Trump fills his top posts with loyalists and government skeptics as he readies move to White House: Live

The Trump-Vance transition team says that last night and this morning several of the president-elect’s nominees and appointees were the victims of bomb threats and swatting incidents.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance Transition spokesperson, released the following statement:

The criminally convicted president-elect believes his election and the end of his federal cases exonerated him. Will his administration be able to stop the retribution he promised?

Alex Woodward reports.

Some members of Donald Trump’s transition team are reportedly frustrated that Kash Patel and Cliff Sims, both MAGA insiders, appear to be using their positions to promote themselves for deputy director of the CIA.

Patel and Sims are both going head-to-head for the No. 2 position at the CIA, Politico reports. The CIA’s deputy director wields immense influence over the intelligence community but does not have to be confirmed by the Senate, unlike cabinet members.

Katie Hawkinson and Rhian Lubin have the details.

Despite claiming to have no idea about it, many of the authors of Project 2025 have been tapped by Donald Trump to be in his new administration. The same is true of the America First Policy Institute.

Both organizations created blueprints for a second Trump term.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on the Project 2025 authors who will be joining Trump in the executive branch:

And here’s Ariana Baio reporting on the role of the AFPI:

With four years to go to the next election, pollsters have already begun taking the temperature of voters to understand who they may prefer when the next presidential race comes around.

Gustaf Kilander looks at who is leading the pack so far...

And make sure you join us over in our new US Election 2028 live blog! [just kidding]

Donald Trump is asking New York Attorney General Letitia James to toss the civil fraud case against him, the Trump Organization, and senior executives including his elder sons, “in the spirit of unity” because it is “necessary for the health of our Republic.”

The attorney who wrote the letter is D John Sauer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general.

There is nothing new in the arguments made in the letter. It is mostly just a rehash of previous statements and claims that were shut down by the courts.

Trump is still on the hook for more than $350 million, a judgment that he has appealed.

Read the full letter to the NY AG here.

Kamala Harris reemerged following her election defeat by Donald Trump to deliver a message of hope to her supporters.

Harris, who has been lying low since she lost the race for the White House earlier this month, shared a defiant address on Tuesday night where she told her supporters: “Don’t let anyone take your power.”

Rhian Lubin reports.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on China which are set to make a wide variety of goods more expensive come the new year. That may include your next iPhone.

Trump said during the campaign that he would impose a 60 percent tariff on all Chinese products, with 10 to 25 percent tariffs being applied to other major trading partners.

If Trump goes ahead with his 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods, iPhone prices are likely to increase significantly. Economists have estimated that an iPhone 16 for $1,000 may cost $300 more under Trump’s policies.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story.

Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar said that Donald Trump’s latest tariff plans “will definitely get Mexico to the table”.

The president-elect announced on Tuesday that he plans to enact a 25 percent tariff on “all products” imported to the US from Mexico and Canad and an additional 10 percent tariff – with growing fears the president-elect has set the stage for a bitter global trade war ahead of his inauguration on January 20, 2025.

Cueller, a representative for Texas’s 28th Congressional district which borders Mexico, argues that Trump’s new levies may help solve immigration and fentanyl problems.

“Well, let me put it this way: Laredo’s the largest port; we handle 40 percent of all the trade between the U.S. and Mexico. I know this is a way to negotiate, get some leverage. I know that Mexico will come to the table,” the Texas lawmaker told NewsNation on Tuesday.

He continued: “But nobody wants a 25 percent tariff on them, and the Mexicans are threatening to do the same thing, and we don’t want to get into that. But I think this will definitely get Mexico to the table so we can solve the problem about immigration and fentanyl.”

Kamala Harris’s campaign aides have revealed that the hit YouTube show Hot Ones turned down their offer off an interview with the vice president during her presidential election campaign.

Speaking about what went wrong for Harris for the first time since her loss to Donald Trump, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter told the Pod Save America podcast that the Democrat had struggled to catch a break on some non-political podcasts.

“It’s my understanding that you guys wanted to do a bunch of the larger, more popular, not specifically political, podcasts. Can you talk a little about why that may not have happened?” host Dan Pfeiffer asked.

Rhian Lubin has the full story.