Trump attacks Newsom over emergency response as Trudeau hits back at 51st state comments: Live

President-elect Donald Trump blamed “California pols” for failing to control the outrageous wildfires that have burned more than 40,000 acres – renewing a longstanding feud with Governor Gavin Newsom.

“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

“Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?” He added.

Newsom has already accused the incoming president of using the natural disaster to spread misinformation about California politics. He has invited the incoming president to tour California and assess the damage. Trump has not yet accepted that invitation.

Meanwhile, in another political feud, outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to Trump’s comments about making Canada a 51st state by saying he was not focused on something “that will never happen.”

“My focus has to be not on something he’s talking about that will not ever happen, but more on something that might well happen, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs,” Trudeau said on Sunday.

Key Points

• Trump blames California politics for raging wildfires

• Trudeau brushes off Trump’s ‘51st state’ comments

• Special counsel’s report on Trump January 6 investigation can be released, appeals court rules

• Trump avoids jail in hush money sentence but is set to be first felon president

Trump Treasury nominee says he will divest assets

23:00 , Ariana Baio

Scott Bessent, the investor Trump selected to serve as Treasury secretary, said he will divest his assets to ensure he has no conflicts of interest, CNBC reported.

In a letter to the Treasury Department ethics office, Bessent said he would resign from his position at the Bessent–Freeman Family Foundation and divest his assets from Key Square Capital Management – the investment firm he founded.

Bessent outlined the steps he would take to “avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest in the event that I am confirmed for the position of Secretary of the Department of Treasury,” according to the letter.

Watch: California governor Gavin Newsom hits out at ‘delusional’ Donald Trump

22:30 , Ariana Baio

Dozens of Congress members outperformed the stock market in 2024. Here’s who gained the most - and why

22:00 , Ariana Baio

More than 20 members made almost double the S&P500 average gain of 24.9 percent last year.

The top five performers — Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Roger Williams (R-TX), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) — increased the value of their portfolio value by more than 100 percent, according to a new report

Richard Hall and Eric Garcia report:

These members of Congress saw the biggest rise in their stock portfolios in 2024

Vance lowers expectations about incoming administration changes

21:30 , Ariana Baio

Incoming vice president JD Vance said people should take a step back before expecting the incoming administration to implement sweeping change as soon as Donald Trump is sworn in, lowering expectations for the speed at which they can change things.

“If you step back a little bit, I do think it’s important to reiterate that not just on the border, but on a whole host of issues, President Biden has left us an absolute dumpster fire,” Vance told Fox News on Sunday after he was asked about Trump’s planned executive actions.

“We’re excited to get to work but we need to be open and honest about the fact that President Biden has not left the next administration in a good place,” Vance said before rattling off a list of problems that he expects Trump to tackle.

For months, Trump has promised supporters sweeping change to the economy, immigration, domestic policy and more “on day one” of being in office. However, big changes with tangible impact can take a long time to notice when it comes to the government.

JD Vance slams ‘incompetent’ California government as Gavin Newsom battles wildfire conspiracy theories

21:00 , John Bowden

JD Vance led the Republican assault against California’s state and local governments on Sunday as conservatives eagerly pile on Democratic leaders for insufficient water supplies and emergency efforts as firefighters continue to battle wildfires around Los Angeles.

On Sunday, the incoming vice president told Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream that California’s leaders were incompetent.

“We need to do a better job. We need competent, good governance,” Vance said. “There was a serious lack of competent governance in California, and I think it’s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad.”

Newsom, in his own interview airing this weekend, said the fires would amount to one of the worst natural disasters in the nation’s history. He also stressed that water shortages in the immediate few days after the fire began were localized and did not reflect regional preparation efforts, taking aim at Vance’s boss Donald Trump over the latter’s own comments about California’s wildfire preparedness.

Republican Senator says there will ‘shock and awe’ on day one of Trump presidency

20:30 , Ariana Baio

Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming touted there would be “shock and awe” when Donald Trump enters office on January 20 – a sentiment he believes in after meeting with the incoming president this past week.

