Politics

By Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump aims to deport all immigrants in the U.S. illegally over his four-year term but wants a deal to protect so-called “Dreamer” immigrants, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”

Trump also said he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which confers citizenship on anyone born in the U.S. regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

 Trump, a Republican who won a second term in the White House promising mass deportations, is expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he takes office on Jan. 20 and draw on resources from across the federal government to support a wide-ranging crackdown.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimated some 11 million immigrants were in the U.S. illegally as of January 2022, although the figure is likely higher today. In the NBC News interview, Welker asked Trump if his plan was to deport everyone without legal status.

“I think you have to do it,” Trump said. “It’s a very tough thing to do. You know, you have rules, regulations, laws.”

Trump said he wanted a deal to protect “Dreamer” immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, saying Republicans are open to the idea.

During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump tried to end a program that provides deportation relief and work permits to the immigrants, but was rebuffed by the Supreme Court.

Trump’s plans to try to end birthright citizenship will likely face legal challenges. The right stems from an amendment to the U.S. Constitution and is supported by 1898 Supreme Court precedent.

Speaking to Welker, Trump suggested Republicans may need to pursue a constitutional amendment to address the issue – an arduous process.

“We’ll maybe have to go back to the people,” he said.

Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller both told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Congress should provide a major funding increase for immigration enforcement.

The pro-immigration American Immigration Council estimated that deporting all immigrants in the U.S. illegally over more than a decade would cost $88 billion annually.

Homan said the minimum needed would be near that amount.

“We’re going to need as much money as Congress can get us,” he said.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-Elect Donald Trump announced Sunday that his personal lawyer, Alina Habba, will serve as counselor to the president in his upcoming second term.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that Habba had shown “unwavering loyalty” as part of Trump’s legal team across several criminal and civil trials, and called her a “tireless advocate for justice.”

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Four people are running to be the next Democratic National Committee chair, looking to take on the task of reinvigorating a party demoralized by a second loss to President-elect Donald Trump.

Others may still get into the race as the party reckons with the 2024 election, which saw Trump gain with nearly every demographic group in a decisive repudiation of the incumbent party. The committee’s roughly 450 members will elect a successor for outgoing chairperson Jaime Harrison on Feb. 1.

The four declared candidates spoke to The Associated Press this week in Scottsdale, Arizona, where they were making their pitch in public and private at a meeting of state Democratic chairs. Here is a sampling of their responses.

The 82-year-old incumbent has been criticized for seeking reelection when many Americans were concerned about his age, and he has been accused of not giving Vice President Kamala Harris enough time to distinguish herself against Trump.

KEN MARTIN, Democratic chairman in Minnesota and DNC vice chair: “To me it’s an academic exercise. You can’t change the past. So for us, it’s really about what lessons can we draw right now that can inform the future.”

MARTIN O’MALLEY, former Maryland governor and Social Security administrator: “I don’t know. You guys playing this D.C. parlor game on me, I’m not going to engage in that. Sorry.”

JAMES SKOUFIS, New York state senator: “Yes. A 107-day runway made for an exceptionally difficult set of circumstances. And it was clear to most Democrats at the time that President Biden was not well-situated to run for reelection. And if dropping out sooner would have meant a primary, so be it. Vice President Harris, I’m very confident, still would have likely been the nominee if there was a primary. She would have been a stronger nominee with that longer runway.”

BEN WIKLER, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party: “My campaign slogan is ‘unite, fight, win.’ And to me, uniting means a reckoning with how we can adapt to do better, but not recriminations about different things in the past. So my focus is on learning every lesson that we can apply in these next four years and beyond to build the new capacities that are going to allow us to win the lessons that were out of reach in 2024 and the last few years.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives argued before and after Election Day that Harris should have focused more on working-class voters and less on Republicans and right-leaning voters disaffected with Trump.

MARTIN: “Were there things we can learn from the election? Sure. We’re going to have to dig into all that. One thing I would say that’s important is that we have to make sure that we are competing in all spaces and we’re talking to all voters. And I’m not suggesting we spend a lot of time talking to Republican voters, don’t get me wrong. But we need to make sure that we are reaching outside of just our comfort zone and our base and trying to really make a significant play for independent voters.”

