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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Martin Farrer (now) and Nicky Woolf, Scott Bixby and Tom McCarthy (earlier)

Anti-Trump protesters take to the streets for the third night – live

Christie and Pence
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, left, is no longer leading the Obama-Trump transition team. Christie has been caught up in the Bridgegate scandal. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

SUMMARY

We’re wrapping up the blog so here are the main points of the day:

  • Anti-Trump protests have been staged in cities across the US again on Friday. Groups have taken to the streets in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Missouri and Iowa City
  • In Portland, protesters faced off with riot police after a rally at the City Hall
  • A wave of demonstrations are planned for the weekend
  • Retiring senate majority leader Harry Reid said Trump’s election “has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America”
  • Privacy and human rights campaigners have expressed fears over the prospect of Donald Trump gaining access to the vast global US and UK surveillance network.
  • Trump told the Wall Street journal that he wants to preserve important pieces of the president’s health care law – the ban on coverage denial for pre-existing conditions and the ability for kids up to 26 to stay on parents’ plans.
  • Vice-president elect Mike Pence will lead the Trump transition team, meaning a demotion for Chris Christie. PayPal founder Peter Thiel will join the team

Thanks for reading.

Updated

As well as Portland, there have been protests in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Missouri and Iowa City, according to Associated Press.

More than 200 people gathered on the steps of the Washington state capitol in Olympia. The group chanted “not my president” and “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA”.

Here are some images from the Portland protest:

The Oregonian is reporting that protesters held a rally at City Hall on Friday night organised by a group called Portland’s Resistance “to discuss demands for the city and a campaign to repair damage from Thursday night’s riots”.

The protesters then set off to march through the streets but were prevented from taking certain routes and have now split off in various directions, police said.

Strange that Hillary Clinton was seen as the Wall Street candidate with Trump presenting himself as the outsider ... and yet this – the largest weekly gain for banking stocks since 2009.

We always knew that was a risible piece of rhetoric from The Donald, but the upward march of the Dow Jones shows that the financial markets’ big players don’t expect to concede much ground to the “little guy”.

They might be dancing on the streets of Mexico City tonight, but it’s a different vibe on the ground in several US cities as anti-Trump demos continue.

Associated Press has been speaking to people caught up in protests – so far entirely peaceful – in Miami where protesters blocked Interstate 395.

People protest in Miami, Florida on Friday night.
People protest in Miami, Florida on Friday night. Photograph: Javier Galeano/Reuters

Trump supporter Nicolas Quirico was traveling from South Beach to Miami when his car was stopped by the demo. He wasn’t too impressed.

Trump will be our president. There is no way around that, and the sooner people grasp that, the better off we will be. There is a difference between a peaceful protest and standing in a major highway backing up traffic for 5 miles. This is wrong.

You can’t really blame them ...

The peso might have had a terrible battering following Trump’s win but mexico have just gained a bit of revenge by beating the USA soccer team 2-1 in a World Cup qualifying game in Columbus, Ohio tonight.

Mexico’s players celebrate breaking down the, er, American wall.
Mexico’s players celebrate breaking down the, er, American wall. Photograph: Joseph Maiorana/USA Today Sports

Anti-Trump protesters in Oregon have withdrawn their petition for the state to secede from the union in the wake of Tuesday’s presidential election.

The Oregonian reports that Christian Trejbal, one of the petitioners, said that the reaction to the plan had not been what he had hoped, saying the he and co-petitioner Jennifer Rollins had received death threats.

They had also become unnerved as street protests turned violent.

That’s not the kind of conversation we were trying have so we’re pulling it.

Silicon Valley investors called for California to secede two days ago.

Hello. Thanks Nicky. I’m Martin Farrer and I’m taking over from Nicky Woolf as protests get under way in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon.

There are no reports of any trouble yet, unlike on Thursday night when demonstrators in Portland threw objects and police declared a riot.and arrested 26 people.

But we’ll try to keep you up to date and monitor other election-related developments in the US and, indeed, anywhere else.

Here's where things stand

  • Protests have begun for a fourth night running against Trump’s election to the presidency, with groups taking to the streets in Atlanta and Miami
  • Retiring senate majority leader Harry Reid issued a statement declaring that Donald Trump’s election “has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”
  • Privacy and human rights campaigners have expressed fears over the prospect of Donald Trump gaining access to the vast global US and UK surveillance network.
  • In his first interview since becoming president-elect, Donald Trump told the Wall Street journal that he wants to preserve important pieces of the president’s health care law – the ban on coverage denial for pre-existing conditions and the ability for kids up to 26 to stay on parents’ plans.

