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      Keir Starmer played the China card in Rio – and sent a message to a hawkish Donald Trump | Simon Tisdall

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      Both were lawyers before they became politicians, but that’s where the similarities between Keir Starmer and Richard Nixon end. The former US president resigned in disgrace at the height of the Watergate corruption scandal exactly 50 years ago. Britain’s prime minister may have been unwise to accept free tickets from Arsenal FC – but he’s not in Nixon’s league.Except, perhaps, was there just a touch of Tricky Dicky about Starmer’s meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, at last week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro? Watergate aside, Nixon is famous for his groundbreaking 1972 visit to Beijing, which opened the way to normalised relations between the US and Red China.Nixon’s surprise démarche had another purpose: to show the Soviet Union, America’s cold war adversary, that the US and China could act in alliance against Moscow, which broke with Beijing in 1961. Nixon’s move, known as “playing the China card”, had significant geopolitical consequences. Starmer, dealt a weaker hand, had no aces up his sleeve.All the same, the prime minister’s eagerness to reset what, under previous governments, became a very rocky relationship was striking. Starmer said he sought “consistent, durable, respectful, predictable” ties. “A strong relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community,” he said.It was a pointed statement. Doubtless Starmer was thinking primarily about boosting UK trade, investment and growth. But were his words also designed, Nixon-style, to send a message to a third party – namely, Donald Trump?skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe US president-elect is a vociferous foe of China, which he believes threatens American global hegemony. He plans to impose sweeping, punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, re-igniting the trade war he began in his first term. Conservative backers, such as commentator Ionut Popescu, egg him on. Containment of China must be “the driving principle of US foreign policy in the new cold war”, Popescu wrote.Leading China hawks are being offered senior positions in the new administration, which takes office on 20 January. They include Marco Rubio as secretary of state. As a senator, Rubio railed against human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the suppression of Hong Kong’s democracy – dramatised by last week’s jailings of activists and the show trial of British media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai. Rubio reviles “the wealth and corrupt activities of the leadership of the Chinese Communist party”.Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth, a rightwing TV personality, as defence secretary, and Michael Waltz, a fierce defender of Taiwan’s independence, as national security adviser, reinforces a strong anti-China bias. These men constitute what the New York Times calls “a new class of cold warrior, guns pointed at China”. And, like Trump, they will be unimpressed by Starmer’s cosying up to Xi.Starmer surely knows that, which makes his repositioning all the more interesting. Many in Britain, Labour and Tories, share American concerns. A House of Commons Library briefing in July traced a “sharp deterioration” in China ties in recent years, pointing in particular to Beijing’s “expansive” foreign policy and cyber-attacks and espionage in the UK. It noted Britain formally deems China a “systemic competitor” and “the greatest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security”.Speaking in Rio, Xi was adamant that his stance on Taiwan, democracy and other core issues would not change. But he also offered reassurance with a smiley face, stressing that he sought “stable, healthy and sustainable” relations with the west – words that, like Starmer’s, may have been partly aimed at Trump.Very deep differences remain. But Chinese and UK geostrategic interests may actually be converging in the face of Trump’s prospectively disruptive, costly, dangerous return. Climate change and post-pandemic health are two key areas of cooperation. Ongoing confrontation between the world’s top two economic and military powers would not be to Britain’s advantage. If Trump, the disquieting American, cannot be befriended and influenced, perhaps Xi can?Other countries are making similar calculations. Germany, with its huge Chinese exports, wants to keep things friendly. The EU prefers “de-risking” to open, Trump-like ruptures, though it is divided and inconsistent. Hungary and Greece hold China close, Lithuania feuds. Europe as a whole would suffer greatly in any US-initiated global tariff war.Emmanuel Macron was another leader making nice with Xi in Rio. France’s president raised China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, then claimed, mysteriously, to have achieved a “convergence of views”. Distancing himself from Trump, Macron said France would continue to promote European strategic autonomy, “precisely to be able to talk with China in complete independence”.Not to be left out, Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, set aside thorny bilateral disputes and, like Starmer, shook hands with Xi on a new start. Australia, too, valued steady “calibrated” ties. Trade was flourishing again, Albanese said. “Dialogue is critical, and we’ve made encouraging progress.” Jolly Xi hugged him right back (figuratively speaking).All this must be music to Xi’s ears. He has long dreamed of China supplanting the US as the 21st century’s foremost superpower. Beset by economic problems and a “wolf warrior diplomacy” backlash, he has launched a foreign charm offensive. Last month, he patched up a festering Himalayan border dispute with India, an old rival wooed by the US.Trump’s victory was initially assessed as bad news for China. It may be the exact opposite. He’s unpredictable. His views change. But if “America first” means putting everyone else last, if Trump’s isolationism, aggressive nationalism and trade war threats end up screwing America’s allies, then those allies, including Starmer, may ultimately swallow their misgivings and look elsewhere for reliable friends – if only to achieve some balance. If Xi’s dream of dominance comes true, he will know who to thank. Donald Trump: Making China Great Again. More

