Trump delivers Mar-a-Lago speech with Elon Musk and new HHS RFK Jr in attendance: Live updates

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the non-governmental advisory body Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with using to identify trillions in federal spending cuts, is now officially recruiting.

“We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE,” the group wrote on X on Thursday. “We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”

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Alex Jones watched in real-time as his Infowars website and streaming video platform was taken offline hours after satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for the bankrupt conspiracy theorist’s operations.

Jones, broadcasting from his studio in Texas on November 14, was joined by formerly incarcerated Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon as Infowars.com was shut down.

“Force them to cut the power ... Let’s get the camera on them,” Bannon said. “Put the freaking camera on them. … Let’s see the polish on those jackboots. … They’re nothing but Gestapo. It’s the administrative state and the deep state Gestapo.”

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Donald Trump’s first White Housepress secretary has warned America to “buckle up” because the president-elect will take “Washington by storm.”

Sean Spicer, who resigned in 2017 after he disagreed with the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci to the role of White House communications director, reflected on Trump’s pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.

“I said this morning, if you are shocked or surprised by the appointment of Pete Hegseth last night as Secretary of Defense, buckle up baby, because it’s going, we got a lot more coming your way,” Spicer told NewsNation’s The Hill on Wednesday.

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Donald Trump has announced that Elon Musk will head up the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency in his second administration alongside venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy.

Under Musk, the new office – which will operate “outside of government” – will advise on gutting federal departments and which staff should be fired if it deems they are a “massive waste.”

Trump vowed that Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

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Sylvester Stallone has described Donald Trump as the “second George Washington” in a warm up speech for the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago.

The Hollywood heavyweight attended a black tie gala on Thursday to celebrate Trump’s election victory that was attended by many of his cabinet picks, including RFK Jr and Matt Gaetz.

“We’re in the presence of a really mythical character,” Stallone said, before adding that “nobody could have pulled off what Trump did”.

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Donald Trump reflected on the presidential election on Thursday night during his first public appearance since securing the White House last week.

“Nobody knew we were going to win it the way we won it,” Trump told attendees at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Also, Speaker Mike Johnson, wherever you may be, Mike, in this very big and crowded room, thank you, Mike,” Trump added. “I went yesterday, just in case, I said, ‘Look, I want to tell you, I'm behind this man 100%’ and he got 100% of the vote from Republicans.”

Johnson won the GOP nomination to remain speaker on Wednesday after Republicans officially secured their majority in the House.

Donald Trump made a light jab at billionaire Elon Musk during a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night.

Musk, who Trump recently appointed to co-chair the new Department of Government Efficiency, has reportedly been a constant presence at his Mar-a-Lago estate over the last week.

“Elon, what a job, what a job he does,” Trump said. “He's great, he happens to be a really good guy. You know, he likes this place. I can't get him out of here. He just likes this place.”

President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of the Interior.

The announcement came during Trump’s first post-victory speech at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

Actor Sylvester Stallone introduced Donald Trump for his first post-victory speech on Thursday night.

Trump thanked the Rambo actor as he took the stage: “He did a beautiful job.”

The president-elect also thanked actor John Voight, who was in attendance.

During months of ferocious campaigning, Donald Trump’s friends and enemies agreed on one thing. That his second term, if it happened, would be more professional than the bruising chaos of his first.

But the nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general has left even some Trumpian loyalists open-mouthed. One senior Republican said she was shocked; “reckless” was another word used, with yet another suggesting that the nomination could not be serious.

So why is this such a controversial appointment, and what constraints might there be on the power of a president who has won not only the White House, but control – it is now confirmed – of both Houses of Congress? Where are those famed US constitutional checks and balances when you have a president like Trump?

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