US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he had tapped US Representative Matt Gaetz as his attorney-general and former US representative Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence. He also confirmed reports that US Senator Marco Rubio would be his nominee for secretary of state.
Gaetz’s selection was seen as a shock. The Florida lawmaker was not among those who had been mentioned as contenders for the job and even his colleagues in the US Congress appeared stunned by the news that he would head the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
“Everybody was saying: ‘Oh my God,’” US Representative Mike Simpson said. “That was about as big a surprise as I’ve had in a long time.”
Photo: Reuters
Gaetz resigned from his House seat on Wednesday evening.
Trump announced the decision in a post on Truth Social, saying that Gaetz would “root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”
Gabbard helped prepare Trump for his debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in the leadup to the election.
Photo: AFP
The former Democratic lawmaker announced her switch to the Republican Party at a Trump rally shortly before last week’s vote.
Gabbard served in the US Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait.
Rubio, a onetime critic who evolved into one of Trump’s fiercest defenders, is a hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump’s running mate this summer.
Photo: AP
On Capitol Hill, Rubio is the vice chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
He has pushed for taking a harder line against China and has targeted social media app TikTok because its parent company is Chinese.
He and other lawmakers say that Beijing could demand access to the data of users whenever it wants.
Photo: AFP
“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement.
CNN in an interview asked Rubio about his disagreements with Trump when they were both contesting the Republican presidential primary in 2016.
“That is like asking a boxer why they punched somebody in the face in the third round,” Rubio told CNN. “It’s because they were boxing.”
Trump made the personnel announcements while flying back to Florida from Washington after meeting with US President Joe Biden, during which they shook hands in front of a roaring fire in the Oval Office.
“Welcome back,” Biden said as he congratulated Trump on his election win and pledged a smooth transfer of power.
Biden said that he would do “everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have won enough seats to control the US House of Representatives.
A House Republican victory in Arizona, alongside a win in California earlier on Wednesday, gave the party the 218 House victories that make up the majority.
Republicans earlier gained control of the Senate from Democrats.
Trump rallied House Republicans at a Capitol Hill hotel on Wednesday morning, his first return to Washington since the election.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say: ‘He’s good, we got to figure something else,’” Trump told the lawmakers, who laughed in response.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who won the Republican Conference’s nomination to stay on as speaker next year, has talked of taking a “blowtorch” to the federal government and its programs, eyeing ways to overhaul programs championed by Democrats.
“Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate,” Johnson said earlier this week. “The American people want us to implement and deliver that ‘America First’ agenda.”
In the Senate, US Senator John Thune won an internal election to replace US Senator Mitch McConnell as the party’s leader in the chamber.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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