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      Reasons for hope as Democrats prevent Trump-led red wave in state races

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      After watching Kamala Harris lose the White House and Republicans wrest back full control of Congress, Democrats were bracing for disaster in state legislatures. With the party defending narrow majorities in several chambers across the country, some Democrats expected that Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race would allow a red wave to sweep through state legislatures.Yet, when the dust had settled after election day, the results of state legislative elections presented a much more nuanced picture than Democrats had feared.To their disappointment, Democrats failed to gain ground in Arizona and New Hampshire, where Republicans expanded their legislative majorities, and they lost governing trifectas in Michigan and Minnesota.But other states delivered reason for hope. Democrats held on to a one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania house even as Harris and congressional incumbents struggled across the state. In North Carolina, Democrats brought an end to Republicans’ legislative supermajority, restoring Governor-elect Josh Stein’s veto power. Perhaps most encouragingly for the party, Democrats made substantial gains in Wisconsin, where newly redrawn and much more competitive maps left the party well-poised to gain majorities in 2026.The mixed results could help Democrats push back against Republicans’ federal policies at the state level, and they offer potential insight on the party’s best electoral strategies as they prepare for the new Trump era.“We must pay attention to what’s going on in our backyard with the same level of enthusiasm that we do to what’s happening in the White House,” said Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC). “And I feel like that’s never been more true.”The implications of the state legislative elections will be sweeping, Williams said. Democratic legislators have already helped protect abortion access in their states following the overturning of Roe v Wade, and with Republicans overseeing the federal budget, state legislatures could play a pivotal role in funding critical and underresourced services for their constituents.Those high stakes have made Democrats increasingly aware of the importance of state legislatures, where Republicans have held a significant advantage in recent years. In 2016, when Trump first won office, Republicans held 68 legislative chambers compared with Democrats’ 29, according to the DLCC. Following the elections this month, Democrats expect to control 39 chambers, down from 41 before the elections but still a notable improvement since the beginning of Trump’s first term.As Democrats have turned more of their attention to state legislative races, outside groups have joined the fight. The States Project, a Democratic-aligned organization, poured $70m into legislative elections this cycle, while the Super Pac Forward Majority devoted another $45m to the effort. The funding provided a substantial boon beyond the resources of the DLCC, the party’s official state legislative campaign arm that set a spending goal of $60m this cycle.View image in fullscreen“It’s not rocket science that dollars, tactics and message are potent ways to communicate with voters,” said Daniel Squadron, co-founder of the States Project. “We provide the dollars to candidates that let them get off the phones, separate themselves from in-state special interests and allow them to talk to voters and to treat these campaigns like the big-league contests they are.”Historically, Democratic state legislative candidates have trailed several points behind the party’s presidential nominee, but early data suggests legislative candidates actually outperformed Harris in some key districts. Squadron believes face-to-face interactions with voters, as well as the high quality of many Democratic state legislative candidates this cycle, helped stave off larger losses down ballot even as the party suffered in federal races.