President Trump

A Fox News ally for defense secretary. A former Democrat-turned-Trump-World-celebrity to oversee 18 spy agencies. A right-wing provocateur for the nation’s top law enforcement job.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s appointments for top government jobs continued to roll in fast and furiously on Wednesday, and his promise to build a presidential administration fueled by retribution quickly came into view.

Those plans were perhaps best summarized by Representative Matt Gaetz, who wrote of his enthusiasm for the wholesale elimination of federal law enforcement agencies just hours before Mr. Trump announced he’d chosen the Florida Republican to lead the Justice Department:

Republicans have secured a majority in the US House of Representatives, extending their hold on the lower chamber and delivering a governing trifecta in Washington that could give Donald Trump sweeping power to enact his legislative agenda.

The Associated Press determined on Wednesday evening that Republicans had won at least 218 seats in the 435-member House after a victory in Arizona, a call that came more than a week after polls closed across the US and as Trump made cabinet announcements that sent shockwaves through Washington.

The call ensures Republicans will continue to have a large say in key matters such as government funding, debt ceiling negotiations and foreign aid, and it spells an end to Democrats’ hopes that the lower chamber could serve as a blockade against Trump’s agenda.

I can’t wait for the inauguration. The Guardian will implode.

All the consternation over what Donald Trump might do to our fair land after his jolting re-election triumph is not misplaced. But it isn’t the response strategy of Justin Trudeau and his Liberals that should be drawing all the attention.

There’s less than a year to go until our next election. There’s about an 80- to 90-per-cent chance Mr. Trudeau will be gone by then.

WE KNEW the mainstream media in this country hate Donald Trump and have vilified him ever since he began campaigning for office nine years or so ago. But their reaction to his victory last week shows not only that they are unhinged, but childishly naïve as well.

Take one example. The day after the result, Harriet Harman appeared on ITV’s This Morning. Quite why her views on the electors’ choice in the US should have any relevance to anybody is a mystery. Nor could her political opinions be regarded as balanced or representative, but the presenters nevertheless accepted everything she said without challenge. Harman’s disgust for Trump was evident, and she concluded that he would take away women’s reproductive rights, with her hosts nodding in agreement like a pair of donkeys.

Following Donald Trump’s impressive victory over Kamala Harris, Americans are preparing for the 45th president to become the 47th. World leaders will be doing the same, not least Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. His instinct will be to use the return of Trump as a springboard to save his flailing career. This time, however, it’s not going to work.

More … Conservatives poised to push Trudeau Liberals out of 2nd place in Quebec: poll

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been selected by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where they will “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” according to an official release from the Trump-Vance transition team, which called this “potentially, the “Manhattan Project” of our time.”

h/t DS

Donald Trump’s left-field Secretary of Defense pick Pete Hegseth is covered in tattoos – and many of them have already proved controversial for the Fox News host.

The veteran who served tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq and is double Bronze Star holder and is a TV top presenter having fronted Fox and Friends since 2017.

Hegseth, who is 44, started adorning his body with tattoos only recently after his father dissuaded him from getting tattoos at a young age.

Billionaire Elon Musk has been tasked with leading incoming President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

In a statement on social media, the US president-elect said Musk – along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy – would “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

It is a role that the tech entrepreneur has arguably prepared for through his business leadership, and one he has spent months arguing for.

Out of all of Donald Trump’s supporters, Derrick Evans has a particular reason to be happy with November’s election results – he hopes the president-elect will give him a pardon for participating in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.

“A pardon will be life changing,” said Evans, who was a member of the West Virginia legislature when he and at least 2,000 others stormed the Capitol in 2021. It was part of an effort to overturn the results of the US election, inspired by the false belief that it was Trump, not President Joe Biden, who had won.

@fancypants_s https://t.co/X4g5vBZRf9

— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) November 12, 2024