Politics

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and House Democrats have asked the state’s highest court to intervene in a partisan power struggle that has roiled the start of the 2025 legislative session that extended into a second day Wednesday.

Simon, a Democrat, petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court late Tuesday to declare that he legally remains the presiding officer in the Minnesota House, for now, and that Tuesday’s election of GOP leader Lisa Demuth as speaker was invalid. He asked the court to back his position that 68 members are needed for a quorum to conduct any official business in the chamber.

“Because the members of the House lacked this constitutionally required quorum on January 14, Representative Demuth has not properly been elected speaker and the House cannot transact business,” Simon’s lawyers wrote. “Until a quorum is present and a speaker is properly elected, the Secretary remains the House’s presiding officer and his role may not be usurped.”

House Democrats boycotted the opening day of the session in an effort to deny Republicans a quorum and block them from exploiting a temporary one-vote majority to unseat one Democrat and advance the GOP agenda. They also petitioned the Supreme Court late Tuesday, asking the high court to prohibit Republican lawmakers from conducting any business until a quorum of at least 68 members is reached, and to declare any actions taken in the meantime “without lawful authority” and “null and void.”

Demuth called the lawsuits an attack on the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

“Secretary Simon has no authority as a member of the executive branch over proceedings in the House, and his role is strictly ceremonial in nature,” Demuth said in a statement.

Republicans contend that only 67 members are needed for a quorum because one seat is empty.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the Supreme Court might rule. The No. 2 House GOP leader, Harry Niska, of Ramsey, told reporters that Republicans will file their official responses after the court posts a scheduling order. He said they will comply with the court’s decision.

“But we think that, just like the executive branch can’t stop the Legislature from functioning, we don’t think the courts are going to try to stop the Legislature from functioning, either,” Niska said.

The main task of the legislative session is to pass a balanced two-year budget in time for it to take effect July 1, and that will eventually require bipartisan cooperation. Both sides agree that they can’t pass actual bills without 68 votes under their rules. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is scheduled to roll out his budget proposal Thursday.

All seats on the Democrats’ side of the chamber were empty when House Republicans convened a floor session Wednesday to conduct what normally would be routine matters such as the election of the chief clerk.

The November election resulted in a House tied at 67-67, and top leaders from both parties started to work out a power-sharing agreement on the assumption that they would be evenly split this year. But a judge last month declared that a newly elected Democrat, Curtis Johnson, doesn’t live in his district. That gave Republicans a temporary 67-66 majority until a special election can take place Jan. 28. Since the district, which includes Roseville, is heavily Democratic, the election is expected to restore the tie.

Democrats are especially worried because Republicans have threatened to use their two-week majority to refuse to seat another Democrat, Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee, who won his race by 14 votes. A court declared Tabke the legal winner and rejected a GOP effort to force a special election in his swing district.

Efforts to revive a power-sharing deal in the House failed. The chamber’s top Democrat, Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, said Tuesday that Demuth refused to commit to letting Tabke keep his seat, even though she offered a deal that would have allowed Demuth to serve as speaker all session.

Lawyers for the state GOP and an allied group on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to invalidate Walz’s order setting Jan. 28 for the Roseville special election. They argued that he set the date earlier than state law allows because the seat wasn’t officially vacant until the Legislature convened Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hartshorn countered that the seat became vacant Dec. 27 after Johnson lost in court and notified the governor he would not contest the judge’s ruling. Hartshorn said the governor acted lawfully to fill the seat as soon as possible.

The justices said they were mindful that the disputes are intertwined and that they will rule quickly.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Jen Easterly, the outgoing head of the U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Wednesday she hopes her agency is allowed to continue its election-related work under new leadership despite “contentiousness” around that part of its mission.

“I really, really hope that we can continue to support those state and local election officials,” she said during an event in Washington, D.C., with the nonprofit Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “I think they’ve benefited by the resources that we’ve brought. I think they would say that.”

CISA is responsible for protecting critical infrastructure, including the nation’s dams, banks and nuclear power plants. Voting systems were added after the 2016 election and Russia’s multipronged election-meddling effort.

With the transition to a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump, several Republican lawmakers and right-wing advocacy groups have advocated to have CISA shuttered, gutted or have its election responsibilities significantly reduced.

Among the most vocal critics is GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who told Politico in November that he would like to eliminate the agency. He has spoken in the Senate about wanting to limit CISA’s powers instead of expanding them.

Easterly said she was proud of how CISA had built trust and close communications with state and local election officials of both major political parties since the agency began in 2018, under the first Trump administration.

