic voters.
• President Biden won Latino men by 23 points in 2020. Trump won them by 10 points in 2024 (CNN).

🖼️ The big picture: The roughly half of America opposed to Trump is left with little solace, and even less federal power. Trump's romp flipped the Senate to Republican control, and the GOP is on track to keep the House.

• Democrats are left without a leader or a clear ideological identity, after Vice President Harris ran a campaign light on ideas and heavy on emotion. She underperformed Biden's 2020 showing across the map.

Trump can brag of a new coalition, brimming with record-high Hispanic support, working-class zeal and a surge in younger voters. And any restraints from anti-Trump Republicans in Congress or inside his White House are gone.

• He vowed to use that power to punish or even jail his critics.
• He has pledged to carry out "the largest deportation operation in American history."
• He has threatened to fire thousands of government employees deemed disloyal.

🔮 What's next: Trump sources tell us he'll consolidate power by steering who runs the House and Senate and unleashing his agenda out of the gate, starting with an immigration crackdown.

• Watch for him to load his White House and cabinet with rich, accomplished men.

How it happened: How Trump won says a lot about how he'll govern, Trump advisers tell us.

1. Trump will be Trump. He said and did whatever he wanted on the campaign trail — and will do more of this in office. He will surround himself with capable people — like he did with Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita on the campaign — to bring some method to the public madness.
2. Leverage his new base. Trump sees himself as the champion of toughness and the working class, which attracted a lot of Hispanic and Black men to his predominantly white, blue-collar base. It's no accident that Stephen Miller — a top adviser on immigration policy adviser in the first Trump term, who's expected to have a top White House job in the new administration — tweeted at 5:58 p.m. ET last night: "If you know any men who haven't voted, get them to the polls." And six minutes later: "Get every man you know to the polls."
3. Destroy traditional media. He hates his media critics and witnessed the new power of X and Elon Musk, plus Joe Rogan and the other bro-tilted realms of the podcast world. Trump believes a weakened media is ready to collapse. Now he has a bigger, more powerful alternative to help replace it.
4. Pound the "woke." Don't underestimate the damage Democrats did to their brand by promoting political correctness. Democratic strategists told us it's a huge problem for the image of the whole party, not just Harris. Trump saw this as vital to turning independents and apathetic voters into Republicans — or at least Trump Republicans. The campaign was only the beginning.

What to watch: Expect Trump to lure economic advisers who'll be acceptable to the corporate establishment. Based on his path back to power, he knows his presidency will hang partly on low inflation and robust growth.

• Go deeper: How Harris lost, by Zach Basu + Mike.

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The most powerful (unelected) man ever

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

America just elevated one man to an unfathomable status: the most powerful civilian — ever, Jim and Mike write. Why it matters: Elon Musk, 53 — the most influential backer of President-elect Trump, thanks to his money, time and X factor — now sits at the pinnacle of power in business, government influence and global information (and misinformation) flow. Trump has the White House and four short years. Musk has so much more since his influence cuts across government, media, business, the world, space and time. 🔭 The big picture: To understand why, you need to understand the reach of Musk's power post-election and the stretch of his galactic ambitions. Let's start with power. It's unmatched. As this election showed, politics and influence flow downstream from information control. Musk, once seen by many as a fool for buying Twitter, now controls the most powerful information platform for America's ruling party. X makes Fox News seem like a quaint little pamphlet in size and scope. Virtually every powerful voice in the Trump media ecosystem congregates on X — where their reality, whether tethered to facts or fiction, are set. X will be the prosecutor, defender, jury and judge of Trump governance. "You are the media now," he proclaimed on X. Musk transcends X, with close friends running the most-listened-to podcasts and every mainstream media platform eager for his appearance. He's the rare figure with global swat. The much bigger picture: Imagine you wanted to help mold America. You would instantly realize you need information dominance and vast political influence. With X and now Trump, Musk has both. The guy did a Mar-a-Lago sleepover on election night after throwing himself into the election — donating at least $119 million to Musk's America PAC to help Trump, pushing JD Vance for the presidential ticket, then helping get Trump and Vance onto Joe Rogan's top-rated podcast. His chef's kiss: His own last-minute appearance on Rogan's show, which won Trump the podcaster's endorsement. Musk is helping staff the top ranks of the incoming White House and is likely to run an unregulated entity to recommend ways to cut and reorganize government. Name another American figure with this kind of political juice. Higher ambitions: Listen to Musk, and he always circles back to his belief in creating a multi-planetary future. He believes the future of our species is wholly dependent on it. Well, you get there by controlling space — satellites, space travel and ultimately colonization. He has a virtual global monopoly on satellites and the hottest space company on the globe, Space X — one NASA depends on. The bottom line: This creates conflicts of interest at an epic scale. But it's hard to see the Trump White House caring, or Musk letting it slow him down. And, when you control a big chunk of the information flow, you get to shape how lots of people view it, anyway.

