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Report: Trump Team Mulling Replacement For Controversial Admin. Nominee

By
Madeleine Jackson
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By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Pete Hegseth, CC BY-SA 2.0

This Trump nominee could already be on his way out…

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has reportedly been drafting a list of alternative nominees for Defense Secretary in case Trump rethinks his choice of, Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth.

According to Vanity Fair, which spoke to two unnamed Republican sources “close to Trump,” the president-elect’s transition team has been “quietly preparing a list of alternative defense secretary candidates should Trump abandon Hegseth,” following news of a 2017 sexual assault allegation.

“It’s becoming a real possibility,” claimed one of the sources. The other source said, “People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest.”

Shortly after Trump announced his decision to nominate Hegseth for secretary of defense this month, the Trump transition team was informed about a 2020 payment Hegseth reportedly made to a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her at a hotel and spa in 2017.

In a statement, Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore insisted, “Mr. Hegseth is completely innocent. Not only did she take advantage of him, but we believe she then extorted him knowing that at the height of the #MeToo movement the mere public allegation would likely result in his immediate termination from Fox News.”

The New York Times reported last week that Trump had “not moved off supporting Mr. Hegseth, despite claims that his team was reassessing the pick, according to several people close to the incoming president.”

Hegseth’s nomination took Senate Republicans by surprise.

Asked for his thoughts on the nomination, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) reportedly remarked, “Really? I’d have to think about it.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reacted, “Wow… I’m just surprised because the names that I’ve heard for Secretary of Defense have not included him,” while Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) asked, “Who?”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) was more optimistic about the nomination, calling Hegseth “an impressive individual.”

Trump Announces New Education Secretary

By
Madeleine Jackson
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On Tuesday evening, President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice to lead the Department of Education.

Read Trump’s full statement below:

It is my great honor to announce that Linda McMahon, former Administrator of the Small Business Administration, will be the United States Secretary of Education.

For the past four years, as the Chair of the Board at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Linda has been a fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights, working hard at both AFPI and America First Works (AFW) to achieve Universal School Choice in 12 States, giving children the opportunity to receive an excellent Education, regardless of zip code or income. As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand “Choice” to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families.

Linda served for two years on the Connecticut Board of Education, where she was one of fifteen members overseeing all Public Education in the State, including its Technical High School system. She also served as a Member of the Board of Trustees at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, for two stints totaling over 16 years. She is now doing an incredible job as Co-Chair of our Trump-Vance Transition Team. Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World. We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.

Trump Nominates Dr. Oz To Key Role

By
Madeleine Jackson
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5
Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump nominated celebrity Doctor Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator.

Read Trump’s full statement:

I am very pleased to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again. He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake. 

Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget. Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.

Dr. Oz graduated from Harvard College, and earned a joint MD and MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School, my powerful alma mater. He rose to become a Professor of Surgery at Columbia University, while receiving numerous patents on his medical inventions, authoring more than 400 original publications, and publishing numerous New York Times Best Selling books.

He won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting “The Dr. Oz Show,” where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices, and gave a strong voice to the key pillars of the MAHA Movement. Dr. Oz and his wife, Lisa, expanded this effort by founding HealthCorps, a non-profit that has improved the lives of millions of underserved teens Nationwide over the past two decades. 

I have known Dr. Oz for many years, and I am confident he will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible Healthcare, so our Country can be Great and Healthy Again!

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

NFL Responds To Recent Trend Of Trump-Inspired Celebrations

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    By U.S. Army photo by Capt. Edward Benedictus - This image was released by the United States Army with the ID 231112-A-OF320-1730 (next).This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.العربية ∙ বাংলা ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ English ∙ español ∙ euskara ∙ فارسی ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ русский ∙ slovenščina ∙ svenska ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/−, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154218485

    It’s the Trump effect…

    The NFL confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday it had “no issue” with players doing celebratory dances emulating President-elect Trump after touchdowns and sacks.

    Front Office Sports first reported the league had no problem with the grooves.

    San Francisco 49ers star Nick Bosa appeared to have started the trend of outwardly supporting the president-elect. He flashed a “Make America Great Again” cap after a postgame interview before the election, which led to a fine. He then did the Trump dance after sacking Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.

