December 12, 2024 - Presidential transition news

Our live coverage of the Trump administration’s transition has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Amaryllis Fox Kennedy is seen during the "Markus Lanz" TV show in Hamburg, Germany, on November 20, 2019.

President-elect Donald Trump is considering putting a second Kennedy in a high-ranking role in his administration: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s daughter-in-law.

Several sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Trump is considering naming Amaryllis Fox Kennedy as the deputy director of the CIA, where she would serve under John Ratcliffe if he’s confirmed as the director.

Fox Kennedy, who previously managed RFK Jr.’s campaign, and Trump have met to discuss the job, a source with knowledge told CNN.

Ratcliffe met with Fox Kennedy on Thursday, CNN has learned.

The position would not require Senate confirmation, but Fox Kennedy is facing strong pushback from one Trump ally: Sen. Tom Cotton.

The Arkansas Republican has urged Trump in private conversation not to name her to the role, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Cotton’s pushback is notable given he will chair the Senate Intelligence Committee in the next Congress.

CNN has reached out to Cotton’s office for comment.

Kennedy himself has long suggested the CIA was involved in the murder of his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, saying in a radio interview last year that there was “overwhelming evidence” it had been.

Kennedy will be on Capitol Hill next week to meet with senators ahead of his own confirmation hearings as Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

President-elect Donald Trump is set to have a private dinner Sunday with Akie Abe, the widow of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. The dinner will take place at Mar-a-Lago and Melania Trump is expected to attend.

Trump and Abe have maintained a close relationship ever since her husband was assassinated two years ago while delivering a political speech in his home country. Trump regularly calls her to check in on her, a source close to the president-elect confirmed, and the dinner was scheduled through direct conversations between the two, not government channels, as is often the case with diplomatic figures.

In Trump’s first term, the late Japanese prime minister was able to succeed where so many others failed in establishing strong relations with Trump — often using golf, flattery and an appeal to Trump’s instincts.

An Amazon package is seen in a redistribution center on December 9.

Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is expected to visit with Trump in person in the coming days, as he and other tech founders seek closer relationships with the incoming president.

Amazon will donate $1 million in cash to the inauguration, and it will make a $1 million in-kind donation by streaming the event on Amazon Video, the company confirmed to CNN Thursday evening.

Bezos and Trump spoke over the summer after the first assassination attempt. Bezos publicly praised Trump at the time.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned donation.

Read more here.

Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, left one of his last meetings with senators this week in an upbeat mood, saying, “I’ve actually been having a lot of fun.”

“This is one of the meetings, like all my other meetings, I was very much looking forward to,” Patel said after his meeting with Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, on Thursday, adding, “I was just so appreciative (of) his time, and I look forward to continuing the trust of him and his colleagues during the advice and consent process.”

Patel did not answer questions on the potential relocation of the FBI building or the recent watchdog report that found that there were no undercover FBI employees at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021,

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who was reelected this year to represent swing state Wisconsin, announced that she plans to support former GOP Rep. Sean Duffy as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Transportation.

Baldwin’s support comes after meeting with Duffy, as several of Trump’s Cabinet picks are making the rounds on Capitol Hill to meet with senators.

Some context: While Senate Democrats staged dramatic showdowns to protest nominations during Trump’s first term in office, CNN previously reported that Democrats are now shifting tactics, reluctant to pick endless battles with Trump Cabinet picks that are unlikely to succeed.

Democrats are looking to implement a deliberate and disciplined strategy in Trump’s second term: pointing out the places where they could work with a nominee when they see fit and forcing Republicans to defend Trump’s picks when a nominee faces ethics questions, has a history of controversial statements or doesn’t have what Democrats view as the necessary qualifications for the job.

Boris Epshteyn and President-elect Donald Trump are seen at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on May 29.

Top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have requested that President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for top positions in his next administration hand over communications with Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, following reports that Epshteyn has requested payments from potential nominees.

In a letter addressed to incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, current Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse “request that all such nominees preserve and produce to the Committee any communications” with the Trump adviser.

“Accordingly, all nominees appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately act to retain all communications with Mr. Epshteyn, provide those materials to the Committee well in advance of their hearing date, and be prepared to testify regarding any discussions with Mr. Epshteyn about receiving a potential appointment in the incoming administration,” wrote Durbin and Whitehouse.

CNN previously reported that attorneys for Trump conducted an internal investigation into allegations that 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.

Epshteyn has denied the allegations.

“I am honored to work for President Trump and with his team,” he said in a statement to CNN last month. “These fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from Making America Great Again.”