O’MALLEY: “I don’t know. That’s another parlor game thing and I’m not going to second-guess that. The only thing I know for sure, from all the people I’ve talked to now across the country, is that there’s pretty widespread belief that Americans’ primary concern in this election was economic anxieties about the future. Fear of the future. Fear that their own work wasn’t sufficient to keep their head above water. And we failed to speak to their economic concerns.”

SKOUFIS: “I believe it was absolutely the right thing to be spending time and hitting the stump with Liz Cheney and other Republicans, disaffected former Trump administration officials. That was absolutely the right thing to do. And similarly, we absolutely need to be doing more of rebuilding the fraying edges of our tent on the left. They’re not mutually exclusive.”

WIKLER: “I live in a state where the suburban counties that Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris visited actually grew vote share for Democrats relative to 2020. Harris did better in the (suburban Milwaukee) counties than Biden had in the 2020 election. And I think there were some voters who are traditionally Republican who are making up their mind in the last second who saw that Republicans like them could vote for a Democrat this year. At the same time, there’s a ton of working-class folks who didn’t hear our message and who we need to find more ways to reach, that often won’t rely on being familiar with political figures that play a big role in cable news but aren’t present in people’s lives. And figuring out how to how to reach those folks, I think, is the next big challenge that we need to build on.”

While Harris won Latino voters overall, Trump made major inroads with Hispanic voters, especially men, according to AP VoteCast data.

MARTIN: “Every hot take right now that we see is completely garbage. It’s just hogwash because it’s not based in any research. We don’t know how much ad spend was spent targeting the Latino man. We don’t know what the outreach and field programs were. We don’t know what universes we targeted and how we were talking to the Latino community. What were the treatments to those universes? All of those pieces, right? Which organizations were tasked with mobilizing and turning out the Latino community, particularly Latino men? All of that has to be on the table to really figure out, what did we do, where were the gaps, how did we fall down? And then you can apply the prescription.”

O’MALLEY: “I may sound like a broken record, but I really do believe it is the economic issues. It is the union jobs, living wages, opportunity for all … . Too many people heard ‘defending America, defending democracy,’ and they thought this meant defending the status quo.”

SKOUFIS: “I think it’s showing up. We have to stop speaking in overly academic terms. Sometimes young voters in particular look at us and they think that we ought to be better running for chancellor of a small liberal arts college rather than public office.”

WIKLER: “Most Latino voters, most Black voters, most white voters are working-class folks who have many issues that they care about. But all those issues take a back seat to the core question of whether you can keep a roof over your head and food on your table and make sure your kids have clothes to wear to school. The thing that Democrats have the chance to do is … to show that we’re on the side of those working folks.”

The DNC at Biden’s behest made South Carolina the first primary state this year, angering New Hampshire Democrats who went ahead with their primary anyway.

MARTIN: “What I think is important is to make sure that that process is open and transparent, that all states who want to have an opportunity to be considered and that ultimately the end product, whatever calendar we come up with, not only reflects the great diversity of this country and honors some of the traditions of our Democratic Party, but is also, most importantly, putting us in a position to win by having a rigorous and efficient process that battle tests our nominee.”

O’MALLEY: “That will be a decision for the DNC to make in an open and transparent process. Period.”

SKOUFIS: “I’m willing to bet I’m the only DNC chair candidate that will give you a straightforward answer on this one. Whether people like the change or not, South Carolina was moved to pole position in the presidential nominating contests. I believe they deserve to have at least a first crack at a competitive primary. Dean Phillips versus Joe Biden was not a serious primary. And so I think they deserve to have a chance at a serious open primary, which will certainly happen in 2028. And then only after then we can evaluate how it went and whether we should reevaluate the order.”

