Trump’s Musk and Ramaswamy appointments spark conflict of interest fears – US politics live

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Blinken: Biden administration will 'use every day' to continue supporting Ukraine before Trump becomes president

Secretary of state Antony Blinken is in Brussels in Belgium, where he has been meeting recently appointed Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.

In comments after the meeting, he set out to the media how Joe Biden’s administration intends to continue supporting Ukraine as the transition to the second Donald Trump administration gets underway. He told reporters:

We have a very intense and important agenda over the next couple of months. And as I said to the secretary general, president Biden fully intends to drive through the tape and use every day to continue to do what we’ve done over these last four years, which is strengthen this alliance that’s so critical to the security of the US and security of countries throughout Europe.

And we will do that and as well to continue to shore up everything we’re doing for Ukraine to make sure that it can effectively defend itself against this Russian aggression.

In a few hours Joe Biden and Donald Trump will meet at the White House, a courtesy that Trump did not afford to Biden when he succeeded him as president after the 2020 election.

Republican strategist Susan Del Percio, writing for MSNBC, suggests that today will see both men on their best behavior. She writes:

For the sake of the country, [Biden] will be gracious, congratulate Trump on winning a fair election and, most of all, emphasize the importance of a peaceful transfer of power.

Trump will likely be polite and probably bring up Biden’s call to him following the first attempt on his life in July — a call he seemed to genuinely appreciate. But don’t be surprised if he drops some sort of wisecrack walking out the door.

Do expect Biden to use a little humor — not only is it in his nature, but it is a disarming technique. It will likely end with Biden assuring Trump, and the public, that he will do everything possible to make this a smooth transition and promise to assist the president-elect in any way needed.

From our opinion desk Moira Donegan has her column today, in which she says that the “Your body, my choice” slogan is a creepy, snide and all-too-revealing mantra for pro-Trump young men.

You can read it here …

In his Axios newsletter this morning Mike Allen chooses to major on president-elect Donald Trump’s surprise pick of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, which Allen describes as a “Pentagon shocker.”

He writes:

President Trump made the biggest and most unconventional pick of his transition last evening by tapping Fox News host and decorated Army veteran Pete Hegseth, 44, to be defense secretary.

Hegseth favors a non-interventionist America First foreign policy, in contrast with Trump’s more hawkish picks for other top national security roles.

The choice channels Trump’s affinity for cable news and high ratings.

Hegseth has lobbied heavily on behalf of several service members accused of war crimes and privately encouraged then-president Trump to issue pardons.

Mehdi Hasan writes for the Guardian today, asking “Is Donald Trump a foreign policy dove?”

You can read it here …

Who is Pete Hegseth, the Fox host tapped for Trump's defense secretary?

Associated Press has described Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, as “someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military”.

The news agency points out that in an interview the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, Hegseth has previously expressed the view that allowing women to serve in combat increases the number of casualties the US military suffers.

It quotes him saying:

Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat, that means casualties are worse.

He said minority and white men can perform similarly but the same isn’t true for women, adding that by opening combat slots to women “we’ve changed the standards in putting them there, which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit”.

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur tapped for a new Trump committee?

Donald Trump appointee Vivek Ramaswamy is somewhat less known outside the US than Elon Musk.

Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur, who ran for the Republican nomination for president against Trump, dropping out of the race early in 2024.

His parents moved to the US from Kerala, and he has attended Harvard and Yale. The 39-year-old lives in New York and has a house in Ohio, and is married with two children.

Forbes has stated he is one of the 20 youngest billionaires in the US, and his business interests have included biotech firm Roivant Sciences, Chapter Medicare and he also worked at hedge fund QVT.

Ramaswamy also notoriously appeared to broadcast himself urinating during a live X talk that featured Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others.

Freedom caucus will not run House speaker candidate against Mike Johnson - report

US politics website the Hill is reporting that the hardline Trumpist Republican Freedom caucus in the House is to drop its objection to the re-election of speaker Mike Johnson, and will not be putting up an alternative candidate.

Instead it is believed the group will force an on the record vote on Johnson’s role, which will allow them to register their onjection to his reappointment. The caucus is unhappy with proposed rule changes intended to enforce better party discipline on the more rebellious Republican members of the House.

Biden to host Trump at the White House

Joe Biden will host Donald Trump later today at the White House as part of transition efforts between the current administration and the incoming one.