    Brock Bowers, Calvin Ridley, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Za’Darius Smith and Malcolm Rodriguez were all seen doing it. Bowers explained why he did the move after the game.

    “I’ve seen everyone do it,” Bowers said, per USA Today. “I watched the UFC fight last night and Jon Jones did it. I like watching UFC, so I saw it and thought it was cool.”

    Bowers’ media session was curiously shut down after he gave his answer, according to the paper. It led to speculation about whether the dance would be prohibited. 

    NFL legend Brett Favre appeared on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle” and said he didn’t think the league would crack down on it, citing other famous celebrations like the “Icky Suffle.”

    He also explained why he thought players were doing the move.

    “I think people have had enough,” he explained. “They’re coming out of the woodwork right and left. And when I woke up (after) Election Day and saw the landslide victory, it really put, I think, everyone’s perspective of this country right into the forefront. We were in desperate need of President Trump to take back over and get this country back to where it needs to be. We were definitely going in the wrong direction.

    “I think our youth – and I say youth, NFL players, college players, high school players – see it. When I was 22, 25, 30 years old, I never thought about politics. It was never an issue. There was never a focus on politics like it was this year. I think people just saw it for what it was – that we were in desperate need of help and that help was President Trump.”

    Manhattan District Attorney Opposes Push To Dismiss Trump Conviction

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday said they will oppose President-elect Trump’s demand to dismiss his criminal hush money.

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) in the new letter said he won’t resist adjourning Trump’s sentencing next week so the judge can receive further briefing on the issue. 

    “No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on unofficial conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” Bragg wrote.  

    “Rather, existing law suggests that the Court must balance competing constitutional interests and proceed ‘in a manner that preserves both the independence of the Executive and the integrity of the criminal justice system,’” he said. 

    Bragg signed the filing himself – a departure from the office’s typical practice. 

    Trump’s team celebrated the development.

    “This is a total and definitive victory for President Trump and the American People who elected him in a landslide. The Manhattan DA has conceded that this Witch Hunt cannot continue,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson and incoming White House communications director, said in a statement. 

    Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the case, must decide whether to push back the Nov. 26 sentencing, toss Trump’s conviction altogether or move forward despite his election victory.   

    Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair, which he denies, ahead of the 2016 presidential election. 

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Trump To Nominate New Commerce Secretary

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce his nomination for Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick.

    Lutnick is the chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and is also currently serving as co-chair of the Trump transition. He has notably publicly embraced Trump’s tariff plans, which will be a major part of the job leading Commerce.

    The CEO was considered a front-runner to serve as Trump’s Treasury secretary along with Scott Bessent, who served as economic adviser on the Trump campaign.

    Trump just released a statement:

    I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

    In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.

    Lutnick beat out Linda McMahon for the role leading Commerce who was considered a front runner and previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

    McMahon is also a co-chair of his transition effort.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Report: Trump Hush Money Sentencing Adjourned

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    It’s always been political…

    On Tuesday, as President-elect Donald Trump was set to be sentenced in his hush-money conviction New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan adjourned the highly-anticipated Nov. 26 meeting.

    No explanation was given by the Court.

    Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts for business fraud in connection with hiding hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

    Trump’s attorney Emil Bove argued last week that the case should be stayed or dismissed to “avoid unconstitutional impediments” to Trump’s ability to act as president.

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case has also maintained that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to back Trump’s claims of broad presidential immunity should not apply to this case. Presidential immunity is meant to shield a president from being prosecuted for carrying out his roles as president. The charges against Trump stem from acts undertaken while he was first campaigning for president in 2016 and continuing into his first term.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Trump Calls For Investigation Into Iowa Pollster

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    President-elect Donald Trump called for an investigation into retired Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer as he accused her of undermining trust in the 2024 election.

    Selzer’s (inaccurate) Iowa reporting threatened to upend the state’s results, however Trump went on toe decisively win the Buckeye State.

    “A totally Fake poll that caused great distrust and uncertainty at a very critical time. She knew exactly what she was doing,” Trump posted to his Truth Social site.

    In the post, Trump thanked the “GREAT PEOPLE OF IOWA” for their votes, despite alleged possible “ELECTION FRAUD” by Selzer and the newspaper that published the poll, The Des Moines Register.

