Trump’s Cabinet picks could be complicated by GOP math in the House
CNN
Plenty of House Republicans are privately jockeying for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. There’s one big problem: Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose their votes in the next Congress.
Plenty of House Republicans are privately jockeying for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. There’s one big problem: Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose their votes in the next Congress. Trump on Monday named long-time loyalist New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador and asked Florida Rep. Mike Waltz to serve as his national security adviser. At least a dozen more House members — including Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and Transportation Chairman Sam Graves — have been discussed as other picks. But even as the House GOP conference remains one of his strongest bases of support in Washington, the Trump team won’t be able to poach many more of those lawmakers without risking Johnson losing control of what could be another slim majority in 2025. CNN has not yet projected control of the chamber. “I think we have some really qualified people. But I wouldn’t want to drop us down to a one, two (seat) majority tactically,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who is leaving Congress in January to become North Dakota governor. “We have a lot of talent. There’s a lot of people who would be really, really good at this stuff,” he said. But, he added, referring to the speaker: “You have to give Mike some room to operate.”
Melania Trump is unlikely to move to Washington full time in her second go-round as first lady, multiple sources told CNN, once more showing signs of her willingness to buck tradition as she returns to her high-profile but unelected role on the world stage.
The reported burglaries took place just prior to and on the day of the Chiefs’ win against the New Orleans Saints on October 7, which aired on “Monday Night Football.”
Four women suing over Idaho’s strict abortion bans told a judge Tuesday how excitement over their pregnancies turned to grief and fear after they learned their fetuses were not likely to survive to birth — and how they had to leave the state to get abortions amid fears that pregnancy complications would put their own health in danger.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his second administration.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has chosen Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his secretary of defense.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Massachusetts Air National Guard member to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine.
Murder charges will be filed against at least nine inmates at Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil, which has seen riots and massacres in recent years and is widely considered the country’s most dangerous prison.
A large explosion was heard in a Louisville, Kentucky, neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon, sources tell CNN affiliate WLKY News.
Hundreds of Kenyan officers are leading an international force in Haiti, but have not received full pay amid a rocky start in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation.
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to let Mark Meadows move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court, effectively barring the former chief of staff during Donald Trump’s first term from claiming immunity from those charges.