A delegation of senior Chinese officials is expected to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in place of President Xi Jinping, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Trump personally extended an invitation to President Xi that was relayed through aides, multiple sources confirmed.

Asked on Fox News whether Xi would accept the invitation, incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said his attendance was “to be determined.”

Some background: After Xi delivered a congratulatory message to Trump just days after the election, the two spoke by phone — a dialogue that Trump says has become regular.

“We’ve had communication as recently as this week,” Trump said of the Chinese leader in an interview with NBC News last week.

The Chinese president has sought to maintain a stable relationship with the United States — a goal outlined clearly ahead of a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Lima, Peru, last month.

“Make the wise choice,” Xi said in an apparent warning, through a translator. “Keep exploring the right way for two major countries to get along well with each other.”

Since then, Trump has threatened to slap new tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the United States, leading Xi to issue a more stern warning to the US: “No one wins a trade war.”

The bar for President Xi to travel to the United States remains high, largely reserved for multilateral summits and official state visits, where he can count on significant time with other world leaders.

The assignment of a senior delegation to Trump’s inauguration would be seen as an olive branch of sorts: Showing support for the incoming administration while reserving the principal’s visit for a China-focused occasion. Sources cautioned that, with six weeks until inauguration, plans could change.

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed reporting to this post.

Sen. John Fetterman walks toward the Senate Chambers on March 23, in Washington, DC.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman wouldn’t say if he’ll support President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, after meeting with him on Capitol Hill Thursday.

“We agreed that the Steelers are going to win,” he quipped to reporters after emerging from the half-hour meeting.

Fetterman was the first Senate Democrat to meet with Hegseth, and he told CNN earlier Thursday he planned to speak with him about the misconduct allegations against the former Fox News host.

The Pennsylvania Democrat told reporters there’s “no new news” to share after the meeting.

“I’m going to follow the process. I’m going to listen to what my colleagues on the other side and how they evaluate,” Fetterman added.

CNN asked Hegseth after a subsequent meeting with GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts if Fetterman had told him what it would take to earn his vote. He would not respond.

He also didn’t answer when asked if he had discussed the misconduct allegations against him with Fetterman.

Hegseth will not have meetings on Capitol Hill on Friday, but is expected to be back next week, a source familiar with his plans told CNN.

New polling finds voters broadly hoping for President-elect Donald Trump to focus on reducing prices once he takes office, but with mixed expectations for whether he will succeed. At the same time, multiple polls find a tepid public response to Trump’s selections for key administration roles.

A Fox News poll of registered voters conducted December 6 to 9 finds that the economy remains the country’s most pressing problem, as 60% say it is extremely important for Trump to focus on lowering the price for food and gas. Bringing prices down is far and away the top priority of 10 tested in the poll, ahead of cutting taxes for individual taxpayers (47% call this extremely important), strengthening national defense (42%), deporting immigrants who are in the US illegally (38%), ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs (29%), reducing the size of the federal government (29%), and decreasing US aid to Ukraine (26%). The remaining three were called extremely important by 20% of voters or less.

But voters divide about evenly over whether prices for food and gas will increase (41%) or decrease (39%) under the new Trump administration, with 19% expecting they will stay about the same. Most say they expect the country’s southern border to be more secure (56%, with 14% saying it will be less secure), and that restrictions on abortion will increase (52%, with 13% saying they will decrease). And more say they expect increases than decreases in the national debt (48% increase vs. 31% decrease) and their own taxes (37% say they’ll go up, 30% down) under Trump.

The Fox poll finds voters split 47% approve to 50% disapprove on how Trump is doing choosing his Cabinet, with half or fewer saying they’d like the Senate to vote to confirm several top picks for Cabinet or other high-level roles, but no majority opposition to any of the choices tested. The share in favor of confirming outweighs the share against for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (48% yes to 43% no), Marco Rubio for Secretary of State (46% to 35%), Pam Bondi for Attorney General (37% to 32%), and Scott Bessent for Secretary of the Treasury (32% to 27%). Negative sentiment tops the positive for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense (40% no to 31% yes), and Kash Patel for Director of the FBI (38% no to 34% yes).

The results are similar in an AP-NORC survey of adults which finds more disapprove than approve of Trump’s selection of Kennedy (42% disapprove, 30% approve), Tulsi Gabbard (29% disapprove, 21% approve) and Hegseth (36% disapprove, 17% approve) to roles in his administration, with opinions mixed about Rubio (31% approve and 31% disapprove). Sizable shares have no opinion on each of these selections, with 28% or more either neutral or unsure about them.

