Trump ‘to return to Madison Square Garden tonight’ as he picks oil CEO Chris Wright for energy secretary: Live

Trump’s transition team is standing by Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.

Hegseth shared a post from the Trump War Room on X, one of the 2024 campaign’s social media accounts, with a supportive quote from Steven Cheung, who has been named as Trump’s communications director.

Brendan Buck, a longtime GOP adviser, said if Matt Gaetz has a Senate confirmation hearing, it will be one “of the most insane.”

He told MSNBC’s Alex Witt that he “wouldn’t want to be in [Gaetz’s] position” right now.

“He’s obviously not coming in with a strong hand. I’m not ready to say that Republicans are going to reject him,” Buck said. “I think you have to appreciate how many Republicans see what Donald Trump just did and would be very concerned about crossing him.

“We’ve seen reports of as many as 30 Republican senators willing to vote against him but that’s all said anonymously.

“I do think if he gets to this point this will be some of the most insane confirmation hearings we’ve ever seen,” Buck added.

“The things that the House Ethics Committee has been looking into, whether or not the report comes out, are going to be front and center. Don’t think that Democrats on the committee will just let that go if it does not come out.”

New York Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that the nomination of former Hawaii Rep Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence is the most worrisome nomination so far among president-elect Donald Trump’s administration picks.

“I actually think, almost more than Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment is devastating,” Ocasio-Cortez said on MSNBC on Thursday of Gabbard and the former Florida Rep nominated to be attorney general.

“Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination, as much as she says that she’s an anti-war person, she’s not. She supports very pro-war individuals abroad,” she added.

Read more below.

The lawyers who defended Donald Trump in his criminal cases and demanded the Supreme Court shield him from prosecution have been awarded job offers for some of the biggest roles in federal law enforcement.

Todd Blanche, who has steered the defense of the former president in courtrooms in New York, Florida, and Washington DC, is nominated for the second highest role in the Department of Justice.

If confirmed, he could serve as deputy attorney general to far-right Trump ally Matt Gaetz, who Trump has nominated for attorney general, the nation’s top law enforcement official, in a role that is likely to be used to target the judges and prosecutors overseeing the mountain of litigation against the former president.

Emil Bove, Trump’s criminal defense attorney in his so-called hush money case, is nominated for principal deputy attorney general. He could be acting deputy attorney general while Blanche is awaiting confirmation in the Senate.

Alex Woodward writes how the three attorneys central to Trump’s criminal defense and ‘immunity’ victory could lead the daily operations of a Justice Department the president-elect wants to upend.

A former federal prosecutor has said that Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, would fail a background check for an entry-level role at the DOJ.

Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, said that Gaetz’s hire could prompt a “major exodus” at the agency.

“There’s never been someone as unqualified, no prosecutorial experience, no legal experience to speak of, but that’s the least of it. Someone who comes to the department with actual contempt and hostility for it, it’s gonna prompt a major exodus,” Litman told MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes on Friday.

“It’s gonna prompt judges and juries around the country to have less credibility in the DOJ, which is the really stock and trade of the DOJ,” he added.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is advising his fellow Democrats to “chill” about Donald Trump.

Fetterman pointed out during an NBC News interview on Friday that Trump “hasn’t even been inaugurated yet.”

He warned Democrats that they needed to “pace themselves” since it’s still very early days for the Trump presidency round two.

“And that’s the thing. If you’re already exhausted, freaking out, and it’s not even Thanksgiving, then you really ought to pace yourselves. Because he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet,” he said.

“So you really have to chill out, and you’re going to have to be more discerning or discriminate on what’s going to freak you out, or what’s just trolling, Because it’s not the weather, it’s the climate now for the next four years.”

Graig Graziosi has the details.

The second in command to the nation’s military could end up being a Fox News pundit who wants to launch a “frontal assault” against top brass, kick women out of combat, and implement Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda for the world’s third-largest standing fighting force.

The president-elect has nominated Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense, overseeing a budget of roughly $850 billion and roughly 3 million service members and personnel serving in the nation’s oldest-running agency while the US is embroiled in global conflicts in a period of escalating tensions.

The office was created in the aftermath of the Second World War to centralize governance of the newly renamed Department of War and the various branches of the military.

Veterans groups and service members are warning against Trump’s ‘dangerous’ appointment to the Pentagon, as the president-elect rewards loyalists dedicated to his agenda, Alex Woodward reports.

There may be fewer Trumps in the White House this time around but ethical questions and party influence will continue to swirl around the famous family, writes Josh Marcus.

This time around, things will look a bit different at 1600 Pennsylvania. Barron’s at college in New York.

Jared and Ivanka are in Miami after the latter formally announced her withdrawal from politics in 2022. Melania’s reportedly going to bounce between Palm Beach and Manhattan, rather than live full-time at the White House.

Don Jr. got a new job as a venture capitalist instead of joining the White House, and Eric is taking a back seat to his wife, Lara.

Read on for more...

Here’s how Trump’s cabinet, along with other senior White House positions, is looking so far. Most of them are subject to Senate approval.

White House Chief of Staff - Susie Wiles

White House Communications Director - Steven Cheung

White House Press Secretary - Karoline Leavitt

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy - Stephen Miller

Secretary of State - Marco Rubio

Attorney General - Matt Gaetz

Defense Secretary - Pete Hegseth

Health and Human Services Secretary - Robert F Kennedy Jr

Homeland Security Secretary: Kristi Noem

Directional of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard

EPA Administrator: Lee Zeldin

Veterans Affairs Secretary: Doug Collins

Interior Secretary: Doug Burgum

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Elise Stefanik

CIA Director: John Ratcliffe

National Security Adviser: Mike Waltz

Border Czar: Tom Homan

Donald Trump has nominated vaccine skeptic and conspiracy-spreader Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead America’s largest public health body, the Department of Health and Human Services.

It is unclear whether Kennedy could get confirmed, even with a Republican Senate majority. Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, made the rare move of denouncing Kennedy as insufficiently opposed to abortion.

Needless to say, almost all, if not all, Democrats will oppose Kennedy’s confirmation. Plenty of Republicans might have some objections as well.

Eric Garcia breaks down just how much power Kennedy would have should he lead the agency.