The Day Trump Made Peace with Biden

Arizona Rep. John Ciscomani (R) confirmed his support for Speaker Mike Johnson while also emphasizing the importance of having a House leader who can "actually deliver" and "keep our conference united." Ciscomani, in a Tuesday NewsNation interview, said he was "grateful for the speaker's support" throughout his campaign and has a good relationship with him....

ELON AND VIVEK TAPPED FOR NEW 'DEPARTMENT'

President-elect Donald Trump announced he has picked Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk and entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to “lead the Department of Government Efficiency.”

John Krasinski named People magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

President-elect Donald Trump has announced he will nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as secretary of defense. Hegseth is a combat veteran who has long advocated for veterans.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck facilities used by Hezbollah for military purposes after the group fired more rockets across the Lebanese border.

In August, Trump said he wouldn't rule out taking away access to mifepristone, which was also mentioned by the policy blueprint Project 2025.

Here's who Donald Trump has picked so far and what their responsibilities will be in his second term.

Special counsel Jack Smith has various avenues for winding down his cases against President-elect Trump before he’s expected to be fired by an incoming administration whose leader has floated arresting him. In his investigations of Trump, Smith has asked for a pause in deadlines in his election interference case and has been silent on his Florida case...

President-elect Donald Trump stunned political observers Tuesday night by nominating Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense.

In today’s issue: President-elect Trump is in Washington today, meeting with Hill Republicans before heading to the White House for a sit-down with President Biden. The appointment on Pennsylvania Avenue promises to be highly awkward as Biden welcomes his successor — a man he labeled a danger to the country — to his residence, writes...

Gold is a member of NASA's independent UAP study team and now works in the aerospace community's commercial sector.

Better catch this week's supermoon. It will be a while until the next one.

The idea is seen as illegal by most of the international community and could threaten Israel’s relations with its Arab allies.

Democrats are angered by the American public's decision to vote for Republicans, despite their claims that Trump and Republicans are a threat to democracy, and are instead focusing on the threat of fascism and authoritarian leadership.

Smith’s plan is to get ahead of Trump’s promise to “fire” the special counsel within “two seconds” after being sworn in, sources told the New York Times.

Conservative pundit George Conway downplayed President-elect Trump's proposed advisory group focused on cutting federal spending and reducing the size of the government Tuesday, calling it "nonexistent." When asked by MSNBC's Alex Wagner about Trump's announcement to have billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy lead the group dubbed the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), Conway...

Special counsel Jack Smith plans to wrap up his work and resign from his post before President-elect Trump is sworn in. Trump has boasted that he plans to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office and has also made other threatening remarks about the special counsel, including that he should be arrested. The New...

Special counsel Jack Smith plans to wrap up his work and resign from his post before President-elect Trump is sworn in. Trump has boasted that he plans to fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office and has also made other threatening remarks about the special counsel, including that he should be arrested. The New...

Trump has vowed to put a quick end to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which Kyiv and some European capitals believe could force Ukraine to make painful concessions.

Hundreds of books were removed from shelves at Florida schools, according to a list compiled by the state’s Department of Education for the 2023-2024 school year.  The list shows more than 700 books were “removed or discontinued,” an increase from the 400 last year.  The department said the books were removed due to an objection...

The election is over. What matters now is how the Trump administration governs.

A CIA official has been charged with leaking highly classified documents about Israel’s potential plan to strike back against Iran over a missile attack.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a vocal critic of President-elect Trump, said the choice of Pete Hegseth, Army veteran and a Fox News host, to serve as Defense secretary was "weird," adding that Trump chose him for his loyalty and because "he's on Fox News." "Obviously, it‘s weird, and there‘s only one reason he‘s doing it, because he‘s...

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) weighed in on President-elect Trump's decision to tap Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his Defense chief, suggesting he will be "easily confirmed." “I dare any Republican senator to vote against him," Chaffetz told Fox News's Laura Ingraham. "That is not in their best interest." “And we need to get...