“When President Trump takes office next Monday, there is going to be shock and awe with executive orders. A blizzard of executive orders on the economy as well as on the border,” Barrasso told Face The Nation on Sunday.

Trump implores others to ‘save Rudy’

20:00 , Ariana Baio

Trump offered some support to his longtime friend and former lawyer Rudy Giuliani after he was held in contempt of court twice in one week.

”SAVE RUDY!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

Steve Bannon says he will do ‘anything’ to keep Musk from White House

19:30 , Ariana Baio

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is determined to prevent current Trump adviser Elon Musk from becoming engrossed in the White House because he is “a truly evil guy.”

“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon told the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera this week. “He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.”

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon said. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”

Bannon strongly disagrees with Musk’s position on H-1B visas, which are visas given to skilled workers. Bannon believes this, and other positions, are a sign Musk is only interested in elevating his own businesses.

“He will do anything to make sure that any one of his companies is protected or has a better deal or he makes more money. His aggregation of wealth, and then — through wealth — power: that’s what he’s focused on,” Bannon said.

JD Vance says Biden left Trump a ‘dumpster fire’ and lays out Jan 6 pardon strategy

19:00 , John Bowden

Vice President-elect JD Vance drew a line in the sand for the incoming Trump administration’s pardon strategy during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

Vance was asked how Donald Trump would handle his promise to pardon some of those Americans convicted or charged with crimes resulting from the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. During his bid for the White House, Trump pledged to grant clemency to his supporters who caused lawmakers and Capitol staff to hide in fear for their lives while a violent mob battled with police inside and outside the main building for hours.

John Bowden reports:

JD Vance says Biden left Trump a ‘dumpster fire’ and lays out Jan 6 pardon strategy

Some Jan 6 defendants can expect pardons

18:45 , Ariana Baio

Some January 6 rioters who were prosecuted for storming the U.S. Capitol and unlawfully entering to interrupt Congress’s certification of the 2020 election can expect pardons, incoming vice president JD Vance said.

“Look, if you protested peacefully on January the sixth and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned,” Vance told Fox News on Sunday.

“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of grey area there,” he added.

It is unclear how many of the more than 700 people convicted of crimes on January 6 will receive a pardon. But Donald Trump is expected to uphold his promise to pardon many of them.

Trudeau brushes off Trump’s ‘51st state’ comments

18:22 , Ariana Baio

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brushed off Trump’s comments about making Canada the “51st state” and downplayed them as nothing more than something that “will not ever happen”.

On Sunday, Trudeau told Jenn Pskai he was not paying attention to Trump’s taunts because they’re not part of reality.

“This isn’t out of the blue, that he’s doing this,” Trudeau said. But my focus has to be – not on something he’s talking about that will not ever happen – but more on something that might well happen, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs.”

The incoming president’s very real threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods has created political chaos in Canada. With an already struggling economy, Canada could face economic hardships if Trump imposes the tariffs.

Disagreements over how to handle the possible tariffs pushed Trudeau to resign from his position as prime minister.

JD Vance says family separation plan at the border is a ‘ euphemism’

17:45 , Ariana Baio

Incoming vice president JD Vance claimed family separation policies at the border were only a “euphemism” despite admitting some families will likely be separated at the border.

“This term is something you’re gonna hear a lot in the next couple of months, the next couple of years, Shannon – family separation,” Vance told Fox News host Shannon Bream on Sunday.

“That’s a euphemism, that’s a dishonest term to hide behind the fact that Joe Biden has not done border enforcement,” Vance continued.

The vice president-elect said if an undocumented immigrant commits a crime they will be sent back to their country of origin and separated from their families.

Trump’s controversial family separation policy is expected to return in his new administration. He and his border czar, Tom Homan, have said that children of non-citizen parents will be detained and deported alongside their families but that it’s up to each family if they are deported together or separately.

Trump blames California politics for not putting out raging wildfires

17:24 , Ariana Baio

In a Truth Social post early Sunday morning, President-elect Donald Trump blamed California politicians for failing to put out the wildfires that have burned more than 35,000 acres.

“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out. Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?”

