US election updates: Trump reportedly expects China hawks to play key security and foreign policy roles | US elections 2024

Donald Trump is reportedly tapping politicians who take a tough stance on China to key roles in his new Cabinet. The US president-elect has asked US Representative Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to become his national security adviser, several media outlets reported, while the New York Times and Reuters said Florida Senator Marco Rubio was the one Favorite for the post of state minister.

Waltz is also a member of the Republican China task force and is considered an aggressive politician who advocates for a more aggressive foreign policy when it comes to China. He called for the United States to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing what he described as the “suppression” of information about the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan and the ongoing mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Rubio is one of the leading China hawks in the Senate. Notably, in 2019, he called on the Treasury Department to initiate a national security review of popular Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. As the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he called on the Biden administration to halt all sales to Huawei earlier this year after the sanctioned Chinese technology company released a new laptop with an Intel AI processor chip.

During the campaign, Trump promised to impose 60% tariffs on all Chinese imports, which could affect $500 billion worth of goods.

This is what else happened on Tuesday:

• Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The former New York congressman and gubernatorial candidate will focus on reducing regulations. Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental regulations in his final term as U.S. president, said Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that he would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions.”

• Trump confirmed that Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York would be nominated as US ambassador to the United Nations in his administration. “She will be an incredible ambassador to the United Nations, bringing peace through strength and the policy of ‘America First National Security!'” Trump said in a statement. He also noted their efforts to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses during the Gaza War.

• Trump has reportedly named longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, as deputy policy chief in his new administration. Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers and has played a central role in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration. Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers that was founded as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union.

• Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin is reportedly being considered for a position as head of the Interior or Veterans Affairs Department in Trump’s administration.

• Axios reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy Ron Dermer met Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday. and that Dermer also met Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

• Kamala Harris made her first public appearance since her concession speech at a Veterans Day ceremony. The vice president did not speak at the event.

• Democrat Cleo Fields won Louisiana’s congressional election in a recently redistricted second-black majority district. According to the Associated Press, this will turn a once reliably Republican seat blue.

• Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over Trump’s economic fraud trial in New York where he was convicted of 34 crimes earlier this year, will decide on Tuesday whether to overturn the verdict. Reuters reports. The case is the only one of Trump’s four criminal charges to reach a verdict, and Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26 – although it is unclear now that he is heading back to the White House whether that will happen.