It’s unlikely that Trump can turn the country into a dictatorship with a few strokes of a pen. The courts are working in America, the sprawling federal bureaucracy is formidable and presidents do not control the individual states.

President Biden, with just over two months left in office, will speak at a White House event Wednesday focused on the administration's "Investing in America" agenda. Biden and first lady Jill Biden are welcoming 200 education and workforce leaders to a summit dubbed "Classroom to Career." The event is expected to highlight progress to expand...

It's time to take the next step toward making Congress more diverse and inclusive.

Ben Mathis-Lilley

Asif Rahman was arrested in Cambodia on Tuesday and expected to appear in federal court in Guam.

Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables will no longer be a part of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) due to weak demand.   The company announced Tuesday it would reconsider bringing back Lunchables in the future, but current demand does not reach what the company hoped for. “Last year, we brought two NSLP compliant Lunchables options...

Former national security adviser John Bolton said President-elect Trump is looking for “subservience” from appointees rather than loyalty, as Trump began to announce appointments to key roles in his upcoming administration. “As I've said before, I don't think loyalty is really the right word. I think it's fealty," he said Wednesday during an appearance on...

Rev. Al Sharpton plans to hold a rally in protest of President-elect Trump on inauguration day.  Sharpton announced the rally on his MSNBC show, "Politics Nation with Al Sharpton," on Tuesday. The rally and Trump's inauguration coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  “While Trump supporters will be on one side of Washington watching him take the...

The House Oversight Committee will hear testimony Wednesday from a number of witnesses about their experience with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — or UFOs. It marks the first congressional hearing on UAPs since last year, after career intelligence official David Grusch's allegations that the Pentagon was operating a secret UFO retrieval program. Lawmakers that attended...

An entire county shifted to a 32-hour workweek. The results were surprisingly positive

President Joe Biden will welcome him to the White House for a visit that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power.

President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump will meet at the White House on Wednesday. Keep up with live updates from the USA TODAY Network.

President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are meeting at the White House Wednesday. Keep up with live updates from the USA TODAY Network.

Lucy Calkins was an education superstar. Now she’s cast as the reason a generation of students struggles to read. Can she reclaim her good name?

Tesla voluntarily recalled 2,431 Cybertruck electric pickup trucks on Wednesday due to faulty drive inverters which increase the risk for driver collision in its sixth recall effort this year.  The recall applies to all 2024 Cybertruck vehicles manufactured from Nov. 6, 2023 to July 30, 2024. “On affected vehicles, a fault in the drive inverter...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is set to brief reporters on Wednesday following the meeting between President Biden and President-elect Trump. During the visit, Biden congratulated Trump for his victory. The president was once Trump's chief political opponent before Biden dropped out of the 2024 race in July. The meeting was meant to underscore the...

P’nut, an Instagram-famous squirrel that was seized and euthanized by New York state and entered the political fray before the election, was negative for rabies, state officials said Tuesday. The squirrel’s owner, Mark Longo, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday that he is filing a “very big” lawsuit and demanding answers after his squirrel and...

A CIA official has been charged with leaking highly classified U.S. documents about Israel’s potential plan to strike back against Iran over a missile attack.

President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House on Wednesday and congratulated him on his landslide victory.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has been elected Senate majority leader, setting the stage for him to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has held the top Senate GOP leadership job for the past 18 years. Thune has served as Senate Republican whip, the No. 2-ranking position in the Senate GOP leadership, since 2019, and...

Sen. John Thune has won an internal election among Republican senators to become the chamber’s next majority leader.

Fred Kaplan

President Biden called his predecessor — now, successor — a threat to democracy. Today he sat side by side with President-elect Trump as part of the ceremony around a smooth transfer of power.

President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House on Wednesday and congratulated him on his landslide victory.