There are some eerily prescient lines in this 1998 book by philosopher Richard Rorty, spotted by a Canadian academic Lisa Kerr and first reported in Slate.

Slate also point out that the following line is eerily predictive of the first indicators of Trump’s behavior as president:

After my imagined strongman takes charge, he will quickly make his peace with the international superrich.

Some more shots of the protest in Atlanta:

Anti-Trump protests in Miami and Atlanta

Several hundred people are organizing under the hashtag #NotMyPresident and have shut down i-95 in Miami, Florida.

A smaller protest is also underway in Atlanta, Georgia:

My colleague Amanda Holpuch has written a heartbreaking story speaking with some of the immigrants now living in fear of deportation by a Trump presidency.

Demonstrators march through Manhattan to Trump Tower during a “Love Rally” march in New York
Demonstrators march through Manhattan to Trump Tower during a “Love Rally” march in New York Photograph: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images

Ivy has lived in the US for most of her life, but with Donald Trump now president-elect, she’s gathering her belongings in one safe place in case she is abruptly deported.

The 26-year old is one of the more than 741,500 people the government granted temporary deportation relief to, through Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) policy, and who are now wondering: will I be deported by Trump?

“There’s no time for us to just feel, we have to act,” she said. “The bottom line is here and this is it.” Ivy asked for her full name not to be used because of the influx of hate mail she has received since Trump’s victory.

You can read the whole piece - and you should - here.

Italians are commiserating / mocking America for electing Trump by tweeting under the hashtag #Trumpusconi.

Here are a few choice examples:

Even La Repubblica, Italy’s second-largest daily newspaper, is getting in on the joke:

Pulling from news reports, social media, and direct submissions to their website, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) claims to have counted 201 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation across the country in the days since Tuesday’s election.

These range from anti-Black to anti-woman to anti-LGBT incidents, according to a blog post on the SPLC’s website.

The post continues:

There were many examples of vandalism and epithets directed at individuals. Often times, types of harassment overlapped and many incidents, though not all, involved direct references to the Trump campaign.

Anti-Black and Anti-immigrant incidents were far and away the most reported with anti-Muslim being the third most common.

These incidents were just reports, and had not been individually verified, the post noted.

The SPLC gave some examples of some of the heartbreaking reports they had been sent.

One parent reported:

My 12 year old daughter is African American. A boy approached her and said, “now that Trump is president, I’m going to shoot you and all the blacks I can find”. We reported it to the school who followed up with my daughter and the boy appropriately.

Disturbingly, the report noted that the most commonly reported location where incidents of harassment occurred were K-12 schools.

You can read the full report here.

Nancy Pelosi likely to remain top Democrat

CNN is reporting that the election for house Democratic leadership posts has been moved up from its original scheduled time of after Thanksgiving to next Thursday.

With no challenger having emerged, it seems likely that Pelosi will retain her position as house minority leader.

No member has emerged to challenge the California Democrat for the top spot, but shifting the vote three weeks earlier makes it difficult for anyone to mount a campaign to defeat her

“Members have indicated a strong desire to proceed with elections next week in order to prepare forcefully for the lame duck session and the challenges we will face in January,” Pelosi explained as the reason for the earlier date, adding that “this has been a very sad and trying week for all of us.”

You can read the whole piece here.

The leaders of the anti-Trump protests that have broken out nationwide following the real estate mogul’s election to the presidency say they are preparing for a long fight, reports Reuters.

Rallies scheduled for Saturday in New York and Los Angeles, and a protest planned for Washington on Jan. 20, when the New York businessman succeeds President Barack Obama, will be just the beginning, activists said in a series of interviews.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader from New York, said anti-Trump protesters should borrow a page from the playbook that Republicans used to oppose Obama’s policies.

That movement started organically, later developed as the Tea Party movement and eventually resulted in the election of Trump, said Sharpton, whose National Action Network plans to launch a new organizing effort at its New York headquarters on Saturday.

“We are not going to be as ugly as them, but we are going to be just as persistent,” Sharpton said. “This is not going away.”

Demonstrators gather in Washington Square Park to protest the election of Donald Trump
Demonstrators gather in Washington Square Park to protest the election of Donald Trump Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock

Members of the ANSWER Coalition, a broad-based U.S. protest group, have marched in this week’s protests and aim to draw tens of thousands to an anti-Trump Inauguration Day rally, Walter Smolarek, an organizer, told the news agency.