She said CISA’s work with the intelligence community to quickly analyze and declassify foreign influence campaigns from Russia, China and Iran ahead of the 2024 presidential election was “incredibly successful.” The agency worked with state and local elections officials after foreign online disinformation surfaced in the weeks leading up to the November election. Those efforts included staged videos from Russian actors falsely portraying election fraud in swing counties.

“I think frankly we’re going to see more and more serious threats from our foreign adversaries, and we have to anticipate it and be able to deal with it as we did for the 2024 election,” Easterly said.

Trump created CISA during his first administration, but fired Chris Krebs, the agency director, after he said the 2020 election was safe and secure.

Trump has not yet nominated a replacement for Easterly. While Trump’s campaign platform highlighted the importance of protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats, he hasn’t provided details of his vision for CISA’s election work.

Easterly on Wednesday also spoke about the growing threat China poses to the nation’s critical infrastructure, among them water, transportation and telecommunications systems. She repeated past warnings that China is infiltrating civilian infrastructure and said the nation needs to be prepared for future disruptions.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Transportation Department said Boeing <BA.A> needs “tough love” to get back on track after a 2024 mid-air emergency and that electric vehicles should pay to use roads.

“We have to make sure they are implementing their safety plan. We have to push the (Federal Aviation Administration) to make sure they’re implementing their safety plan,” former House lawmaker Sean Duffy told the Senate Committee at his confirmation hearing.

Duffy said he would work “with Congress and the FAA to restore global confidence in Boeing and to ensure our skies are safe.”

“Boeing is a national security issue. Boeing is the largest exporter of American product – incredibly important. In one of my meetings someone said though they need tough love, which is what they do need,” Duffy said.

Boeing declined to comment.

The FAA is maintaining tougher oversight of Boeing indefinitely, a year after a door panel missing four bolts flew off a new Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 in mid-air. It has also barred Boeing from expanding production beyond 38 MAX planes per month.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker plans to step down on Jan. 20, while Deputy FAA Administrator Katie Thomson left the agency last week. Trump has not yet named a new nominee to head the department.

A person briefed on the matter said Trump was considering naming former FAA official Chris Rocheleau as deputy administrator, which would put him charge of the agency on Jan. 20.

Rocheleau, a U.S. Air Force veteran who worked at the FAA for more than 20 years, is currently chief operating officer of the National Business Aviation Association.

Most revenue for federally funded road repairs is collected through taxes on diesel and gasoline, which EVs do not pay. “They should pay for use of our roads. How to do that, I think, is a little more challenging,” said Duffy.

Some states charge fees for electric vehicles to cover road repair costs. Congress for the past three decades has opted not to hike taxes and instead used general tax revenue to address shortfalls in the federal highway trust fund.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Alison Williams and Nick Zieminski)

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By Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Aides to President-elect Donald Trump have asked three senior career diplomats who oversee the U.S. State Department’s workforce and internal coordination to step down from their roles, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said, in a possible signal of deeper changes ahead for the diplomatic corps.

The team overseeing the State Department’s transition to the new administration, the Agency Review Team, has requested that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz leave their posts, the sources said.

While political appointees typically submit their resignations when a new president takes office, most career foreign service officers continue from one administration to the next. All three officials have worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations throughout the years, including as ambassadors.

Trump, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20, pledged during his presidential campaign to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats that he deems as disloyal.

“There’s a little bit of a concern that this might be setting the stage for something worse,” one of the U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team said: “It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek officials who share President Trump’s vision for putting our nation and America’s working men and women first. We have a lot of failures to fix and that requires a committed team focused on the same goals.”

A State Department spokesperson said the department has no personnel announcements to make. Hogan, Bernicat, Teplitz did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump is likely to adopt a more confrontational foreign policy and has vowed to bring peace between Ukraine and Russia, and give more support to Israel. He has also pushed for unorthodox policies such as trying to make Greenland part of the United States and pushing NATO allies for higher defense spending. A diplomatic workforce that dutifully implements rather than pushes back will be key to achieving his goals, experts say.

The decision to ask the three to step aside is reminiscent of staff shake ups at the State Department during the first Trump administration, when several key officials in leadership positions were removed from their jobs.

According to two separate sources familiar with Trump’s plans for the State Department, the administration plans to appoint more political appointees to positions such as assistant secretary, which are typically filled by a mix of career and political bureaucrats.

These sources said Trump’s team wants to get more politically appointed officials deeper into the State Department as there was a pervasive feeling among his aides that his agenda was “derailed” by career diplomats during his last term from 2017 to 2021.

The Agency Review Team is already interviewing candidates for such positions, said the two sources.

According to the State Department website, Hogan is the State Department’s executive secretary, the official that manages the flow of information between department bureaus and with the White House.

