Trump to reportedly appoint immigration hardliner Stephen Miller to top White House job – live | US elections 2024

With congresswoman Elise Stefanik heading to the United Nations and former acting Ice chief Tom Homan tasked with border security, who else may Donald Trump appoint to his cabinet?

The Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo has a look at the reported contenders for top roles:

With Democrats heading for the minority in the Senate, some party thinkers are encouraging liberal supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down.

That would clear the way for Democrats – in their final weeks controlling the Senate – to confirm a younger replacement for the 70-year-old, and perhaps prevent Republicans from making any new appointments to the court. But CNN reports that the justice has no plans to retire:

“She’s in great health, and the court needs her now more than ever,” said one person close to the justice.

Over the weekend, Bernie Sanders, an influential progressive senator who is allied with Democrats, poured cold water on Sotomayor stepping down, saying he did not think it would be a good idea:

The war in the Middle East was a major issue in last week’s election, with many Muslims and Arab Americans incensed by Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s invasions of Gaza and Lebanon.

That indignation played a part in handing Michigan, a swing state that’s home to some of the largest communities of the two groups in the United States, to Donald Trump. The Associated Press reports that Trump has become the first Republican candidate in 24 years to win the city of Dearborn, where almost half of residents are of Arab descent, and many did not trust Kamala Harris to restrain Israel.

Here’s more from the AP:

In Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent, Vice President Kamala Harris received over 2,500 fewer votes than Trump, who became the first Republican presidential candidate since former President George W. Bush in 2000 to win the city. Harris also lost neighboring Dearborn Heights to Trump, who in his previous term as president banned travel from several mostly-Muslim countries.

Harris lost the presidential vote in two Detroit-area cities with large Arab American populations after months of warnings from local Democrats about the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Some said they backed Trump after he visited a few days before the election, mingling with customers and staff at a Lebanese-owned restaurant and reassuring people that he would find a way to end the violence in the Middle East.

Others, including Amen, were unable to persuade themselves to back the former president. She said many Arab Americans felt Harris got what she deserved but aren’t “jubilant about Trump.”

“Whether it’s Trump himself or the people who are around him, it does pose a great deal of concern for me,” Amen said. “But at the end of the day when you have two evils running, what are you left with?”

As it became clear late Tuesday into early Wednesday that Trump would not only win the presidency but likely prevail in Dearborn, the mood in metro Detroit’s Arab American communities was described by Dearborn City Council member Mustapha Hammoud as “somber.” And yet, he said, the result was “not surprising at all.”

The shift in Dearborn — where Trump received nearly 18,000 votes compared with Harris’ 15,000 — marks a startling change from just four years ago when Joe Biden won in the city by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

The Republican House majority leader, Steve Scalise, is celebrating congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s appointment as Donald Trump’s UN ambassador.

Scalise said, in a statement:

President Trump has made a fantastic choice with Conference Chair Elise Stefanik for US Ambassador to the United Nations. I will miss Elise, who has become a dear friend in the House as well as a respected leader as our Republican Conference Chair. She is extremely qualified for this new role in public service, and the House’s loss will be a huge gain for the Trump Administration and the country. There is nobody better to represent President Trump’s foreign policy and America’s values at the United Nations than Elise Stefanik.

Stefanik’s departure from the House means she will need to be replaced in a special election, but her district leans Republican, meaning Democrats will have a tough road to get one of their lawmakers in.

The GOP took control of the Senate in last week’s elections, by winning Democratic-held seats in West Virginia, Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

But ballots are still being counted in Pennsylvania, and Politico reports that Chuck Schumer, the Democrat who remains the Senate majority leader until the next Congress begins, is not inviting Republican David McCormick to new member orientation until his win is confirmed.

He is doing the same for Ruben Gallego, the Democratic Senate candidate in Arizona, where ballots are also still being counted, but Republicans are nonetheless calling foul over McCormick’s exclusion.

Here’s more, from Politico:

On Wednesday, Republican senators will vote for the next majority leader, who will begin serving in January. The three front-runners are Florida Sen. Rick Scott, South Dakota Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

When asked on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” who he would support for majority leader, McCormick told host Maria Bartiromo, “I’m still just now spending time with each of the candidates, and I will have an opportunity to vote this week.”

He added that he would not speak about the pros and cons of each candidate, but emphasized the need to be “in step with President Trump.”

In response to Schumer’s decision to prevent McCormick from participating, Republican politicians have been speaking out, including the majority leader-hopefuls.

“The idea that Schumer would not allow him to participate in Senate orientation is beyond unacceptable,” Thune wrote in a social media post Sunday. “The voters of Pennsylvania have spoken. Looking forward to having Dave’s strong voice in the Senate Republican Conference.”

Scott called the move “disgusting” and said, “They did the same thing to me after I beat a Democrat in 2018. We have to fight this!”

Cornyn called on Casey to concede and reposted a statement by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which said: “I can’t think of another time when a senator-elect has been excluded from the Senate’s week-long orientation for new senators.”

McCormick argued that there’s no way Casey can gain enough votes at this point to defeat him.

“Mathematically, there’s no path for Senator Casey to win,” McCormick said on Fox. “Currently, I’m up by something like 40,000 votes, which is a very significant margin. And ultimately, Senator Casey’s going to have to decide when he’s willing to acknowledge that.”

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The UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, has said Donald Trump is expected to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes to prevail” over Russia, the PA news agency reports.

Healey said he believes the incoming administration will be “steadfast” in backing Kyiv, downplaying concerns that the US will turn away from Nato under the president-elect.

But he cautioned that any potential peace talks were for Ukraine alone to call after a senior Trump adviser suggested Washington would be focused on resolving the conflict rather than helping the country regain territory.

Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticised.

The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer is meeting his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris today to discuss Ukraine on Armistice Day. My colleague Andrew Sparrow has more on the UK government’s relationship with Trump in this post in the UK politics blog.

EPA staff fear Trump will destroy how it protects Americans from pollution

The US president, Joe Biden, and President-elect Donald Trump will meet on Wednesday at the White House on Biden’s invitation. Trump, 78, will take office on 20 January. Biden, who has accused Trump of attempting to undermine the US’s system of government, has said he is determined to ensure a smooth transition of power.

“At President Biden’s invitation, President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“I’m going to see him on Wednesday,” Biden told reporters on Saturday, when asked whether Trump was a threat to democracy.

Biden, a Democrat, had initially sought reelection but dropped out of the race in July after a disastrous debate against Trump. His decision to stay in the race for so long – despite concerns about his cognitive functioning – left the party without enough time to hold an open primary, something some Democrats have blamed for Kamala Harris’ defeat in the presidential election.

Republicans edging closer to full control of the US Congress with party nearing House majority

Justo Robles

In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Tom Homan said the military would not be rounding up and arresting immigrants in the country illegally and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner”.

“It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it,” he said. “When we go out there, we’re going to know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they’re going to be, and it’s going to be done in a humane manner.”

Trump has promised that his campaign pledge to expel millions of undocumented immigrants would be implemented come what may.