Trump picks Musk for ‘efficiency’ department ahead of Biden White House meeting: Live

Kaitlan Collins reported on CNN last night that one position the president-elect is still struggling to fill is that of US attorney general, a role that has given him plenty of trouble in the past.

Here’s Thomas Beaumont with a recap of who we’ve got so far.

While Trump and Biden will meet in the Oval Office today, there wives will not.

Here’s James Liddell with the late-night host’s guess as to why that might be (Melania’s people have cited a scheduling conflict, for the record).

The Massachusetts Senator wasting no time here in pointing out an obvious logical flaw in the tech bro’s DOGE project: the colossal waste and expense of setting up a new government agency to cut waste and expense in government agencies.

Musk himself, meanwhile, is already dreaming of the merchandise sales – and perhaps saying the quiet part out loud in so doing.

Other cabinet appointments confirmed by Trump on Tuesday included Mike Huckabee being nominated as his new ambassador to Israel, Steven Witkoff as his special envoy to the Middle East and William Joseph McGinley as his White House counsel.

Here’s a little more on Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and long-standing conservative favorite.

If this one beggars belief at first glance, here’s a little explanation.

Hegseth, 44, is a former Bear Stearns banker who served tours with the Army National Guard in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan and has led veterans-focused advocacy organizations.

He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 and is a co-host on its morning show Fox and Friends.

During his time with the network, Hegseth has lobbied Trump to support US soldiers and contractors accused of war crimes, including Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and a group of Blackwater personnel accused of massacring civilians in Baghdad.

On air, Hegseth has complained that the US is spending too much supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia, has been an outspoken advocate for Israel and made a series of controversial pronouncements, a sample of which follows:

There was also this noteworthy near-miss:

“Pete has spent his entire life as a warrior for the troops, and for the country,” Trump said in a statement yesterday.

“Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – our military will be great again, and America will never back down.”

The incoming 47th president unveiled a number of other appointments to his new administration on Tuesday, picking John Ratcliffe, his director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021, to be his next CIA director.

Josh Marcus has more on a returning face from Trump’s first term.

The former and future commander-in-chief will return to Washington DC on Wednesday to meet with Republicans on Capitol Hill and Joe Biden at the White House to discuss a transition schedule as the Senate elects a new majority leader in place of Mitch McConnell, with Rick Scott, John Cornyn and John Thune in contention.

Biden’s team has defended making the invitation to Trump, who did not extend the same courtesy to his successor in late 2020 while he disputed his election defeat on false grounds.

Asked why the president is granting the Republican a grace he was not afforded four years ago, White House press secretart Karine Jean-Pierre replied that it was “easy” to answer the question.

“Because he believes in the norms, he believes in our institutions, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that tech billionaire Elon Musk and ex-Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), tasked with cutting the cost of government, stripping away regulations and restructuring federal agencies.

Musk responded to the news by pledging that DOGE “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people”.

Trump compared the office to the Manhattan Project, which developed the world’s first atomic bombs.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report.

The price of bitcoin hit a new record on Tuesday, marking the third consecutive day that the cryptocurrency has reached an all-time-high.

The new price high above $89,900 forms part of a broader rally that began when Donald Trump emerged as the likely winner of the US presidential election on 6 November.

Positioning himself as a pro-crypto candidate, the president-elect has promised to end what he calls the “persecution” of the crypto industry and to position the United States as the “bitcoin superpower of the world” once in power.