Several out-of-control factors have made the wildfires incredibly difficult to put out – like strong, dry winds, bone-dry vegetation and dwindling water supply.

Jack Smith has resigned. What happens now?

13:00 , Alex Woodward

Special counsel Jack Smith has completed his reports on his criminal investigations into Donald Trump and resigned from the Department of Justice.

Smith — a chief prosecutor at The Hague who was appointed to handle investigations into the president-elect for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and withhold classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound — delivered his final reports to Attorney General Merrick Garland on January 7.

Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department after completing Trump reports

After New Orleans and Vegas attacks by veterans, what will Trump do about extremism in the military?

12:00 , Josh Marcus

A study from the National Consortium for The Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism found that between 1990 and 2022, 170 people with U.S. military backgrounds plotted 144 mass casualty terror attacks, representing about 25 percent of all individuals planning such crimes during this period. That proportion is more than three times the share of military veterans in the overall population.

The study also found nearly three-quarters of these offenders were motivated by far-right extremist groups and movements.

“It is not that there are more extremists among the military,” Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said.

However, the problem is what this small group of individuals does once they cross over into extremism.

Josh Marcus reports:

After New Orleans and Vegas attacks by vets, will Trump tackle military extremism?

What’s next for Joe and Jill Biden?

09:00 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden are leaving the White House on January 20, marking the end of the president’s 50 years in politics.

But Biden, 82, insists he’s not quite ready to retreat into a slow retirement just yet. In interviews, the president has indicated he’s still got work to do to improve Americans’ lives. Jill Biden, 73, has similarly dedicated her life to others through education, but she has kept quiet about her next chapter after the White House.

Read more here

When is Trump’s inauguration and how do you get tickets?

07:30 , Ariana Baio

On Inauguration Day, the new US president and vice president are sworn in during a ceremony that marks the end of one presidency and the beginning of the next.

Inauguration Day falls on Monday, January 20.

Trump will take the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The ceremony begins at 12 p.m. ET.

Every four years, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies ensures a chunk of inauguration tickets are made available to the public.

These tickets are free of charge — but they’re limited, and you’ll have to contact your local congressperson to get one.

To find your representative and senators, use Congress.gov.

Biden still believes he would have won election if he stood against Trump

05:00 , Lucy Leeson

President Joe Biden said he still believes he would have won the US election if he stood against Donald Trump.

The outgoing president was asked if he regretted his decision not to run for reelection during a press conference on Friday (10 January).

Biden said: “I think I would have beaten Trump, I could have beaten Trump.

“And I think that Kamala could have beaten Trump and would have beaten Trump. It wasn’t about that. I thought it was important to unify the party.”

Biden still believes he would have won election if he stood against Trump

Senator Adam Schiff praises Jack Smith and demands release of his report

03:00 , Ariana Baio

Trump’s counterterror adviser insists UK will not be forced to allow Shamima Begum back

01:00 , David Maddox

Donald Trump will not force the UK to take back former citizens who left the country to fight for Islamic State (also known as Isis), his incoming counterterrorism adviser has confirmed.

Sebastian Gorka, who is due to start his second spell in the White House assisting national security adviser Mike Waltz, had been accused of threatening to force Keir Starmer to take back former Isis terrorists, including Shamima Begum.

Begum, who left her home in east London to join Isis with two friends in February 2015, had her UK citizen revoked by former home secretary Sajid Javid and has been denied the right to return following legal challenges.

In a statement first published in the Daily Express, Mr Gorka said: “I will not tell Prime Minister Keir Starmer, or any other of America’s allies what they should or should not do with their own citizens. However, protecting the innocent and fighting evil is an objective every decent person should agree with.”

Trump is trying to seal the border while his czar ‘tempers’ expectations for mass deportations

00:20 , Alex Woodward

For months, Trump and his team have been looking for ways to bypass the traditional immigration legislative process to close the border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants. But as January 20 draws closer, it’s unclear how.

Trump is reportedly exploring how to once again invoke Title 42 to boot people from the country, and his border czar is tempering expectations for Trump’s “mass dpeortation operation” ambitions in conversations with Republican members of Congress.

