Trump picks Challenge 2025 co-author to steer FCC as hypothesis over treasury secretary appointment mounts
Good morning, and welcome to our US politics weblog.
US President-elect Donald Trump has introduced that he has chosen Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Fee (FCC), the unbiased company that regulates telecommunications.
Carr is a longtime member of the fee and served beforehand because the FCC’s basic counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate 3 times and was nominated by each Trump and Joe Biden to the fee.
The FCC is overseen by Congress, however Trump has prompt he needed to deliver it below tighter White Home management, partially to make use of the company to punish TV networks that cowl him in a means he views unfavourably.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump mentioned.
Final week, Carr, a giant tech critic, wrote to Meta’s Fb, Alphabet’s Google, Apple and Microsoft saying that they had taken steps to censor Individuals. Carr mentioned on Sunday the FCC should “restore free speech rights for everyday Americans”.
Carr has of late embraced Trump’s concepts about social media and tech. Carr wrote a piece dedicated to the FCC in “ Project 2025,” the right-wing plan for Trump’s presidency which might crack down on immigration, dismantle LGBTQ+ and abortion rights and diminish environmental protections.
In a chapter of Challenge 2025, Carr argued that the FCC’s foremost targets ought to be “reining in Big Tech, promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.”
In his chapter, Carr additionally prompt that social media platform TikTok ought to be banned if it doesn’t disentangle from its China-based dad or mum firm.
You may learn extra on Carr’s appointment right here.
Trump has not revealed his choose for treasury secretary but. Two potential candidates – former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and billionaire Marc Rowan -will reportedly be interviewed at his Mar-a-Lago residence later in the present day.
Republican US Senator Invoice Hagerty of Tennessee, 65, who Trump lately met at Mar-a-Lago, can also be within the operating for the function, in keeping with the Wall Road Journal.
Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and investor Scott Bessent are additionally thought-about as high candidates for the job.
Key occasions
Linda McMahon anticipated to be introduced as secretary of commerce – report
A number of roles in Donald Trump’s new staff, together with the heads of the treasury, commerce and Labor departments are but to be introduced (you may view a full listing of those that have been/could possibly be supplied key positions when Trump takes workplace in January right here).
Reuters is reporting that Linda McMahon, a former Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) director, is seen because the frontrunner to steer the commerce division, a federal authorities company that promotes financial development and job creation.
McMahon, 76, is a significant donor and was an early supporter of the Republican president-elect when he first ran for the White Home in 2015. This time, Trump tapped her to co-lead a transition staff shaped to assist vet personnel and draft coverage forward of the 5 November election, which he decisively gained.
McMahon is the co-founder and former CEO of the skilled wrestling franchise WWE. She later served as director of the SBA, resigning in 2019, and went on to steer a pro-Trump political motion committee that supported his 2020 reelection bid.
Iowa pollster J Ann Selzer has introduced she is shifting on “to other ventures and opportunities” after greater than 20 years predicting ends in the politically essential Midwestern state.
Her final ballot – three days earlier than the nationwide vote on election day – projected a 47% to 44% lead for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump on the again of older girls breaking for Democrats over the difficulty of reproductive rights.
Practically each different ballot in Iowa confirmed Trump main the state, which the previous president gained in 2020 by eight factors. When the votes had been counted, Selzer was off by 16 factors as the previous Republican president gained the state decisively.
Selzer introduced the choice to retire from election polling in a visitor column printed on Sunday within the Des Moines Register. She wrote:
Over a 12 months in the past I suggested the Register I’d not renew when my 2024 contract expired with the newest election ballot as I transition to different ventures and alternatives.
Would I’ve preferred to make this announcement after a closing ballot aligned with Election Day outcomes? After all. It’s ironic that it’s simply the other.
I’m happy with the work I’ve performed for the Register, for the Detroit Free Press, for the Indianapolis Star, for Bloomberg Information and for different private and non-private organizations keen on elections. They had been nice purchasers and had been proud of my work.
There have been surprising polls for every, to make sure. In the long run, my findings regarded good.
Elon Musk has publicly weighed in on Donald Trump’s alternative for US treasury secretary, one of many remaining key incoming cupboard nominations the president-elect will make within the coming days.
Musk urged followers on X to assist a candidate that may not be “business as usual” and “will actually enact change” as he threw his assist behind Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to steer the treasury division.
Lutnick, former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a agency that misplaced 658 workers within the 9/11 assaults, is believed to be up in opposition to Scott Bessent, the founding father of capital administration agency Key Sq. who has mentioned he desires the US to stay the world’s reserve foreign money and use tariffs as a negotiating tactic.
“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change,” Musk posted on Saturday. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.”
You may learn the total story by my colleague Edward Helmore right here:
Trump picks Challenge 2025 co-author to steer FCC as hypothesis over treasury secretary appointment mounts
Good morning, and welcome to our US politics weblog.
US President-elect Donald Trump has introduced that he has chosen Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Fee (FCC), the unbiased company that regulates telecommunications.
Carr is a longtime member of the fee and served beforehand because the FCC’s basic counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate 3 times and was nominated by each Trump and Joe Biden to the fee.
The FCC is overseen by Congress, however Trump has prompt he needed to deliver it below tighter White Home management, partially to make use of the company to punish TV networks that cowl him in a means he views unfavourably.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for free speech, and has fought against the regulatory lawfare that has stifled Americans’ freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump mentioned.
Final week, Carr, a giant tech critic, wrote to Meta’s Fb, Alphabet’s Google, Apple and Microsoft saying that they had taken steps to censor Individuals. Carr mentioned on Sunday the FCC should “restore free speech rights for everyday Americans”.
Carr has of late embraced Trump’s concepts about social media and tech. Carr wrote a piece dedicated to the FCC in “ Project 2025,” the right-wing plan for Trump’s presidency which might crack down on immigration, dismantle LGBTQ+ and abortion rights and diminish environmental protections.
In a chapter of Challenge 2025, Carr argued that the FCC’s foremost targets ought to be “reining in Big Tech, promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.”
In his chapter, Carr additionally prompt that social media platform TikTok ought to be banned if it doesn’t disentangle from its China-based dad or mum firm.
You may learn extra on Carr’s appointment right here.
Trump has not revealed his choose for treasury secretary but. Two potential candidates – former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and billionaire Marc Rowan -will reportedly be interviewed at his Mar-a-Lago residence later in the present day.
Republican US Senator Invoice Hagerty of Tennessee, 65, who Trump lately met at Mar-a-Lago, can also be within the operating for the function, in keeping with the Wall Road Journal.
Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and investor Scott Bessent are additionally thought-about as high candidates for the job.
