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

What does the Middle East look like under Trump 2.0?

The president-elect is due to take office in just a few weeks, having frequently attacked Joe Biden — and later Kamala Harris — for supposedly having failed to stop the two bloody conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza from breaking out under their watch. On top of that, he also made two lofty promises while campaigning: that he would end the conflict in Ukraine quickly upon taking office; and that he would bring a “lasting peace” to the Middle East.

The latter promise was made during an interview with a Saudi news channel, Al-Arabiya, in October.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, previously argued that out gay people serving in the military is part of a larger “Marxist” agenda.

Hegseth made the argument that the policy is putting social justice over combat readiness in his book The War on Warriors which was published this year.

He also slammed the previous policy — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — which allowed gay people in the armed services as long as they didn’t reveal their sexual orientation. The nominee also criticized the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

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This is highly optimistic from Laura Ingraham.

Greg Evans has the story.

The president-elect’s eldest son appears to have ditched his fiancee for Florida socialite Bettina Anderson, if the rumors are to be believed, and People magazine now says Guilfoyle’s fashion sense is to blame.

Don Jr has reportedly been “telling people for months that Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels, and never looks relaxed or casual,” according to an insider.

Here’s Kelly Rissman with the latest gossip from Palm Beach.

Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of The Los Angeles Times, killed off an opinion column that was critical of the president-elect’s recent cabinet picks, telling his newspaper’s editorial board that it could only publish the piece if it also ran an editorial with an opposing view, according to The New York Times.

The spiked column was set to be published in the outlet’s Sunday newspaper and website on November 24.

Soon-Shiong intervened just hours before the op-ed was scheduled to be sent to the printer, prompting the editors to pull the piece as the deadline approached.

According to The NYT, the column was headlined: “Donald Trump’s cabinet choices are not normal. The Senate’s confirmation process should be.”

The editorial board decided that after the incoming president had announced a slew of controversial picks, many of which the board members were concerned about, it would have one of its writers pen a piece calling on the Senate to take its job of confirming nominees seriously.

Justin Baragona has more.

The president-elect is reported to be annoyed by delays to the new Air Force One, which means he likely won’t be able to fly on a new jet during his second term.

Boeing has reportedly said told the US Air Force that the new planes won’t be ready until after Trump leaves the White House, The Wall Street Journal reports.

It was previously reported that the two new planes were due to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.

But the jets won’t be ready until 2029 or possibly even later, according to the Journal.

Rhian Lubin reports.

The former speaker of the House of Representatives suffered an injury on a trip to Luxembourg and has been admitted to a hospital for evaluation, her office said in a statement on Friday.

Pelosi, 84, is the first woman to serve as speaker of the House and had also been a longtime leader of the House Democratic Caucus.

The veteran San Francisco congresswoman stepped down from her role as speaker in 2023 but has continued to serve in the House.

She was re-elected in November to another two-year term beginning on January 3.

Pelosi played a key role in passing President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022 and famously feuded with Republican Donald Trump during his first four years in office, culminating with the moment when she tore up his State of the Union speech on national television in 2020.

More than half of Americans are not confident in Trump’s abilities to appoint well-qualified people to his cabinet or manage government spending effectively, despite recently electing him to lead the United States, according to a new poll.

Just 44 percent of US adults reported feeling “very” or even “moderately” confident that Trump will appoint well-qualified individuals for cabinet or high-level government positions.

The new results from the Associated Press and NORC arrive as the president-elect has selected a group of controversial individuals to serve in his cabinet and other high-level positions including former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, ex-congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and erstwhile presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, among others.

Those three nominations are particularly expected to face an uphill battle during Senate confirmations.

And the American electorate aren’t fans either.

Hegseth, Gabbard and Kennedy all face low approval ratings from those surveyed.

Ariana Baio has more on the survey’s findings.

What a charming Christmas setting for this brutal threat against an elected official.

Hillary Clinton says the president-elect’s interest in abolishing financial regulators will bring back bank runs of the sort seen in Frank Capra’s film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) while Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says RFK Jr’s confirmation as health secretary would mean saying “hello to polio”.

Trump himself is certainly nostalgic for an older America, relishing comparisons between himself and Al Capone and threatening a new Wall Street Crash whenever things aren’t going his way.

Maybe we’ll at least get a Charleston revival out of all of this.