The latest on Trump’s presidential transition

Donald Trump Jr. said Monday that he and President-elect Trump discussed the possibility of reordering the White House press briefing room so podcasters and independent journalists have more access than legacy media outlets.

The comments came on his show, “Triggered,” in conversation with podcaster Michael Knowles who said, “I wonder now as your father is assembling his team, as maybe Karoline Leavitt is looking at the new press briefing room chart, maybe it’s time to reorder that chart, maybe take away some people’s seats.”

Leavitt was chosen by the president-elect as his administration’s press secretary.

Trump Jr. said the conversation centered on “opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists” given how the “media has behaved.”

“Just because they’ve been there longer, it’s like, the way Congress functions, like, you get a committee, not because you know anything about banking, but because you’ve been there longer, and it’s like, doesn’t seem like a great way to do things,” Trump Jr. said. “We’ve had that conversation like, ‘That’s a great idea, Don,’ I was like, I think we should do this, and so that may be in the works. “

Currently, as stated on the White House Correspondence Association website, “The WHCA assigns the 49 permanent seats in the Brady Briefing Room, and all booths and desks in the upper and lower workspace. Assignments are reviewed periodically.”

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China starting on the first day of his administration. This follows his campaign promise of using tariffs as a cudgel against foreign countries – as he did in his first administration – to grow domestic manufacturing while increasing tax revenue to pay for large revenue gaps that his proposed tax cut plan would create.

Here’s what to know about tariffs and Trump’s plans:

What are tariffs: Tariffs effectively serve as a tax on goods imported to the United States. Although Trump has repeatedly said targeted foreign countries pay the tariffs, they are in fact paid by companies that purchase the imported goods – and those costs are typically passed onto American consumers. Most mainstream economists believe tariffs will be inflationary, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics has estimated Trump’s proposed tariffs would cost the typical US household over $2,600 a year.

How it could work in a Trump administration: Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, has said that tariffs would not add to inflation if they are implemented correctly. Wall Street cheered Bessent’s appointment, because he is widely expected to roll out tariffs gradually.

Although Bessent, if confirmed by the Senate, will be partly responsible for implementing the tariffs, in coordination with the commerce secretary and US Trade Representative, Trump as president would wield significant power to levy tariffs with the stroke of a pen. He did just that when he was last in the White House, placing large tariffs on goods, primarily from China.

Some background: The problem with tariffs is that they often result in retaliatory actions by targeted countries, kicking off a trade war – and that’s exactly what happened during Trump’s first term. That blunted the tariffs’ effect on domestic manufacturing, because manufacturers’ goods became less attractive to overseas buyers.

El Paso County officials announced the “winding down” of operations at the county’s migrant support services center due to uncertainty “of support and funding under the new [Trump] administration,” according to a news release issued by the county.

County officials worry that under the incoming Trump Administration’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — the agency that administers the monies it receives to fund the county center — could decide to redirect or repurpose the funds instead of reimbursing the county for its humanitarian efforts.

The migrant center was opened in October 2022, and has supported more than 115,000 migrants seeking asylum in the United States with an advance of about $29 million in FEMA funds, according to officials. The center helps asylum seekers coordinate travel after they have been processed by US immigration authorities and released into the El Paso area.

The move comes as migrant apprehensions at the US southern border have plummeted since this summer, when the Biden Administration issued an executive order that practically banned asylum at the border and upped deportations. Between June 5 and the end of September, the Department of Homeland Security has deported more than 160,000 people to more than 155 countries, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

Border agents on the US southern border apprehended about 1,500 migrants Sunday, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the government data. During some days in December of 2023, migrant apprehensions at the US southern border peaked at 10,000 per day.

Migrant apprehensions have dropped so much in El Paso that the Sacred Heart Church, which served migrants, closed its shelter last month because of the low number arriving in the city, Father Rafael Garcia said.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: President-elect Donald Trump looks on during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

In addition to his announced plans for tariffs on Canada and Mexico, President-elect Donald Trump is pledging to institute an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods “above any additional Tariffs” until the flow of fentanyl is stopped.

China’s response: The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, said China has been in communication with the US about counternarcotics operations. “The idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement to CNN. “About the issue of US tariffs on China, China believes that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature. No one will win a trade war or a tariff war.”

