Trump Corruption

Axios reports: With 67 days until President-elect Trump is sworn in, his administration-in-waiting is still bypassing the official process designed to facilitate the transfer of control over the vast federal bureaucracy. For now, future Trump administration officials won’t have access to the agencies they’ll soon lead, to secure communications systems, or potentially to security briefings and clearances. Trump’s team has …

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: This is a bad choice for AG that would undermine confidence in the law. Mr. Trump lauded Mr. Gaetz’s law degree from William and Mary, but it might as well be a doctorate in outrage theater. He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the …

The Daily Mail reports: Donald Trump and Elon Musk looked more like Simon and Garfunkel at Mar-a-Lago during a rendition of God Bless America – but fans spotted one minor problem. The duo returned to a hero’s welcome at the ‘Winter White House’ Wednesday night and Trump joked he can’t get rid of his billionaire “first buddy.” But as Musk …

“If I am able to serve, I would love to serve the people of Florida. This is my home state now and has been for three years. This is where Eric and I live and truly to have that opportunity, I think would be incredible, and no one knows better than I do the America first agenda or the goals …

The Daily Beast reports: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s legal team filed a motion to jump ship from a case in which two election workers he defamed are trying to collect a $146 million defamation judgment. Kenneth Caruso asked Wednesday that he and co-counsel David Labkowski be allowed to quit representing the disgraced coffee salesman and onetime lawyer …

“Hope it’s wrong, but I’m hearing through the grapevine about this bonkers plan: Trump would adjourn both Houses of Congress under Article II, section 3, and then recess-appoint his Cabinet. “As predicate for Trump’s exercise of adjournment power, one House of Congress would seek other House’s consent to adjourn and be denied. So Speaker of House would need to be …

The New York Times reports: When President-elect Donald J. Trump met with House Republicans on Wednesday morning, he suggested he might need their help to try to circumvent the Constitution and run for a third term in the future — a comment that was met with laughter by his friendly audience. “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you …

“The last time around, back during the Obama years, there were a lot of inflation truthers claiming that the inflation numbers were being manipulated to make it look like there was less inflation than there was. Such accusations are always projections—it’s what they would do, not what was actually happening. We turned to various kinds of private sector independent measures …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday chose Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who became one of his most enthusiastic backers, to serve as the director of national intelligence. Ms. Gabbard has been a longtime critic of the foreign policy establishment. Her nomination is another sign that Mr. Trump intends to give top foreign policy …

Fox News reports: Former first lady Melania Trump said she questions whether current first lady Jill Biden’s “concern was genuine” following the first assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump in July, due to her rhetoric about her husband in the days leading up to the incident. Trump, in an interview with French publication “Paris Match” last month, said that Biden …

Newsweek reports: resident-elect Donald Trump quipped about running for a third term during a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday. During the meeting, which preceded Trump’s meeting with President Joe Biden in the White House, Trump quipped about the possibility of running for a third term. The remark sparked Democratic outrage, though others said his comment was simply a joke. …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump is meeting in the Oval Office with President Biden, a triumphant return to the seat of American power that he grudgingly left four years ago. Mr. Trump’s trip to the White House was at the invitation of Mr. Biden, who honored the decades-old tradition in which the outgoing president hosts the …

Axios reports: Practices that have governed the White House’s interaction with the press have long favored mainstream outlets such as major broadcast and cable news networks, national newspapers and wire services. Trump’s first administration tried to ban outlets it saw as unfavorable. That included the New York Times, Politico, CNN and BBC. More recently, his campaign blocked multiple reporters from …

“I’m shocked, truly. And this is exactly what we worried about and we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom, and get revenge on generals and put essentially really unqualified people. “I appreciate Mr. Hegseth’s service in our armed forces, but being a serviceman …

CNN reports: No longer is Trump the pariah-like figure who even many Republicans said would never return to the White House after his role in instigating the January 6, 2021, riot. Instead of shunned, Trump will sit down with Biden a few feet away from the very same dining room where he watched the attack unfold on his 60-inch television, …

NBC News reports: The incoming Trump administration is considering locations and talking to private prison companies about drastically expanding immigrant detention centers that would hold immigrants before they are deported as part of President-elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation plan. The goal is to double the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds — 41,000 are now allocated by …

The New York Times reports: Jack Smith, the special counsel who pursued two federal prosecutions of Donald J. Trump, plans to finish his work and resign along with other members of his team before Mr. Trump takes office in January, people familiar with his plans said. Mr. Smith’s goal, they said, is to not leave any significant part of his …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Trump said on Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what he called the Department of Government Efficiency. It will be, he said, “the Manhattan Project” of this era, driving “drastic change” throughout the government with major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated agencies in the federal bureaucracy by July 4, 2026. …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump transition team is considering a draft executive order that establishes a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel with the power to review three- and four-star officers and to recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership. If Donald Trump approves the order, it could fast-track the removal of generals and admirals found …

“He [Trump] appreciates the breadth and reach of TikTok, which he used masterfully along with podcasts and new media entrants to win. There are many ways to hold China to account outside alienating 180 million U.S. users each month. Trump recognized early on that Democrats are the party of bans — gas-powered cars, menthol cigarettes, vapes, plastic straws and TikTok …