“That is the only way it was possible to hold the Pennsylvania house when the statewide results were so disappointing. It’s the reason the North Carolina house supermajority was broken,” Squadron said.Democrats’ strategies appear to have proved particularly potent in Wisconsin, where the party picked up 10 seats in the state assembly and four seats in the state senate. Andrew Whitley, executive director of the Wisconsin senate Democratic caucus, credited the wins to savvy candidates who combined a message about the importance of abortion access with hyperlocal issues important in their specific districts. The strategy allowed candidates to outperform Harris and/or Senator Tammy Baldwin in four out of five targeted senate races, according to data provided by Whitley.“It’s very rare when you have bottom-of-the-ticket state legislators over-perform Kamala and Senator Baldwin,” Whitley said. “They worked their asses off.”In senate district 14, which stretches north-west from Madison, Democrat Sarah Keyeski appears to have benefited from some of Trump’s supporters failing to vote down ballot for the Republican incumbent, Joan Ballweg. But in senate district 8 in the Milwaukee suburbs and district 30 in Green Bay, a small yet decisive number of voters split their ticket between Trump and Democratic legislative candidates.The results suggest that Trump’s playbook may not be enough to elevate Republican state legislators to victory, presenting an opening for Democrats in future election cycles. As further evidence of that trend, Democrats managed to hold four Senate seats in states that Trump carried on election day.“The Maga [‘Make America Great Again’] playbook doesn’t work at the state legislative level,” said Leslie Martes, chief strategy officer of Forward Majority. “Trump is Trump, and he’s incredibly masterful at what he does, but as we see time after time, Republicans struggle to duplicate it.”The next big test for Republicans will come next year in Virginia, where Democrats hope to flip the governor’s mansion and maintain control of both legislative chambers.“This will be Trump’s first task after this election, to see if he can push that playbook,” Martes said. “He’ll want that to keep his mandate going.”Williams and her team are already gearing up for 2025 and 2026, when Democrats will have another chance to expand their power in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Although the 2026 target map is still taking shape, Williams predicted it would look quite similar to this year’s map.“I feel like we can all kind of expect to see some of those familiar faces back,” she said. “They are really competitive states, and that is where we are going to be focusing our attention.”Even though Democrats remain in the legislative minority in Wisconsin, Whitley expressed enthusiasm about the results and the road ahead. This year marked the first time since 2012 that Wisconsin Democrats had the opportunity to run on competitive maps, and they broke Republicans’ iron grip on the legislature.“It’s going to be truly historic,” Whitley said. “Gone are the days where a manufactured majority can override vetoes and pass super-regressive policies. We’re actually going to have some balance, and we’re on the cusp of not only having a balanced legislature, but a trifecta.”Democrats’ performance in Wisconsin may offer a silver lining to party members who are still reeling from the news of Trump’s victory and terrified about the possibilities of his second term in office.“It’s very easy to get lost in that hopelessness,” Whitley said. “But then on the state legislative front, it’s also very easy to be inspired by these folks who are just regular, everyday people, who are standing up for their communities and fighting.” More

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      Trump makes flurry of choices including labor secretary and CDC chief