WIKLER: “My view is that the nominating calendar should serve the goal of finding the nominee who’s going to win the general election. And we do that through a process that honors our coalition, that honors our traditions, and gives every candidate a fighting chance to be heard and make their case to become the next nominee.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump said he can’t guarantee that his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won’t raise prices for American consumers and he suggested once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned.

The president-elect, in a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere.

Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning “things do change.”

A look at some of the issues covered:

Trump has threatened broad trade penalties, but said he didn’t believe economists’ predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher domestic prices for consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that U.S. an households won’t be paying more as they shop.

“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market.

That’s a different approach from Trump’s typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign, when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation.

In the interview, Trump defended tariffs generally, saying that tariffs are “going to make us rich.”

He has pledged that, on his first day in office in January, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. He also has threatened tariffs on China to help force that country to crack down on fentanyl production.

”All I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field,” Trump said.

He offered conflicting statements on how he would approach the justice system after winning election despite being convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and being indicted in other cases for his handling of national security secrets and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

“Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power.

The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump’s role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office.

As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: “I have the absolute right. I’m the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I’m the president. But I’m not interested in that.”

At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who had investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

“Cheney was behind it … so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” Trump said.

Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, “No,” and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies.

But at another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. “I want her to do what she wants to do,” he said.

Such threats, regardless of Trump’s inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration.

Trump did seemingly back off his campaign rhetoric calling for Biden to be investigated, saying, “I’m not looking to go back into the past.”

Trump repeatedly mentioned his promises to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally through a mass deportation program.

“I think you have to do it,” he said.

He suggested he would try to use executive action to end “birthright” citizenship under which people born in the U.S. are considered citizens — although such protections are spelled out in the Constitution.

Asked specifically about the future for people who were brought into the country illegally as children and have been shielded from deportation in recent years, Trump said, “I want to work something out,” indicating he might seek a solution with Congress.

But Trump also said he does not “want to be breaking up families” of mixed legal status, “so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”

Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their own defense, Trump said he “absolutely” would remain in the alliance “if they pay their bills.”

Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he were dissatisfied with allies’ commitments, Trump said he wants the U.S. treated “fairly” on trade and defense.

He waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

Trump suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defense against Putin’s invasion. “Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure,” Trump said of reducing Ukraine assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump has called for an immediate cease-fire.

Asked about Putin, Trump said initially that he has not talked to the Russian leader since Election Day last month, but then hedged: “I haven’t spoken to him recently.” Trump said when pressed, adding that he did not want to “impede the negotiation.”

The president-elect said he has no intention, at least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before Powell’s term ends in 2028. Trump said during the campaign that presidents should have more say in Fed policy, including interest rates.

Trump did not offer any job assurances for FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term is to end in 2027.

Asked about Wray, Trump said: “Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious” that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump’s pick for FBI chief, then “he’s going to be taking somebody’s place, right? Somebody is the man that you’re talking about.”

Trump promised that the government efficiency effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will not threaten Social Security. “We’re not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient,” he said. He added that “we’re not raising ages or any of that stuff.”

He was not so specific about abortion or his long-promised overhaul of the Affordable Care Act.

On abortion, Trump continued his inconsistencies and said he would “probably” not move to restrict access to the abortion pills that now account for a majority of pregnancy terminations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But pressed on whether he would commit to that position, Trump replied, “Well, I commit. I mean, are — things do — things change. I think they change.”

Reprising a line from his Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again said he had “concepts” of a plan to substitute for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called “lousy health care.”

He added a promise that any Trump version would maintain insurance protections for Americans with preexisting health conditions. He did not explain how such a design would be different from the status quo or how he could deliver on his desire for “better healthcare for less money.”

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Jill Colvin and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Voters dejected by the presidential election results need to find a way to give back and remain involved, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Clinton presidential library.

The former president urged audience members in a packed theater to remain engaged and find ways to communicate with those they disagree with despite a divisive political time. The two spoke about a month after former President Donald Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.

“We’re just passing through, and we all need to just calm down and do something that builds people up instead of tears them down,” Bill Clinton said.

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who was defeated by Trump in the 2016 election, said she understands the next couple of years are going to be challenging for voters who don’t agree with the decisions being made.