Ariana Baio has more:

Trump wants to seal the border as his czar ‘tempers’ expectations

Full story: Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department after completing Trump reports

Saturday 11 January 2025 23:36 , Alex Woodward

Special counsel Jack Smith has completed his reports on his criminal investigations into Donald Trump and resigned from the Department of Justice.

Smith — a chief prosecutor at The Hague who was appointed to handle investigations into the president-elect for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and withhold classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound — delivered his final reports to Attorney General Merrick Garland on January 7.

Jack Smith resigns from Justice Department after completing Trump reports

Jack Smith resigned from DoJ on Friday

Saturday 11 January 2025 23:00 , Ariana Baio, Alex Woodward

A footnote in a filing from the Justice Department on Saturday revealed that Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from the DoJ on Friday.

The filing, submitted in the classified documents case, asked a court to reject Trump’s efforts to block the special counsel’s report from being released. A footnote at the bottom revealed Smith left the DoJ on January 10.

“The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10.”

Smith announced in November that he planned to step away from the department before Trump takes office in January. It was unclear when that would be up until now.

DOGE agents dispatched across the country, report says

Saturday 11 January 2025 22:00 , Joe Sommerlad

Agents representing Donald Trump’s newly-formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) – the non-governmental agency being spearheaded by tech billionaire duo Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - tasked with trimming excess federal spending – have already set to work, even before the new president has been inaugurated.

Surrogates for DOGE, which is still very much a work-in-progress, have already visited 12 federal agencies for preliminary interviews with staffers about the running of those workplaces, The Washington Post reports.

The Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service and the Departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services are among the bureaus that have already answered the door to the agents and addressed their questions, according to the Post.

DOJ says Trump canot block Jack Smith’s report from being released

Saturday 11 January 2025 21:30 , Ariana Baio

The Department of Justice said Trump and his co-defendants in the classified documents case do not have the authority to request former special counsel Jack Smith block the report from being released, in a filing on Saturday.

“An extended injunction intrudes without basis on the Attorney General’s prerogative to manage the affairs of the Justice Department, including to determine whether to make public or share with Congress in a limited respect a report prepared by subordinate officials within the Department,” the DoJ said.

An appeals court has already denied Trump and his co-defendant’s request. However, the Trump-appointed judge who oversaw the case has issued an injunction which will remain in effect until Sunday.

How the world reacted to Trump’s bizarre plan for Greenland and new borders

Saturday 11 January 2025 21:00 , John Leicester

Donald Trump has tossed expansionist rhetoric at U.S. allies and potential adversaries with arguments that the frontiers of American power need to be extended into Canada and the Danish territory of Greenland, and southward to include the Panama Canal.

Trump’s suggestions that international borders can be redrawn — by force if necessary — are particularly inflammatory in Europe. His words run contrary to the argument European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are trying to impress on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But many European leaders — who’ve learned to expect the unexpected from Trump and have seen that actions don’t always follow his words — have been guarded in their response, with some taking a nothing-to-see-here view rather than vigorously defend European Union member Denmark.

Several officials in Europe — where governments depend on U.S. trade, energy, investment, technology, and defense cooperation for security — emphasized their belief that Trump has no intention of marching troops into Greenland.

“I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said.

Trump announces deputy cabinet positions

Saturday 11 January 2025 20:30 , Ariana Baio

Steven Gill Bradbury, a Project 2025 contributor, will be the next United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation

Katharine MacGregor will serve as the next United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

David Fotouhi will serve as the next Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

James P. Danly will be our next United States Deputy Secretary of Energy.

Paul R. Lawrence, a Project 2025 contributor, will serve as the next Deputy Secretary Of Veterans Affairs.

Additionally, Trump announced that Casey B. Mulligan, who is named as a small contributor in Project 2025, will serve as the Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the United States Small Business Administration.

Meta and Amazon ax diversity programs ahead of Trump inauguration

Saturday 11 January 2025 20:01 , Josh Marcus

Meta Platforms and Amazon are both rolling back diversity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, the latest in a string of major U.S. companies to withdraw from such work ahead of the White House comeback of Donald Trump, who has long railed against “woke” policies and diversity.