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      In a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him.Treasury secretaryTrump named Scott Bessent to serve as his next treasury secretary. The role is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s economy and financial markets.Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting US national debt.If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary.Office of Management and BudgetTrump tapped Russ Vought to lead Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.Vought, was OMB chief during Trump’s previous term in office, and would again play a major role in setting budget priorities.Since Trump left office, Vought has been deeply involved in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term.Trump praised Vought as a “cost-cutter” in a statement after nominating him for the OMB. “He did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term – We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!” he wrote on Truth Social.Deputy assistant to the presidentTrump is also bringing back Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart writer and longtime rightwing Maga supporter with questionable credentials who was let go from the White House in 2017.Gorka served as deputy assistant to the president, advising Trump on national security. But his responsibilities were vague. He frequently appeared as a surrogate for Trump on cable news, where he appeared to enjoy stirring controversy during his months-long tenure.Trump named Gorka to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in his second administration.Labor secretaryIn a surprise choice as his nominee for labor secretary, Trump named Oregon Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who narrowly lost her bid to re-election to the House of Representatives on 5 November.If confirmed by the Senate, Chavez-DeRemer would oversee the labor department’s workforce and its budget, and would put forth priorities that affect workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities.Chavez-DeRemer had strong backing from union members in her district. She was one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or Pro Act, which would have strengthened workers’ right to organize.Surgeon generalDr Janette Nesheiwat is Trump’s pick for surgeon general. Nesheiwat is a double board-certified medical doctor, a regular Fox News contributor and the author of Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine.Deputy national security adviserFormer state department official Alex Wong will serve as deputy national security adviser, Trump said on Friday. Wong served as deputy special representative for North Korea during Trump’s first administration.Food and Drug AdministrationTrump also said he would nominate Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the world’s most influential drug regulator. The agency is responsible for approving new treatments and ensuring they are safe and effective. It has regulatory authority over human and veterinary drugs, biological medicines, medical devices and vaccines.It’s also responsible for maintaining safety standards for the food supply, tobacco, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.In interviews promoting his latest book, Makary spoke against what he called “massive over-treatment” in the US that he called “an epidemic of inappropriate care”.Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentTrump announced Scott Turner as his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term.Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrump announced Dave Weldon, a former congressman and a medical doctor, as his choice for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sweeping agency with a $17.3bn budget used as a public health model around the world.Weldon served in the US House of Representatives representing Florida’s 15th district from 1995 to 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2008.The CDC director reports to the health secretary, a role for which Trump has selected Robert F Kennedy Jr. Unlike past appointments, the CDC director post will require Senate confirmation starting in 2025 due to a provision in the recent omnibus budget. More

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      Scott Bessent: billionaire hedge-fund manager who is ‘all in’ for Trump

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      Investor Scott Bessent has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as treasury secretary. The billionaire hedge fund manager has spent his career in finance and the nomination for this post has been one of the most anticipated in recent days.Here are five things to know about the person who could have vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.His finance careerBessent, 62, from South Carolina, has spent his career in finance, working for macro investment billionaire George Soros and noted short-seller Jim Chanos, as well as running his own hedge fund.As a money manager, he made a large bet on Trump winning after spotting what he called an anomaly in the market – that political and market analysts were too negative on what a Trump victory would mean.The market’s surge after Trump’s election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of “higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans”.He’s ‘all in’ for TrumpBessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.He has called for rolling back government subsidies, deregulating the economy and raising domestic energy production. Unlike many on Wall Street, Bessent has also defended the use of tariffs, which are Trump’s favorite economic tool.“I was all in for President Trump. I was one of the few Wall Street people backing him,” Bessent told Stone over the weekend.“Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs,” said Oxford Economics’ Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.He’s one of a fewBessent will take his investing knowledge down a rarefied career path that only a few other prominent Wall Street luminaries have followed: running the US Treasury.Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.Other examples of US treasury secretaries who have come from finance include Steven Mnuchin, who served under Trump in his first term, and had worked at Goldman Sachs. Henry Paulson, who served as Treasury secretary under George W Bush, was also a Goldman Sachs alumnus, where he had been chairman and CEO.A twisty race to the topBessent, along with John Paulson, had been an early favorite for the job earlier in the year according to a Reuters report at the time. He seemed to be in pole position a week after election day, on 12 November, when Paulson exited the race citing “complex financial obligations”.However, there were many twists in the race for the top position.On 13 November, banker Howard Lutnick, who was leading a transition team to vet personnel and draft policy, emerged as a top contender. Lutnick was reported to have directly lobbied for the Treasury post, even receiving the backing of Trump ally Elon Musk. However, Trump instead picked Lutnick, one of his biggest fundraisers, to lead his trade and tariff strategy as head of the commerce department.The pool of candidates then widened when Rowan, and former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh were under consideration as well as Republican US senator Bill Hagerty, sources with knowledge of the transition process said at the time.The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.In charge of the world’s largest economyAs treasury secretary, Bessent will essentially be the highest-ranking US economic official, responsible for maintaining the balance of the world’s largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation’s bills to managing the $28.6tn treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises.The treasury boss also runs US financial sanctions policy, has influence over the IMF, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the United States.Bessent will face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8tn over a decade due to Trump’s plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on social security income.Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon US debt by $22tn through 2033.Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump’s agenda will unleash stronger economic growth that will grow revenue and shore up market confidence. 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      Trump picks hedge-fund investor Scott Bessent for treasury secretary