Bernicat is the director-general of the U.S. Foreign Service and director of global talent leading the recruitment, assignment, and career development of the Department’s workforce.

Assistant Secretary Teplitz has been with the Department over three decades, serving overseas as well in Washington. Most recently, she has been implementing the duties of under secretary for management, which oversees more than a dozen bureaus responsible for issues from the budget to recruitment, procurement and human resources across the workforce.

“These are not policy positions. This is all the mechanics of the bureaucracy,” said Dennis Jett, a professor at Penn State’s School of International Affairs who spent 28 years in the foreign service. “But if you want to control the bureaucracy, that’s the way you do it.”

Choosing who fills the three roles would allow Trump’s team to divert resources to and from parts of the State Department, control the information gathered by the numerous bureaus and embassies and manage personnel decisions, he said.

SHATTERING THE ‘DEEP STATE’

The requests for the officials to step down came as Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, was testifying on Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing.

On his campaign website Trump laid out how, in 10 steps, he would “shatter deep state” and “fire rogue bureaucrats and career politicians”.

The first of those steps is to reissue a 2020 executive order that would have removed employment protections for certain civil servants, making it easier to fire them.

Opponents of the plan – often called “Schedule F” after the new class of civil servants it would create – say stripping employment protections from government workers would be an effort by Trump to politicize the federal bureaucracy to carry out his policy agenda.

Normally, presidents get to choose several thousand of their own political appointees to the federal bureaucracy, but the career civil service – around two million workers – is left alone. Schedule F would give Trump the power to fire up to 50,000 of those and replace them with like-minded conservatives.

Taking charge of State’s personnel would “expedite” the process of appointing loyal officials, said Jett, the professor.

Unions and government watchdogs have said they plan to sue Trump if he carries out his promise to re-introduce a Schedule F.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and Gram Slattery; Editing by Don Durfee and Alistair Bell)

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A push by Texas’ hard right to widen control in the state Capitol fell short Tuesday after House lawmakers rejected its choice for the powerful speakership amid a Republican feud accelerated by the historic impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Instead, new House Speaker Dustin Burrows won the job with the support of Democrats, who favored him over a challenger backed by the GOP’s emboldened right.

The outcome is a victory for Texas Republicans’ establishment wing, and it’s possible that Democrats could still lose influence under the new leadership. The race deepened divisions within the GOP, partly driven by Republicans who say an agenda that includes some of the toughest laws in the U.S. over abortion and immigration doesn’t go far enough.

“He’s a leader who will at least have a conversation,” Democratic state Rep. Toni Rose said in a nomination speech for Burrows.

Burrows was challenged by state Rep. David Cook, who pledged to block Democrats from running committees in the House — a longstanding bipartisan tradition in a chamber that has historically been a more moderate balance to the hard-right-leaning Senate.

Burrows will lead one of the state’s highest offices after a dramatic bowing-out of the former House speaker, Dade Phelan, who lost favor with the hard-right faction of his party after Paxton’s impeachment. The state Senate ultimately acquitted Paxton, who in recent weeks campaigned against Republicans who sought to deny Cook’s victory.

The newly elected speaker has few ideological distinctions between himself and Cook, but his opponent came to be the choice of some Republicans who believe Democrats have too much control over the House.

The House’s failure to approve taxpayer funds for private schools in 2023 also intensified Republican squabbles in the run-up to November’s elections, when Republicans expanded their already commanding majority and gained ground on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas in recent years has passed some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortion, immigration and voting. Republicans this year have proposed bans on public funds for gender-affirming care for adults and giving in-state college tuition for students without legal status in the U.S.

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This story has been edited to clarify that Democrats, not Burrows, could still lose influence.

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden promised nothing short of a national exorcism when he took office. He wanted to “restore the soul” of the country and prove that Donald Trump was only a footnote in the American story, not its next chapter.

The pitch was “let’s try to get things back to normal as best we can,” said Sean Wilentz, a historian who met twice with Biden in the White House.

It didn’t work out that way. Despite exceeding expectations when it came to cutting bipartisan deals and rallying foreign allies, Biden was unable to turn the page on Trump. Four years after voters chose Biden over Trump, they picked Trump to replace Biden. It’s an immutable and crushing outcome for an aging politician in the last act of his long career, one that will likely become the prism for how Biden is viewed through history.

“The fact is, the abnormality did not end,” said Wilentz, a professor at Princeton University. “He may not have appreciated what he was up against.”

Biden will offer his own perspective on how he wishes to be remembered in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, when he’ll deliver a farewell address. But Trump’s impending return underscores the limits of Biden’s ability to reshape the country’s trajectory as his celebrated predecessors were able to do. With the end of his single term only days away, it’s unclear how Biden will reconcile his hopes for his presidency with the results.