“In addition to staying involved and staying aware, it’s important to find something that makes you feel good about the day because if you’re in a constant state of agitation about our political situation, it is really going to shorten your life,” she said.

The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist. The event was held as part of a weekend of activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Library’s opening in Little Rock. The library is preparing to undergo an update of its exhibits and an expansion that will include Hillary Clinton’s personal archives.

Hillary Clinton said part of the goal is to modernize the facility and expand it to make it a more open, inviting place for people for convene and make connections.

When asked about advice he would give for people disappointed by the election results, Bill Clinton said people need to continue working toward bringing people together and improving others’ lives.

“If that’s the way you keep score, then you ought to be trying to run up the score,” he said. “Not lamenting the fact that somebody else is winning a different game because they keep score a different way.”

“And in addition, figure out what we can do to win again,” Hillary Clinton added, eliciting cheers.

The program featured a panel discussion with cast members of the hit NBC show “The West Wing” and former Clinton White House staffers.

The weekend amounted to a reunion of former Clinton White House staffers, supporters and close friends, including former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and adviser James Carville.

McAuliffe said he and Carville ate Friday at Doe’s Eat Place, a downtown restaurant that was popular with Clinton aides and reporters during Clinton’s 1992 White House run. He said he viewed the library and its planned expansion as important for the future.

“This is not only about the past, but it’s more importantly about the future,” McAuliffe said. “We just went through a very tough election, and people are all saying we’ve got to get back to the Clinton model.”

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FAIRVIEW, N.C. (AP) — Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday assured residents of western North Carolina still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene that they haven’t been forgotten as he surveyed storm wreckage and talked to first responders in one of his first public appearances since the election.

Vance said he was visiting because the holidays are approaching and he wants to provide some comfort to those affected by the hurricane as they go about trying to rebuild their homes and livelihoods.

“My simple message to the people of Appalachia is that we haven’t forgotten you — we love you,” said Vance, who made a name for himself writing about the region in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

He added, “Certainly when this administration changes hands in the next 45 days, we’re going to do everything that we can to help people rebuild, to get them back on their feet, to bring some commerce back to this area, but, most importantly, to allow people to live in their homes.”

The hurricane struck in late September. In North Carolina, the state government estimates that the storm caused a combined $53 billion in damages and needed upgrades to protect against future natural disasters. More than 100 North Carolina residents died from the storm, which the state estimates damaged over 120,000 homes, at least 6,000 miles (9,700 kilometers) of roads and over 160 sewer and water systems.

The incoming vice president and his wife, Usha, visited the Fairview Volunteer Fire Department, where they heard that the building flooded with 4 to 6 inches of water and that roughly a dozen people contracted walking pneumonia as they responded to the hurricane’s destruction. Power outages meant that some first responders and their families could not check in on each other for several days. At least one firefighter lost his life while trying to save lives in the storm.

Vance also toured a house that is being rebuilt after the storm. The construction is being undertaken by Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian charity led by Franklin Graham, son of the late pastor Billy Graham, who was known for his close relationships with U.S. presidents.

“We want you to have the best Christmas as you possibly can have, despite the circumstances,” Vance said in a message to residents while speaking to reporters afterward.

More than 60% of voters in Buncombe County, where Vance visited Friday, backed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in November’s presidential election. Liberal-leaning Asheville is known for its vibrant arts scene and the Biltmore Estate tourist attraction. The city’s arts district faced substantial damage from Helene.

But the majority of North Carolina voters supported President-elect Donald Trump, and he generally fared better among voters hurt by Hurricane Helene. The Republican gave a blistering critique of the Biden administration’s relief efforts, which President Joe Biden characterized as “un-American” misinformation.

AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate, found that 26% of North Carolina voters said the hurricane affected their lives by damaging their homes, causing extended power outages or interfering with their ability to cast a ballot. Trump won 53% of those voters.

Vance has largely stayed out of the public eye since the Nov. 5 election aside from shepherding Trump’s Cabinet nominees around Capitol Hill.

