Page 8 - Trump Govt

US Justice Department fires employees involved in prosecutions of Trump

The Justice Department said it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signalling an early willingness to take action favourable to the president's personal interests. The abrupt termination targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and is consistent with the administration's determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president. Monday's norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately. Today, Acting Attorney .

Trump fills govt with billionaires after running on working-class message

President Donald Trump's brash populism has always involved incongruence: the billionaire businessman-politician stirring the passions of millions who, regardless of the US economy's trajectory, could never afford to live in his Manhattan skyscraper or visit his club in south Florida. His second White House is looking a lot like the inside of Mar-a-Lago, with extremely wealthy Americans taking key roles in his administration. The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is overseeing a new Department of Government Efficiency. Billionaires or mega-millionaires are lined up to run the treasury, commerce, interior and education departments, NASA and the Small Business Administration, and fill key foreign posts. He's bringing in folks who have had great success in the private sector, said Debbie Dooley, an early 2015 Trump supporter and onetime national organizer in the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. If you need to have brain surgery, you want the proven brain surgeons. Others raise ...

56 US senior officials put on leave, citing resistance to Trump orders

At least 56 senior officials in the top US aid and development agency were placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart President Donald Trump's orders. A current official and a former official at the US Agency for International Development confirmed the reason given for the move Monday. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere also were laid off, the officials said. It follows Trump's executive order last week that directed a sweeping 90-day pause on most US foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department. As a result of the freeze, thousands of US-funded humanitarian, development and security programmes worldwide had stopped work or were preparing to do so. Without funds to pay staff, aid organizations were laying off hundreds of employees. An internal USAID notice sent late Monday and obtained by The Associated Press said new acting administrator Jason Gray

Kristi Noem voted as US homeland security secretary in new Trump govt

The installation of a longtime Trump ally at the helm of an agency is poised to play a central role in the president's promised immigration crackdown

Trump Inauguration highlights: Trump signs order for US to exit WHO, withdraws from Paris Accords

Donald Trump Inauguration Day LIVE Updates: Stay with us for all the latest news updates as Trump takes over the White House

TikTok's return in US comes with scrutiny over reach of Trump's powers

There are also questions about whether the extension would be legal once the ban kicked in on Sunday

Trump's inauguration ceremony on Monday to be the coldest in recent history

The National Weather Service of the US is warning of dangerously low wind chills, particularly in the morning when temperatures could be reduced drastically

Trump shakes up global politics a month before taking charge at White House

His trade threats helped set off a cabinet crisis in Canada that has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau teetering

Trump names immigration hard-liner Kari Lake as head of Voice of America

President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he's picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world. Lake, an immigration hard-liner, was a television news anchor in Phoenix for nearly three decades until she left in 2021 after making a series of controversial statements on social media, including sharing COVID-19 misinformation during the pandemic. She launched her political career a short time later, quickly building a loyal following and national profile as she sparred with journalists and echoed Trump in her sharp criticism of what she called the fake news. She endeared herself to Trump through her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that both she and Trump were the victims of election fraud. She has never acknowledged her defeat in the 2022 gubernatorial race and lost her Senate

Trump names Andrew Ferguson head of FTC, Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece

President-elect Donald Trump has named Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission. He will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars' worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behaviour. It was one of several evening announcements Trump made on Tuesday via his social media platform, including that he was naming Kimberly Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece, a longtime supporter who was engaged to his son Don Jr., and ally and former inaugural chairman Tom Barrack as Ambassador to Turkey. Ferguson is already one of the FTC's five commissioners, which is currently made up of three Democrats and two Republicans. Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country, Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country'

Big cheques, big roles: Major Trump donors bag key federal positions

The biggest donor by far for the entire election cycle, Elon Mus, poured $75 million into the pro, Trump super political action committee

