Trump set for court Friday morning after failing to delay hush money sentencing: Live

Former Illinois Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday evening and declared that he would be willing to go to prison on principle if Donald Trump chooses to persecute him once he returns to the White House.

Joe Sommerlad has the story.

Donald Trump has said pardoning his supporters who took part in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol four years ago will be one of the top priorities as he starts his new administration.

But how quickly will the pardons begin, and how far will Trump go?

Josh Marcus takes a look.

Donald Trump and Melania arrived in Washington, D.C. for Jimmy Carter’s funeral — but the president-elect first also met with Republican lawmakers to discuss how to make Canada part of America, according to a report.

Since winning the 2024 election, Trump has repeatedly spoken about expanding the US, including plays at Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. Wednesday evening proved no different, when Trump reportedly met with Republican members of Congress behind-closed-doors to discuss plans to incorporate Canada into America, the Daily Mail reported.

Kelly Rissman reports.

Immigration attorneys and civil rights groups warn that the first immigration bill of the new Congress is opening the door to Donald Trump’s planned “mass deportation operation” — his pledge to invoke a national emergency, deploy military assets and send state and local law enforcement into immigrant communities across the country within his first days in office.

The Senate voted 84-9 on Thursday to begin debate on the Laken Riley Act, with only nine Democratic senators voting against it and five not voting at all. The House passed the bill by a vote of 264-159 on Tuesday, with 48 Democrats voting for it.

Alex Woodward and Eric Garcia report.

A key immigration enforcement measure could be on track for passage thanks to Democrats crossing party lines to support it.

The failure of the Democratic Party’s leadership and standard-bearers to present a winning message on immigration reform in 2024 is coming back to bite outgoing President Joe Biden.

With days left of his presidency and the fight to define his legacy begun, his allies in Congress are seemingly prepared to compromise with the GOP on a bill that would direct immigration authorities to detain any undocumented person charged with theft.

John Bowden, Eric Garcia, and Andrew Feinberg report from Washington, D.C.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who is set to co-lead the new advisory Department of Government Efficiency, has admitted the agency likely won’t make the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts he originally promised.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed his goal of cutting $2 trillion from the $6.8 trillion federal budget was just the “best-case outcome” during a live interview Wednesday with Stagwell CEO Mark Penn.

Katie Hawkinson reports.

Donald Trump says Venezuela freedom fighters democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez must not be harmed as they demonstrate ahead of the swearing in of President Nicolas Maduro who has claimed the nation’s highest office.

Gonzalez believes he won the election last year.

The US President-elect wrote on Truth Social this afternoon:

Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime. The great Venezuelan American community in the United States overwhelmingly support a free Venezuela, and strongly supported me. These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE!

A federal judge has thrown out rule changes designed to protect LGBT+ students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The rules proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the scope of Title IX rules that block sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.

Alex Woodward has the details.

The mother of Ashli Babbit, the Capitol rioter killed during the attack on Congress in 2021 said she received a call from President-elect Donald Trump this week and he had a message for the January 6 defendants.

Per NBC News:

Micki Witthoeft, Ashli Babbit’s mother, said at a nightly vigil outside of the D.C. jail in support of Jan. 6 defendants on Wednesday that Trump had called her when she was in the back of an Uber with two other supporters of Jan. 6 defendants, coming back from laying down flowers in honor of her daughter.

“Tell them I love them, to keep their chins up,” Trump said when asked if he had a message for Jan. 6 defendants, according to Witthoeft.

"I know that he is still thinking about these guys, and I have a feeling it is going to be a happy day for us," when Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, Witthoeft said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum excoriated President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday after he suggested that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.

“Obviously, the Gulf of Mexico is a name recognized by the United Nations,” Sheinbaum, speaking in Spanish, said during her daily press conference, according to Politico.

She then pointed to a historic map of North America, on which parts of what is now the U.S. the map said, “America Mexicana.”

“Why don’t we call it Mexican America?” she said with a heavy tinge of sarcasm. “It sounds nice, no?”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.