Vance defended Pete Hegseth after his tour of the region, saying that Trump’s defense secretary nominee deserved a Senate confirmation hearing rather than a “sham hearing before the American media” over allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking of alcohol.

The incoming vice president also said he did not know whether he would be escorting Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, around the Senate next week.

In North Carolina, state lawmakers have already allocated more than $900 million in disaster relief, but Gov. Roy Cooper has sought at least $3.9 billion. The Democratic governor and other state leaders have asked the federal government for $25 billion in aid.

Hundreds of miles of roads have been reopened and water systems are back online, but the work has been slow-going. More than 100,000 western North Carolina residents were told just two weeks ago that they could once again use water coming out of Asheville’s water system to bathe and to drink from the faucet. A destroyed water system in at least one isolated county could take years to rebuild.

Many Republicans and residents were critical of the initial recovery operations by the federal government and Cooper’s administration. Housing for displaced residents for the winter has become a concern, and some allies of Cooper have blamed GOP lawmakers for failing to provide grants to small businesses at risk of failing and housing renters faced with eviction.

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2024 wasn’t all “Wicked.”

The year draws to a close with the film dominating the box office and discourse after a marketing blitz that saw stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande grace not just premieres, but the Oscars, Met Gala and Olympics too.

It was far from the only spectacle of the year, which showcased the continued dominance of Taylor Swift, the ascendance of Chappell Roan and the Oscar triumphs of beloved stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy.

Music was a throughline for the year, whether it was Lady Gaga’s “Joker 2” transformation,Dua Lipa’s “Radical Optimism” or all those “Wicked”-inspired sing-alongs.

Swift may not have defied gravity, but stretched time and space in one week with trips from the Grammys to performances in Japan and then Las Vegas, in time to cheer on and celebrate boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Super Bowl win.

Entertainment and politics collided through the summer and fall after Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, culminating in the vice president joining comedian Maya Rudolph on “Saturday Night Live” in her campaign’s closing days.

Rudolph playing Harris on “SNL” wasn’t the year’s only throwback — Francis Ford Coppola and Jerry Seinfeld returned to red carpets with passion projects (one a modern Roman parable and the other about cereal), while Heidi Klum and her husband transformed into E.T. for her Halloween extravaganza.

With Swift’s tour winding down and the Oscars race lacking a “Barbenheimer” moment, what’s there to look forward to in 2025? Well, “Wicked Part Two,” for one.

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NEW YORK (AP) — He’s making threats, traveling abroad and negotiating with world leaders. Or as he would probably describe it – winning.

Donald Trump has more than a month and a half to go before he’s sworn in for a second term. But the Republican president-elect is already moving aggressively not just to fill his Cabinet and outline policy goals, but to achieve them.

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, prompting emergency calls and a visit from Canada’s prime minister that resulted in what Trump claimed were commitments from both U.S. allies on new border security measures.

And this weekend, Trump returned to the global stage, joining a host of other foreign leaders for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by a fire. There, he was welcomed like a sitting dignitary, with a prime seat next to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Absent in Paris: lame duck President Joe Biden, who has largely disappeared from headlines, except when he issued a pardon of his son, Hunter, who was facing sentencing for gun crimes and tax evasion. First lady Jill Biden attended in his place.

“I think you have seen more happen in the last two weeks than you’ve seen in the last four years. And we’re not even there yet,” Trump said at an awards ceremony Thursday night.

The pre-inauguration threats and deal-making are highly unusual, like so much of what Trump does, said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University.

“Transitions are always a little complicated in this way. Even though we talk about one president at a time,” he said, “the reality is one president plus. And that plus can act assertively sometimes.”

Zelizer said that is particularly true of Trump, who was president previously and already has relationships with many foreign leaders such as Macron, who invited both Trump and Biden to Paris this weekend as part of the Notre Dame celebration.

“Right now he’s sort of governing even though he’s not the president yet. He’s having these public meetings with foreign leaders, which aren’t simply introductions. He’s staking out policy and negotiating things from drug trafficking to tariffs,” Zelizer said.