The country isn’t waiting for his assessment. Only a quarter of Americans said Biden was a good or great president, according to the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s lower than the views of the twice-impeached Trump when he left office soon after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and during the deadly depths of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden’s friends and supporters insist that views will shift over time.

“We lost a close election under closely contested, hard fought issues, but that doesn’t mean that what we did and how we did it hasn’t helped change the country for the better,” said Steve Ricchetti, a longtime adviser to Biden who served as White House counselor.

Ricchetti argued that Biden provided a model for repairing damage caused by Trump, one that will help another president down the line.

“There is no question that this is a strategy that will enable a successful presidency into the future,” he insisted.

Trump will enter office Monday promising an even more aggressive effort to reshape the country than his turbulent first term. His comeback is calling into question — even among Biden loyalists — whether the outgoing president was only a fleeting reminder of a fading political era.

“Which one is the aberration, Biden or Trump?” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Biden’s home state of Delaware. “Has the United States permanently moved in a populist and right-wing direction, and Biden was just a temporary interruption?”

Coons isn’t sure yet.

“I think it is an open question,” he said.

For better and worse, the arc of Biden’s political career is intertwined with his age. He became the youngest senator in U.S. history when he took office in 1973 at 30 years old, the bare constitutional minimum.

He ran for president twice, falling short both times, before becoming Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008.

By this point, Biden was a Washington veteran. David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to Obama, said one of the benefits of choosing Biden was how old he was. Biden would be 74 when Obama left office — too old to seek the presidency a third time, they presumed.

“You want your vice president to be concentrating on the task at hand, and not planning eight years ahead for their own candidacies,” Axelrod said.

What happened next is a central part of Biden’s political mythos. Mourning the death of his elder son to cancer, Biden thought he was done with politics — until Trump’s comments in 2017 about “very fine people, on both sides” of racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, prompted him to run again.

Biden overcame doubters who believed he was past his prime, seizing the Democratic nomination as the political moment aligned with his message. He showed empathy while Trump appeared callous about the COVID-19 pandemic, and he promised competence instead of chaos.

When Biden took office, he hung a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt above the fireplace in the Oval Office. It was an unmistakable signal that he wanted to be a transformational figure, not a transitional one.

Biden signed legislation to provide massive investments in infrastructure, clean energy and computer chip manufacturing, as well as a massive economic stimulus to power the country’s recovery from the pandemic. He also limited the cost of prescription drugs and enacted tighter rules on gun purchases.

“There were these powerful entities that the Democratic Party had been unsuccessful in confronting,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. “And Biden beat them all.”

But he fell short of his ambitions to expand social services, including lowering the cost of child care and sustaining programs to cut child poverty, while a generational surge in inflation sparked a political backlash and questions about the wisdom of some of his spending.

More challenges came overseas. After fumbling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden rallied Western support for Ukraine to prevent Russian domination. He also remained resolutely behind Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, disappointing some Democrats who wanted to see greater effort to protect Palestinian civilians.

Despite Biden’s accomplishments, voters were concerned about other matters. They were frustrated by rising costs that chipped away at their paychecks. And they worried about illegal migration at the southern border.

As the problems festered, Trump gained momentum and Biden struggled.

“Biden was very interested in becoming a historic president,” Axelrod said. “That was sort of an obsession. So he had a hard time acknowledging mistakes or failure.”

After a lifetime of seeking the presidency, Biden had no interest in relinquishing it. He announced his reelection campaign even though he would be 86 at the end of his second term. The decision created another parallel to Roosevelt, although not one that Biden would have wanted.

Roosevelt pursued a fourth term in 1944 despite his failing health, believing himself to be indispensable while World War II was still underway. He died months after winning his last election.

Biden ran for reelection while brushing aside Americans’ fears that he was too old for the job. He had beaten Trump before, and Biden insisted he was singularly capable of doing so again.

But he was forced to drop out of the race over the summer after stumbling through a debate against Trump. His performance sparked a crisis of confidence in a party unified by its shared desired to block Trump’s return. The damage lingered even after Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. She lost.

Two days after the election, Biden addressed the nation from the Rose Garden, where he talked up his “historic presidency” and shared an optimistic message about the future.

“The American experiment endures, and we’re going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged,” he said. “We need to keep going. And, above all, we need to keep the faith.”

Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, compared Biden to former Presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson, who were also unpopular when they left office.

“They governed during a very challenging time for the country and the world, but they did big things to set the country up on the path for the future and to tackle some significant challenges,” he said.

On Friday, a reporter asked Biden if he regretted running for reelection and whether his decision paved the way for Trump’s resurgence.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

In fact, Biden maintained, he could have won if he stayed in the race.