President-elect Trump floated the prospect of seeking a third term in an apparent joke to House Republicans on Wednesday as they met ahead of internal leadership elections.  “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you do something,” Trump said, according to pool reports and audio shared with The Hill. “Unless you say, ‘He’s so...

A teenage birthday portrait that speaks volumes

Fox News personality Pete Hegseth was selected for the secretary of defense position on Tuesday night by Donald Trump, the incoming 47th president, prompting some to raise their eyebrows at the nomination decision.

President Joe Biden will welcome him to the White House for a visit that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power.

Permanent tent cities are another idea Trump has for dealing with people who are unhoused. Sequestering people with mental illness or substance abuse in one place has been tried, an expert says, and “it turns into hell on earth.”

President Biden is planning to meet President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru, the White House announced Wednesday. The meeting marks the third time Biden and Xi are speaking face to face, but comes ahead of the transition to President-elect Trump’s administration in January. A senior administration official...

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will take over as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and helm the campaign efforts for the 2026 cycle. Scott won the chairmanship on Wednesday and ran uncontested for the post. He replaces Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who steered the party to a potential 53-seat majority and four flipped...

President Joe Biden welcomed Donald Trump to the White House for an Oval Office visit, a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power.

Democratic strategist David Axelrod pushed for U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel to become the new chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). “If they said, ‘Well, what should we do? Who should lead the party?’ I would take Ambassador Rahm Emanuel and I would bring him back from Japan, and I would appoint him...

President-elect Trump may accelerate the timetable for a truce. Kyiv views guarantees against renewed aggression as crucial to any settlement.

Former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira has been sentenced to 15 years for leaking classified national defense information, which prosecutors characterized as “one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

Federal Judge Blocks Law Mandating Ten Commandments Displays in Louisiana Classrooms 

Trump's pick of Hegseth for Defense secretary puts a Washington outsider at the front of the Pentagon. On his agenda: targeting woke issue, and women in combat.

The election results set up two years of conservative control on Capitol Hill.

President-elect Donald Trump has long presented pollsters with a challenge. Here's what polling underestimated and what it accurately foreshadowed in this election.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck facilities used by Hezbollah for military purposes after the group fired more rockets across the Lebanese border.

Donald Trump said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida will be secretary of state. Here’s where Rubio stands on the Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars, NATO and more.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s decadelong fight to drag the Church of England into the 21st century ended this week as the church agreed he should quit over his handling of a child-abuse case.

President-elect selected Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to serve as his Attorney General Wednesday in a surprising pick.

Donald Trump will meet with top lawmakers on Wednesday – the same day members of the House and Senate vote on crucial congressional leadership posts.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

An Israeli government minister discussed the proposal with Trump and Jared Kushner at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday before traveling to the White House for talks.

President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general, putting a loyalist in the role of the nation’s top prosecutor.

President-elect Trump nominated Representative Matt Gaetz amid a flurry of personnel announcements and with the G.O.P. on the verge of controlling Congress.

The jury that found former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) guilty of corruption was accidentally shown improper evidence, though the mistake should not imperil his conviction, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Menendez resigned from the Senate in August after he was convicted on all 16 counts he faced, including bribery and acting as a foreign agent. He...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) will be Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, the top law enforcement officer in the land.

House Republicans on Wednesday nominated Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to retain the gavel in the upcoming 119th Congress, according to three sources in the room, as the conference prepares to govern in the GOP trifecta next year. Johnson — who was running unopposed for the gavel — won the Speakership nomination on a voice vote....

To Succeed at Cutting Government, Musk and Ramaswamy Must Take on Entitlements

Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly running through several hurdles to finalize whatever work he has left in order to retire before President-elect Donald Trump takes back the White House in January, denying the 47th president the chance to fire him.

A federal court in D.C. has issued a ruling that curtails the White House’s ability to set government-wide rules pertaining to how environmental reviews can be conducted. On Tuesday, judges with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) cannot issue regulations pertaining to the National Environmental...