Trump had already met with several foreign leaders before this weekend’s trip. He hosted Argentinian President Javier Milei in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club in November. After the tariff threat, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago for a three-hour dinner meeting. Canadian officials later said the country is ready to make new investments in border security, with plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers.

Incoming Trump aides have also been meeting with their future foreign counterparts.

On Wednesday, several members of Trump’s team, including incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz, met with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelenskyy, in Washington, as Ukraine tries to win support for its ongoing efforts to defend itself from Russian invasion, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Yermak also met with Trump officials in Florida, he wrote on X.

That comes after Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Qatar and Israel for high-level talks about a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza, according to a U.S. official familiar with the efforts, meeting with the prime ministers of both countries. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

There is no prohibition on incoming officials or nominees meeting with foreign officials, and it is common and fine for them to do so. 

Trump aides were said to be especially cognizant of potential conflicts given their experience in 2016, when interactions between Trump allies and Russian officials came under scrutiny. That included a phone call in which Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed new sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, suggesting things would improve after Trump became president. Flynn was later charged with lying to the FBI about the conversation.

Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “all transition officials have followed applicable laws in their interactions with foreign nationals.”

She added: “World leaders recognize that President Trump is returning to power and will lead with strength to put the best interests of the United States of America first again. That is why many foreign leaders and officials have reached out to correspond with President Trump and his incoming team.”

But such efforts can cause complications.

If, say, Biden is having productive conversations on a thorny foreign policy issue and Trump weighs in, that could make it harder for Biden “because people are hearing two different voices” that may be in conflict, Zelizer said.

Leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu may also anticipate a more favorable incoming administration and wait Biden out, hoping for a better deal.

Although there is no requirement that an incoming administration coordinate calls and meetings with foreign officials with the State Department or National Security Council, that has long been considered standard practice.

That is, in part, because transition teams, particularly in their early days and weeks, do not always have the latest information about the state of relations with foreign nations and may not have the resources, including interpretation and logistical ability, to handle such meetings efficiently.

It is unclear the level of State Department involvement, but the Biden and Trump teams say they have been talking, particularly on the Middle East, with the incoming and outgoing administrations having agreed to work together on efforts to free hostages who remain held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.

That includes conversations between Witkoff and Biden’s foreign policy team as well as Waltz and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Last month, Biden administration officials said they had kept Trump’s team closely apprised of efforts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border.

“I just want to be clear to all of our adversaries, they can’t play the incoming Trump administration off of the Biden administration. I’m regularly talking to the Biden people. And so, this is not a moment of opportunity or wedges for them,” Waltz said Friday in a Fox Business interview.

Sullivan echoed those comments at the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum Saturday.

“It has been professional. It has been substantive. And frankly, it has been good,” he said of their coordination on national security issues. “Obviously we don’t see eye to eye on every issue, and that’s no secret to anybody,” he went on. But he said both teams believe “it is our job on behalf of the American people to make sure this is a smooth transition,” particularly given the seriousness of issues like the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East and threats from China.

“The nature of the world we find ourselves in today only elevates our responsibility to be engaged, to talk regularly, to meet regularly, to be transparent, to share, and to make sure it’s an effective transition,” he said.

Trump’s team, meanwhile, can already point to gains in the stock and cryptocurrency markets to a decision by Walmart to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion policies Trump opposes.

“Promises Kept — And President Trump Hasn’t Even Been Inaugurated Yet,” read one press release that claimed, in part, that both Canada and Mexico have already pledged “immediate action” to help “stem the flow of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and deadly drugs entering the United States.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stopped short of saying Trump mischaracterized their call in late November. But she said Friday that Trump “has his own way of communicating.”

Earlier this week, Mexico carried out what it claimed was its largest seizure of fentanyl pills ever. Seizures over the summer had been as little as 50 grams per week, and after the Trump call, they seized more than a ton.

Biden, too, tried to take credit for the seizure in a statement Friday night.