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By Gram Slattery

(Reuters) -Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for his cabinet and other high-ranking administration positions got under way on Tuesday, with defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth the first to face questioning from U.S. senators. 

Several confirmation hearings are scheduled before Trump, a Republican, is sworn in as president on Monday, while others will not be held until after he takes office.

Nominees require a simple majority in the 100-seat Senate to be confirmed. Republicans hold 53 seats, but some of Trump’s picks could struggle to be confirmed if a small number of Republicans oppose their nominations.

Here are Trump’s choices for some of the key posts including defense, intelligence, health, diplomacy, trade, justice, immigration and economic policymaking.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY

Hegseth, 44, is a military veteran who has expressed disdain for the “woke” policies of Pentagon leaders, including its top military officer.

As secretary of defense, Hegseth could make good on Trump’s campaign promise to rid the U.S. military of generals whom he accuses of pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that conservatives have railed against.

It could also set up a collision course between Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, whom Hegseth accused of “pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians.”

Hegseth, a former Fox News commentator, denied in his confirmation hearing allegations made in a police report that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 at a conference in California. No charges were filed, and he entered into a private settlement with the alleged victim, but the allegations are complicating his confirmation prospects. He has also in the past opposed women in combat roles but walked back that stance during the hearing on Tuesday.

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY

As homeland security secretary, Noem would oversee a sprawling federal agency of 260,000 employees that handles everything from border protection to cybersecurity to transportation safety and disaster response.

The current governor of South Dakota, Noem, 53, rose to national prominence after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the pandemic. Noem’s confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Bondi on the day his previous choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug abuse.

Bondi, 59, was the top law enforcement officer of the country’s third most populous state from 2011 to 2019. She served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first administration.

Trump’s inner circle has described the attorney general as the most important member of the administration after Trump himself, key to his plans to carry out mass deportations, pardon Jan. 6, 2021 rioters, and seek retribution against those who prosecuted him over the past four years.

Bondi has been a defender of Trump’s false claims that he lost the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud. The first of two scheduled confirmation hearings for Bondi begins on Wednesday.

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE

If confirmed, Rubio, a U.S. senator, would be the first Latino to serve as the nation’s top diplomat.

Rubio, 53, was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump’s short list for the post. The Florida-born senator has advocated in the past for a muscular foreign policy with respect to U.S. geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba.

Over the last several years, he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Trump’s views. Trump has accused past presidents of leading the U.S. into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a less interventionist foreign policy.

Rubio is set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

JOHN RATCLIFFE, CIA DIRECTOR

Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence at the end of Trump’s first term, would helm the Central Intelligence Agency in his second administration.

A former congressman and prosecutor, Ratcliffe, 59, is seen as a Trump loyalist who could likely win Senate confirmation.

Still, during his time as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe often contradicted the assessments of career civil servants, drawing criticism from Democrats who said he politicized the role to curry favor with Trump.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY

Duffy, a former U.S. congressman from Wisconsin and Fox News host, would oversee aviation, automotive, rail, transit and other transportation policies at the department with about a $110-billion budget, as well as significant funding that remains under the Biden administration’s 2021 $1-trillion infrastructure law and EV-charging stations.

Trump has vowed to reverse the Biden administration’s vehicle emissions rules, which have spurred automakers to build more electric vehicles.

Duffy, 53, first became known as a cast member on MTV’s “The Real World” reality show in the late 1990s. Duffy’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY

Wright, a top Trump donor, is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver.

The 59-year-old is a promoter of fossil fuels and has been skeptical that extreme weather events are tied to climate change.

As Trump’s energy secretary, he would, among other things, oversee the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Wright also would serve on the new National Energy Council. His confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

RUSS VOUGHT, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DIRECTOR

Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, a conservative plan to overhaul the government, will return as director of an agency that helps determine the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.

Vought, 48, who was OMB chief during Trump’s 2017-2021 term, will play a major role in setting budget priorities and implementing Trump’s campaign promise to roll back government regulations. His confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY AND ‘ENERGY CZAR’

Burgum, 68, a wealthy former software company executive, has portrayed himself as a traditional, business-minded conservative. He ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination before quitting and becoming a supporter.

The Interior Department manages public lands and minerals, national parks and wildlife refuges. The department also carries out the U.S. government’s trust responsibility to Native Americans.

As chair of a new National Energy Council, Burgum is expected to coordinate with several agencies to boost oil and gas output, particularly with regard to drilling on government-owned land. Burgum’s confirmation hearing is set for Thursday.

