Trump meets with NATO secretary general; hedge fund manager Scott Bessent tapped to lead treasury: Live

The former Florida rep will not return to Congress, he told conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in an interview slated to air on Friday, answering lingering questions about whether a special election would be called to fill his vacant seat.

With Congress off the table, Gaetz said he intends to help the Trump administration recruit for key positions.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch,” he reportedly said.

The incoming administration moved quickly to choose a new nominee for attorney general, tapping longtime Trump ally and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will lead a new congressional panel to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on their plans to slash the federal budget and fire workers across the government.

Greene has been tapped to chair a House subcommittee that will work in tandem with Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory board that the president-elect appointed the billionaire and wealthy entrepreneur to lead.

The “Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency” is “designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the entire DOGE team,” the congresswoman from Georgia said in a statement to CNBC.

The panel, first reported by Fox News Digital, will recommend firing government “bureaucrats” and will provide “transparency and truth to the American people through hearings,” according to Greene.

“No topic will be off the table,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to offer his friend and ally, Kelly Loeffler, the position of secretary of agriculture, according to reports.

Loeffler served as a Senator from Georgia for one year between January 6, 2020 and January 20, 2021.

In yet another example of the Trump transition team being blindsided by claims about Pete Hegseth, members of the team were reportedly startled to see a California police report go public on Wednesday, detailing the 2017 night on which Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a woman.

The heavily redacted report from the Monterey Police Department details two different accounts from a night of drinking at a hotel bar in 2017 that ultimately ended in a sexual encounter between Hegseth and an unnamed woman.

The report arrives nearly a week after Trump tapped Hegseth to head the armed forces and reports emerged revealing Hegseth paid a settlement to the woman who accused him of assault.

Members of the Trump transition team were reportedly unaware of the settlement, which led to concerns about whether Hegseth was still fit to be the defense secretary nominee. They were dealt another surprising blow on Wednesday evening when the Monterey Police Department released the redacted report and revealed Hegseth was given a copy in March 2021.

Donald Trump insiders have ruled out the possibility of former special agent Mike Rogers being named as FBI director.

Earlier reports suggested that Rogers was tipped to take the top job with controversial MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as his deputy.

But Dan Scavino, who was last week named as the president-elect’s deputy chief of staff, revealed that Trump has ruled out Rogers, contrary to earlier reports.

“Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It’s not happening,” he said in a post on X. “In his own words, ‘I have never even given it a thought.’ Not happening.”

The embattled InfoWars host has been busy downplaying the misconduct allegations against Trump’s original pick for US attorney general.

“They interviewed a bunch of the women on Gaetz, you know, that are all like 35, 40 years old now, because this goes back 12, 13, 40, 50 years,” the Texan said on his ailing conspiracy show yesterday.

“The women, they said, ‘Oh, that guy’s so nice,’” he continued.

“‘Oh yeah, I did date him. Yeah, you know, I did have sex with him in a hotel room. We took ecstasy. It was me and two other girls.’

“People are like, damn, Matt Gaetz is quite the stud. So yeah, Matt Gaetz is human. Okay, so now we know.”

Katie Hawkinson has more.

Weeks after helping President-elect Donald Trump deliver his campaign’s closing message while embracing him on a rally stage, right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly insisted that she is “not on anybody’s team” and is merely an “independent” journalist.

Uh huh.

Justin Baragona reports.

The co-chair of the Republican National Committee took to Instagram this week to launch her new activewear line –The LT Brand by Lara Trump Collection.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander on the latest commercial venture from the frustrated country singer turned MAGA enforcer.

Here’s Eric Garcia on the inconvenient truth Gaetz-gate has to teach Trump about the Senate.

Here’s the latest on the thwarted former Florida congressman, who tells Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk in a new interview that he will not be trying to get himself re-elected in 2025 and again denies the “smears” against him, saying he would be in jail if they were true.

“If the things [in] the House Ethics report were true, I would be under indictment and probably in a prison cell, Gaetz tells The Charlie Kirk Show, according to advance clips seen by The Daily Mail.