Politics

By Gram Slattery and Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump is planning to tap conservative loyalist Russell Vought to be the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, according to two sources close to his transition effort, putting him at the helm of a powerful agency that helps decide a president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.

Vought was OMB chief in Trump’s first term and would play a key role in rolling back government regulations and setting budget priorities. In this position, he would be in a position to implement a policy known as Schedule F, which would in practice strip thousands of federal employees of some key civil service protections.

Vought helped produce a blueprint called Project 2025 by a coalition of conservative groups for a second Trump White House term. One of its proposals is to dramatically restructure the government so that appointed conservatives have power over key decisions typically relegated to civil servants.

Trump could change his mind, and there were other candidates for the role as recently as earlier this week, according to one of the sources.

The Trump transition team and Vought did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump repeatedly denied when campaigning for president that he had any links to Project 2025, although many of its authors were former officials from his first administration, including Vought.

At OMB, Vought will work with X CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to carry out Trump’s campaign pledge to slash government spending and regulations.

Musk and Ramaswamy have been tapped by Trump to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump has indicated will operate outside the confines of government.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Alexandra Ulmer, editing by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will count the provisional ballots cast by six people convicted of felonies who had their voting rights recently restored under judges’ rulings, but had been placed in limbo after state officials filed a flurry of legal motions arguing that they had to get their gun rights back in order to vote again.

According to letters sent to local election commissions earlier this month, Election Coordinator Mark Goins told officials to count the provisional ballots.

“Although other courts have addressed requests for restoration of rights differently and I disagree with the court’s order, in this specific case given the timing and the language in this specific order, we must follow the court order, even though it is not final,” Goins wrote in one letter on Nov. 15.

In January, Tennessee’s Secretary of State office shocked voting rights advocates when it announced that people convicted of a felony must get their gun rights and other “citizenship rights” restored before they can become eligible to cast a ballot again.

While explaining their decision, the election office pointed to a 2023 state Supreme Court ruling that said all people convicted of felonies applying for reinstated voting rights first get their “full citizenship rights” restored by a judge or show they were pardoned by a governor. Gun rights were among those required, the Secretary of State’s office determined.

Critics have argued the state’s legal interpretation was way off-base, but the state has fiercely defended its position. When a handful of voters sought to cast ballots in the November election despite having been convicted of felony offenses that stripped away their gun rights, they went to court and the judges sided with them. Then the state fought back — launching several motions for judges to change their decisions.

In one ruling, a judge said “full rights of citizenship” can still be restored even when someone’s gun rights still have to be barred due to restrictions in state law, citing a 2002 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling. Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton noted that the gun-banning offenses are not among those specified in state law as ineligible for voting rights restoration.

As the case dragged past Election Day, the six voters involved in the lawsuit were told to vote provisionally — meaning that their ballots would be counted after their voting status was confirmed.

Another Nashville judge ruled similarly on Friday in two voters’ restoration cases.

“I do believe that the case law in Tennessee is such that the right to vote can be restored without having to restore the right to bear arms,” Judge Thomas Brothers said in court.

Despite begrudgingly allowing the six voters to cast their provisional ballots, Goins warned election commissions in Davidson, Lewis, Sumner and Wilson counties that the latest court orders were not final.

“This court order may ultimately be reversed or amended,” Goins wrote. “If that happens, the voter registration may be subject to being purged.”

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Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville.

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (AP) — A new study has found that systemic barriers to voting on tribal lands contribute to substantial disparities in Native American turnout, particularly for presidential elections.

The study, released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, looked at 21 states with federally recognized tribal lands that have a population of at least 5,000 and where more than 20% of residents identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. Researchers found that between 2012 and 2022, voter participation in federal elections was 7% lower in midterms and 15% lower in presidential elections than among those living off tribal lands in the same states.

Earlier studies show voter turnout for communities of color is higher in areas where their ethnic group is the majority, but the latest research found that turnout was the lowest on tribal lands that have a high concentration of Native Americans, the Brennan Center said.