LEE ZELDIN, EPA ADMINISTRATOR

Zeldin, a former congressman from New York state and a staunch Trump ally, would take over as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with a mandate to slash environmental regulations.

Zeldin, 44, served in Congress from 2015 to 2023. In 2022, he lost the New York governor’s race to Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul.

Trump has promised to overhaul U.S. energy policy, with the aim of maximizing the country’s already record-high oil and gas production by rolling back regulations and speeding up permitting.

Zeldin’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

SCOTT TURNER, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY

Turner, 52, a former Texas state legislator and National Football League player, would take over the Department of Housing and Urban Development if confirmed.

He was the first executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term, a role in which he helped the country’s distressed communities, Trump said in a statement.

Turner’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY

As Trump’s Treasury secretary, Bessent would hold vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

A longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, Bessent, 62, has a warm relationship with the president-elect.

While Bessent has long favored free-market policies popular in the pre-Trump Republican Party, he has also spoken highly of Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool. He has praised the president-elect’s economic philosophy, which rests on a skepticism of both regulation and international trade.

Bessent’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR

Patel, who during Trump’s first term advised both the director of national intelligence and the defense secretary, has been a fierce critic of the FBI. He has previously called for it to be stripped of its intelligence-gathering role and for the firing of any employee who refuses to support Trump’s agenda.

A former Republican House staffer, Patel, 44, frequently appeared on the campaign trail to rally support for Trump during his presidential bid.

The FBI’s current director, Christopher Wray, a Republican first appointed by Trump, announced in December that he will resign his post this month. Patel’s confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

TULSI GABBARD, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress and an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, was appointed by Trump to serve as director of national intelligence, where she would oversee 18 agencies tasked with intelligence gathering.

Gabbard, 43, has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s foreign policy, particularly with regard to its support of Ukraine in the war with Russia.

Her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY

The co-chair of Trump’s transition effort and the longtime chief executive of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick has been picked to head the Commerce Department, the agency that has become the U.S. weapon of choice against China’s tech sector.

A bombastic New Yorker like Trump, Lutnick, 63, has uniformly praised Trump’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs.

Trump said Lutnick also would be given “additional direct responsibility” for the Office of U.S. Trade Representative. His confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY

Kennedy, 70, an environmental activist who has spread misinformation about the dangers of vaccines, is now poised to lead the top U.S. health agency.

A former independent presidential candidate, he has suggested he would gut the 18,000-employee Food and Drug Administration, which ensures the safety of food, drugs and medical devices, and replace hundreds of employees at the National Institutes of Health. 

Kennedy has decried the U.S. food industry for adding ingredients that he says have made Americans less healthy.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the massive Medicare and Medicaid programs, which provide health coverage for the poor, those aged 65 and older, and the disabled.

Trump said in an interview with Time in December that he will be talking to Kennedy about the future of childhood vaccination programs, citing high autism rates in children. Kennedy has asserted a debunked link between vaccines and autism.

A former family babysitter has alleged that Kennedy groped her 25 years ago. No charges were filed, and Kennedy has said he does not recall the incident. His confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER, LABOR SECRETARY

Trump’s pick of Chavez-DeRemer, a former U.S. congresswoman from Oregon, could be one of the rare selections who draws bipartisan support.

Chavez-DeRemer, 56, is considered one of the most union-friendly Republicans in Congress, and her selection was viewed as a way for Trump to reward union members who voted for him.

The pick was praised by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, while some conservatives expressed dismay. Her confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

BROOKE ROLLINS, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY

As agriculture secretary, Rollins, the 52-year-old president of the America First Policy Institute, would be in charge of a 100,000-person agency whose remit includes farm and nutrition programs, forestry, and agricultural trade.

The institute is a right-leaning think tank whose personnel have worked closely with Trump’s campaign to help shape policy for his incoming administration. She was the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term. Her confirmation hearing is not yet scheduled.

LINDA MCMAHON, EDUCATION SECRETARY

McMahon is a former executive CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who served as the chief of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

As education secretary, she would oversee an agency that Trump has pledged to eliminate.

It may be more likely, however, that McMahon, 76, works to further conservative education policy goals, including doing away with diversity programs in public schools and allowing tax dollars to be used for private school tuition.

Her confirmation hearing is yet to be scheduled.

ELISE STEFANIK, AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Stefanik, a U.S. representative from New York state and staunch Trump supporter, would serve as his ambassador to the United Nations and function as the United States’ voice on that body.

Stefanik, 40, the former House of Representatives’ Republican conference chair, took a leadership position in the House in 2021 when she was elected to replace then-Representative Liz Cheney, who was ousted for criticizing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Stefanik will arrive at the U.N. after bold promises by Trump to end the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel’s war in Gaza.

