Donald Trump gave his first rally-style speech since his election victory in Phoenix on Sunday.
At the event — AmericaFest 2024 — he discussed immigration, defended some of his most controversial cabinet picks, and laid out his plans for when he takes office on January 20, which he referred to as “liberation day.”
Trump also repeated his threats of retaking the Panama Canal.
“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else,” he said.
On Truth Social Saturday, Trump accused Panama of charging American vessels “exorbitant prices” to use the vital waterway that acts as a shortcut linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US,” Trump vented.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” he stridently added, referring to a 1977 treaty.
The 78-year-old Republican also echoed his plans to impose tariffs against the European Union, Canada and Mexico. He said he wouldn’t let the E.U. turn the U.S. into a “dumping ground.”
Justice Thomas failed to disclose two additional luxury trips funded by billionaire patron
Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two trips — which hadn’t been publicly reported — paid for by a billionaire Republican donor, a new Congressional report reveals.
In the wake of ProPublica’s explosive 2023 report into Thomas’ failures to disclose his ties to wealthy donor Harlan Crow, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted a 20-month investigation into the ethics challenges at the Supreme Court.
The report — spanning 97 pages plus 824 pages of supporting documents — was released Saturday, detailing two additional trips paid for by Crow that Thomas hadn’t previously disclosed. More broadly, the report also captured an array of conflicts of interest and undisclosed gifts by justices, prompting the panel to recommend the nation’s highest court establish an enforceable code of conduct.
Read the full story.
Congressman floats theory that Musk has promised Trump a ‘windfall’ if he does billionaire’s bidding
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York suggested Thursday night that Elon Musk would provide President-elect Donald Trump with a “windfall” if the incoming commander-in-chief does the bidding of the X owner.
The Tesla CEO was successful in his efforts to take down a continuing resolution that was set to allow the government to remain funded through Christmas, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson back to the drawing board.
Musk tweeted against the bill Wednesday before Trump did the same, pushing for it to be voted down. Speaker Mike Johnson then withdrew the bill before introducing a shorter version Thursday which was rejected even as it was backed by both Musk and Trump.
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
In photos: Trump and prominent Republicans speak in Phoenix
Lara Trump teases ‘big announcement’ as she removes herself from the Florida Senate race
Lara Trump dropped out of the running for the Senate on Saturday evening, teasing a “big announcement” to come in January.
Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law was floated as a possible replacement for Marco Rubio, the president-elect’s choice for secretary of state.
Two weeks ago Trump announced she was also stepping down from her role as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
“After an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many, I have decided to remove my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” Trump shared in a post on X.
“I do have a big announcement that I’m excited to share in January, so, stay tuned,” she added.
Rhian Lubin has the full story.
Donald Trump picks Apprentice producer to be special envoy to UK
Donald Trump has named the British producer behind The Apprentice reality TV series as his special envoy to the UK.
The president-elect said Mark Burnett would bring “a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition” to the role.
Mr Burnett, 64, was instrumental in significantly raising the profile of Mr Trump in the US when he was appointed as the main host in the north American version of The Apprentice.
Here’s the full story.
WATCH: Donald Trump Threatens To Retake Panama Canal
The Palestinian-Americans suing the State Department over Gaza
Ahmed Moor thinks about his family in Gaza every day. His uncle has been seeking shelter from the relentless Israeli airstrikes for more than a year, and finding none. He has lost cousins and extended family to sniper fire and bombing.
Now, the Palestinian-American father of three is suing Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the State Department for their role in the carnage, accusing them of violating U.S. law by providing the weapons and support for Israel’s devastating onslaught.
Moor joined a group of Palestinians and their families in filing the lawsuit against the State Department for failing to adhere to a 1997 law. The Leahy Law prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security forces that are credibly implicated in gross human rights violations.
Richard Hall has the story.
GOP congresswoman living in care facility after she was found wandering ‘confused’
A Texas congresswoman is living in a care facility for senior citizens after being found wandering and confused in her old neighborhood, despite being a current elected representative, a Dallas-area news outlet has reported.
The Dallas Express reports that Kay Granger, a retiring congresswoman representing Tarrant County in the House of Representatives, now lives full-time at an assisted living facility. A spokesperson denied that Granger was “in memory care” in a statement to NBC News on Sunday, but did not dispute the Express’s reporting indicating that Granger relocated to the facility after she was “found wandering lost and confused in her former Cultural District/West 7th neighborhood” in Fort Worth.
Nor did the spokesperson dispute a claim from the facility’s executive director that Granger lives there. Tradition Senior Living’s Taylor Manziel told the Express: “This is her home.”
Granger, according to Fort Worth Magazine and other outlets, was present in the Capitol as recently as November for the unveiling of her congressional portrait. But she did not participate in votes last week as the single-digit Republican majority in the House of Representatives fought to pass several funding bills aimed at preventing a government shutdown at the end of Friday.
Catch up on the saga here.
Elon Musk will not become the president, Trump reassures Arizona crowd
Speaking at AmericaFest on Sunday, Trump dismissed a rumor that he might “cede the presidency” to his “best buddy” Elon Musk.
“No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
The president-elect’s reassurance comes after The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board eviscerated Trump and Musk in an op-ed after the spending bill “fiasco,” in which legislation meant to keep the government open was effectively thwarted by the 78-year-old Republican and the tech billionaire this week.
Trump “on the advice of Elon Musk blew up the end-of-session budget bill without a plan for getting another one passed,” the board wrote.
“There are bad omens here for 2025 and the ability of Republicans to govern,” the board said. “The immediate result has been a fiasco by any measure.”
Read more here.
Trump nominates Stephen Alexander Vaden as deputy secretary of the department of agriculture
The president-elected named Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden as his deputy secretary of agriculture in a Truth Social Post on Sunday shortly after he gave a rally-style speech in Arizona. “In my First Term, Stephen was the General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture, and a Member of the Board of the Commodity Credit Corporation, where he won two cases before the United States Supreme Court, relocated and reorganized the Agencies that comprise the Department to better serve Rural America, and engaged in substantial regulatory reform,” Trump wrote.
“Stephen joined the USDA on Day One of my First Term, and left in December 2020 after I nominated him, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him, to continue to serve the American People as an Article III Judge on the Court of International Trade,” he said.
Source: independent.co.uk