“There’s something more intensely happening in Native American communities on tribal land,” said Chelsea Jones, a researcher on the study.

Jones said the study suggests some barriers may be insurmountable in predominately Native communities due to a lack of adequate polling places or access to early and mail-in ballots. Many residents on tribal lands have nontraditional addresses, meaning they don’t have street names or house numbers, making mail-in voting even more difficult. As a result, many Native American voters rely on P.O. boxes, but the study notes that several jurisdictions will not mail ballots to P.O. boxes.

Long distances to the polls that do exist on tribal lands and little to no public transportation creates additional hurdles for Native American voters.

“When you think about people who live on tribal lands having to go 30, 60, 100 miles (up to 160 kilometers) to cast a ballot, that is an extremely limiting predicament to be in,” Jones said. “These are really, truly severe barriers.”

Additionally, Jones said they found Native American voters were denied the ability to vote using their tribal IDs in several places, including in states where that is legally allowed. All of these roadblocks to the ballot can create a sense of distrust in the system, which could contribute to lower turnout, Jones said.

The Brennan Center study also highlights on ongoing issue when it comes to understanding how or why Native Americans vote: a lack of good data.

“There are immense data inequities when it comes to studying Native American communities, especially as it pertains to politics,” Jones said.

Native American communities are often overlooked when it comes to polling data and sometimes when they are included those studies do not reflect broader trends for Indigenous voters, said Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, the director of the Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity Center, which studies systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous people.

“Generally speaking, polling is not well positioned to do a good job for Indian Country,” said Fryberg, who is also a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “There are ideas that are held up as the gold standard about how polling works that don’t work for Indian Country because of where we live, because of how difficult it is to connect to people in our community.”

Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, was one of several Indigenous researchers who denounced a recent exit poll conducted by Edison Research that found 65% of Native American voters who participated said they voted for Donald Trump. The poll only surveyed 229 self-identified Native Americans, a sample size that she said is too small for an accurate reading, and none of the jurisdictions in the poll were on tribal lands.

“Right there, you’re already eliminating a powerful perspective,” Fryberg said.

The Indigenous Journalists Association labelled that polling data as “highly misleading and irresponsible,” saying it has led “to widespread misinformation.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, Edison Research acknowledged that the polling size is small, but said the “goal of the survey is to represent the national electorate and to have enough data to also examine large demographic and geographic subgroups.” The survey has a potential sampling margin of error of plus or minus 9%, according to the statement.

“Based on all of these factors, this data point from our survey should not be taken as a definitive word on the American Indian vote,” the statement reads.

Native Americans are not just part of an ethnic group, they also have political identities that come with being citizens of sovereign nations. Fryberg said allowing those surveyed to self-identify as Native Americans, without follow-up questions about tribal membership and specific Indigenous populations, means that data cannot accurately capture voting trends for those communities.

Both Fryberg and Jones said that in order to create better data on and opportunities for Native Americans to vote, researchers and lawmakers would have to meet the specific needs of Indigenous communities. Jones said passage of the Native American Voting Rights Act, a bill that has stalled in Congress, would ensure equitable in-person voting options in every precinct on tribal lands.

“This is not an issue that we see across the country,” Jones said. “It’s very specific to tribal lands. So we need provisions that address that uniquely.”

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Graham Lee Brewer is an Oklahoma City-based member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.

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(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump’s team is holding discussions with the digital asset industry about whether to create a new White House post solely dedicated to crypto policy, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The team is vetting candidates for the role, the report said, citing people familiar with the transition efforts.

The transition team did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

Trump championed bitcoin and the crypto industry in the run-up to the election. He promised to fire Gary Gensler, the crypto-skeptic chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, “on day one” and reportedly paid with bitcoin for burgers he bought for his supporters at a New York bar.

A dedicated crypto post at the White House would be another major win for an industry that has moved from the fringes to the mainstream in years.

On Wednesday, bitcoin rose to a fresh record high and inched closer to the highly anticipated $100,000 milestone as the prospects for the crypto sector improved after Trump won the presidential race earlier this month.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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By Stephanie Kelly and Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will likely choose Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Martin Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Makary raised concerns about a number of public health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, touting the protection from natural immunity and opposing COVID vaccine mandates.