This post was updated with a response from the Chinese embassy.

President-elect Donald Trump said that he plans to institute a 25% tariff on all products coming into the US from Canada and Mexico, starting on the first day of his administration.

Trump says the move will be in retaliation for the “crime and drugs” coming across the borders.

“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump wrote.

President-elect Donald Trump announced three White House office directors on Monday.

The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s January 6 criminal prosecution in Washington, DC, formally dismissed the case against him on Monday, several hours after special counsel Jack Smith asked for permission to end the historic prosecution.

In a brief order, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to dismiss the charges, but did so in a way that would allow them to be brought again after his time in the White House concludes.

Earlier Monday, Smith asked Chutkan for permission to drop the case, pointing to longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

“The (Justice) Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated,” Smith wrote in a court filing.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, the White House reiterated Monday.

Why it matters: It’s a courtesy that Trump did not extend to Biden following the 2020 election.

The White House has previously said that Biden would attend the inauguration, regardless of who won the election.

Special Counsel Jack Smith plans to release a final report as required on his investigations into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to publicly release it, as he has with past special counsel reports. But it’s unclear how much new information would be included, especially in the election subversion case for which Smith recently filed hundreds of pages of legal arguments and evidence gathered for that prosecution.

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Even before special counsel Jack Smith formally asked that his criminal cases — the 2020 election subversion prosecution and the charges of mishandling classified documents — against Donald Trump be dismissed, it was already guaranteed the president-elect would never see a jury.

Here’s what you need to know about Smith’s move to seek the cases’ dismissal and how his prosecutions got to this point:

Trump’s election and retribution promises made this day inevitable: Trump’s reelection this month ensured that his federal criminal cases would face an early end. The former president vowed during his campaign to fire Smith if voters sent him back to the White House – a move at odds with how other presidents have handled special counsels. In the end, though, Trump didn’t need to sack Smith. He was already benefiting from a legal strategy of delay that made sure no trials got underway before election, which ultimately forced Smith’s hand.

The Supreme Court played a major role: If part of what happened was that Smith simply ran out of time to pursue the case against Trump, then the six-justice conservative majority on the Supreme Court had a key role to play in slowing things down. The high court granted Trump sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions in a highly anticipated 6-3 decision that was handed down in July, limiting the special counsel’s ability to move forward.

Judge Cannon killed the classified documents case: Trump hit the jackpot when the case was assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of his with little trial experience. She threw a number of wrenches into the prosecutors’ case before dismissing it entirely this summer on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed. Her handling of the charges was widely panned by legal experts.

Smith keeps door open for charges to be brought again: Smith said he was dropping the charges against the president-elect “without prejudice,” which in theory would keep open the door for charges to be brought again in the future.

Read more here about the special counsel’s case

President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on special counsel Jack Smith dismissing the election subversion and classified documents cases against him.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled Senate Democrats’ leadership elections for December 3 beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET, according to a Democratic leadership aide.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee will select its next chair during a February 1, 2025, vote at the end of the party’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

The committee also plans to hold four forums in January for candidates. The forums will be a combination of virtual and in-person events, all of which will be live streamed. Democrats will finalize the nomination and election processes at a Rules and Bylaws committee meeting on December 12.

There are two declared candidates in the race so far: former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Minnesota DLF chairman Ken Martin. Other names mulling runs include Wisconsin Democrats chairman Ben Wikler, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Vice President-elect JD Vance said on Monday that had Donald Trump lost the 2024 election, “he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison.”

Vance’s comments come after special counsel Jack Smith dropped his election subversion and classified documents cases against Trump.

In both of his cases against Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith said he was dropping the charges against the president-elect “without prejudice” – keeping open the door for charges to be brought again in the future.

In filings in the classified documents prosecution and the election subversion case, Smith characterized the presidential immunity Trump is entitled to once he returns to the White House as “temporary.”

Smith’s filing in the 2020 election case said Trump’s inauguration “sets at odds two fundamental and compelling national interests.”

Smith said he consulted with Justice Department lawyers on the question, and they also weighed the possibility of pausing the case until Trump no longer had the immunity of the presidency protecting him.

