Trump’s cabinet hopefuls set for Senate grillings as Newsom calls for LA visit: Live

Alabama GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville, a staunch Trump ally, said he didn’t object to sending the state “some money” but not unless state leaders “change their ways”, his comments following on from House Speaker Mike Johnson saying their should be “strings attached” to any federal disaster relief funding heading west.

This is what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had to say about that:

Here’s more from Rhian Lubin.

The president-elect has announced he is creating a new “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs and other foreign income from America’s overseas allies and trading partners.

Trump announced the new agency in a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, contending that the US has “relied on taxing our Great People using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)” for “far too long.”

“I am today announcing that I will create the EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE to collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources,” he wrote.

“We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying, FINALLY, their fair share.”

Trump said the service will begin operations on Monday, when he will officially take office after an inauguration ceremony at the US Capitol.

Here’s Katie Hawkinson’s report.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Moscow is open for talks with Trump and praised him for attacking Nato’s plan to embrace Ukraine.

Any prospective peace talks should involve broader arrangements for security in Europe, Lavrov said at his annual news conference on Tuesday.

He specifically praised Trump’s comments earlier this month in which he said that Nato’s plans to open its doors to Ukraine had led to Russia’s invasion.

As he prepares to deliver an Oval Office address for the last time after a single term in the White House and a full half-century of service in the federal government, President Joe Biden declared on Tuesday that America now stands “stronger, more prosperous, and more secure” than it was when he entered office amid the tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic four years ago.

In a letter released by the White House ahead of his farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, Biden described the circumstances under which he was sworn in as president as “a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities.”

“We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” noted Biden, who added that in response, Americans “came together… and we braved through it.”

Here’s Andrew Feinberg’s preview of Biden’s adieu.

For years, the biggest tech giants have battled amongst themselves (remember when Zuckberg and Musk were going to have a cage match?).

Now they are coming together in support of the president – and their own interests, Io Dodds writes.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued the Big Tech billionaire, saying he failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner in early 2022 before buying the social media site.

As a result, the SEC alleges, Musk, now a close confidant of one Donald J Trump, was able to underpay “by at least $150 million” for shares he bought after he should have disclosed his ownership of more than 5 percent of Twitter’s shares.

Here’s more.

As you might have expected, MAGA loyalists like Markwayne Mullin, Eric Schmitt and Ronny Jackson were out in force last night to leap to the defense of the would-be defense secretary, not always helpfully.

The opposition, meanwhile, made it clear they were less than impressed with Trump’s candidate to lead the Pentagon.

Here’s Justin Baragona on Fox News’s John Roberts fancifully comparing his former stable mate to none other than Sir Winston Churchill.

Today’s Trump nominees follow in the footsteps of Pete Hegseth, the president-elect’s choice for secretary of defense, who endured a fiery hearing on Tuesday in which he called for the return of “American warriors” at the Pentagon but faced aggressive questioning about his checkered personal history and was heckled by spectators.

Andrew Feinberg and Eric Garcia have this report on an extraordinary day with the Senate Armed Services Committee.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has invited Trump to visit Los Angeles to witness the devastation wrought by January’s wildfires, rather than merely criticize the emergency response from social media.

“I want the president-elect to meet with the communities impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires and understand the magnitude of the devastation,” Newsom wrote on X.

“I urge him to meet with the brave firefighters and first responders on the ground and see firsthand how they’ve saved lives.”

The above clip of Newsom was taken from his latest interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki in which he also told her that Trump’s childish nickname for him meant little and that he should follow Joe Biden’s example and make a real difference on the ground by consoling the brave souls who have been out there battling the blazes for more than a week now.

Good morning!

Following yesterday’s Pete Hegseth drama on Capitol Hill, a number of other people nominated by the president-elect for top cabinet position will face the senators on Wednesday.

Here’s who’s on the menu:

• Pam Bondi, attorney general nominee – Senate Judiciary Committee 9.30am (all times ET)
• Chris Wright, secretary of energy – Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee 10am
• Marco Rubio, secretary of state – Senate Foreign Relations Committee 10am
• John Ratcliffe, director of the Central Intelligence Agency – Senate Intelligence Committee 10am
• Sean Duffy, secretary of transportation – Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee 10am
• Russell Vought, director of Office of Management and Budget – Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 1pm

Bondi and Rubio are the most intriguing names in that lineup, with the Florida Attorney General (who replaced the ill-fated Matt Gaetz) accused of amplifing Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election and known for representing him at his first impeachment trial in 2019 while Rubio was once a bitter rival to the president-elect for the Republican presidential nomination, trading bitter insults in 2016.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had been due to have her confirmation hearing on becoming secretary of the Department of Homeland Security but that has now been postponed until Friday, we understand, with Congress waiting on a little outstanding paperwork from the FBI.