Meta plans to end its DEI programs altogether in training, hiring, and picking suppliers, according to an internal memo seen by Axios, citing a “changing” legal and policy landscape.

The change is the latest major rightward shift at Meta, which announced earlier this week it would ax fact-checking on its platforms Facebook and Instagram, long the target of criticism from the right.

This week, the company also added Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO and Trump ally Dana White to its board, in a move seen as an attempt to gain favorable treatment from the new administration.

ICYMI: Rudy Giuliani held in contempt of court for repeating false claims about defamed election workers

Saturday 11 January 2025 19:30 , Ariana Baio

Rudy Giuliani has been held in contempt of court for the second time in a week on Friday a federal judge in Washington, D.C., lambasted the former New York City mayor for repeatedly attacking a pair of election workers he defamed despite a court order that blocks him from repeating false statements against them.

Read more from Alex Woodward

Rudy Giuliani held in contempt of court for attacking defamed election workers

Biden touts the economy he shaped after yet another positive jobs report

Saturday 11 January 2025 19:00 , Andrew Feinberg

President Joe Biden on Friday trumpeted yet another positive jobs report and the economy he helped shape in remarks at the White House just days ahead of his farewell address to America.

Biden’s administration is the only one in American history to see new jobs created every single month of his four-year term.

His comments on the economy will likely be part of his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night.

“How and why did we make such progress?” Biden asked regarding the economy in remarks in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing. “We did it by fundamentally changing the economic policy of this country after decades of trickle down economics that primarily benefited those at the very top.”

Read more from Andrew Feinberg:

Biden touts the economy he shaped after yet another positive jobs report

Senate committee chair receives FBI report on Hegseth ahead of confirmation hearings

Saturday 11 January 2025 18:32 , Ariana Baio

Senator Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Jack Reed, the ranking member, were briefed about the FBI report on Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary nominee, with just days until his Senate confirmation hearing.

In preparation for the confirmation hearing, which is expected to raise various questions about Hegseth’s qualifications, Wicker and Reed read the FBI report – the only committee members permitted to do so, per NBC News.

Hegseth’s confirmation hearing is set to take place Tuesday morning

Nigel Farage and Elon Musk to reunite as Reform leader hosts Trump inauguration party in Washington

Saturday 11 January 2025 18:00 , David Maddox

Nigel Farage is set to host ‘the biggest inauguration party’ in Washington DC with Donald Trump, the president-elect’s family, Elon Musk, senior Republicans and the UK’s new ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson all expected to attend

Read more here:

Farage and Musk to get back together as Reform leader hosts inauguration party in DC

Far-right faction of House meets with Trump and Musk at Mar-a-Lago

Saturday 11 January 2025 17:30 , Ariana Baio

Trump’s Middle East envoy working on ceasefire deal

Saturday 11 January 2025 17:08 , Ariana Baio

President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East is trying to work on securing a ceasefire deal with Israel and Gaza before Trump takes office on January 20, according to a new report.

The envoy is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday amid ceasefire talks between the U.S., Qatar, Israel and Palestine.

Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor who Trump has tapped as envoy to the Middle East, met with the Qatari prime minister to discuss the most recent developments.

Denmark privately spoke with Trump team about Greenland: report

Saturday 11 January 2025 16:34 , Ariana Baio

Denmark officials allegedly spoke with President-elect Donald Trump’s team about increasing U.S. military pressence on Greenland, sources told Axios.

The report comes days after Trump said he would not rule out using the military to take over Greenland – an autonomous territory of Denmark that the president-elect has claimed he wants the U.S. to control. He claims it is necessary for national security purposes.

Publicly, the Prime Minister of Denmark and the Premier of Greenland have said Greenland is “not for sale” and rebuked Trump’s comments.

According to the new report, the Danish government reiterated those remarks to Trump but also expressed a readiness to work with the incoming Trump administration regarding Greenland.

Watch: Biden believes he would have won election if he stood against Trump

Saturday 11 January 2025 16:00 , Ariana Baio

Biden to deliver farewell address to nation

Saturday 11 January 2025 15:20 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden will deliver a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday, January 15 at 8 p.m.

