Trump’s incoming ‘border czar’ promises secure southern US border – as it happened | Trump administration

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Hugo Lowell

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles also said that the Trump team had its own ethics plan, rather than the formal government one, leaving unclear whether all relevant transition aides would be eligible to receive full government briefings that included classified information.

That caveat on the ethics plan dovetailed with reporting by the Guardian that the Trump team is planning for political appointees to receive temporary security clearances on the first day and only face FBI background checks after it had taken over the bureau.

Trump’s lack of interest in engaging with the formal transition stems from the first Trump administration, when officials turned over transition team records to the Russia investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump has previously broken convention with the transfer of power. In 2016, his campaign organized what appeared to be a standard process, until Trump fired his transition team’s leadership after he won the election and cut off communications with the Obama administration.

In 2020, Trump again seemed to follow standard procedure until immediately after the election, pressuring the General Services Administration to not recognize Joe Biden’s election win so his team could not access the federal financial assistance.

Hugo Lowell

Here is more on the Trump transition team finally signing a memo to start the process of transitioning from the Biden administration.

Signing the MOU normally unlocks up to $7.2m in government funding to help staffing costs and other expenses, as well as the use of government office space through the nonpartisan General Services Administration.

The financial assistance comes with strings attached – the transition team has to agree to disclose its donors and impose a $5,000 limit on contributions – and the agreement was supposed to be signed months before the election.

The transition team is normally supposed to sign an ethics agreement, which paves the way for transition aides to start receiving government information such as classified briefings and the granting of security clearances.

The announcement by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in a press release suggested that the Trump team had negotiated its own language around some of those restrictions.

While the Trump team was committed to making the identities of its donors public, and would not accept any foreign contributions, Wiles said that it would not be using any government money and its entire operation would be privately funded.

Government ethics experts have previously noted that such an arrangement would allow people seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House to donate directly to him, raising concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

A little more information now on that Bloomberg report that Trump is expected to name Jamieson Greer as the US Trade Representative.

Greer, an attorney who has practised international trade law, served as chief of staff to the USTR Robert Lighthizer during the first Trump administration.

Trump has already announced Howard Lutnick as his choice for commerce secretary. Lutnick will have “direct responsibility” for the Office of the US Trade Representative, he said last week.

Three weeks after Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, the state moved a step closer to allowing it Tuesday when a judge ruled that the petitions that put the question on the ballot were valid, the Associated Press reports.

The decision by Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong was a victory for advocates of medical marijuana, but opponents are likely to appeal it to the state supreme court.

“To prevail in this action, the plaintiff and Secretary had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the legalisation Petition and 3,357 signatures on the Regulatory Petition are invalid. The Plaintiff and Secretary are well short,” Strong wrote. Fewer than 1,000 signatures on each petition were shown to be invalid.

A spokesperson for the Nebraska attorney general said the office’s lawyers were reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal.

More than two-thirds of Nebraska voters supported legalisation at the polls on 5 November. The results are scheduled to be certified on 2 December.

Here is Biden announcing that Israel and Hezbollah have accepted a ceasefire deal, which will commence at 4am local time on Wednesday:

Bloomberg reports that Trump is preparing to announce Jamieson Greer as United States Trade Representative. It cites people familiar with the matter.

Politico, in a previous article on who Trump might choose, wrote of Greer, “Despite helping to upend global trade paradigms, Greer is well respected by both parties in Washington, industry groups and foreign governments. Since leaving office, he has served as a point of contact in Washington for foreign dignitaries seeking insight about what a second Trump term would mean for trade. He is a partner for international trade at the King & Spalding law firm.”

Tim Walz accepted the symbolic presentation of a turkey Tuesday as he eases back into his duties as Minnesota’s governor following the Harris-Walz ticket’s defeat in the presidential election, the Associated Press reports.

Unlike the Minnesota-grown turkeys that President Joe Biden pardoned at the White House on Monday, Walz didn’t pardon this turkey, he said, “because in Minnesota we know turkeys are delicious.”

The 41.8-pounder (19 kilograms) named Tom was raised by Paisley VonBerge, a Future Farmers of America leader from Hutchinson, and it will star in her family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

“After today, this bird will go back to my farm to be enjoyed the way that turkeys are intended,” Paisley said.

“That is very Minnesotan,” Walz added to loud laughter. “We don’t hide the fact we love our turkeys.”

Today So Far

Thanks for joining us so far today. Here’s a short summary of the biggest headlines we’ve covered today:

• Speaking at an emergency gathering of the Canadian parliament today, prime minister Justin Trudeau urged unity while members of the country’s conservative and new democratic parties called for Canada First policies and preparations for a trade war in response to Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs. Earlier in the day, Trudeau said he had “a good call” with the US president-elect.