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💥 Trump's next Situation Room

President-elect Trump wants to put familiar faces on his national security team after being burned during his first term, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: Sources said Trump doesn't want former generals on his national security team and prefers businessmen and CEOs. But he's also considering a line-up of loyalists in prominent D.C. positions.

Trump said several times that during his transition, he'd begin pushing for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war.

• He also signaled in public and in private that he wants to see the wars in Gaza and Lebanon end by the time he is inaugurated.

🔎 Zoom in: Here are the top contenders, based on people close to this process.

State Department: A top candidate for secretary of state is former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, the sources said.

• The sources said Grenell advised Trump on foreign policy during the campaign and would likely focus on Russia-Ukraine diplomacy.
• Two other candidates for the Secretary of State job are Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump's first term, and Trump's former national security adviser Robert O'Brien.

Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus is also often mentioned for a senior State Department position or for a top ambassador post.

• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is a leading name for U.S. ambassador to the UN.

🪖 Defense Department and intelligence agencies: Several names have been floated for Defense Secretary, including former SecState Mike Pompeo and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.).

• Waltz could also be considered for CIA director, in addition to John Ratcliffe, who briefly served as Director of National Intelligence under Trump.
• Another former Trump official who could get a senior foreign policy and national security position in the new administration is Brian Hook, who was Trump's Iran envoy and will lead the new administration's State Department transition team.

The White House: Grenell and Waltz are also potential candidates for national security adviser.

👀 Others to watch: Avi Berkowitz, who worked with Jared Kushner on the Abraham Accords, could also make a comeback and be part of Trump's Middle East team.

• David Friedman, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel during Trump's first administration, could go back for another term in this post.

[bonnie1962]

The democrats with their intense hatred of all things Trump were Trumps best friends.  They went after him if he sneezed to many times. Every time they poked him in the eye, his popularity went up. They kept doubling down and he got more popular. Of course the economy helped but I wonder if they had left him alone and hadnt poked and prodded for the last four years if Trunp would have even run again. 

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What to Expect From ProPublica in a Second Trump Administration

Donald Trump’s victory marks a turning point in the American experiment, and there is much to be dissected about what it means.

https://www.propublica.org/article/second-trump-administration-investigative-journalism?

[bonnie1962]

One can always hope that there will be even a little more honesty in their reporting. More so than the Russian Hoax, Hunters laptop, And Biden's daughters diary, where she describes taking a shower with Biden. Just to name a few. There are those that don't care whether it is true or not, just so it is negative towards the man they hate. The rest of us won't be holding our breath.

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Washington's open for business

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Buckle up: President-elect Trump plans fast action on a business-friendly agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and expanded energy production, his advisers tell us, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: Trump plans to load his White House and Cabinet with business- and tech-friendly executives — and stretch the powers of the presidency to force quick changes. ⏩ Behind the scenes: Trump advisers believe, in retrospect, that they wasted early opportunities in his first term because they were unfamiliar with maximizing government power. They're planning a very different outcome this time: Trump will take office with Republican control of the Senate + Republicans are on track to hold the House. Every Republican leader and committee chair, and most rank-and-file GOP members, will be Trump loyalists. Trump will fill his top ranks with billionaires, former CEOs, tech leaders and loyalists. The courts have his — and corporate America's — back. Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Joe Lonsdale and other tech leaders are helping pick staff and drive policies to quickly expand AI, crypto and other business frontiers. Reality check: Trump is notorious for picking winners and losers based on their public support of him. Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have been critical of Big Tech. 🕶️ Power players: Trump's transition also is business-friendly. The co-chairs are Howard Lutnick, chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, who headed the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term. Trump's inner circle includes Ike Perlmutter, a billionaire and Mar-a-Lago member who's the former chair of Marvel Entertainment and the biggest donor to the Right for America PAC, a huge backer of Trump's campaign. Other close advisers include hedge-fund moguls John Paulson and Scott Bessent, and Steve Witkoff, a real-estate investor who golfs with Trump. 💼 Trend to watch: Several CEOs and their D.C. representatives are trying to quickly highlight their support for Trump, or at least his policies. You saw Jeff Bezos scramble just before the election to spike a pro-Harris endorsement in his paper, The Washington Post — then quickly take to X to applaud Trump's win after the election. Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, a competitor to Musk's SpaceX, knows his company's fate could hang on improving relations with Trump. 💰 Big winners to watch: Oil and gas, crypto, tech firms, Musk's companies and banks are all poised to benefit from Trump's agenda.

