ABC agrees to settle Trump ‘rape’ defamation case for $15m as president-elect attends Army-Navy game: Live

Donald Trump continued his long-running public animosity towards former New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential rival Chris Christie, posting a mocked up photo on Saturday showing Christie eating McDonalds being delivered by drones.

The crude post appeared to be a reference to the spate of drone sightings above New Jersey in recent weeks.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is calling on Washington to do more about the mysterious drones spotted in recent weeks above the Northeast.

The governor said in a statement on Saturday on X that drone activity prompted officials to shut down Stewart Airfield in New Windsor for about an hour last night.

“This has gone too far,” Hochul said in the statement, calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, a bill that would reform drone policy and hand more authority over to states.

More details in our full story.

Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t seem too concerned more than a dozen Democrats are reportedly planning to skip Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration in January.

“Apparently a large group of Democrat legislators plan to boycott my father’s inauguration, which is great as it will make room for a lot more actual patriots to attend,” the president-elect’s son wrote on X on Saturday. “They have my complete and total endorsement to stay at home.”

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has undergone a hip replacement procedure after being hospitalized in Luxembourg on Friday following a fall.

Pelosi, 84, was traveling with the congressional delegation for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge – the last major German offensive during the Second World War – when she fell.

Her spokesperson, Ian Krager, said in a statement:“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend.

“Speaker Pelosi is grateful to U.S. military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Army Base and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their excellent care and kindness.

Ariana Baio has the details.

Donald Trump is seeking to potentially privatize the U.S. Postal Service once he takes office, according to The Washington Post, with the president-elect reportedly dismayed over the carrier’s financial losses.

“The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better with increased volumes and reduced costs,” said Casey Mulligan, a former top economist in the first Trump administration, told the paper. “We didn’t finish the job in the first term, but we should finish it now.”

During his previous term, the president publicly feuded with the postal carrier over rates and labor questions and repeatedly raised questions over the sanctity of mail-in ballots.

The U.S. has been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that overthrew the regime of dictator Bashar Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Saturday.

The group, former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has been designated a foreign terror group by the U.S. since 2018.

“Yes, we have been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken said in Jordan on Saturday, adding, “our message to the Syrian people is this: We want them to succeed and we’re prepared to help them do so.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is calling on Washington to do more about the mysterious drones and aircraft spotted in recent weeks above the Northeast.

The governor said in a statement on Saturday on X drone activity prompted officials to shut down Stewart Airfield in New Windsor for about an hour.

“This has gone too far,” Hochul said in the statement, calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, a bill that would reform drone policy and hand more authority over to states.

“Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden Administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our criitcal infrastructure and our people,” Hochul added.

Employers are worried Donald Trump’s immigration agenda could cut the workforce by millions of people if he follows through on slashing programs offering temporary work approval to immigrants in the country illegally or whose visas have expired.

The programs cover as many as 3.3 million people, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

“Though the numbers are small, these individuals play a key role in the success of a company like ours,” Nate Koetje, chief executive of an electrical contractor based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

Elon Musk and Trump have been nearly inseparable since the election, and that looks set to continue at today’s Army-Navy football game.

Musk said on X he would be joining the president-elect in Maryland to take in the matchup.

Here’s more on the Trump-Musk friendship:

In Washington, a well-placed donation goes a long way.

The incoming Trump administration is set to be staffed with nearly three dozen individuals who donated to the Trump campaign or groups working to re-elect the Republican, according to a new CNN analysis.

Those donors include more well-known ones like Elon Musk, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Trump effort, to others like Congress members Elise Stefanik and Mike Waltz, who transferred money from their campaigns to support Trump.