Her confirmation hearing is yet to be scheduled.

MARTIN MAKARY, HEAD OF THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

Trump nominated Makary to lead the FDA, the world’s most influential drug regulator with a more than $7-billion budget.

Makary, a surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University, raised concerns about a number of public health issues during the pandemic, touting protection from natural immunity while opposing vaccine mandates for the general public. His Senate hearing is yet to be scheduled.

DAVE WELDON, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Weldon, a 71-year-old former congressman and medical doctor, is Trump’s choice for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sweeping agency with a $17.3-billion budget charged with protecting the nation’s health. His confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.

JANETTE NESHEIWAT, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL

Nesheiwat, a director of a New York chain of urgent care clinics and Fox News contributor, would serve as U.S. surgeon general.

Nesheiwat treated patients during the pandemic, tended to victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin tornado, and has worked for the Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief organization providing care in Morocco, Haiti and Poland, Trump said. Her confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL

Blanche, 50, a former New York federal prosecutor who represented Trump in several of his recent legal cases, would serve as deputy attorney general if confirmed, the No. 2 job at the Justice Department which carries out many of the day-to-day managerial duties at the agency. His confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.

JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

As U.S. trade representative, Greer would have a key role in executing Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda that promises to upend global trade.

Greer, a 44-year-old trade lawyer, served as chief of staff to Trump’s former U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, the architect of Trump’s original tariffs on some $370 billion worth of Chinese imports during Trump’s first White House term. His confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.

MIKE WALTZ, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER

Waltz, a Republican U.S. representative and a retired Army Green Beret, has been a leading critic of China.

A Trump loyalist who also served in the National Guard as a colonel, Waltz, 50, has criticized Chinese military activity in the Asia-Pacific and voiced the need for the U.S. to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.

The national security adviser is an influential role that does not require Senate confirmation. Waltz will be responsible for briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with different agencies.

ELON MUSK AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY, HEADS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

Outspoken tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy have been charged with leading a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, a reward for their staunch support during the campaign.

Trump said Musk, 53, and Ramaswamy, 39, will offer proposals to reduce government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut waste and restructure federal agencies, although the panel will hold no actual authority under federal law. Instead, the panel will work with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget, Trump has said. The panel is not a government department, and Musk and Ramaswamy will not face Senate hearings.

TOM HOMAN, ‘BORDER CZAR’

Homan has been tasked with one of Trump’s biggest campaign priorities: securing the nation’s borders. Trump made cracking down on migrants in the country illegally a central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations.

As “border czar,” Homan, 62, has said he would prioritize deporting immigrants illegally in the U.S. who posed safety and security threats as well as those working at job sites.

Homan served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first administration. He does not need Senate confirmation.

SUSIE WILES, CHIEF OF STAFF

Wiles, one of Trump’s two campaign managers, will be his White House chief of staff, likely making her one of the most powerful women in government.

The 67-year-old longtime Florida Republican political operative is credited with running an efficient campaign that helped Trump make inroads with new voters. Supporters hope she will instill a sense of order and discipline that was often lacking during Trump’s first four-year term, when he cycled through a number of chiefs of staff. The chief of staff does not need Senate confirmation.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Ross Colvin, Marguerita Choy and Rod Nickel)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is cohosting a reception with billionaire Republican donors next week for Donald Trump’s inauguration, the latest sign of the Facebook founder’s embrace of the president-elect.

The reception cohosted by Zuckerberg is set for Monday evening, shortly before the inaugural balls, according to two people familiar with the private plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss them.

The other cohosts are Miriam Adelson, the Dallas Mavericks owner and widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; Tilman Fertitta, casino magnate, Houston Rockets owner and Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Italy; Todd Ricketts, the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs; and Ricketts’ wife, Sylvie Légère.

Zuckerberg once seemed a foe of the former president, banning him from Facebook and Instagram after a mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But lately, he’s been endearing himself to Trump as one of a number of tech executives who have been seeking to improve their relationships with the new president.

Meta declined to comment Tuesday.

In November, weeks after Trump won the presidential election, Zuckerberg flew to Florida and dined with the Republican at his Mar-a-Lago club. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Zuckerberg announced last week that he was changing Facebook and Instagram content moderation policies, including replacing third-party fact-checking with user-written “community notes.” Trump said the new approach was “probably” due to threats he made against the technology mogul.

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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Barbara Ortuay in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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TAIPEI (Reuters) – A delegation of Taiwanese lawmakers led by parliament’s speaker will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president, the presidential office said on Wednesday, adding the government will continue boosting ties with the new administration.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, enjoyed strong support from the first Trump administration, including regularising arms sales which have continued under President Joe Biden, but Trump unnerved Taiwan on the campaign trail by calling for it to have to pay to be defended.