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PARIS (AP) — Notre Dame is reopening its doors for the first time since a fire in 2019 nearly destroyed Paris’ beloved 12th-century cathedral.

World leaders — including President-elect Donald Trump, America’s first lady Jill Biden, Britain’s Prince William and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — are gathering Saturday among some 1,500 guests to celebrate the restoration of the landmark widely considered to be a pinnacle of French architectural heritage.

Saturday’s events will start with Archbishop Laurent Ulrich symbolically reopening Notre Dame’s grand wooden doors.

Following the 2019 fire, nearly $1 billion in donations poured in from around the world, a tribute to its worldwide appeal.

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Here’s the latest:

Notre Dame in numbers

Perhaps not surprisingly for such a big cathedral, some of the numbers that help tell the story of Notre Dame’s reopening are on the very big side, too. The bell that will sound to signal the start of the service weighs 13 tons, making it the cathedral’s largest. It has a name – Emmanuel – given to it by King Louis XIV after it was cast in 1683. It rings in F sharp.

Inside, 42,000 square meters of stonework were cleaned during the renovation — an area equivalent to roughly six soccer pitches. The first stone of Notre Dame was laid in 1163. The thunderous great organ of Notre Dame that will be heard in public at Saturday’s service for the first time since April 15, 2019, has 7,952 pipes — the largest as broad as a human torso; the smallest no larger than a pen. The renovated giant console that controls the instrument has five keyboards of 56 notes each, foot pedals for 30 notes, and 115 stops.

Unseen, above the congregation and the repaired vaulted ceilings, is a framework of beams holding up the roof and spire – so dense and intricate that it’s nicknamed “the forest.” Some 2,000 oak trees were felled to rebuild it.

Trump to meet with Macron ahead of the reopening ceremonies

President-elect Donald Trump is to meet Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee presidential palace ahead of the reopening ceremony for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. This is Trump’s first foreign trip since the election.

Macron’s office said both leaders will discuss global crisis, including wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine as well as French-American bilateral relations.

Macron is scheduled to have a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy right after his meeting with Trump.

Notre Dame celebrations comes as Macron’s presidency now faces its gravest crisis after the government’s collapse this week in a historic no-confidence vote that toppled Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

Devout Catholics say the Notre Dame Cathedral reopening will ‘nourish us’

For devout Catholics Patricia and Cyrille Brenner, waiting in the cold outside Notre Dame for its reopening service that they weren’t invited to was the place to be. The couple traveled by night train from Cannes on the French Riviera – famous for its movie festival – to be among the onlookers Saturday hoping for some of the 40,000 spots set aside for the public on the banks of the River Seine facing the cathedral. They bought their train tickets six months ago.

“I’m from Cannes. It’s a bit like the festival. You have to be there to experience it,” said Patricia, 65. “It’s a pilgrimage for us.”

Cyrille, 66, said they were the only members of their parish to make the long trip. “We like to be at the heart of things and, as Christians, it will nourish us,” he said.

While Cyrille said they’d felt “distress, sadness” when Notre Dame burned, they both also noted how sacred relics, statues and the golden cross on the altar – almost miraculously – survived the inferno.

They both marveled at the renovation works that have not only eradicated nearly all traces of the fire inside but made it more resplendent than ever.

Some visitors hope talks on the sidelines will be good for Ukraine

Andrey Alexeev, a Ukrainian among onlookers gathering for the reopening of Notre Dame, hopes U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can meet and talk on the ceremony’s sidelines. Their host, French President Emmanuel Macron, was meeting with both leaders before they attend the reopening service for the cathedral.

Alexeev was hoping Trump and Zelenskyy would meet, too. “I hope that meeting can change something in a good way for Ukraine,” he said. “It’s good that Zelenskyy has a chance to speak with Trump and Macron. At least it’s an opportunity for Ukraine.”

Alexeev, who lives in Poland, was visiting Paris with his mother, Olha, who travelled from Ukraine. They were hoping for two of the 40,000 places that were set aside for the public in fenced-off areas on the banks of the River Seine, facing the cathedral. Alexeev said he’s agnostic but that it felt important for him to be as close to the ceremonies as possible. By coincidence, his sister was visiting Paris when Notre Dame burned on April 15, 2019.