    “An investigation is fully called for!” Trump added.

    Just days before the election, Selzer’s survey, which found Vice President Harris leading Trump in Iowa, sent shockwaves nationwide. Trump went on to win the state by more than 20,000 votes.

    Selzer announced in a column on Sunday that she will retire from the Register’s Iowa Poll.

    Selzer, who has worked on a contract basis for the Register since 1997, said she would have liked to have made the announcement after polling lined up with the election results and admitted “it’s ironic” that it’s the opposite.

    Selzer’s poll was widely cited during the final days of the campaign, raising questions about whether its projections shaped voter sentiment or campaign strategies.

    Elon Musk Accuses Trump Ally Of ‘Leaking’ Info To The Media

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Tensions are running high within Trump’s inner circle…

    Billionaire Elon Musk clashed publicly with Boris Epshteyn, one of Trump’s closest allies in what sources called a “massive blowout” over key Cabinet appointments.

    According to three sources cited by Axios, the dispute reached a boiling point during a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club last week during which Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking sensitive details about the transition process, including potential personnel picks.

    “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Epshteyn reportedly fired back during the heated exchange.

    The altercation highlights a power struggle as Musk, a newcomer to Trump’s inner circle, increasingly advocates for his preferred candidates. Musk has reportedly criticized Epshteyn’s influence in selecting Justice Department nominees, including Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

    Musk is lobbying for Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team, as Treasury secretary, over Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent.

    Despite the friction, Musk maintains considerable support among Trump’s family and allies. 

    However, the tech billionaire’s growing role in the transition has rankled longtime Trump loyalists, who view him as overstepping boundaries. 

    Musk has been among the president-elect’s most vocal and influential supporters since he endorsed Trump immediately after a July assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally but some in Trump’s inner circle say the Tesla CEO is being to overstay his welcome.

    “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like him,” Trump quipped, according to a source in the room when Trump met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.

    some Republicans have questioned how long Trump and Musk can happily co-exist, particularly given Trump’s past frustration with those who take up too much of the spotlight.

    “Trump is not going to have another alpha. I think Trump is going to tire of him,” one source close to the transition told The Hill.

    One Republican lobbyist with ties to Trump said there are some in the president-elect’s orbit who think Musk is “a little big for his britches.”

    Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill, but in a statement on Wednesday to NBC News described Musk and Trump as “great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again.”

    “Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” Leavitt said.

    Sylvester Stallone Introduces Trump As ‘Second George Washington’ In Surprise Appearance

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
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      0

      Academy Award nominated actor Sylvester Stallone introduced President-elect Donald Trump at a gala held at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, likening Trump to a “second George Washington” in a series of dramatic remarks.

      Stallone, 78, addressed attendees at the America First Policy Institute gala, praising Trump’s impact and resilience. “We are in the presence of a really mythical character,” said the actor, famed for his roles in the Rocky and Rambo franchises. “I love mythology. This individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off.”

      Drawing a historical comparison, Stallone continued: “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. ‘Cause without him, you could imagine what the world would look like. Guess what? We got the second George Washington.”

      Stone also compared Trump’s comeback to the transformation Rocky underwent to prepare for his climactic fight against Apollo Creed.

      As Fox News reports:

      After a brief pause, Trump walked onto the stage to Stallone’s introduction and shook his hand while saying a few words to the actor.

      While Stallone has stayed pretty quiet about his personal politics over the years and admitted to not voting in the 2016 and 2020 elections, he did tell Variety magazine in 2016 that he liked Trump.

      “I love Donald Trump,” he said at the time. “There are certain people like Arnold [Schwarzenegger], Babe Ruth, that are bigger than life. But I don’t know how that translates to running the world.”

      Stallone did not publicly endorse Trump during the 2024 election cycle, but he did answer a FaceTime call from Fox News’ Brett Baier in October and encouraged Pennsylvania voters to “keep punching.”

      Stone’s latest remarks are the first to make his political support for Trump explicit.

      The evening also featured remarks from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has been tapped as a nominee for the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk hinted at sweeping changes during Trump’s upcoming administration, stating: “It’s not going to be business as usual. It’s going to be a revolution!”

      Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

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