Ultimately, however, the department’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the bar on prosecuting sitting presidents is “categorial,” including for indictments handed up before a defendant enters office.

“Although the Constitution requires dismissal in this context, consistent with the temporary nature of the immunity afforded a sitting President, it does not require dismissal with prejudice,” Smith wrote.

Left unsaid was that Trump had said repeatedly that he planned to fire Smith, a move that also would have led to the end of the two cases.

Also unaddressed: Legal experts believe Trump could still pardon himself – ensuring no case is brought again.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Boris Epshteyn, an advisor to Donald Trump arrives to the Fiserv Forum on the second day of Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16.

Attorneys for Donald Trump conducted an internal investigation into allegations that one of his top aides, Boris Epshteyn, has sought to gain financially from his influence with Trump and others in the president-elect’s orbit, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The internal investigation, which was confirmed by half a dozen sources and is not criminal in nature, has probed multiple instances of Epshteyn allegedly requesting payment in exchange for promoting candidates for administration positions or offering to connect individuals with people in the upcoming administration relevant to their industries, sources said.

In one instance he requested as much as $100,000 per month in exchange for his services, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Epshteyn’s alleged activities prompted those looking into the matter to make an initial recommendation that Epshteyn should be removed from Trump’s proximity and that he should not be employed or paid by Trump entities, according to two sources.

As of Monday afternoon, it does not appear the transition team will heed that recommendation.

The alleged behavior by one of Trump’s closest advisers hints at some of the turmoil and strife behind the scenes of the transition process as the president-elect and his team staff the incoming administration.

Epshteyn, long seen as one of Trump’s most loyal advisers, has played a significant role in the transition, sitting in on key meetings and candidate briefings at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. But his presence has often been a divisive one.

Read more about the investigation.

Special counsel Jack Smith said that while he is dropping his prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, prosecutors will keep alive their case against two of his employees.

The co-defendants are Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, who work for Trump and are accused of helping the former president obstruct a federal investigation into sensitive government documents taken from his first administration.

The case is currently before the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing a judge’s order dismissing all charges.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s announcement that he is seeking dismissal of his election subversion case against President-elect Donald Trump, “is a shame for justice in this country. It establishes that Donald Trump is above the law,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman said, adding he understood Smith’s reasons.

Goldman warned against normalizing letting go of accountability with regard to Trump.

“We cannot normalize the fact that Donald Trump as the president-elect should not be held accountable for crimes that he committed before. If he were to have fired the special counsel, that would be a gross abdication of the independence of the Department of Justice.”

The Democrat rejected that Americans voted for Trump as a “referendum on his criminal cases,” arguing that in the election, voters simply chose to prioritize the issues in their daily lives over Trump’s criminal cases.

“Those cases should have been played out in a court of law. I believe the attorney general should have started the investigation a lot earlier. I believe the Supreme CCourt should have moved much quicker in its opinion. Donald Trump should not have been able to run out the clock on these charges,” Goldman said Monday.

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Special counsel Jack Smith made clear in court filing on Monday that he is dropping the election subversion case against President-elect Donald Trump because circumstances have changed.

Smith wrote in the six-page filing that “the Department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.” But, Smith added: “This outcome is not based on the merits or strength of the case against the defendant.”

Smith’s criminal pursuit of Trump over the last two years for trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election and his mishandling of classified documents represented an extraordinarily unique chapter in American history: Never before has a former occupant of the White House faced federal criminal charges.

Though the election subversion case culminated in a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer that said Trump enjoyed some presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, Trump’s strategy of delay in the case ensured that a trial never got underway before the election.

Also unprecedented, Smith’s new filing noted, is having a defendant facing criminal charges elected to the White House. Smith pointed to longstanding a Justice Department position that the Constitution precludes criminal prosecutions against sitting president.

He stressed, however, “That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind.”

Donald Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung called special counsel Jack Smith’s plans to drop the 2020 election subversion case against the president-elect a “major victory for the rule of law.”

Here’s what Cheung said:

Special counsel Jack Smith said Monday that he is dropping his election subversion case against President-elect Donald Trump, seeking the case’s dismissal in a court filing with the judge.

Trump has said he would fire Smith once he retook the office, shattering previous norms around special counsel investigations.