President-elect Trump has made an unconventional choice in announcing his intention of nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. It was a surprise choice that already has caused some consternation. Many had expected a nominee with more experience to be selected to lead the Pentagon. Hegseth has been a fierce advocate of...

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) on Wednesday said “elections have consequences” when asked about President-elect Trump’s choice of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general. “Donald Trump is very intentional with this pick,” Moskowitz said when asked by NewsNation about Gaetz’s possible new role, labeling the Republican representative as "fiercely loyal" and "fiercely competent." "Donald Trump’s...

Presented by American Chemistry Council — Planet-warming carbon emissions reached a new high this year, according to research published Wednesday by the Global Carbon Project. {beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment   The Big Story Fossil fuel pollution hits record high: Research Planet-warming carbon emissions reached a new high this year, according to research...

Trump intends to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, surprising many lawmakers who will have to confirm them.

Mark Joseph Stern

The Pennsylvania Senate race is heading for a recount as Republican Dave McCormick continues to lead Sen. Bob Casey (R-Pa.) in what would be a crucial win for the GOP.  Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt made the announcement on Wednesday. McCormick’s lead has hovered around 30,000 votes, putting it squarely in the needed range...

The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times announced that he will be overhauling his “very left” editorial board after deciding to refrain from publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris via the progressive outlet.

Argentina’s Federal Cassation Chamber has upheld the conviction of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in relation to her fraud case.

Elon Musk Vivek Ramaswamy are taking a knife to wasteful government-spending on things like handouts to China, monkey islands and empty public buildings.

‘ARE YOU S**TTIN' ME?’ LAWMAKERS SHOCKED

House lawmakers on Wednesday heard from witnesses who claim the United States government is sitting on a trove of information on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) stretching back decades. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), in his opening remarks, called on President-elect Trump to throw off the veil of secrecy on UAPs. He said the push for transparency...

Gaetz’s decision to step down ends a congressional ethics probe into allegations he engaged in sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and drug use.

Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune (R-SD) said Senate Republicans “are excited” to enact President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

President Biden has resumed a tradition that President-elect Donald Trump flouted in 2020 after he was voted out of office.

{beacon} Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security   The Big Story Trump gets blowback for untested Pentagon chief pick President-elect Trump's surprise choice of Pete Hegseth, a conservative Fox News host, as Defense Secretary has enraged Democrats and left even some Republicans scratching their heads. ©...

Republicans are giddy and preparing for at least two years with a trifecta. Democrats are reassessing their losses and looking to Trump's agenda.

The world’s pre-eminent East-meets-West investment hub has become more Chinese as international financial institutions, corporations, and expatriates retreat

Democrats in both chambers of Congress have expressed concern over President-elect Trump’s decision to tap Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to serve as the next attorney general.  Trump announced on Wednesday that Gaetz, a loyal congressional ally, will be nominated to become the nation’s top law enforcement official, praising the Floridian as a “deeply gifted and...

Former national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)—President-elect Trump’s nominees for director of national intelligence (DNI) and attorney general, respectively— should not appear for their Senate confirmation hearings until they are investigated by the FBI. In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Bolton said...

It's been a week since the 2024 election, and Donald Trump has already named several people who will play roles in the White House.

The president-elect’s pick of Matt Gaetz for attorney general signals that he wants the Justice Department to take a sharp-elbowed, hyperpartisan approach to legal matters.

Gaetz’s decision to step down ends a congressional ethics probe into allegations he engaged in sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and drug use.

It's been a week since the 2024 election, and Donald Trump has already named several people who will play roles in the White House.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that people should “buckle up” for President-elect Trump's second term in the White House since “we got a lot more coming your way.” "I said this morning, if you are shocked or surprised by the appointment of Pete Hegseth last night as Secretary of Defense, buckle up...

Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Trump.

Republicans have won enough seats to control the U.S. House, completing the party’s sweep into power and securing their hold on U.S. government alongside President-elect Donald Trump.

The meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hung over Gabbard, Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence, as she ran for president in 2020.