Biden to deliver farewell address Wednesday evening, White House says

Who pays for the presidential inauguration?

Saturday 11 January 2025 14:50 , Oliver O'Connell

The fundraising for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump has beaten all records, gathering an unprecedented $170 million.

Tech executives and big donors have donated massive sums of money to curry favor with the incoming president. The donations are usually spent on events surrounding the inauguration, such as the oath of office ceremony, a parade, and several inaugural balls.

Gustaf Kilander looks at the numbers.

Who pays for the presidential inauguration? These are some of the major donors

ANALYSIS: Trump’s hush money sentence ensures a convicted felon is going to the White House

Saturday 11 January 2025 14:20 , Oliver O'Connell

Alex Woodward writes:

President-elect Donald Trump is not going to jail, at least not today.

He isn’t being forced to pay any fines. He won’t have to check in with a court-ordered probation officer like most criminal defendants with felony convictions.

But a sentence handed down by a judge in a criminal courtroom in Manhattan on January 10 preserves one of the most important parts of the first ever criminal trial of a former and future president: the verdict itself.

Continue reading...

Trump’s hush money sentence ensures a convicted felon is going to the White House

Giuliani held in contempt of court for repeating false claims about defamed election workers

Saturday 11 January 2025 13:50 , Oliver O'Connell

Rudy Giuliani has been held in contempt of court for the second time in a week after a federal judge in Washington, D.C. lambasted the former New York City mayor for repeatedly attacking a pair of election workers he defamed despite a court order that blocks him from repeating false statements against them.

Donald Trump’s former attorney was ordered to appear in court to answer for a string of recent statements falsely alleging the women had manipulated election results in 2020 — claims that landed him a $148 million defamation judgment in 2023.

District Judge Beryl Howell criticized Giuliani for his “baseless whining.” The former mayor called her “bloodthirsty” and “biased” moments before Friday’s hearing started.

Alex Woodward followed today’s proceedings.

Rudy Giuliani held in contempt of court for attacking defamed election workers

Trumps ‘in talks’ to buy back their beloved D.C. hotel

Saturday 11 January 2025 13:15 , Oliver O'Connell

The Trump family is in talks to reacquire their Washington D.C. hotel, which could reveal how the president-elect is set to handle issues related to possible conflicts of interest.

This week, Eric Trump met at Mar-a-Lago with a bank executive from BDT & MSD, which is in control of the lease on the building, people familiar with the meeting told The Wall Street Journal.

Gustaf Kilander reports.

The Trumps are ‘in talks’ to buy back their beloved D.C. hotel

ANALYSIS: Trump has been on a run of big wins — his own agenda push could end the streak

Saturday 11 January 2025 12:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

Thin margins will make near-unanimity on many issues difficult — and Republicans can’t even agree how to go about pushing their legislative agenda through.

Continue reading...

Trump has been on a run of big wins — his own agenda push could end the streak

Report: Trump to declare national economic emergency to push through tariffs

Saturday 11 January 2025 11:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Donald Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency in order to create the legal grounds for introducing his program of steep tariffs against rival nations, according to CNN.

Even before taking office, the president-elect has threatened tariffs of as much as 10 percent on global imports and 60 percent on Chinese goods, plus a 25 percent import surcharge on Canadian and Mexican products.

Such duties are intended to provide a boost to American manufacturing but experts have warned that, in practice, they could backfire by upending trade flows, raising costs and inviting harmful retaliatory measures.

Joe Sommerlad has the story.

Trump could declare national economic emergency to push through tariffs, reports says

Will Trump really pardon nearly 1,600 January 6 rioters?

Saturday 11 January 2025 10:30 , Oliver O'Connell

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.

Trump could pardon nearly 1,600 January 6 rioters. Will he really do it?

Elon Musk admits DOGE won't find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget

Saturday 11 January 2025 07:30 , Oliver O'Connell

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.

Musk admits DOGE won’t find $2 trillion worth of cuts in federal budget

Next week’s cover of ‘The New Yorker’

Friday 10 January 2025 20:09 , Oliver O'Connell