Trump to kick transgender troops from army as Pete Hegseth’s cupboard nomination unsure: Live updates

Speaking of Trump’s preferred defense secretary, here’s Katie Hawkinson with some rather odd criticism of him in the process of trying to brush aside the sexual assault allegation raised against him by woman he met at a conservative conference in Monterey, California, in 2017.

Hegseth has denied wrongdoing in the case.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, is facing questions about his suitability about the role given his past comments about America’s international allies, The Guardian reports, citing quotes from a book by the former Fox weekend man criticising Nato and the UN and expressing his belief contention that US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions.

“Why do we fund the anti-American UN?” Hegseth asks in his 2020 book American Crusade.

“Why is Islamist Turkey a member of Nato?”

Meanwhile, here’s some new polling from Reuters/Ipsos revealing that 72 percent of the US public disagree with him on the question of female soldiers being deployed in combat roles.

With Republicans determined to make her arrival in Washington DC a spectacle, Sarah McBride is calmly shutting down their provocations as a “distraction” from their agenda.

America’s first openly transgender member of Congress has been far from the most vocal of candidates on the Democratic side since the party’s disastrous Election Day but the incoming representative from Delaware nevertheless finds herself in the center of the House GOP’s crosshairs.

And she isn’t taking the rage bait.

Here’s John Bowden’s profile.

The incoming president has made a series of wild selections to run his key government departments, writes Alan Rusbridger.

Matt Gaetz may have crashed and burned in his bid to become attorney general, but there are plenty of others who will offer Trump both loyalty and extreme ideologies.

Klitschko has hit out at the influential American podcaster over his recent interview with music producer Scott Storch, which saw the duo slam President Biden’s decision last week to allow Volodymyr Zelensky to use American-made long-range missiles against Russia.

Rhian Lubin has the story.

The president-elect’s former national security adviser John Bolton did not hold back on the subject of Trump’s pick for counter-terrorism director when he appeared on CNN over the weekend.

“Sebastian Gorka is a con man,” Bolton told host Kaitlan Collins.

“He needs a full-field FBI background investigation about his educational claims and things like that.

“I think he is a perfect example of somebody who owes his position purely to Donald Trump, he doesn’t display loyalty, he displays fealty, and that’s what Trump wants.”

Gustaf Kilander has more.

The tech billionaire and Trump’s eldest son have been revelling in the idea of the former (seemingly now resident at Mar-a-Lago) buying up the liberal network and using it to parp out MAGA propaganda.

Gustaf Kilander reports.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has said he would break ranks and not support Trump’s “terrible” plans to use the military to carry out mass deportations.

Paul told CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday that he supports the president-elect’s plans to deport “the 15,000 murderers and 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators” but only through the “normal process of domestic policing.”

By contrast, Trump’s idea to use the military for mass deportations is “illegal” and would create a “terrible image,” he said.

“I will not support and will not vote to use the military in our cities. I think it’s a terrible image.

“I’m 100 percent supportive of going after the 15,000 murderers, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists, all these people,” Paul said. “But you don’t do it with the army because it’s illegal.”

Rhian Lubin has more.

The veteran Ohio Democrat lost his Senate seat earlier this month to Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno and has been reflecting on the defeat in conversation with CNN.

He says the left’s failure to win over the working-class is what cost him and others across the country and is likely to continue to hurt his party if it doesn’t rectify the problem fast.

“I think that we don’t appear to be fighting for them,” Brown said.

“Workers have drifted away from the Democratic Party.”

Calling for a greater emphasis on the economy and blue-collar families suffering from the rising cost of living, Brown said: “I lost, but we ran ahead of the national ticket.

“When the leader of your ticket runs 12 points behind, almost, you can’t overcome that, even though it was a close race in the end.”

He also complained that Trumpian smears against his record had also played a part in his loss.

“A lot of things made the difference. I’d say it’s the money and Trump. That kind of money, month after month after month, with nasty negative ads.

“I guess that’s how you win a race. You lie, you spend a lot of money, and then you, as my opponent, hope that your candidate, Trump in this case, would win by a lot.”

Asked if he planned to challenge for the seat being vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance, the 72-year-old said: “I’m not dismissing anything at this point.”