“The people are going to fight back against the Trump agenda from day one,” Smolarek said. He said the group planned to continue to protest throughout Trump’s four-year term.

You can read the whole piece here.

Today in Post-Campaign 2016

Adjusted to the New Normal yet?

People protest against resident-elect Donald Trump in Miami, Florida.
People protest against resident-elect Donald Trump in Miami, Florida. Photograph: Javier Galeano/Reuters
  • Retiring senate majority leader Harry Reid, who delivered a Hillary Clinton win and a Democratic senate race win in Nevada in an election when Democrats mostly lost, issued a statement declaring that Donald Trump’s election “has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”
  • “I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics,” Reid said.
  • Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, he of the miserably failed 2016 presidential bid, acknowledged speculation around his taking the reins of the Democratic national committee and said he’s “taking a hard look”:

    Since the election, I have been approached by many Democrats who believe our party needs new leadership. I’m taking a hard look at DNC Chair because I know how badly we need to reform our nominating process, articulate a bold progressive vision, recommit ourselves to higher wages and a stronger middle class, and return to our roots as a nationwide, grassroots party.

  • Privacy and human rights campaigners have expressed fears over the prospect of Donald Trump gaining access to the vast global US and UK surveillance network. They criticised Barack Obama’s administration for being too complacent in the wake of the 2013 revelations by the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, and making only modest concessions to privacy concerns rather than carrying out major legislative changes. The concern comes after Snowden dismissed fears for his own safety if Trump, who called him “a spy who has caused great damage in the US”, was to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin to have him extradited.
  • In his first interview since becoming president-elect, Donald Trump tells the Wall Street journal that he wants to preserve important pieces of the president’s health care law – the ban on coverage denial for pre-existing conditions and the ability for kids up to 26 to stay on parents’ plans.“I like those very much,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

    After a bitter campaign in which he came under criticism for his harsh and angry rhetoric, and a postelection period marked by anti-Trump protests in numerous cities, Mr. Trump said he is placing a high priority on bringing the country together.

    “I want a country that loves each other,” Mr. Trump said. “I want to stress that.” He said the best way to ease tension would be to “bring in jobs.”

    Asked whether he thought his rhetoric had gone too far in the campaign, the president-elect responded: “No. I won.”

The 2016 US presidential race will go down in history for many reasons as a truly extraordinary election.

Attendees stand under a sign reading “Stronger Together” while waiting for the start of a campaign event with Hillary Clinton.
Attendees stand under a sign reading “Stronger Together” while waiting for the start of a campaign event with Hillary Clinton. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Although the final vote tallies are not yet in, the indications are that Hillary Clinton will become the fifth presidential candidate to lose the election despite winning the popular vote.

For those of you not familiar with the intricacies of the US system of electing a president, it’s a two-step process. Each state is worth a set number of electoral college votes. In most states, the winner of the popular ballot gets all that state’s electoral college votes (unless members of the electoral college choose not to vote for them – but let’s not get into that for the moment).

There are currently 538 available electoral college votes. The would-be president needs to secure 270 of these to win. At the time of writing Clinton was on track to lose by 74 electoral college votes (final results for New Jersey and Michigan are not yet in), despite being ahead in the popular vote.

The last time the electoral applecart was upset in this fashion was in 2000. In controversial circumstances George W Bush took Florida, allowing him to reach the 270 vote target – just. He secured 271 electoral college votes to Al Gore’s 266 (one elector abstained from casting an electoral vote for the latter).

Prior to that election, it had been 112 years since another Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison, secured a majority of electoral college ballots while losing the popular vote.

It was (yet another) Republican who this system first advantaged in 1876: Rutherford B Hayes won out by just one electoral college vote, despite more than 250,000 fewer ballots being cast for him than his main opponent, Samuel J Tilden.

Arguably the strangest happening of all, however, was in 1824, when John Quincy Adams won the presidency even though Andrew Jackson had received more popular votes and more electoral votes. Because none of the candidates in the race reached the required number of electoral college votes, the decision was left to the House of Representatives, which opted for Adams.

Gloria Allred, the attorney representing a number of women who have accused president-elect Donald Trump of sexual misconduct against them, held a press conference alongside one of the women today and called for Trump to begin his term with a “clean slate.”

Trump accusers could still sue for defamation, says lawyer

Summer Zervos is one of the women who have alleged they were targeted by Trump, and was visibly emotional as she told reporters he now has “the largest bully pulpit in the world.”