Yesterday White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters “[Biden] believes in the norms, he believes in our institution, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power. That is what is the norm. That is what is supposed to happen.”

Reuters reports that Brian Vance, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, said “The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

In an analysis piece for CNN, Stephen Collinson has described Donald Trump’s flurry of announcements as “a night of Maga shock and awe.”

He writes:

The selection of people such as Elon Musk, Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth are partly designed to honor the aspirations of Trump’s voters and epitomize the president-elect’s own outsider brand — as well as his deeply developed craving for loyalty.

His choice of ultra-loyalists is borne out of Trump’s frustration that establishment military officers, officials and conventional Washington operators reined in his own most extreme impulses in his first term.

But Trump is also taking a risk. While it makes sense to pick outside revolutionaries to tear down governance, many of his picks lack the kind of in-depth experience and knowledge of the departments they will run.

In its coverage of the controversial appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a non-governmental commission to cut government spending, the Washington Post reminds readers of something the latter said earlier in the year.

It quotes Ramaswamy saying “We have a fourth branch of government – the administrative state – that our Founding Fathers didn’t envision. Removing the excess bureaucracy is going to be good for our economy and for our national spirit.”

The Washington Post goes on to say:

A person familiar with the effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive negotiations, said that details of the organization’s funding would emerge soon. The [Republicans] had talked about reducing waste for many years, but had not been effective, the person added, leading the campaign to the conclusion ‘outsiders with a much more entrepreneurial approach’ were better suited to the task.

Some Trump advisers see Musk’s commission as an opportunity to implement long-sought goals to reduce federal spending and regulation. They have pointed to the Grace Commission, a Reagan-era panel that recommended billions of dollars in spending cuts. Under that model, which some Trump advisers hope the Musk plan will emulate, the commission identified hundreds or thousands of examples of wasteful government programs and regulations, and called on Congress to approve the recommendations, backed by the president.

The constitution gives Congress authority over taxation and spending, meaning any federal budget changes recommended by Musk’s commission would have to be approved by the House and Senate.

Philip Wen

As my colleague Philip Wen noted in his report on the appointment of Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency”, a lot of details remain unclear:

It is not clear how the organization will operate. It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.

Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets and entanglements to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work. Because Musk and Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.

Trump said the agency will be conducting a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government, and making recommendations for drastic reforms”.

Trump said their work would conclude by 4 July 2026, adding that a smaller and more efficient government would be a “gift” to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Read more here: Trump selects Elon Musk to lead government efficiency department

Ramaswamy and Musk to lead 'government efficiency' department sparking conflict of interest concerns

The announcement that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would lead a new non-governmental “Department of Government Efficiency” has immediately raised questions about conflicts of interest.

Both men, CNN notes, “lead companies with existing, lucrative government contracts”. Musk runs companies including Tesla, SpaceX, X and Neuralink while Ramaswamy is a wealthy biotech entrepreneur.

In his statement announcing the new roles, president-elect Donald Trump said of Musk and Ramaswamy:

Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal agencies.

Reacting to his appointment, and giving his view of what he sees as government bureaucracy, Ramaswamy posted to X to say “Shut it down”.

Ramaswamy also announced he was ending his bid to be appointed Ohio senator in stead of JD Vance, who is set to become vice president.

Welcome and opening summary …

Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing coverage of US politics. Here are the headlines …

• President-elect Donald Trump has continued to make appointments as he prepares to return to the White House. Former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, who once said he dreamed of building a holiday home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, will be the US ambassador to Israel

• South Dakota governor Kristi Noem will lead the Department of Homeland Security. Fox News host Pete Hegseth will serve as secretary of defense, while John Ratcliffe will lead the CIA and William Joseph McGinley will serve as White House counsel

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency”, which Trump says will not actually be a government agency. They will, according to Trump, work from outside the government to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”. Both men already have lucrative government contracts, leading to questions about an immediate conflict of interest

• Republican Rep David Valadao sealed California’s 22nd Congressional district, beating Democrat Rudy Salas, and edging the Republicans closer to the 218 mark which will give them control of the House

• The judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal hush-money case has postponed deciding on whether to throw out the conviction on presidential immunity grounds

• Joe Biden’s administration has said it will not halt arms transfers to Israel, despite eight international aid groups saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has failed to meet US demands to increase humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip