Donald Trump’s nominees for senior roles in his incoming administration will be on Capitol Hill this week and under the scrutiny of the Senate as confirmation hearings begin in earnest.
More than a dozen hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Notable picks include Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Doug Burgum, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, and Scott Bessent, who will face questions from senators in the relevant committees.
With just a week to go before the inauguration, Melania Trump has shared some thoughts on her return to the White House. The former and future first lady told Ainsley Earhardt of Fox & Friends that she was already packed and appeared to be looking forward to resuming her official role.
However, she also signaled that she would be spending time in New York, where her son Barron Trump is attending university. The first lady will also resurrect her “Be Best” campaign.
In further palace intrigue, Trump ally Steve Bannon has escalated his feud with billionaire Elon Musk, calling the latter “racist” and a “truly evil guy”, also pledging to “take this guy down” and remove him from the MAGA movement before the inauguration.
Don Jr joins prediction market Kalshi as ‘strategic adviser’
Donald Trump Jr has joined Kalshi, the first legal prediction market in the US, which successfully predicted the 2024 election outcome.
Kalshi’s tagline is “bet on everything.”
The president-elect’s eldest son wrote on X: “On Election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the race a coin toss, my family and close friends used the prediction market Kalshi to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media.
“I immediately knew I had to contribute to their mission. Today, I am proud to announce that I am joining Kalshi as a strategic advisor.
“The Kalshi team has worked hard, sued the Biden administration, and achieved the impossible feat of becoming the first legal prediction market in the US. I’m excited to be a part of what they’re building.
“Now, time to trade on whether Biden is going to pardon Fauci and Liz Cheney 🤣.”
Here is when Donald Trump’s most controversial administration picks will go before the Senate
Senate hearings are scheduled this coming week for several of Trump’s picks for the Cabinet. Many have met with senators individually. Now, they will go before the committees overseeing the agencies that Trump wants them to run.
Many predict that the hearings will become a circus, given the controversial nature of several of Trump’s picks. They have been criticized for their lack of experience or their previous comments. The Senate has a slim Republican majority, so just a handful of Senators need to flip against one of Trump’s picks to sink the nominations.
Here’s a look at the schedule for Senate hearings set so far, in Eastern time:
Arizona AG requests DOJ gives her Jack Smith’s full case file for 2020 election subversion case
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has requested that the Department of Justice provide her with Jack Smith’s full case file to facilitate her office’s ongoing prosecution of Donald Trump’s allies in the 2020 election effort.
Watch: Melania Trump says people didn’t accept or understand her during husband’s first term
In his own words: Hegseth’s views on women in combat, infidelity and more
Pete Hegseth will try to convince members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that he should be the next secretary of defense, following weeks of meetings with lawmakers who peppered him with questions about his character and views on a range of military issues.
As the author of several books and a former Fox News Channel host, Hegseth has been forced to defend himself against a long record of his own public comments, including in his most recent book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
His wide-ranging opinions could provide some insight into how he could approach the top Pentagon job if confirmed. At times, he says he’s been misconstrued, but other times he’s tried to soften his previously stated views on contentious topics.
Melania ‘already packed’ for Trump return to White House
Melania Trump sat down with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt for an interview about her upcoming Amazon documentary and her return to the White House in just one week when Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20.
“I already packed,” she told Earhardt in the interview which aired this morning on Fox & Friends. “I already selected the furniture that needs to go in.”
The former and future first lady, who has been spending a lot of time in New York, where her son Barron is studying at NYU, said of him: “I think he will come and visit. … And I always respect Barron’s ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and what he likes to do, where he would like to be.”
Melania also said she would revive her “Be Best” effort.
Asked where she will spend her time, she told Earhardt: “I will be in the White House.”
“When I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach. But my first priority is to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife. And once we are in on January 20, you serve the country.”
Trump ‘impressed’ by ‘commonsense’ Fetterman after Mar-a-Lago meeting
Donald Trump says Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman is “a fascinating man, and his wife is lovely. They were both up, and I couldn’t be more impressed.”
After an hourlong meeting with the Fettermans at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, he told The Washington Examiner: “He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful.”
The president-elect said they found common ground on the fate of U.S. Steel, shoring up the border, supporting Israel, and discussing the geopolitical benefits of Greenland.
Analysis: Trump has been on a run of big wins — his own agenda push could end the streak
Despite some early wins, the president-elect still faces an uphill battle with his more significant policy proposals, which could prove his undoing, Eric Garcia writes.
Schumer says no pardons for Jan 6 rioters, violent or not
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says there should be no pardons for January 6 rioters, whether they were violent or not.
“What they did is a serious crime.”
Trump’s call with Putin set for the next few days
The president-elect and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to have a call in the coming days, according to the Associated Press.
The development comes as a top Trump adviser said it is unrealistic to aim to expel Russian soldiers from every inch of Ukrainian territory.
Congressman Mike Waltz, the incoming US national security adviser, told ABC on Sunday that the war had become a World War One-style “meat grinder of people and resources” with “World War Three consequences”.
“Everybody knows that this has to end somehow diplomatically,” Waltz, a Trump loyalist who also served in the National Guard as a colonel, told the network yesterday.
“I just don’t think it’s realistic to say we’re going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea.
“President Trump has acknowledged that reality, and I think it’s been a huge step forward that the entire world is acknowledging that reality. Now let’s move forward.”
Source: independent.co.uk