The FDA is the world’s most influential drug regulator with a more than $7 billion budget. It is responsible for approving new treatments and assuring they are safe and effective before entering the biggest and most lucrative market. It has regulatory authority over human and veterinary drugs, biological medicines, medical devices and vaccines.

The agency is also responsible for maintaining safety standards for the food supply, tobacco, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said he would not speculate on or get ahead of any announcement.

As FDA commissioner, Makary would report to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

To lead HHS, Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist who has spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines and one of several unconventional Trump picks for top administration jobs.

As a doctor, Makary was a co-developer of the Surgery Checklist, a routine for surgeons that improved patient outcomes and has been spread around the globe by the World Health Organization.

His most recent book, “Blind Spots”, was published in September. In interviews promoting the book, he spoke against what he called “massive overtreatment” in the U.S. that he called “an epidemic of inappropriate care.”

He has advocated for reexamining the use of hormone replacement treatment in menopausal women, reducing overuse of antibiotics and reforms to medical education.

Makary, who lives in Baltimore, has served as an adviser to Washington conservative healthcare think tank Paragon Health Institute.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Dr. Robert Califf, a cardiologist and researcher who also held the role of FDA commissioner in the Obama administration.

In his second term, Califf revamped the agency’s food operations and inspections processes and tried to combat misinformation.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Nathan Layne and Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Workers hired for a sprawling electric vehicle battery production complex in Kentucky have launched a campaign to join the United Auto Workers as the union tries to expand its foothold in the South and among battery factories, the UAW said Wednesday.

The BlueOval SK complex at Glendale is a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its South Korean partner, SK On, to produce batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. The nearly $6 billion battery park — about an hour south of Louisville — is gearing up to start manufacturing in 2025.

The union said a supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK have signed union authorization cards to launch the public campaign to join the UAW.

The union will need to seek an election run by the National Labor Relations Board to organize workers at the two-plant complex in Kentucky. So far it has not filed papers seeking an election.

Production at one of the plants is scheduled to start next year. Construction continues at the second plant but a start date for production has been paused as Ford monitors demand for electric vehicles.

In a statement on its website, the union said it believes companies like Blue Oval SK “can do better to provide career-track, family-sustaining jobs that strengthen our community.”

Asked for a response to the unionizing effort, BlueOval SK human resources Director Neva Burke said in a statement: “We want to maintain a direct relationship with our employees.”

The UAW said workers at Blue Oval SK, who are now nonunion, have weaker benefits than union workers at Ford. At Blue Oval, workers start at $21 per hour, while UAW production workers at Ford start at $26.32 and can make up to $42 per hour after three years, the union said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has called the project a “game changer” for the state.

“We know that EVs are the future,” Beshear said recently. “We don’t know how quickly they’ll get here, but the future has been built in Kentucky, and we’re going to be a really big part of it.”

The UAW is hoping for a repeat of its successes in neighboring states.

Workers at a General Motors joint venture electric vehicle battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, joined the union. Workers at a Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also voted to unionize. In Ohio, workers at another GM joint venture electric vehicle battery factory voted to join the UAW.

But the union lost an organizing vote in May at two Mercedes factories in Alabama.

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Krisher reported from Detroit.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed a line of guitars, following up on the Bibles, sneakers, watches, photo books and cryptocurrency ventures launched during his third White House campaign.

Trump on Wednesday posted to Truth Social a photo of himself holding what he said was a “Limited Edition ‘45’ Guitar,” an electric model emblazoned with an American flag and eagle on the body, and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan inlaid into the neck. Both acoustic and electric styles are available, for $1,250 and $1,500, respectively, as well as “Presidential” and “God Bless the USA” models and “Signature Edition” guitars, which — with a $10,000 price tag — also include Trump’s signature.

What’s not clear is the financial relationship between Trump and proceeds from the guitar sales.