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      Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.The move to select Bessent is the latest as the president-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House. The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.In economics, one of the main focuses and controversies of the treasury role will be to deal with Trump’s high-profile and oft-repeated promises to pursue a policy of aggressive new US tariffs in foreign trade – something that is widely feared by many other countries across the globe.Wall Street had been closely watching who Trump would pick for the treasury role, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs.Bessent, 62, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.The stock market surge after Trump’s election victory, he wrote, signaled investor “expectations of higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans”.Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including the former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House council of economic advisers.As the 79th treasury secretary, Bessent would essentially be the highest-ranking US economic official, responsible for maintaining the plumbing of the world’s largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation’s bills to managing the $28.6tn Treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises.The treasury boss also runs US financial sanctions policy, oversees the US-led International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the US.Bessent would face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8tn over a decade due to Trump’s plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on social security income.Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon US debt by $22tn through 2033.
      Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump’s agenda would unleash stronger economic growth that would grow revenue and shore up market confidence.Bessent would also inherit the role carved out by Yellen to lead the G7 nations to provide tens of billions of dollars in economic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and tighten sanctions on Moscow. But given Trump’s desire to end the war quickly and withdraw US financial support for Ukraine, it is unclear whether he would pursue this.Another area where Bessent will likely differ from Yellen is her focus on climate change, from her mandate that development banks expand lending for clean energy to incorporating climate risks into financial regulations and managing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits.Trump, a climate-change skeptic, has vowed to increase production of USfossil fuel energy and end the clean-energy subsidies in Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.Reuters contributed to this report More

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      Trump selects key Project 2025 figure Russ Vought to head budget office