From the beleaguered transition press pool at Trump Tower:

Pool saw spokeswoman Hope Hicks depart. She said president-elect Trump is scheduled to remain in trump tower through the weekend and she’d update us with any changes.

The campaign has been tight-lipped - even for Trump - with campaign reporters since election day.

Corey Lewandowski, president-elect Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has reportedly resigned from his cushy position at CNN in order to take a job within the new administration, according to CNN itself.

Lewandowski was hired as a commentator a reported half-million dollar salary just three days after he was pushed out of the campaign, following assault allegations made by a campaign reporter that were later substantiated by videotape.

Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, has long defended the network’s decision to hire Lewandowski as a commentator, despite the fact that Lewandowski continued to draw payments from the campaign during his tenure at the cable news network.

“I think it’s really important to have voices on CNN who are supportive of the Republican nominee,” Zucker told Variety in August. “It’s hard to find a lot of those. Our competitors tried to hire him too.”

Former House speaker and potential Trump cabinet secretary Newt Gingrich reportedly told reporters today that in all likelihood, Donald Trump will not be able to get Mexico to “pay for The Wall,” as he told his supporters he would do, but that the rhetoric was “a great campaign device.”

“He may not spend much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it,” Gingrich said, of Trump’s proposed 2,000-mile wall along the US Southern border. “But it was a great campaign device.”

“He knows how to build big buildings,” though, Gingrich continued, which is almost as good. “He knows how to build golf courses. He knows how to build lots of stuff. The idea that Trump can’t figure out how to control the southern border is just silly.”

Rudy Giuliani has ‘no expectations’ of role in Trump government

Rudy Giuliani has ‘no expectations’ of role in Trump government

Yoko Ono, the artist, howl-singer and widow of Beatles member John Lennon, has a message for the world in response to the election of Donald Trump.

It involves a lot of screaming.

Perhaps no other building has shot from irrelevance to epicenter as quickly as Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.

Following Donald J Trump’s shock of a winning campaign, the home of the president-elect has drawn to its doorstep the full presidential protection apparatus, as well as both sides of a deeply divided nation.

Trump Tower.
Trump Tower. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

“He’s a male chauvinist, a fucking rapist!” yelled a woman, streaming the experience to the world on her phone. “Fuck Trump!”

“’Scuse me! There are kids here,” another woman yelled, looking harried as she pushed through the crowd with a stroller, a tiny hand grasping hers.

A circus of protesters, supporters, tourists, gawkers and New Yorkers just trying to get where they were going formed in front of Trump’s home by the end of the week. Pedestrian traffic rivaled Times Square, as police arbitrarily cordoned off corners. Press were kept in a pen.

A uniformed cop adjusting barricades remarked: “This building was never important until just a couple days ago.”

The gray-glassed skyscraper on 56th Street and 5th Avenue was, on Monday, just a tower of steel built atop Gucci and Tiffany & Company stores. By Wednesday, it became the site of protests and pleas, rancor and adulation. The stink of a bitter campaign lingered over the building.

“Trump eat shit!” yelled one passerby. Another yelled back, “What about Bill Clinton?” his phone raised above the crowd.

Anti-Trump protesters are beginning their fourth evening of demonstrations after the election of the Republican president-elect on Tuesday, meeting in Manhattan’s Union Square:

Peter Thiel joins Donald Trump's presidential transition team

Controversial Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel will be a member of Donald Trump’s transition team, Nicky Woolf and Julia Carrie Wong report.

Peter Thiel.
Peter Thiel. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Thiel’s involvement in a Trump administration has been the subject of frenzied speculation in Silicon Valley, where the businessman was the sole prominent advocate for the divisive Republican candidate.

On Wednesday, Thiel told the New York Times that he would not move to Washington or seek a seat on the supreme court, but said: “I’ll try to help the president in any way I can.”

It is not known what role Thiel will play in the transition team. The transition team and Thiel’s representatives did not respond to requests for further details. But it is likely that he will be expected to help the president-elect build bridges with Silicon Valley, a place where Barack Obama is hugely popular and where many people regard Trump with either distrust or outright disdain.

Thiel’s vocal and financial support of Trump made him an outlier in the largely socially liberal world of Silicon Valley. While other tech CEOs and venture capitalists railed against Trump’s aggressive xenophobia, anti-free trade saber-rattling and threats to individual companies such as Apple and Amazon, Thiel delivered a keynote address at the Republican national convention in July and donated $1.25m to support Trump’s campaign.

