Trump cabinet live updates: President-elect joins Musk for SpaceX launch and taps Dr Oz for key role

Donald Trump has so far chosen only the most loyal supporters to join his cabinet, signaling that he intends to surround himself with officials who will carry out his agenda without question.

But there is one force that could keep some of his plans at bay — the stock market.

Rhian Lubin explains.

President-elect Donald Trump released the following statement:

I am very pleased to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again. He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.

Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget. Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told lawmakers Tuesday she has encouraged the agency’s inspector general to review whether an employee was acting alone when directing workers helping hurricane victims not to go to homes with yards signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said a critical function of the agency is to go door-to-door and meet with survivors to make them aware of federal resources available. The employee, she said, wrote to about 11 staffers under her supervision that they should “avoid homes advertising Trump.”

Criswell said her senior leadership team provided her with evidence and recommended that the employee be terminated. She concurred.

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President-elect Donald Trump is determined to cut federal spending significantly using whatever method he can and that may include impoundment – a little-known power once given to the president to reject Congressional-appropriated funds.

Falling largely in line with his recent threat to use recess appointments to evade Senate approval for cabinet positions, Trump has a backup plan to circumvent federal spending should Congress continue to allocate money to projects, agencies or departments he does not support.

Ariana Baio has the details.

And if you were wondering what that JD Vance tweet was all about, it was just the vice president-elect calling Grace Chong, the CFO of Steve Bannon’s War Room, a “mouth breathing imbecile” over her criticism of Republican senators who missed judicial votes allowing Biden nominations to pass.

Donald Trump is demanding that Republican senators block all of President Joe Biden’s judicial confirmations ahead of his own inauguration on January 20, 2025.

In the November 2020 to January 2021 period after Trump lost that presidential election, 14 of his judges were confirmed by the Senate.

Not all Republican senators are in town today as Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News notes.

This apparently boiled over during a closed-door Senate GOP lunch today...

Donald Trump has officially confirmed Howard Lutnick as his choice for Secretary of Commerce in his administration. The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald is the co-chair of the Trump transition team and was reportedly also under consideration for treasury secretary.

Here’s what the president-elect wrote on Truth Social today:

I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly privately acknowledged that his controversial choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, may not pass Senate confirmation given the outgoing congressman’s reputation.

In private conversations with confidants, Trump has admitted that his choice will take some convincing of senators and he has begun making phone calls to pressure them, the New York Times reported.

Ariana Baio has the story.

Soccer star Christian Pulisic has been forced to respond to criticism after he celebrated scoring a goal for the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) by doing the so-called “Trump dance.”

The USMNT captain, who also plays midfield for AC Milan, scored in the 14th minute of his side’s Concacaf Nations League quarter-final second leg clash against Jamaica at the CITYPARK arena in St Louis, Missouri, on Monday.

It was the first goal of the game, with Pulisic’s side going on to clinch a 4-2 win.

Joe Sommerlad has the story.