Taiwan’s presidential office said that parliament speaker Han Kuo-yu, a senior member of the opposition Kuomintang party and who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, would lead the group to the inauguration, accompanied by a cross-party delegation of seven other lawmakers.

Leaving on Saturday for the Monday ceremony, the group will meet U.S. dignitaries, think-tanks and academics, Taiwan’s presidential office said, without giving details.

“Taiwan-U.S. relations have a long history, and the two sides have made significant progress in recent years,” it said in a statement.

“The government especially congratulates President Trump on his inauguration, and will continue to strengthen Taiwan-U.S. relations in the future on the basis of the existing good mutual trust and interaction.”

The Kuomintang and the small Taiwan People’s Party together hold the majority of seats in parliament. The Kuomintang traditionally supports close ties and dialogue with China but denies being pro-Beijing.

China has yet to announce who it will be sending to the inauguration.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.

China refuses to speak to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a “separatist”.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is promising to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” vision as secretary of state, vowing in his confirmation hearing Wednesday that the incoming administration will forge a new path by placing American interests “above all else.”

“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. “It is the commonsense realization that a foreign policy centered on our national interest is not some outdated relic.”

“The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” Rubio says.

It’s a remarkable opening salvo from Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, and who, if confirmed, would become the first Latino ever to serve as the nation’s top diplomat.

The confirmation hearing begins a new chapter in the political career of the 53-year-old Florida Republican, whose relationship with Trump has evolved over the last decade. Once rivals trading schoolyard insults as they campaigned for president in 2016, the two men became close allies as Trump campaigned for another White House term last year.

Rubio first came to Washington as part of the “tea party” wave in 2010 and once advocated for allowing a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But like other Republicans, Rubio’s views on immigration have shifted toward the hardline stance of Trump, who has pledged to aggressively pursue deportations once he takes office on Monday.

Unlike many of Trump’s Cabinet selections, Rubio is expected to easily win confirmation, notching support not only from Republicans but also Democrats who endorse him as a “responsible” pick to represent the U.S. abroad. Many expect he will be among the first of Trump’s Cabinet picks approved.

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who served alongside Rubio on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has high hopes that the Florida Republican will reject the isolationist approach of other Trump allies.

“I think Marco is a hawk, but he’s also an internationalist, and I think the challenge for him will be to maintain the long bipartisan tradition of America being indispensable in world affairs,” the Hawaii lawmaker told AP. “And there are people in the Trump world who want us to run away from being the leaders of the free world. And I’m hoping that Marco’s instincts towards American strength will win the day.”

Rubio’s approach to foreign affairs is grounded in his years of service on the Foreign Relations committee and the Senate Intelligence panel. In his speeches and writings, he’s delivered increasingly stern warnings about growing military and economic threats to the United States, particularly from China, which he says has benefited from a “global world order” that he characterizes as obsolete.

China, Rubio will tell the committee, has “lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.”

If confirmed, Rubio will become the leader of U.S. foreign policy — though his role will surely remain secondary to Trump, who relishes the global stage and frequently uses the bully pulpit against America’s allies.

Even before taking office, Trump has stirred angst in foreign capitals by threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggesting he will pressure Canada to become the nation’s 51st state.

By winning another term, Trump has won an “unmistakable mandate from the voters,” Rubio will say.

“They want a strong America. Engaged in the world. But guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”

A Biden administration decision to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism with just days left in office is likely to irk Rubio, who has long supported tough sanctions on the communist-run island.

Rubio’s office did not respond to multiple queries Tuesday about the senator’s reaction to the move, which many believe will almost certainly be reversed by the Trump administration.

Secretaries of state have played a key role in formulating the foreign policy of the country since its founding, starting with the first one, Thomas Jefferson, who served in the top Cabinet position under President George Washington.

Since then, Jefferson, as well as his 19th century successors James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan, have all gone on to be elected president.

More recent secretaries of state have been less successful in their political ambitions, including John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to President George W. Bush before becoming the top diplomat, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump.

The most successful secretaries of state have been known for their closeness to the presidents whom they serve, notably James Baker under George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice under George W. Bush and, to some extent, Clinton under Barack Obama.

Like Clinton, Rubio was once a political rival to the president-elect who nominated them. However, the Clinton-Obama relationship during the 2008 Democratic primaries was not nearly as hostile as that between Trump and Rubio in the 2016 GOP primaries, which was marked by name-calling and personal insults.

Trump had an acrimonious relationship with his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Trump fired him from the position via a social media post less than two years into his term.

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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

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