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      Donald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.Vought, who was OMB chief during Trump’s first term, would play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump’s campaign promise to roll back government regulations.Since Trump left office, Vought has been deeply involved in Project 2025, a series of detailed policy proposals for Trump’s second term drawn up by hundreds of high-profile conservatives.Among other measures, Project 2025 calls for a broad expansion in presidential power by boosting the number of political appointees and increasing the president’s authority over the justice department. The project also proposes enforcing laws that make it illegal to mail abortion pills over state lines, criminalizing pornography and eliminating the Department of Education.The project’s authors, Vought included, have also advocated for the reclassification of parts of the federal workforce that would give Trump the authority to fire tens of thousands of government employees.During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly denied he had any links to Project 2025, even though many of its authors were former officials from his first administration. With Vought’s selection, the president-elect has now tapped several former aides with Project 2025 links for key administration roles.During the election campaign, Trump’s Democratic opponents made a concerted effort to raise public awareness of Project 2025 among voters, warning it was a blueprint for a hard-right political shift they said would occur under Trump.Their effort succeeded in making Americans widely aware of the project’s existence, and opinion polls showed voters broadly disapproved of the effort.The Trump campaign expressed increasing annoyance with the project, repeatedly emphasizing that its proposals were separate from the campaign’s official policy platform.Vought wrote a chapter for Project 2025 centered on the management of the president’s executive office. While many of the suggestions he laid out are highly technical, they are for the most part aimed at expanding the president’s authorities and lessening the power of career civil servants.“After months of lies to the American people, Donald Trump is taking off the mask: he’s plotting a Project 2025 cabinet to enact his dangerous vision starting on day one,” said Alex Floyd, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee.Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025, and that all his cabinet nominees and appointments were “whole-heartedly committed to President Trump’s agenda, not the agenda of outside groups”.Vought has helped craft several executive orders that could be implemented on day one of Trump’s term, according to two people involved in the project. They include an order instituting schedule F, which would re-categorize thousands of civil servants to enable Trump to fire them should he want to, said those people, who requested anonymity to discuss the project’s internal deliberations.Trump’s other nominees with Project 2025 ties include Brendan Carr, who wrote the project’s chapter on the Federal Communications Commission. Carr is now set to lead that agency.Carr has criticized the FCC’s decision not to finalize nearly $900m in broadband subsidies for Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink, as well as the commerce department’s $42bn broadband infrastructure program and Joe Biden’s spectrum policy.Other Project 2025 contributors who have been named by Trump as officials in his new administration are Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, John Ratcliffe, his incoming CIA director and Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s choice for ambassador to Canada.Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s incoming deputy chiefs of staff, founded a conservative legal and advocacy group known as America First Legal, which contributed to the project.At the OMB, Vought will work with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to carry out Trump’s campaign pledge to slash government spending and regulations.Musk and Ramaswamy have been tapped by Trump to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump has indicated will operate outside the confines of government. More

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      Trump hush-money case sentencing postponed indefinitely

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      The sentencing in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal hush-money case has been postponed indefinitely while attorneys on both sides argue over its future given his recent election victory.Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s case, did not provide a new sentencing date in his one-page scheduling order on Friday.Merchan said in his decision that Trump’s lawyers had to file their argument for dismissal by end of business on 2 December. Prosecutors have one week to respond.The development came in the wake of filings from prosecutors and defense lawyers over their views of how Trump’s case should proceed after he won the 2024 election against Kamala Harris.Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, issued a statement calling the decision a “decisive win”. However, he repeated the president-elect’s claim that the case – which found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsified business records – was a “hoax”.Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday asked Merchan to throw out the case, contending that dismissal was necessary “in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power”.Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney and choice for deputy US attorney general, and Emil Bove, the president-elect’s pick for principal associate deputy attorney general, complained that the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team “appears to not yet be ready to dismiss this politically motivated and fatally flawed case, which is what is mandated by the law and will happen as justice takes its course”.They argued that the US justice department was on the verge of dismissing Trump’s federal cases and pointed to a departmental memo that bars prosecution of sitting presidents.“As in those cases, dismissal is necessary here,” their filing said. “Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect.”They claimed that if this case proceeds, it would “be uniquely destabilizing” and could “hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs”. They asked Merchan to give them until 20 December to file their push for dismissal.Prosecutors previously told Merchan that they planned on fighting Trump’s expected plans for dismissal in the aftermath of his recent presidential win. Prosecutors also said that other case proceedings should be put on pause until Trump’s dismissal argument is decided.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionProsecutors disagreed that Trump’s case should be dismissed simply because appeals would not be decided before his inauguration. While they respected the presidency and understood the logistical issues, “no current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution, and that is based on unofficial conduct from which the defendant is also not immune.”The prosecution said that courts must respect the varying constitutional interests – the executive branch’s need for independence, and the judicial branch’s need for integrity.Prosecutors told Merchan that there were routes he could take other than outright dismissal, including “deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term”.Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records in an effort to sway the 2016 election on 30 May. The prosecution said that Trump falsely listed reimbursements to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, who gave the adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a purported affair with Trump, as “legal expenses”.The jury reached their guilty verdict in less than 24 hours. These proceedings were the first time a US president – former or sitting – stood a criminal trial, as well as a conviction. More