• Meanwhile, Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to Trump, warning him that his pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “To one tariff will come another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference earlier today.

• Speaking from the White House, Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. “Under the deal reached today, effective at 4am tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end,” he said. “This is designed to be a permanent cesation of hostility.”

• The White House has confirmed that the incoming Trump administration has signed transition paperwork, called the White House memorandum of understanding. Trump’s team declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, and negotiations are still ongoing regarding an agreement with the Department of Justice.

• Speaking in Eagle Pass, Texas today, Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” promised to secure the Texas-Mexico border. Tom Homan praised Operation Lone Star, a $11 billion border security initiative, and pledged to fight Democratic governors and mayors who try to block Trump’s proposed mass deportations.

• A federal judge rejected Rudy Giuliani’s request to reschedule a January trial date for after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

• A day after Elon Musk claimed to have met with “senior military officers,” the Pentagon told reporters it was not aware of any meetings with Trump transition officials, the Washington Post reports.

• Research by ING has estimated that if the costs of the new tariffs are fully passed on to consumers, then Americans will face having to pay $2,400 more per capita annually for goods. The report says that also taking into account potential labour shortages due to Trump’s plans to crackdown on immigration – with a vow to stage the “largest deportation operation in American history” – there could be a 1% increase in inflation in the US.

Donald Trump is expected to name Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, Bloomberg and Politico report. Hassett served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first administration and has supported Republican tariff proposals. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

Speaking in Eagle Pass, Texas today, Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” promised to secure the Texas-Mexico border. Tom Homan spoke to Texas State Guard members and state troopers alongside Texas governor Greg Abbott and the head of the US Customs and Border Protection union.

“It’s a shame the taxpayers of Texas had to spend billions of dollars to do the job this administration would not do,” Homan said, referencing Operation Lone Star, a $11 billion border security initiative. Under the incoming Trump administration, Homan said “we’re going to secure this nation to the highest level ever seen.”

Referencing steps Democratic governors and mayors are taking to prepare for Trump’s second presidency, and possibly block Trump’s proposed mass deportations, Homan said: “Don’t cross that line. Don’t test us.”

The White House has confirmed that the incoming Trump administration has signed transition paperwork, called the White House memorandum of understanding.

Trump’s team declined to sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, and negotiations are still ongoing regarding an agreement with the Department of Justice.

White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said the White House and General Services Administration “repeatedly made the case” to Trump’s team to sign the agreements beginning in September.

Joe Biden and his chief of staff reiterated the importance of the transition agreements, which allow confidential briefings to begin, in a 13 November Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump and his chief of staff Susie Wiles, CNN reports. Biden’s chief of staff emphasized the importance of the agreement in a second meeting with Wiles on 19 November.

The White House agreement “will allow for certain, authorized members of the Trump transition team to have access to agency and White House employees, facilities, and information,” said Sharma.

By refusing to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration, the Trump transition team will forgo federal funding, equipment, office space and security.

In an election post-mortem today, top Harris campaign officials said there was little else Kamala Harris could have done to win the 2024 election.

Speaking on the podcast “Pod Save America”, David Plouffe, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Stephanie Cutter said Harris couldn’t have distanced herself further from Joe Biden because she was loyal and faced backlash over inflation that’s hurt incumbent politicians across the globe this year.

“She had tremendous loyalty to President Biden,” Cutter said. “Imagine if we said, ‘Well, we would have taken this approach on the border.’ Imagine the round of stories coming out after that, of people saying, ‘Well, she never said that in the meeting.’”

Plouffe added that the campaign’s internal polling never showed Harris leading president-elect Donald Trump.

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

Fulks noted that Democrats could learn from how Republicans support their own, even amid controversy.

“Democrats are eating our own to a very high degree, and until that stops, we’re not going to be able to address a lot of the things that just need to be said,” he said.

During a thank-you call today, Kamala Harris told small-dollar donors that they helped to raise $1.4 billion over the course of her 107-day campaign.

“The outcome of the election, of this election, obviously, is not what we wanted. It is not what we worked so hard for, but I am proud of the race we ran and your role was critical — what we did in 107 days was unprecedented,” she said. “The fight that fueled our campaign, a fight for freedom and opportunity, did not end on November 5th.”

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, joined the call and urged supporters to “find the place in your community to heal both yourselves and your community.” He acknowledged feels of grief that supporters might be feeling and added, “You did everything that was asked.”