Trump completes cabinet nominations as GOP lawmakers defend choices: Live updates

As President-elect Donald Trump makes his transition to the White House, it’s not just his cabinet picks garnering scrutiny — it’s now also his funding as he’s keeping the donors funding the transition effort a secret.

Because Trump hasn’t signed the agreement, he doesn’t have to work within the confines of the fundraising limits or disclose what interest groups are funding his transition to the White House, The New York Times first reported.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

One Trump adviser told the outlet that if Gaetz had become the leader of the Department of Justice, he would probably have become “the single most blackmail-able person to ever serve as attorney general of the United States … and that’s not a risk you want to take when the whole job is going after criminals.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Donald Trump Jr. has emerged as the most influential Trump family member in the transition as the president-elect builds the most controversial cabinet in modern U.S. history, according to a half dozen sources with knowledge of his role, elevating inexperienced loyalists over more qualified candidates for top positions in his administration.

Trump, who fiercely prizes loyalty, has long relied on family members for political advice, but which relative has his ear is known to vary.

This time, it is Don Jr., who has helped cabinet contenders sink or rise to the fore – from championing Senator JD Vance as Trump’s running mate to blocking former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from joining the cabinet, according to the sources, who include donors, personal friends and political allies.

Don Jr. is due to join conservative venture capital fund 1789 Capital, although one of the sources said he will continue to host his politics-focused podcast and support candidates that espouse Trump’s brand of politics.

He will provide advice to his father in the White House, the source added, although they cautioned that Don Jr. was unlikely to be involved in day-to-day deliberations.

Don Jr. and the Trump-Vance transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to ensuring candidates are loyal to his father, Don Jr. typically seeks out contenders who embrace an anti-establishment worldview, including protectionist economic policies, and a reduction in military interventions and overseas aid, according to a handful of the sources and Don Jr.’s own comments on social media site X and in public.

Two of the candidates Don Jr. championed may face a rocky confirmation process in the Senate: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump plans to nominate as the top U.S. health official, and Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump plans to nominate as intelligence chief.

Kennedy is an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin had valid grounds for invading Ukraine and stirred controversy when she met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the midst of his bloody crackdown on dissidents in 2017.

Chris Wright, reporting from Baku, writes:

When I was young, I wasn’t even the only Chris Wright at my local dentist. I had horrible teeth as a child, but whenever I went for a check-up, I’d have to tell them my address as there were three of us in the neighbourhood.

Even last month at my local swimming pool, I found out that not only am I not the only Chris Wright on its books, but also that staff had the gall to ask if I was the Chris Wright born in the 1960s or the 1990s…?

But the most annoying mistaken identity moment happened this week at Cop29.

Read on…

During his appearance on Meet the Press this morning, Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri said it was a “slur” to call Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick as director of national intelligence, a Russian asset.

NBC’s Kristen Welker played a clip of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley saying of Gabbard, a veteran and former Democrat rep: “This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer. DNI has to analyze real threats. Are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies?”

Welker asked Schmitt if he was comfortable and whether he would vote for Gabbard’s confirmation.

He replied: “I think it’s — it’s really interesting that anybody that has a different political view now is being cast as a Russian asset. It’s totally ridiculous. Tulsi Gabbard has served in our military. She served as a congresswoman from Hawaii, as a Democrat, I might add, part of this unique coalition that President Trump has put together and won and got that mandate. But I think it’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly.’

He continued: “You know, there’s no evidence that she’s an asset of another country. She served this country honorably, and by the way, she cares deeply about our Constitution and civil liberties and making sure people aren’t being targeted by these intelligence agencies. So again, I think this is a reformer who can come in, who maybe is not part of the same Washington cocktail party circuit that people in the intel community are used to, but maybe that’s exactly what we need right now. President Trump listened to the American people when they screamed about these issues. They want to be heard. They feel like Washington is broken. And I think bringing somebody in like Tulsi Gabbard is welcome news.”

Gustaf Kilander reports.

Incoming Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News Sunday today that they are “hand in glove” with the outgoing Biden administration regarding “our adversaries” and that they are wrong to think they can play one administration off against another.

John Sopel writes:

We’ve all been there. That infatuation moment. That time at the outset of a relationship when you can’t think about anyone else, don’t want to be with anyone else. Every minute without them is a minute wasted; where you find yourself engaging in their hobbies because if they love them, so must you, too.

And broadly speaking, that is where we are in that most unlikely of bromances: that of Elon and Don.

Read on…

Gustaf Kilander reports.