Trump’s transition latest updates: Matt Gaetz resigns from Congress after being picked as Attorney General

The Guardian newspaper has announced it will stop posting on X, formerly Twitter, describing the social media platform as “toxic”.

The news outlet wrote on its website on Wednesday that it had considered the decision for a while due to the “often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform”, but the US election earlier in November “underlined” its decision.

“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” The Guardian wrote.

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It’s a word that’s been gleefully co-opted by both sides of the political spectrum for their most basic rallying cries (F*** Joe Biden. F*** Trump), and it’s having a veritable heyday this week in the wake of US presidential election results – as Republicans and Democrats exclaim the expletive with polar-opposite emotion: F*** yes versus F*** no.

In Germany, one weekly newspaper even went so far as to run a Wednesday piece with a one-word headline featuring only the four-letter profanity. “F***,” Die Zeit wrote bluntly.

Luckily, as the world deems the swear word uniquely applicable in various capacities after an emotionally exhausting and far-reaching shift in US politics, there’s a brand-new edition of a book dedicated to the definition, uses and etymology of the f-word.

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Donald Trump mused on Wednesday about the prospect of serving a constitutionally barred third term as president, though his Republican colleagues insist he was just joking.

“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you do something,” Trump reportedly told his GOP colleagues in the House, as they met ahead of congressional leadership elections. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we have to just figure it out.’”

Those in the room later said the president-elect was only kidding. The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution specifies that presidents can only serve up to two full terms.

“That was a joke. It was clearly a joke,” Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told The Hill. “I leaned over to somebody beside me, [Arizona Rep.] Andy Biggs, and I said, that’ll be the headlines tomorrow, ‘Trump trying to thwart the Constitution,’ which — there’s nothing further from the truth.”

Not everyone seemed to feel that way.

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Donald Trump has tapped GOP Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida for Attorney General, prompting concern and disdain among lawmakers and social media users on both sides of the aisle.

Trump’s nomination of Gaetz comes after the lawmaker and his associates were at the center of a sex trafficking investigation carried out by current Attorney General Merrick Garland. Gaetz was ultimately never charged with a crime but remains the subject of a House ethics committee investigation regarding, among other claims, allegations he had sex with a minor. Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.

“He is a Champion for the Constitution and the Rule of Law,” Trump wrote in his announcement. “Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

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Legendary actor Dick Van Dyke has reacted in disdain to Donald Trump’s second-term presidential win after previously endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Mary Poppins star, who turns 99 next month, was recently out and about with his 52-year-old wife, Arlene Silver, when he was approached by a reporter and asked if he thought the future looked bright for America.

“I hope you’re right,” Dyke can be heard telling the reporter in a clip published by The Daily Mail.

When asked if he thinks Trump is capable of making America great again, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor quipped: “Fortunately, I won’t be around to experience the four years.”

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Representative Matt Gaetz handed his resignation letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, just after Donald Trump named him the nominee for Attorney General.

Johnson told reporters the Florida lawmaker’s resignation is “effective immediately.” Gaetz’s resignation also ends the House ethics committee investigation into allegations against him of sexual misconduct and drug use, among other claims.

Republican members of the House of Representatives emerged from their caucus meeting on Wednesday with their moods bolstered by the successful retention of their majority - but with clear signs that a post-election unity period may be short-lived.

There’s clearly no appetite among the GOP’s party elders for another drawn-out leadership fight similar to the one that consumed the party in the fall of 2023, or the more than a dozen votes required to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker at the beginning of that same year.

But that isn’t likely to stop the party’s rowdy and camera-ready rank and file members, who indicated to reporters on Wednesday that Speaker Mike Johnson had yet to consolidate the kind of support he would need to avert such a conflict in January.

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Wow, much bull market.

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. It’s hitting the afterburners now, after Trump named Tesla‘s Elon Musk as one of the heads of a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” which is not a government agency but does have the acronym DOGE.

All this makes sense and is maybe humorous for anyone who’s chronically online. For others, here’s some explanation about what’s going on:

What is dogecoin?

Just when you thought Elon Musk’s involvement in politics was over after he helped to secure the election of his new BFF, Donald Trump, it was announced that he is going to be a key figure in the running of the US for the foreseeable future.

The Tesla boss has been appointed to head up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessman who briefly competed with Trump for the Republican ticket until the Iowa caucus, in which he finished fourth. He’s also a billionaire – just – albeit a relative pauper when compared to Musk, the world’s richest man.

We’re told that the Doge – coincidentally, also the name of both a meme and a cryptocurrency Musk is fond of promoting – won’t officially be a government agency. Presumably, then, there won’t be any need for things like confirmation hearings before the Senate, at which the opposition has a habit of asking awkward questions. Rather, it will offer “advice and guidance” to the president and work alongside the Office of Management and Budget to drive reforms and create an “entrepreneurial” approach to government.

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