Trump to kick transgender troops from navy as Republicans defend intel nominee Tulsi Gabbard: Live updates

Rhian Lubin has more on GOP Senator James Lankford’s comments about Gabbard, particularly his interest in her past meetings with Bashar al-Assad at a time when the US government had turned its back on him.

Bill Hagerty of Tennessee has warned his GOP colleagues they must “step up” to appoint Trump’s cabinet picks or face recess appointments.

Hagerty was on ABC’s This Week that the idea of recess appointments “is and should be on the table”, adding that previous presidents in modern history including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had utilized the constitutional clause allowing appointments when the Senate is not in session.

The process would likely set up court battles and fray Trump’s relationship with GOP leaders — all while allowing him to confirm controversial choices despite concerns.

On the same subject and on the same show, Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar warned Trump’s nominees they had better “get their background checks together”.

Here’s more from John Bowden on Haggerty’s appeal.

Here’s why the president-elect’s eldest son is currently winning the Succession-style jockying for influence at Mar-a-Lago, what he’s doing with his power and what happens once his old man reaches the Oval Office.

Also on the Sunday shows, the aforementioned Markwayne Mullin insisted yesterday Trump’s choice for defense secretary was “falsely accused” of sexual assault, defending his claim days earlier that Pete Hegseth had just been “flirting” with his accuser before going even further in his attempts to defend his man.

Kelly Rissman reports.

Here’s more from Tammy Duckworth on another of Trump’s picks, former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, whom she says is “unqualified” to be America’s defense secretary after arguing that female soldiers should not be deployed to combat zones.

John Bowden reports.

Trump’s controversial choice to be the US’s new director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has been defended by a number of high-profile Republicans after Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth called her “compromised” over her past support for Russia during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

“I think she’s compromised,” Duckworth said.

“The US intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check.”

Her assessment was branded “ridiculous and outright dangerous” by Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin.

“That’s the most dangerous thing she could say – is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia.”

Prominent Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have also criticised Gabbard in recent days on similar grounds, with Warren alleging she was in “Putin’s pocket”.

Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt said he thought it was “totally ridiculous” that Gabbard was being cast as a Russian asset for having different political views.

“It’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly. There’s no evidence that she’s an asset of another country,” he said on NBC.

But Oklahoma GOP Senator James Lankford acknowledged he had “lots of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence services.

Lankford said on NBC that he wants to ask her about her meeting with Syrian dictator Basher al-Assad and regarding some of her past comments about Russia.

“We want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was. As a member of Congress, we want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context,” he said.

Here’s more on Gabbard from Richard Hall and Andrew Feinberg.

Good morning!

Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would remove transgender service members from the US military as soon as his first day in office.

The president-elect is reportedly preparing to issue an order following his inauguration on January 20 that would effectively ban trans people from serving – and then medically discharge the thousands of currently serving trans service members of the armed forces.

Trump declared that the US would no longer “accept or allow” trans people in the military during his first term, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption”.

The ban took effect in 2019 but was reversed by successor Joe Biden.

Trump is now understood to be planning to reinstate it and eject currently serving trans personnel.

Here’s more from Alex Woodward and Oliver O’Connell.

A Republican senator has warned his colleagues must “step up” to appoint Donald Trump’s cabinet picks or face recess appointments.

Bill Hagerty of Tennessee was on ABC’s This Week that the idea of recess appointments “is and should be on the table”, adding that previous presidents in modern history including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had utilized the constitutional clause allowing appointments when the Senate is not in session.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

Donald Trump Jr. shared a post on X following news that the network’s parent company Comcast is spinning off cable TV channels into a separate company.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.