Donald Trump set to receive 'Patriot of the Year' award at FOX Nation event

President-elect Donald Trump, largely ensconced at Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks, will make a rare appearance outside his Florida resort to accept the Patriot of the Year" award at FOX Nation's Patriot Awards on Thursday night. Trump, who has been announcing job picks as he builds out his administration, will travel to New York's Long Island for the annual awards ceremony from the Fox News streaming platform. The event is being hosted by Fox host Sean Hannity, a friend of Trump's who stepped in after the president-elect nominated Pete Hegseth, the original host, as defence secretary. The annual awards honour and recognise America's finest patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspirational everyday heroes, according to Fox. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site earlier this week that he looks "greatly forward" to receiving the Patriot of the Year award, an honour he called so nice! The award marks the culmination of Fox's reembrace of the president-elect, w

Trump team allows justice dept to conduct background checks on nominees

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Tuesday signed an agreement to allow the Justice Department to conduct background checks on his nominees and appointees after a weeks-long delay. The step lets Trump transition aides and future administration staffers obtain security clearances before Inauguration Day to access classified information about ongoing government programs, an essential step for a smooth transiton of power. It also allows those nominees who are up for Senate confirmation to face the background checks lawmakers want before voting on them. Teams of investigators have been standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers. This agreement with the Department of Justice will ensure President Trump and his team are ready on Day 1 to begin enacting the America First Agenda that an overwhelming majority of our nation supported on Election Day," said Susie Wiles, Trump's designate to be White House chief of staff. The announcement comes a week after t

Kash Patel must prove he'll restore public faith in FBI: GOP senator

Donald Trump's drive to upend the FBI was welcomed by Republican senators although it was not clear on Sunday how strongly members of the incoming majority party would embrace his move to install ally Kash Patel as the next director of the Justice Department's top investigative arm. Patel, a onetime national security prosecutor who is aligned with the president-elect's rhetoric about a deep state, "must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI, said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in line to be the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman when Republicans take control in January, in a post on X. Patel lacks the high-level legal and management experience that FBI directors, including Robert Mueller, James Comey and Christopher Wray, who now holds that job, had before their nominations. It's a 10-year term, and Trump named Wray in 2017 after firing Comey. So Trump's announcement late Saturday means Wray must either resign or be fired after Trump takes office on Jan 20,

Trump names Jay Bhattacharya as Director of National Institutes of Health

Bhattacharya said he will reform scientific institutions so that they're 'worthy of trust' again

Trump chooses Pam Bondi for attorney general pick after Gaetz withdraws

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to be US attorney general just hours after his other choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name. Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial when he was accused but not convicted of abusing his power as he tried to condition US military assistance to Ukraine on that country investigating then-former Vice President Joe Biden. She has been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers. Bondi is from Tampa and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. She was Florida's first female attorney general.

Trump, several of his Cabinet picks face accusations of sexual misconduct

While Matt Gaetzhas withdrawn from the nomination process for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has picked several other people for his Cabinet and key staff positions who have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct. Trump himself has long been accused of abusing or mistreating women and once was caught bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. He was found liable by a New York City jury for sexual abuse and defamation and eventually ordered to pay the woman, E. Jean Carroll, USD 83 million in damages. Taken together, there are a striking number of incidents in which potential high-ranking government officials in Trump's second administration face allegations of sexual abuse. Trump and all of his picks for government have denied the claims against them, with some of the people accused arguing the cases are driven by politics. Here's a look at what's known about the cases: President-elect Donald Trump Jurors in New York last year found Trump liable for ...

Donald Trump to interview Kevin Warsh, Marc Rowan for Treasury job today

Trump's search for a Treasury Secretary was widening after it was stalled over the weekend

Not reconsidering Matt Gaetz nomination for attorney general, says Trump

The nomination generated some skepticism given that the former congressman, first elected in 2016, was under investigation

Here's all you need to know about Trump's cabinet pick, who's in running

Here are the early picks and top contenders for some of the key posts