“It’s one of the greatest places not only in Europe but also the whole world,” he said. Such an occasion “happens once in 1,000 years, I think. So we are part of history.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The picture of who will be in charge of executing President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies has come into sharper focus after he announced his picks to head Customs and Border Protection and also the agency tasked with deporting immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump said late Thursday he was tapping Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief who’s been a vocal supporter of tougher enforcement measures, for CBP commissioner.

As acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump said he had chosen Caleb Vitello, a career ICE official with more than 23 years in the agency.

They will work with an immigration leadership team that includes South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security; former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan as border czar; and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff.

Here’s a closer look at the picks:

Rodney Scott

Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Scott led during Trump’s first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country’s borders while facilitating trade and travel.

Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he joined the agency, San Diego was by far the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Traffic plummeted after the government dramatically increased enforcement there, but critics note the effort pushed people to remote parts of California and Arizona.

San Diego was also where wall construction began in the 1990s, which shaped Scott’s belief that barriers work. He was named San Diego sector chief in 2017.

When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump’s policies.

“He’s well known. He does know these issues and obviously is trusted by the administration,” said Gil Kerlikowske, the CBP commissioner under the Obama administration.

Kerlikowske took issue with some of Scott’s past actions, including his refusal to fall in line with a Biden administration directive to stop using terms like “illegal alien” in favor of descriptions like “migrant,” and his decision as San Diego sector chief to fire tear gas into Mexico to disperse protesters.

At the time Scott defended the agents’ decisions, saying they were being assaulted by “a hail of rocks.”

While Trump’s focus may be on illegal immigration and security along the U.S.-Mexico border, Kerlikowske also stressed the other parts of CBP’s mission.

The agency is responsible for securing trade and international travel at airports, ports and land crossings around the country. Whoever runs the agency has to make sure that billions of dollars worth of trade and millions of passengers move swiftly and safely into and out of the country.

And if Trump makes good on promises to ratchet up tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada, CBP will play an integral role in enforcing them.

“There’s a huge amount of other responsibility on trade, on tourism, on cyber that take a significant amount of time and have a huge impact on the economy if it’s not done right,” Kerlikowske said.

After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s immigration agenda. He has appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He’s also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, he advocated for a return to Trump-era immigration policies and more pressure on Mexico to enforce immigration on its side of the border.

Caleb Vitello

Vitello will take over as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for arresting and deporting migrants in the U.S. illegally. A career ICE official, he most recently was the assistant director for firearms and tactical programs.

He’s also served on the National Security Council and held positions at ICE directly related to the agency’s enforcement operations. That will be key as the agency attempts to ramp up efforts to find and remove people in the country illegally.

ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed leader in years.

“I know Caleb Vitello very well. He’s a consummate professional, cares about the mission,” said Jason Houser, a former chief of staff at ICE under the Biden administration. “He’s probably one of the smartest guys” on enforcement and removal operations, Houser said.

Houser also noted the challenges that come with the job.

There are a limited number of enforcement and removal officers — the people who actually track down migrants and remove them from the country. And there’s more than a million people with final orders of removal, meaning they’ve gone through the immigration process and been found to have no right to stay in America. But the problem is that many of them come from countries to which it’s very difficult to deport people, such as Venezuela or Cuba, Houser said.

Houser said he anticipates that another arm of ICE, called Homeland Security Investigations, will be pulled in more to help with efforts to remove migrants through things like worksite enforcement. Currently HSI investigates anything with a connection to the border, which can mean human trafficking and human smuggling, counterterrorism or cybercrime, he said.

Others

Trump announced Anthony W. Salisbury as the deputy homeland security adviser. Salisbury is currently the special agent in charge of the HSI office in Miami. He has held key positions in Mexico City and overseeing money-laundering investigations.

Separately, Trump announced he was sending the former head of the National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd, to Chile as ambassador. The council represents Border Patrol agents.

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