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Trump’s return to the White House sets stage for far-reaching immigration crackdown Donald Trump’s victory sets the stage for a swift crackdown after an AP VoteCast survey showed the president-elect’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — issues the Republican has been hammering throughout his campaign. Read more.

Key points: How and when Trump’s actions on immigration will take shape is uncertain. While Trump and his advisers have offered outlines, many questions remain about how they would deport anywhere close to the 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally.   Trump has said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country the U.S. is at war with. He has spoken about deploying the National Guard, which can be activated on orders from a governor. Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, has said troops under sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refuse to participate.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation   A Texas border county backed Democrats for generations. Trump won it decisively   Trump victory spurs worry among migrants abroad, but it’s not expected to halt migration

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Trump 2.0

U.K. newspaper front pages. Photo illustration: Leon Neal/Getty Images President-elect Trump's second term is already coming into focus much more clearly and quickly than his first one did. Trump is getting his people in place, and sending clear signals about how they'll operate. ☎️ 1. Elon Musk joined Trump's call this week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Axios' Barak Ravid scooped. Musk's Starlink systems have been a vital lifeline for Ukrainian troops, and he pledged to keep helping — but Trump has indicated that he's not likely to continue supporting Ukraine the way the Biden administration has. Why it matters: Musk's presence on the call is a sign of just how much access he may have in Trump's second term, advising a president who has never cared much about official protocols or formal lines of authority. 🌎 2. Trump has asked Robert Lighthizer to reprise his role as U.S. trade representative, the Financial Times reports. Lighthizer is staunchly pro-tariff, and his selection will likely set off alarms for U.S. trading partners — and potentially for the business interests and free-trade Republicans who supported Trump but had hoped he wouldn't actually pursue new import taxes. Lighthizer had lobbied for Treasury or Commerce secretary, per the FT, but Trump has other people in mind for those jobs.

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Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish

Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House. Here’s a look at what Trump has said he will do in his second term and whether he can do it the moment he steps into the White House. Read more.   A guide to key figures in Donald Trump’s orbit WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump will return to the White House accompanied by a crew of longtime friends and aides as well as newfound, splashy allies. https://apnews.com/article/trump-administration-key-figures-65b19fb408511f6eebec27ae12241385?

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Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico Mexico is facing a second Donald Trump presidency, and few countries can match its experience as a target of Trump’s rhetoric: There have been threats to close the border, impose tariffs and even send U.S. forces to fight Mexican cartels if the country doesn’t do more to stem the flow of migrants and drugs. Read more.

Why this matters: As much as this second round looks like the first round — when Mexico pacified Trump by quietly ceding to his immigration demands — circumstances have changed, and not necessarily for the better. Today, Mexico has in Claudia Sheinbaum a somewhat stern leftist ideologue as president, and Trump is not known for handling such relations well.   Some of Trump’s biggest policy concerns – restoring U.S. jobs and the increasing rivalry with China — also run through Mexico. U.S. and foreign automakers have set up dozens of plants in Mexico, and some in the U.S. worry that Chinese companies could do the same to take advantage of existing trade rules to export Chinese cars or auto parts to the United States.   Not everything has changed for the worse. Cross-border trade has topped $800 billion per year and U.S. companies are more dependent than ever on Mexican plants. But the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or USMCA, is coming up for review, and Mexico has made legal changes that Trump could seize on to demand a re-negotiation of parts of the deal.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump announces Tom Homan, ex-director of immigration enforcement, will be ‘border czar’   Trump breaks GOP losing streak in nation’s largest majority-Arab city with a pivotal final week   Will Trump’s hush money conviction stand? A judge will rule on the president-elect’s immunity claim

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🏛️ The new Washington

President-elect Trump announced on his Truth Social platform late last night that Tom Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first Trump administration, will return to that role as what Trump called "The Border Czar."

• Why it matters: ICE agents will take a pivotal operational role in delivering on Trump's promise to "seal the border" and conduct the "largest deportation operation in American history."

Trump called Homan "a stalwart on Border Control," and said there's "nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. ... Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin."

📺 Homan told Maria Bartiromo yesterday on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that the deportation operation will target "the worst of the worst. So it's gonna be the worst first," prioritizing criminal threats and national-security threats.

• "It's going to be a well-targeted, planned operation ... by the men of ICE," Homan said. "It'll be a humane operation, but it's a necessary mass deportation operation." (Video)

🗞️ Homan told The Sunday Times of London: "We're going to concentrate on the worst of the worst ... It's going to be a lot different to what the liberal media is saying it's going to be."

🌐 Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) will be U.S. ambassador to the U.N., the N.Y. Post reported, quoting a statement by Trump to the paper.