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      Project 2025: the Trump picks with ties to ultra-rightwing policy manifesto

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      On the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly disavowed Project 2025, saying he had “nothing to do” with the blueprint for a conservative presidency and didn’t know the people behind it. But as he starts to assemble his cabinet and White House staff, it seems likely he’ll get to know the people involved very well soon.Trump’s attempts to disavow the project before winning re-election seemed improbable, given that it was written by various members of his first administration and aligned on policy goals with his own proposed second term agenda.His transition team claimed it would not hire any people associated with Project 2025 because it was “radioactive”.But, in his selections for key roles, he has already tapped people with direct ties to the rightwing manifesto.Brendan CarrView image in fullscreenTrump’s nominee to chair the Federal Communications Commission wrote the chapter on the FCC in Project 2025. In the chapter, Carr advocates for “reining in big tech”, in part by limiting the immunity tech platforms have from content posted by third parties. He specifically mentions abuses by Google, Meta and YouTube as examples of platforms requiring such reining in.Tom HomanView image in fullscreenHoman, chosen as Trump’s “border czar”, is listed as a contributor to Project 2025, though his name is not listed on any specific chapter or policy ideas.He also worked as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He penned op-eds, promoted by Heritage, that attacked the Biden administration over immigration and panned the bipartisan immigration deal. He wrote in one op-ed that “race-baiting Democrats” had called him names when he led Ice.Mike HuckabeeView image in fullscreenMike Huckabee, named by Trump to be his ambassador to Israel, interviewed the Heritage president and Project 2025 architect, Kevin Roberts, on his show in October 2024 as part of an effort to counter the negative press about the project.Karoline Leavitt View image in fullscreenThe incoming White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, appeared in training videos for Project 2025. In addition to the policy manifesto, the project’s four pillars involved amassing a database of potential employees and creating a training program for conservatives who wanted positions in a rightwing presidency. In a video called “The Art of Professionalism”, obtained by ProPublica and Documented, Leavitt talks about her advice for people who would serve as staff. While she was the national press secretary for Trump’s campaign, she claimed the project had nothing to do with Trump. She also appears in a promotional video for the project.Stephen MillerView image in fullscreenStephen Miller will be back in the White House, this time as deputy chief of staff for policy. He is the president of the America First Legal Foundation, a legal attack dog non-profit for rightwing causes.America First Legal was listed as a supporter of Project 2025 and appeared as a member of the project’s advisory board, though the group then asked to be removed from it. Miller also appeared in a promotional video for the project, which is still posted on the project’s website.John RatcliffeView image in fullscreenRatcliffe, offered the role of CIA director by Trump, was a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he was tasked with chairing a project to hold China accountable for Covid-19 and “helping Project 2025 build out policy recommendations for intelligence reform in the next presidential administration”, according to the Heritage website.Ratcliffe is listed as a contributor to Project 2025. He also is interviewed for the project, and excerpts of the interview went into a chapter on the intelligence community. In the chapter, Ratcliffe is quoted multiple times, on issues such as making sure the intelligence community is accountable to the director of national intelligence and on countering China.“I had an $85bn combined annual budget for both the national intelligence program and military intelligence program,” he is quoted in Project 2025. “My perspective was, ‘Whatever we’re spending on countering China, it isn’t enough.’”JD VanceView image in fullscreenTrump’s vice-president has close ties with Roberts, the Heritage president. Vance wrote the foreword for Roberts’ book, which was released after the election.Roberts “is somebody I rely on a lot who has very good advice, very good political instincts”, Vance told news outlet Notus in January 2024. In the foreword, Vance praises Roberts’ ideas and boldness, saying the book advances a “fundamentally Christian view of culture and economics” and a “surprising – even jarring” path forward for conservatives. More