Trump set to be named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ with 40 days to inauguration: Live

The fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad immediately triggered conversation about Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congressman and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence — and not just among everyday citizens. Adam Kinzinger, the former Republican congressman, joked on X/Twitter as news broke that Gabbard could offer the deposed Syrian president “safe harbor” in her home.

Gabbard met with the Syrian dictator in 2017, and she did so in her capacity as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In one particularly shocking moment, The Independent reported last month that when she met with young girls from Syria who had survived airstrikes from Assad’s military, she allegedly asked them how they knew it was Assad who bombed them. It was a question so insulting that the translator present said he refused to translate it.

Read more:

Leandro Rizzuto, billionaire co-founder and chairman of Conair, as Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS).

Dr. Peter Lamelas, a physician who practices in Palm Beach, Florida, as United States Ambassador to Argentina

Daniel J. Newlin, a personal injury attorney who funded much of Trump’s campaign advertising, as Ambassador to Colombia

Michael J. Rigas, who served as Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management and Acting Deputy Director of Management, is to be Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.

Kari Lake, a former news anchor who espoused election fraud theories in 2020, as Director of the Voice of America

Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate who disputed election results, was chosen to direct the Voice of America by Trump on Wednesday evening.

“She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon, to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media,” Trump wrote. “Kari was a beloved News Anchor in Arizona, which supported me by record margins, for over 20 years,” he added.

Voice of America is a government-funded news agency that primarily serves non-American audiences outside of the U.S.

Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” wants officials in America’s third-largest city to “get the hell out of the way” of his plans for mass deportations or risk prosecution.

In remarks to a group of Chicago Republicans on Monday night, Tom Homan said the city and the state of Illinois are “in trouble” because “your mayor sucks and your governor sucks.”

Read more:

Former FBI Director James Comey has tried to reassure his former colleagues at the Bureau ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

In a statement posted to Instagram a day before FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he’d be stepping down, Comey wrote: “I realize there is a great deal of anxiety in the Bureau now — produced by the rhetoric of those who have reason to fear honest investigators.”

“But please know you will be ok in the long run.”

“The special burden of being in the FBI is that you lack friends in high places — by design,” Comey’s statement continued. “America has wanted you to be lonely since the searing lessons of Watergate. Once upon a time, the FBI director was a pal of presidents, sharing late-night drinks and using the Bureau to do favors for the powerful.

“But the country learned 50 years ago that it is not in the national interest for the FBI to be loyal to anything except the constitution and the law.”

The former FBI director’s tenure at the department abruptly ended in 2017 when then-President Trump fired him.

While late-night comics joke about the actual motive behind President-elect Donald Trump selecting his son’s (ex-?) fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle as the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Greek citizens may not find her previous remarks about them very funny.

In a 2015 segment of Fox News’ The Five unearthed by Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz, Guilfoyle once described the Greeks as “freeloaders” who should be punished after rejecting a bailout offer from the European Union.

Read more:

As soon as its first day in office, the incoming Trump administration is reportedly planning on rescinding a 2011 immigration policy limiting deportation arrests in sensitive locations like schools, churches, and hospitals.

Instead, the administration plans to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents make arrests in these locations if they’re related to national security concerns, the arrest of a dangerous felon, or risks of imminent danger or the compromising of a criminal investigation, according to NBC News, which first reported on the alleged plan, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the new administration.

Read more here

Elon Musk now boasts a net worth of $400 billion, making him the first person in history to ever hit that milestone.

The world’s richest person became even richer Wednesday after SpaceX and its investors agreed to buy $1.25 billion of insider shares, valuing the company at $350 billion, Bloomberg reported. The move ballooned the founder’s net worth by $50 billion, meaning he is now worth $439 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Read more:

President-elect Trump reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration on January 20th, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Wednesday.

While ambassadors and diplomats are typically invited to the inauguration, foreign leaders and usually not.

It is unclear if Xi accepted the invitation.

The Independent has asked Trump’s team for comment

A spokesperson for the Trump team, Karoline Leavitt, told CBS: “World leaders are lining up to meet with President Trump because they know he will soon return to power and restore peace through American strength around the globe.”