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Presidential transition

Less than a week after the election, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is quickly working to fill key roles in his administration. Foreign leaders, allies and those seeking a job under Trump have descended on his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Some members and guests have been seen having pull-aside talks with Trump, although advisers insist that everything is going through the proper channels. On Sunday, Trump announced Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of ICE in his last administration, will be in charge of the nation's borders. He also offered Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik the job as US ambassador to the UN, sources told CNN. Trump has ruled out Cabinet posts for Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, who both had top foreign policy spots the last time around.

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The Cabinet pageant

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images.

President-elect Trump plans to weigh in on roughly 40 top cabinet, agency and White House jobs from a makeshift Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago, where he's surrounded by TV monitors displaying profiles of potential picks. The interactive array lets aides instantly summon a multimedia menu covering whatever position or person he wants to consider next, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. 🧐 Why it matters: The process is just getting underway, and includes lots of surprise names, including some for big jobs. The real lists exclude many names floated publicly by people who claim to have knowledge of the process but actually don't. 📺 Behind the scenes: Each digital dossier includes tightly edited clips of a prospect's TV appearances, so Trump can get a sense of how effective they'd be in delivering his message. The video also helps him gauge whether they fit his Central Casting vision of authoritative, impressive underlings. ❌ Between the lines: We routinely get tips and text messages touting the prospects of administration hopefuls who have been definitively crossed off Trump's list. Elon Musk, Vice President-elect JD Vance and transition co-chair Howard Lutnick are among the small group intimately involved in choosing the most powerful — and sensitive — jobs. 💡 The big picture: As we told you last week, Trump is looking for two things — experience and loyalty. His early picks fit this bill: Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff ... Tom Homan as "border czar" ... Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as UN ambassador. New today: Stephen Miller, Trump's immigration hawk, will be named deputy White House chief of staff for policy. The position doesn't require confirmation. 🔮 What we're watching: The roles with the most juice are yet to come, including the secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury and Homeland Security, and directors of the FBI and CIA. The legal team, including attorney general and White House counsel, will be equally important — given Trump's eagerness to stretch the power of the presidency, and his promise to seek retribution against enemies. Go deeper: Our Trump power players list. Who Trump has picked for key positions so far President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign. Here’s a look at who he’s selected so far. Read More.

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The Trump, Musk fusion

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, two billionaires with strikingly similar DNAs, are fusing into a new, powerful governing-media paradigm, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: This Trump-Musk fusion seems to grow stronger by the day. The two are working together to shape the new White House, the new Senate and the new Cabinet, plus future foreign relations and governing blueprints. The pair plots and plans at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, where Musk is often camped out. He's one of only a couple of confidants who attends Cabinet-selection sessions in Trump's makeshift Situation Room. The two amplify their thinking and desires on Musk's X. You saw this with Trump demanding on X that Senate Republicans allow recess appointments for his cabinet picks, Musk quickly amplifying it — and all three candidates for majority leader quickly falling in line. 🔎 Behind the scenes: Musk, rocking an "OCCUPY MARS" T-shirt, loves to think out loud as he drops innovative — sometimes quirky — ideas for rewiring the federal government. Musk thinks differently and is bringing fresh eyes and his unique brain to government structures and systems that can be 70+ years old. We hear Trump drinks it in, debating and stress-testing the torrent of ideas from Musk, whose instinct is to start with a blank sheet of paper when determining government staffing. 📱 "I'm happy to be first buddy! 😂" Musk tweeted after a reporter gave him that nickname. Kai Trump — Trump's 17-year-old granddaughter, a talented golfer with a big online following — tweeted a photo with Musk at one of Trump's golf clubs on Sunday: "Elon achieving uncle status 😂." 🔭 The big picture: Some of Musk's free-flowing ideas for government are impractical. But some of them are sure to be tried, Trump advisers tell us. We're told Trump is clear-eyed that Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, benefit from federal incentives and contracts — and could reap a windfall from deregulatory moves by Trump. Plus Musk is trying to maximize the value of his X purchase. It's unclear if, or how much, Trump cares about this conflict of interest. And Trump has his own platform, Truth Social, home to most of his social media posts. Some of Musk's ideas are impractical. But some of them are sure to be tried, Trump advisers tell us. We're told Trump is clear-eyed that Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, benefit from federal incentives and contracts — and could reap a windfall from deregulatory moves by Trump. Plus Musk is trying to maximize the value of his X purchase. It's unclear if, or how much, Trump cares about this conflict of interest. And Trump has his own platform, Truth Social, home to most of his social media posts. Musk, who threw himself into the presidential campaign this past year, has his hands in several Trump projects: He's helping pick the Cabinet and top White House staff. Trump handed Musk the phone during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week. Musk is expected to attend Trump's meeting at Mar-a-Lago this week with Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei. Musk is working on a project that would sit outside the official government to use technology to find trillions in possible budget cuts — his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, in homage to the Musk-friendly cryptocurrency). He's mobilizing his 204 million followers on his X platform to try to elect dark-horse Senate majority leader candidate Rick Scott, a staunch MAGA ally, in tomorrow's secret ballot election. Column continues below. ⚡ Part 2: Trump and Musk's backstory Musk visited Trump Tower and the White House back in 2017, at the dawn of the first Trump presidency. But they fully embraced each other in the final months of this past campaign, forming a political alliance unlike any of the modern era, Jim and Mike write. Musk poured more than $119 million into a super PAC backing Trump. Top Republicans tell us Musk made a real difference in Pennsylvania by revving up turnout at a time when the campaign thought the Keystone State might determine who won the presidency. Musk amped up swing-state registration with his controversial $1 million-a-day sweepstakes. He headlined his own rallies — and we're told he was greeted so effusively that they seemed like Trump rallies. 🔎 Between the lines: The 78-year-old Trump and 53-year-old Musk might seem like an odd couple at first blush. But, they have striking similarities, according to Republicans close to both men. Both understand the power — and tricks — of social media. Both had tough, dominating dads. Both are rich and have their tentacles in numerous businesses. Both revel in stirring the pot — and spreading fact and fiction at scale. Both lack the empathy that holds others back. Both believe the country and government need a massive shock to be saved. Both view themselves as immune to rules and norms that hold other people back. 🌐 Trump's hardline national security team   Screenshot: CNN President-elect Trump is expected to name Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as secretary of State — a hawkish but mainstream Republican choice that world leaders will find reassuring. Why it matters: Rubio, 53, the son of Cuban immigrants, would be the first Latino to be America's top diplomat. He's a hardliner on China, Iran and Cuba, and was one of three finalists to be Trump's VP. Rubio has served in the Senate since 2011. He ran for president in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. Rubio voted against $95 billion in Ukraine aid in April and has called for Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war with Russia — even if that means Russia keeps some of the territory from the invasion. 👓 The big picture: Less than a week into the transition, Trump has filled a swath of big White House and national security jobs. Susie Wiles, co-campaign manager, will be White House chief of staff. Tom Homan, former acting ICE director, will be "border czar." Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 4 House Republican, was picked for UN ambassador. Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump's border policies, will be deputy White House chief of staff for policy. Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) will run EPA. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Beret and a China hawk, will be national security adviser. 🇮🇱 Go deeper: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's confidant Ron Dermer met Trump in Mar-a-Lago yesterday, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. More on Rubio ... Quick bios of other six picks. ps:Rubio and Waltz are actually good picks!!