A Monmouth University poll out today also finds the public split over whether Trump will suspend some laws and constitutional provisions to go after political enemies.

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, said he’s meeting with his first Democratic senator — Sen. John Fetterman — as he works to shore up support on Capitol Hill because there’s “nothing political” about national security.

Fetterman told CNN’s Manu Raju earlier on Thursday he won’t rule out backing Hegseth and plans on speaking to him about the multiple misconduct allegations against him.

Asked what he plans on talking about with Fetterman to try to win his support, Hegseth answered “we’re going to have a great conversation.”

A person shops in an Albertsons supermarket in Seattle, Washington, on December 10.

President-elect Donald Trump says Americans not being able to afford groceries will be a relic of the past.

“They’re going to be affording their groceries very soon,” he said Thursday before ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, where he was honored as Time’s “Person of the Year.”

Some context: Americans paid 22% more for groceries last month compared to when Trump left office in January 2021, per November Consumer Price Index data released earlier this week. And, compared to February 2020, before the pandemic, Americans paid 27% more for groceries in November.

On the campaign trail, Trump predominantly focused on drilling more oil as a means to help Americans afford more food. But, ahead of his return to the White House, his strategy to bring grocery prices down has shifted slightly to focus on supply chain issues in addition to drilling more oil.

“I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down,” he continued. “You know, the supply chain is still broken.”

That was one of the major factors that caused food prices to spike during the pandemic: Shipping availability decreased and freight times increased, contributing to shortages of imported food. But those issues have since more or less resolved.

His slightly new approach on grocery prices comes as weekly US crude oil production as of December 6 hit a new record of 13.6 million barrels per day, according to federal data dating back to 1983. Trump himself acknowledged that Thursday saying, “there is no country in the world” that produces more oil than the US. That’s helped push down gas prices, which has in turn helped lower the cost of transporting food to grocery stores nationwide.

Read more about Trump’s economic policies here.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee hearing on January 11 in Washington, DC.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren fiercely pushed back on Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick, arguing on Thursday that Pete Hegseth shouldn’t be under consideration due to allegations of his mistreatment of women and previous comments on women in combat.

Hegseth told CNN on Wednesday he supports “all women serving in our military,” when asked about his previous comments. CNN also reported that in private discussions with senators, Hegseth has indicated he is not against women serving in combat roles so long as they meet a standard set for all warfighters.

Warren’s comments about Hegseth’s nomination are a sharp departure from the more deferential approach that Democrats like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman have taken to Trump’s picks. Fetterman is due to be the first Democrat to meet with Hegseth on Thursday. He told CNN earlier he’s not opposed to backing Hegseth and plans to discuss the allegations with him.

Warren said the Senate “should not be talking about confirming people who have credibly been accused of rape, who have outstanding non-disclosure agreements so that women can’t talk about it, who have led workplaces that have had significant problems and accusations of sexual harassment to lead one of the biggest departments in our government, and 18% women.”

Since Hegseth was selected by Trump, allegations of sexual assault, sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement have all surfaced, presenting a challenge to him shoring up enough support on Capitol Hill.

Warren argued that having Hegseth lead the Pentagon would dissuade some from joining the service.

Asked by CNN about Hegseth saying that he supports “all women serving in our military” when pressed on his previous comments on women in combat, Warren said she wonders what “life-changing event” happened to him between this week and when he made the comments a month ago.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is seen in the US Capitol on Wednesday, December 4.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Thursday argued that it’ll be difficult to remain a moderate lawmaker in the face of party pressure over the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration.

Murkowski pointed to the start of the confirmation process for Trump’s Cabinet picks and defended her colleague, Sen. Joni Ernst, who has expressed some hesitation with Trump’s Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth.

The Alaska Republican, however, expressed hopefulness that “good things can happen in a bipartisan way” in a new Washington where Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

“The Dems are going to oppose everything that we want to do, and there’s going to be a requirement for a certain amount of allegiance on the Republican side. But I believe, I believe that there are too many good people with good intentions who realize we need to act, the country needs us, and so kind of, the politics be damned,” she said.

She predicted that tackling immigration would be “very partisan” but argued there can be “space in the middle” on energy policy and matters on safe family leave.

In a Time magazine interview published Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump shed some light on his plans for the Department of Education, which he has repeatedly said he would get rid of.

Abolishing the department or merging it with another – like he proposed during his first term – would require an act of Congress.

When asked by Time magazine what he means, Trump called for a “virtual closure of Department of Education in Washington.”

More context: Almost every public K-12 school district in the nation currently receives federal funds distributed by the Department of Education. The amount varies by district, largely depending on the number of students from low-income families and the number with disabilities.

