Trump won’t disclose ‘secret’ transition money as Don Jr’s influence looms over cabinet picks: Live updates

President-elect Donald Trump announced a flurry of nominations on Friday night, revealing his choices to lead the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FDA, the CDC, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the Department of Labor.

Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC.

When Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton appeared on CNN Friday night, he didn’t hold back when commenting on Trump’s pick for his counterterrorism director.

“Sebastian Gorka is a con man,” Bolton told host Kaitlan Collins.

“He needs a full-field FBI background investigation about his educational claims and things like that,” he added. “I think he is a perfect example of somebody who owes his position purely to Donald Trump, he doesn’t display loyalty, he displays fealty, and that’s what Trump wants.”

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Seth Meyers roasted Matt Gaetz for his failed eight-day run to become Donald Trump’s attorney general, marking one of the quickest withdrawals from a cabinet nomination in US history.

On Thursday’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, the comedian skewered the former Florida congressman after he dropped out of the confirmation process to head up the Justice Department following resurfaced sexual misconduct claims.

One allegation, which Gaetz denies, is that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl on more than one occasion.

“Matt Gaetz is out? But his nomination was only eight days old,’ Meyers said.

“Once again, he can’t even make it to 18,” he quipped.

Rhian Lubin has the story.

The incoming Trump administration didn’t waste any time on Thursday after Matt Gaetz said that he was dropping his bid to become attorney general. Soon afterwards it announced that Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, would seek the top position at the Justice Department instead.

Bondi, 59, who served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019 and represented the president-elect at his first impeachment trial in the Senate, is both an experienced public official and a long-time Trump ally.

Gaetz reacted to the choice on X by calling her “a stellar selection” as well as “a proven litigator, an inspiring leader and a champion for all Americans”.

South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham was even more effusive, posting: “Well done, Mr President. Picking Pam Bondi for Attorney General is a grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick. She will be confirmed quickly because she deserves to be confirmed quickly.”

Here’s what you need to know about her.

Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first Trump administration is sounding the alarm about alarming trends in infectious diseases.

He says he hopes the incoming administration has a strong response plan and can ensure vaccine confidence stays high “or they’ll be distracted with outbreaks for 4 years this time instead of 1.”

Attorneys for election workers that Rudy Giuliani defamed wrote a scathing letter accusing the former New York City mayor of launching a crusade meant to “to obstruct and intimidate” them as they try to recover his assets.

In a Friday letter to a federal judge, Michael Gottlieb, a lawyer representing election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, accused Giuliani of orchestrating a “public relations campaign” meant to stop the women from collecting the belongings they are owed.

Kelly Rissman reports.

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is leading the newly formed Senate DOGE Caucus in support of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency, today met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

They were joined at lunch by Musk and Howard Lutnick, who is nominated to be secretary of commerce.

The chief executive of Delta Air Lines says the incoming Trump administration will be a “breath of fresh air” for airlines after what he called government “overreach” under President Joe Biden.

The airline industry has chafed under consumer-protection regulations imposed by the Biden administration. And Delta is facing a federal investigation into its slow recovery from a global technology outage this summer.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian made the comment as he and fellow Delta executives prepared to host Wall Street analysts at an investor day Wednesday in Atlanta.

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• Agriculture - Brooke Rollins
• Commerce - Howard Lutnick
• Defense - Pete Hegseth
• Education - Linda McMahon
• Energy - Chris Wright
• HHS - RFK Jr.
• Homeland Security - Kristi Noem
• HUD - Scott Turner
• Interior - Doug Burgum
• Labor - Lori Chavez-DeReme
• State - Marco Rubio
• Transportation - Sean Duffy
• Treasury - Scott Bessent
• Veterans Affairs - Doug Collins
• Attorney General - Pam Bondi

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of defense, has called for an “educational insurgency” to take over American schools in an appearance on a right-wing podcast.

During a CrossPolitic discussion about religiously affiliated schools, Hegseth explained his idea for a system of “classical Christian schools” to provide “recruits” for an underground army that could eventually launch an “educational insurgency”.

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