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🧠 Feds brace for brain drain

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

A second Trump administration presents a dilemma for scientists and career staff at top federal health agencies, who expect big changes: Stay and fight — or leave, Axios' Caitlin Owens, Alison Snyder and Tina Reed write. Why it matters: A brain drain of the nation's top scientific minds could hobble research and dissolve institutional knowledge at agencies such as the FDA, NIH and CDC. Trump has said he'll let transition team member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "go wild" on food and medicine. Republicans have been chomping at the bit to reform the CDC and overhaul the NIH post-pandemic. RFK Jr. has said "entire departments" at the FDA "have to go." Keep reading ...

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Trump builds out foreign policy team with picks of Hegseth for Pentagon, Ratcliffe for CIA

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump moved to build out his foreign policy team Tuesday, announcing he is nominating Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-transition-white-house-staff-huckabee-f51121db5b18814bbab014e872c2a736?

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The new members of Donald Trump’s administration so far From secretary of homeland security to CIA director, Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration. Here’s a look at who he has selected so far. Read more.

Recent developments: Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security. Trump picked a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. The South Dakota Gov. will also oversee the government’s natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports.   Pete Hegseth to serve as defense secretary. Co-host of  “Fox & Friends Weekend” and an Army veteran, Hegseth was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises from Russia’s war in Ukraine to the conflicts in the Middle East.   John Ratcliffe to serve as CIA director. A former Republican congressman from Texas, Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final year and a half of Trump’s first term, leading the U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump says Musk, Ramaswamy will form outside group to advise White House on government efficiency   Trump makes a victor’s return to Washington to meet with Biden and GOP lawmakers   FACT FOCUS: Election officials knock down Starlink vote rigging conspiracy theories   Trump pledged to roll back protections for transgender students. They’re flooding crisis hotlines   A look at the candidates vying to be the next Senate majority leader   Judge recuses himself in Arizona fake elector case after urging response to attacks on Kamala Harris

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Trump's Pentagon shocker

President Trump made the biggest and most unconventional pick of his transition last evening by tapping Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth, 44, to be defense secretary.

• Why it matters: The announcement — part of a night of MAGA shock and awe — scrambled defense experts and Pentagon reporters, who didn't have Hegseth on their radar, Axios' Colin Demarest and Sareen Habeshian write.

