Trump claims Liz Cheney ‘could be in a lot of trouble’ over Jan 6 probe and makes ex-NFL star ambassador: Live

Legal experts and press organizations are warning that ABC News settling a defamation case with Donald Trump will have a “chilling effect” on the media going forward, while the president-elect seems determined to prove them right by unleashing more legal threats and lawsuits against news outlets and reporters.

Meanwhile, journalists are lighting into ABC’s willingness to “obey in advance” and “bend the knee” to Trump, claiming that the network and its corporate parent Walt Disney showed the incoming president just how to silence reporters.

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Trump said the investments in building artificial intelligence infrastructure would create 100,000 jobs, twice the 50,000 promised when Son pledged $50 billion in U.S. investments after Trump’s victory in 2016.

Son, a founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, is known for making bold choices that sometimes pay big and sometimes don’t. SoftBank has investments in dozens of Silicon Valley startups, along with big companies like semiconductor design company Arm and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The stock market rally and craze for AI has boosted the value of its assets, but it’s unclear whether its investments will create that many jobs.

Who is Masayoshi Son?

Today in late-night posts from the president-elect, Donald Trump wrote this 3:23 a.m. ET after his post about Liz Cheney:

No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!

The British populist met the world’s richest man at Trump’s Florida mansion this week amid rumours the tech mogul is preparing to donate $100m to Reform UK.

The two men met at the the president-elect’s club on Monday alongside Reform’s new party treasurer Nick Candy.

In a statement, Farage and Candy described their hour-long meeting as “great”.

They did not mention money but said they had “learned a great deal about the Trump ground game” and would have “ongoing discussions” with the Tesla, SpaceX and X boss on other areas.

“We only have one more chance left to save the West and we can do great things together,” they added.

“Our thanks also to president Trump for allowing us to use Mar-a-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well.”

The money would be by far the largest donation in British electoral history if it is indeed handed out.

Here’s more from out Whitehall editor Kate Devlin.

In response to a post on X by Vivek Ramaswamy, his co-head of the upcoming Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has come out against the plan to keep the US government funded through March 14, 2025, as backed by congressional leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson.

Ramaswamy wrote about the proposed continuing resolution: “Currently reading the 1,547-page bill to fund the government through mid-March. Expecting every U.S. Congressman & Senator to do the same.”

To which Musk replied: “This bill should not pass.”

Here’s what you need to know about the bill:

The president-elect’s transition performance is continuing to unnerve voters, according to the latest survey from Reuters/Ipsos, which has found that 55 percent of the US public take an unfavorable view of him.

Just 41 percent say they support the incoming commander-in-chief a month before he takes office.

Missing-in-action incumbent Joe Biden did not fare well in the poll either, garnering an approval rating of just 38 percent as he sees out his single term.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed three bills aimed at cracking down on China’s role in the American fentanyl crisis, with measures that would set up a US task force to disrupt narcotics trafficking and pave the way for sanctions on Chinese entities.

China is the dominant source of chemical precursors used by the Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl, while Chinese money launderers have become key players in the international drug trade, US authorities say.

The proposed legislation would help hold China’s Communist Party (CCP) accountable for “directly fueling the fentanyl crisis through its state subsidies of precursors,” said the House of Representatives’ select committee on China, on which all of the sponsors of the bills sit.

One bill, the CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act, introduced by Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss, would codify authorities for the US to cut off Chinese companies from the American banking system, including vessels, ports and online marketplaces that “knowingly or recklessly” facilitate shipment of illicit synthetic narcotics.

“This is state-sponsored poisoning of the American people,” Auchincloss said at an event introducing the legislation.

“The genesis of this is squarely on the mainland of the People’s Republic of China.”

Two other bills would create a task force of US agencies to conduct joint operations to disrupt trafficking networks, and allow for the imposition of civil penalties on Chinese entities that fail to properly manifest or follow formal entry channels when shipping precursors to the US, the committee said.

There is growing consensus in Republican circles close to Donald Trump that Beijing has exploited, even engineered, the synthetic opioid epidemic to harm Americans, an accusation Beijing denies.

China says it has some of the strictest drug laws in the world and that the US needs to curb narcotics demand at home.

China’s anti-drugs authorities have always cracked down on incidents linked to missing drug-making chemicals, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, told a news conference on Wednesday when asked about the bills.

With little time remaining in the current congressional term, the bills would likely need to be reintroduced next year after the new Congress is sworn in on January 3.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the select committee, wrote in an article this month that it was “time to get tough” on Beijing over fentanyl.

Back on Truth Social, the president-elect has warned Senate Republicans against agreeing a deal with Democrats on his nominees to top cabinet positions.

“To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump shouted in all-caps.

“I won the biggest mandate in 129 years. I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in.”

With that in mind, here’s Gustaf Kilander on Trump’s already-embattled nominee for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, who has been told his Senate confirmation hearing in January will be “a miserable experience” like that endured by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.