Following his long tradition of melding his political and business interests, Trump has hawked a series of branded products since he launched his 2024 White House campaign, a slew of items that went up for sale in the wake of a $489 million civil fraud judgment against the former president.

Some of them, like the “Official Trump Watch Collection” — where one model costs $100,000 — were listed as affiliated with CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure.

Websites for items like the watches note that the products are subject to a “paid license agreement,” the same mechanism that allowed Trump, well before he entered politics, to profit for years from sales of everything from water to vodka and steaks.

As of Wednesday, GetTrumpGuitars.com included no such disclaimers, or even the name of the company selling the items. An FAQ page lists information about how many of each model are being made available — and notes that these models are “the ONLY guitars endorsed by President Donald J. Trump!” — but includes none of the disclaimers or licensing language on some of Trump’s other product sites.

The guitar website’s privacy policy does include a suburban Nashville address for a couple, neither of whom immediately returned a message seeking comment Wednesday. Photos on their social media pages showed that they attended Trump’s election-night party in Florida.

Messages left with 16 Creative — a branding agency listed at the bottom of the guitar website — and Trump’s transition team also were not immediately returned.

Leading up to his win in the general election, Trump this year has announced the sale of $100 silver coins bearing his face, urged his supporters to spend $59.99 for a “God Bless the USA Bible,” inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad, and hawked new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.”

He also has dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democrats reelected Greta Neubauer as Assembly minority leader on Tuesday after she helped the party flip nearly a dozen seats in this month’s elections.

Assembly Democrats unanimously selected Neubauer as their leader during an afternoon caucus meeting in the state Capitol.

Neubauer represents a section of southern Racine County. She was first elected to the Assembly in 2018 and has served as minority leader since 2021.

Neubauer helped Democrats flip 10 Republican Assembly districts in the Nov. 5 election, narrowing the GOP advantage in the chamber to 54-44 this session. New district boundaries that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed into law earlier this year played a huge role in the Democratic surge.

Neubauer said in a statement that the Democrats’ policy agenda will “reflect the will of the people.” She did not elaborate.

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By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Linda McMahon as education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling mogul at the helm of a department Trump has proposed abolishing.

“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,” Trump said in a statement.

Trump said she will fight “tirelessly” to expand universal school choice across the U.S.

McMahon, who had been in the running for commerce secretary, headed up the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration and was a major donor and early supporter of the Republican president-elect when he first ran for the White House almost a decade ago.

The co-founder and former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise, she resigned from the SBA in 2019 to lead the pro-Trump spending group America First Action. She also chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-friendly think tank.

Trump tapped her to co-lead a transition team formed to help vet personnel and draft policy ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

McMahon had been in the mix to head the Commerce Department, but Trump on Tuesday instead chose her transition team co-leader – Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard Lutnick – for that post. Now she will lead an agency Trump said on the campaign trail that he would abolish, although he likely lacks authority to do it without congressional approval.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by David Ljunggren and Stephen Coates)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is interviewing candidates for the role of FBI director, incoming Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday in the clearest indication yet that the new administration is looking to replace current director Christopher Wray.

In a social media post that was later deleted, Vance defended himself from criticism over his absence from a Senate vote at which a judicial nominee of President Joe Biden was confirmed by saying that at the time of the vote, “I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.”

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” he added on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “But that’s just me.”

Vance was referring to the Senate vote Monday to confirm Embry J. Kidd, a Biden nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, a vote that he and several other Republican senators missed.

An FBI spokesperson declined to comment.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team. “Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made.”

The FBI director’s position carries a 10-year term but Wray’s replacement would not be unexpected given Trump’s long-running criticism of the director he appointed when he was president seven years ago. This past summer, for instance, Trump took to social media to call for Wray to resign after Wray appeared to vouch for Biden’s mental acuity.

Some allies of Trump, including conservative strategist Steve Bannon, have been pushing Trump loyalist Kash Patel for the position but other potential contenders for the job are thought to include Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and House intelligence committee chairman who recently lost his bid for the U.S. Senate as a Michigan Republican.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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