🥊 28 minutes later, the president-elect announced Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump's former primary opponent, will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut government spending and streamline bureaucracy.

• The acronym invokes a Musk-beloved cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.

Trump said in the announcement statement that the "department" will actually be outside the government. He said it could become the "Manhattan Project" of our time — a reference to the atomic race during World War II.

• Musk said: "This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!"

💡 Fact check: It's essentially a non-governmental commission with no power other than to recommend things for people in power to do.

• Congress could grant it official powers. But lawmakers are skeptical.

🎖️ Zoom in: Hegseth, the Pentagon pick, favors a non-interventionist America First foreign policy, in contrast with Trump's more hawkish picks for other top national security roles.

• The "Fox & Friends Weekend" co-host served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. He received two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman's Badge.

The choice, which stunned the Pentagon, channels Trump's affinity for cable news and high ratings. A Fox News spokesperson said Hegseth's "insights and analysis, especially about the military, resonated deeply" with viewers.

• Hegseth has lobbied heavily on behalf of several service members accused of war crimes and privately encouraged then-President Trump to issue pardons.
• One of them was retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was acquitted of war crimes and had a minor charge cleared by Trump.

Screenshot: Fox News

⚡ Trump is filling out his administration at breakneck speed. Yesterday he also announced:

1. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) as national security adviser.
2. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.
3. Real estate executive and Trump golfing buddy Steve Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East.
4. Bill McGinley as White House counsel.
5. John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence, as CIA director.
6. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security.

 

Treasury frontrunner Scott Bessent

Scott Bessent, the frontrunner to be President-elect Trump's Treasury secretary, tells me criticism by Nobel economists and other experts that Trump proposals could ignite an inflation bomb belies the campaign's big takeaway — that working-class Americans are struggling financially.

• "The idea that he would recreate an affordability crisis is absurd," Bessent, 62, a former George Soros money manager who lives in South Carolina, said in a phone interview.

Why it matters: Trump's choice for Treasury secretary will play a huge role in delivering on his victory-speech promise of a new American "golden age."

• The economy will be a great gauge of Trump's second-term success: Voters last week screamed their dismay about the country's direction, with polls showing rising costs as a huge national worry.

Bessent (pronounced BESS-ent), highly respected among Wall Street moguls, has been called the"quiet killer" for his finesse with massive trades.

• He tells me Trump "regards himself as the mayor of 330 million Americans, and he wants them to do great, and have a great four years."

Behind the scenes: Bessent, polite but steely, is both qualified and MAGA. A person close to Trump tells us Bessent has "many fans in Trumpworld," and that the president-elect is "very high on him."

• Other Treasury candidates in the Mar-a-Lago mix include Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump's transition.

Stan Druckenmiller, a legendary hedge-fund titan who has known and worked with Bessent for four decades, told Axios he "can't think of an area in global investing that he hasn't had to deal with."

• "He's the only guy I know who's not only a market participant but very fluent and comfortable in academic circles," Druckenmiller said, adding that Bessent has a rare combination of IQ and EQ (emotional quotient).

Reality check: Bessent — who keeps stacks of his favorite books in his office, to give to visitors — lacks extensive government experience, so he'd have a steep learning curve.

• Some Trump loyalists see Bessent as insufficiently supportive of the president-elect's tariff proposals, Politico reported.
• But Jason Trennert — a Trump donor and CEO of the Wall Street firm Strategas, who has known Scott for more than two decades — told Axios: "Scott is 100% aligned with President Trump on tariffs. He has touted the president's negotiating skills. His market knowledge will allow for maximum pressure and revenues, with minimal economic disruptions."

☎️ Middle East envoy's direct line to Trump

The Trump administration's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has a major asset: a direct line to Donald Trump, a source close to the president-elect told Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: Witkoff — Trump's golfing buddy and one of his best friends — faces a crisis in the Middle East and the biggest war between Israelis and Palestinians since 1948 as he starts the job.

Trump has a series of goals in the Middle East: ending the war in Gaza, getting a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and trying again to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

• Like Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who led the White House "Peace Team" during the first Trump administration, Witkoff is a businessman from the real estate world who has experience negotiating deals.

👀 Behind the scenes: A source close to Trump said the president-elect appointed Witkoff because of the "deep trust" between them.

• Witkoff, who is Jewish and pro-Israel, is one of Trump's closest personal friends. The two have spent lots of time golfing together.

Between the lines: Kushner also didn't have experience when he started working on the Middle East. But he ended up brokering the Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

• Keep reading.

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🎤 Scoop: Shakeup expected in briefing room

The new Trump administration is expected to challenge traditions in the famous White House press briefing room, sources told Axios' Sara Fischer and Sophia Cai.