States and local school boards already have authority that can’t be superseded by the federal government, but those federal funds come with strings attached.

One possible way to address the bureaucratic red tape, and give more power to the states, would be to deliver federal funds through what is called a “block grant,” which comes with fewer restrictions.

The Department of Education has a number of other responsibilities, too. It administers the federal student loan and financial aid programs and has an Office of Civil Rights that is charged with investigating alleged discrimination complaints at colleges and K-12 schools.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, warned that the transition and outside GOP groups need to be cautious about unleashing a pressure campaign against GOP senators who raise questions about Cabinet nominees, warning that alienating members with attacks early can cost them for years to come.

“It’s a risk you want to avoid,” he added.

Tulsi Gabbard arrives for a meeting at the Hart Senate Office Building on December 10, in Washington, DC.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will meet with two Republican senators today, according to a source familiar.

Gabbard is expected to met with Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty at 1:30 p.m. ET and then with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune at 2:30 p.m. ET, the source said.

Sen. John Fetterman walks toward the Senate Chambers on March 23, in Washington, DC.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said he expects to bring up a series of allegations against Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, when the two men sit down for their first meeting later today.

“I know there haven’t been any formal charges or criminal ones. But it’s all — one of the things that I’m sure, perhaps, might come up in that conversation today,” Fetterman told CNN when asked about the claims of misconduct by Hegseth, including excessive drinking and sexual assault. “But I am aware there are some allegations, of course.”

Notably, Fetterman is not ruling out support for Hegseth ahead of the meeting, which will make him the first Senate Democrat to sit down with Trump’s defense pick.

“We’re just going to have a straight up conversation,” Fetterman said.

Fetterman dismissed potential backlash from his own party for meeting with one of Trump’s most contentious Cabinet selections. He has already met with another of Trump’s picks: Rep. Elise Stefanik, who Trump has chosen for US ambassador to the United Nations.

“I’m not sure why it’d be controversial to anybody, if he’s the individual who could potentially be the next secretary of defense. I’m not just a senator for Pennsylvania, for my voters or Democrats — it’s for all of us,” he said, adding that he has received “a lot” of supportive calls into his office, asking him to have the conversation with Trump picks.

Earlier today, Hegseth told CNN he is not approaching meetings with Democrats any differently than his GOP sitdowns.

President-elect Donald Trump declined to say whether he supports a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Hamas war and did not say whether he supports Israel annexing the West Bank, a departure from two positions he held during his first administration.

More background: Trump’s backing away from a two-state solution contradicts the plan he proposed during his first administration that was intended to serve as a framework to realize a two-state solution, which included plans for Israel to begin removing its settlements in the West Bank. Trump also facilitated the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries in the Middle East, known as the Abraham Accords, paving the way for potential diplomacy between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Trump did not rule out allowing Israel to annex the West Bank, pointing to the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel as an inflection point in his view on relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. When asked if he would prevent Israel from annexing the West Bank, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens.”

Following the signing of the Abraham Accords, Trump said the normalization agreements were part of a strategy that “prioritized peace in the region over West Bank annexation.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu temporarily suspended annexation efforts in the wake of the Abraham Accords being signed.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday that she was “impressed” by Elon Musk during a one-on-one meeting that she held with the tech billionaire last week, and she praised his appointment to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the coming Trump administration.

“As far as the new effort on government efficiency — I can never remember how it’s pronounced, I will admit — I had an excellent 70-minute meeting with Elon Musk. And I was very impressed,” Collins said during an interview at a conference held by the bipartisan “No Labels” organization in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

“What impressed me the most, is he really listened. Now, I’m not sure he accepts all of what I said,” Collins added.

Why it matters: The Maine lawmaker is one of a handful of moderate Republican senators poised for an influential role in Washington over the next few years, wielding a potentially decisive vote on Trump administration initiatives in a closely divided GOP Congress.

Her comments on Musk and DOGE — the newly formed executive department proposing to make the federal government leaner and more efficient by reviewing its budget and operations from top to bottom — indicated her openness to the program.

More from Collins: Collins described her conversations with Musk about defense procurement — an area of keen interest for Musk, whose companies have received tens of billions from US government contracts and programs — saying she emphasized the importance of giving smaller companies with new military technology a chance to break through the “encrusted bureaucracy” at the Department of Defense.

She praised the “outside perspective” provided by Musk and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy, and endorsed their push to end remote work for federal employees.

The senator also emphasized the burden of growing “mandatory” government spending programs, and previewed a reformist approach to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which she’ll chair in the new Congress.