• Why it matters: Confidants of President-elect Trump are considering changes that would give newer, MAGA-aligned voices access to daily press briefings.

Two media executives who run MAGA-aligned news outlets — one in streaming and one in text — told Axios they plan to apply for credentials that would give them access to White House press briefings.

• The briefing room seats 49 reporters across an array of outlets. Any efforts to expand access to daily press briefings to pro-Trump outlets, including Steve Bannon's War Room, would need to come at the expense of existing outlets.

🔭 Zoom out: Transition sources tell us Trump is inclined, although not certain, to name a press secretary who is female. Among the names being mentioned for the podium:

• Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary.
• Alina Habba, Trump's attorney and adviser.
• Monica Crowley, a former Treasury official under Trump.

Also mentioned: Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor and Bush White House official Scott Jennings, who's a fierce and respected on-air Trump advocate ... former ESPN host-turned-influencer Sage Steele ... and model-turned-RNC spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko.

• Longtime Trump campaign communications staffers Steven Cheung and Danielle Alvarez are in the running for top White House roles.

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White House meeting

President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden will meet for an extraordinary sit-down today at the White House. It's tradition for the outgoing president to host the incoming commander in chief after the election as part of a peaceful transfer of power. Trump did not host Biden in 2020, however, as he fought the election results. Trump also didn't attend Biden's inauguration in 2021 — the first time a sitting president skipped his successor's swearing-in since 1869. The meeting today comes hours after Trump announced a flurry of appointments, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, GOP lawyer Bill McGinley as White House counsel and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to run Homeland Security. Trump also said Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency."

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Musk Could Now Reap Huge Tax Gift From Trump Win

Trump’s plan to appoint Musk could make the billionaire CEO eligible for a special tax benefit available only to government officials.

https://www.levernews.com/musk-could-reap-huge-tax-gift-from-trump-win/

ps:Wow like he needs more tax breaks?? So how much more do middle and low income people have to pay so all these billionaires can pay less and less taxes??????

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Dems Could Hand Trump The Power To Exact His Revenge

Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for revenge.

https://www.levernews.com/dems-could-hand-trump-the-power-to-exact-his-revenge/

Live updates: Trump nominates Marco Rubio as Sec. of State, Tulsi Gabbard as DNI and Matt Gaetz as AG

The latest nominations from President-elect Donald Trump include Marco Rubio as secretary of state, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, and Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Read More.

Republican John Thune of South Dakota is elected the next Senate majority leader

Republicans have elected South Dakota Sen. John Thune as the next Senate majority leader, completing a momentous shift in their leadership that elevates a top deputy of Mitch McConnell into a key position as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Read More.

What happens to Donald Trump’s criminal conviction? Here are a few ways it could go

Donald Trump’s election victory created a conundrum for the judge overseeing his criminal case in New York. Can he go ahead and sentence the president-elect, or would doing so potentially get in the way of Trump’s constitutional responsibility to lead the nation? Read More.

Dogecoin soars as Trump announces a government efficiency group nicknamed DOGE

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency whose mascot is a super-cute dog that muses things like “much wow,” has been surging in value since Donald Trump won the presidential election last week. Here’s an explanation about what’s going on. Read More.

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Trump's middle finger

President-elect Trump, baffling even his Republican backers, walked out of today's transition-to-power meeting with President Biden and announced he'll nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general.

• If he's confirmed, Gaetz will head the Justice Department, which last year decided not bring to charges against him over sex trafficking allegations,
• This came minutes after Trump named former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to head the U.S. intelligence community — and 12 hours after he nominated "Fox & Friends Weekend" co-host Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon.

⚡️ Why it matters: Trump is taunting his critics with three highly controversial picks for three of the most important jobs in the land.

🔎 Zoom in: Gaetz, who is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sexual misconduct, is a MAGA provocateur and Trump loyalist despised by many of his colleagues.

• Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, secretly met with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and blamed the U.S. and NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran, lobbied Trump to pardon U.S. service members accused of war crimes and has argued women should not serve in combat roles.

 

🏛️ The new establishment

The GOP establishment, such as it is, scored a major victory today when Sen. John Thune of South Dakota won the race for Senate majority leader.

• Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) had tried to position himself as the anti-establishment, Trump-aligned option to lead the Senate GOP. He had the backing of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson — but his Senate colleagues eliminated him on the first ballot.

🗓️ Thune will officially take over as majority leader in January.

• Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming will be the Senate GOP's No. 2 leader, and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas easily won the No. 3 job.

Trump's controversial nominees will be one of the new leadership team's first challenges.

Why Trump picked Gaetz

President-elect Trump picked Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general for one, big, telling reason: Gaetz will proudly do the dirty work on controversial legal topics that others won't, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: Get used to this. It's your future foretold: On some topics, Trump wants to seem reasonable. On others — like anything related to his suspicion of a hostile "deep state" — he demands his own personal, controllable wrecking ball.

💣 Gaetz, 42, is wrecking ball, head to toe. Oh, and arguably the most despised one among elected Republicans. But Trump doesn't care, advisers say.

• Republicans privately question whether Gaetz will be confirmed by the Senate. But that might not keep him from being attorney general, the most powerful law enforcer in the land.

🔎 Behind the scenes: A powerful MAGA insider who talks often to Trump told us the reason he picked Gaetz is simple: "He likes him."

• Trump wants to "stop shit like this," the insider said, texting a news clip reporting the FBI early yesterday raided the SoHo apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, seizing his phone and electronics. (Details from Dan Primack.)
• Gaetz's selection set off outrage among lawmakers in both parties. But the insider predicted that "if he can make it to January, Gaetz will be confirmed."

🔭 The big picture: Countless Republicans trashed Gaetz before and after his shocking nomination. His House colleagues' parting gift: a quick leak to Punchbowl that Gaetz was about to get hit with a damning House Ethics Committee report. The subject of the report: illegal drug use and sexual misconduct.

• Gaetz resigned his Florida seat yesterday, just before the Ethics Committee was set to hold a pivotal meeting on the Gaetz investigation. Gaetz's resignation ends the wide-ranging probe, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

Gaetz convinced Trump that he's simply a victim of the same "deep state" that went after him. That's Trump's love language.

• "For two years," the N.Y. Times reports, "the Justice Department looked into allegations that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and possibly violated federal sex trafficking laws. The department closed its investigation last year without filing any charges against Mr. Gaetz."

🕶️ Marc Caputo, a well-wired Trump reporter for The Bulwark, captured the Trump view perfectly with this quote from an adviser familiar with the transition process:

• "Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said: 'Yeah, I'll go over there and start cuttin' f---in' heads.'"

💡 Reality check: Cuttin' heads isn't the actual job of the AG — who by precedent (not law) operates quite independently from the president. The job is to enforce laws, even on presidents and Cabinet officials.

Republicans hope Gaetz is simply a sacrificial sucker, put up to be rejected so Trump can smuggle through a controversial but more acceptable alternative. Perhaps. But Gaetz is a Trump favorite and Mar-a-Lago regular.

• Trump has assurances from Senate Republican leaders that he can use a controversial workaround, recess appointments, to smuggle in unpopular picks, at least for a few years.

Between the lines: Trump's fear, anger and disdain for the "deep state" run as deep as any governing emotion he holds. This helps explain why two other defiant picks — Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Fox News' Pete Hesgeth for SecDef — run pillars of government Trump has big issues with.

• This'll be one of the most important plots of the Trump presidency.

Final word: Republicans have a taste of what's to come. Trump picked a man many of them hate, without giving his governing partners a courtesy heads-up — and did it on a day that was supposed to be a celebration of their new congressional leaders.

• And right after meeting President Biden in the Oval Office.

Trump's statement picking Gaetz.

💥 Trump revives "island of misfit toys"

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

It wasn't just Gaetz. In vintage 2017 fashion, President-elect Trump yesterday announced, in quick succession, three of the most provocative nominations in modern political history, Axios' Zachary Basu and Sophia Cai write. Why it matters: Early signs that Trump 2.0 was assembling a curiously conventional Cabinet — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for SecState, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) for national security adviser — has gone up in flames. Trump has veered sharply toward loyalists and disruptors — Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Fox News' Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic House member from Hawaii, for director of national intelligence. They're the types of unorthodox figures that Axios dubbed Trump's "island of misfit toys" during his first term — only this time, there are far fewer restraints. 🎨 The big picture: The picks announced over the past 48 hours all have one thing in common: A hunger to tear down and revamp the agencies Trump has tapped them to lead — and to do so in a way that's in line with his incendiary campaign rhetoric. Gaetz, who resigned suddenly from the House last night, is a darling of the MAGA movement who's despised by many of his colleagues for his brash antics. Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran and Fox News host, wrote a best-selling book this year, "The War on Warriors," accusing Pentagon leaders of sabotaging military readiness and recruitment by prioritizing social justice and diversity. Gabbard, a former Democrat and Iraq War veteran, has been nominated to take on what Trump sees as his greatest adversary within the U.S. government: the intelligence community. Chart: Axios Visuals 🔮 What to watch: All three nominees, to varying degrees, would face a rocky road to Senate confirmations. Trump's fallback plan is to pressure the Senate to allow him to make recess appointments — essentially bypassing the nomination process — to have the nominees serve in an "acting" capacity for up to two years. Keep reading ... Quick bios of 18 Trump picks for staff and Cabinet.