“I build companies and I’m supporting people who are building new things, from social networks to rocket ships,” he said at the convention. “I’m not a politician. But neither is Donald Trump. He is a builder, and it’s time to rebuild America.”

Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans Day and, referencing the recent elections, told those in attendance that Americans are not a people of isolationism, but instead unite despite their differences. The US president said the nation’s veterans embody “principles that are more enduring than transitory politics.”

Obama on Veterans Day: ‘Americans forge unity from diversity’

Trump: 'I want a country that loves each other'

In his first interview since becoming president-elect, Donald Trump tells the Wall Street journal that he wants to preserve important pieces of the president’s health care law – the ban on coverage denial for pre-existing conditions and the ability for kids up to 26 to stay on parents’ plans.

“I like those very much,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

The piece continues:

After a bitter campaign in which he came under criticism for his harsh and angry rhetoric, and a postelection period marked by anti-Trump protests in numerous cities, Mr. Trump said he is placing a high priority on bringing the country together.

“I want a country that loves each other,” Mr. Trump said. “I want to stress that.” He said the best way to ease tension would be to “bring in jobs.”

Asked whether he thought his rhetoric had gone too far in the campaign, the president-elect responded: “No. I won.”

Leading Democrats began their fightback against President-elect Donald Trump as they accused him of unleashing the “forces of hate and bigotry” and warned that America’s enemies were exultant at his election win.

Harry Reid.
Harry Reid. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP

As tens of thousands of Americans plan further protests and acts of dissent against the election of Trump, Democratic politicians have begun to echo the defiance seen on the streets of major cities from New York to Oakland that has sparked dozens of arrests.

Thousands were on the streets on Thursday in Denver, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, Oakland and dozens more US cities and although the protests were smaller and more muted, there were scattered acts of civil disobedience and damage to property.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been measured in their language in keeping with the traditions of the post-election period of transition between administrations.

But Harry Reid, departing as the most senior Democrat in the Senate, issued a blistering statement on Friday, warning that adversaries at home and abroad are jubilant and calling on Trump to take responsibility for healing the nation.

“The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America,” the veteran Nevada senator said. “White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and Isis are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are racked with fear.”

This was particularly true for black, Hispanic, Muslim, LGBT and Asian Americans, Reid added. “Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.”

High schoolers in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, chant “build the wall” at demonstrators holding signs protesting Trump:

11/6/2015

11/11/2016

From our 2015 report:

When TransCanada first proposed the project to pump crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the refineries of the Texas Gulf coast more than seven years ago, Keystone XL was seen as one of just thousands of pipelines across North America.

But over the years Keystone XL grew into a symbol of the fight against climate change.

In the face of almost impossible odds, the campaigners won. Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, which had mobilised activists against the project, said Obama was the first world leader to reject an infrastructure project because of climate change.

“If we’re gonna prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re gonna have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky,” the president said.

New Yorkers hold 'Love rally'

Here’s live video of a rally in New York to support Muslims, women, Latinos, people with disabilities, and others disparaged by Donald Trump:

Giuliani: 'All I do is give advice'

The Trump media pool catches Rudy Giuliani in the Trump tower lobby:

Giuliani exited the elevators at 2:32 - minutes after the Transition shakeup was announced. The new Transition Vice Chair spoke briefly (35 seconds) to reporters.

“Donald has been my friend for 28 years, all my work on behalf of him is done out of great loyalty and friendship to him. I can see already, how he is going to be a great president. And I’m glad I can play a small role.”
Giuliani was asked what kind of advice he offered Trump.
“That I give to him personally,” he replied.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at Trump Tower, Friday.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at Trump Tower, Friday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

On what happened upstairs: “Just giving advice. Just giving advice.”

On his role: “I have no expectation. All I do is give my advice.”

He did not respond to question about Christie being layered.

White House statement on Holodomor

Here’s the press secretary’s statement in full:

This month, the United States joins in solidarity with Ukrainian people around the world in remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor, one of the most horrific man-made tragedies in modern history. Eighty-three years ago, more than three million people in Ukraine died as the result of the merciless policies of Joseph Stalin. Through the deliberate seizure of Ukrainian land and crops, the Soviet Union caused widespread starvation. Under siege and without access to food, Ukraine – once Europe’s breadbasket – turned into a land of immeasurable human suffering.

As Ukrainians have proven to the world time and again, the human spirit is indomitable. Even during the darkest times, the Ukrainian people have continued with dignity the struggle for peace, freedom, and democracy. Today, faced with new threats to these values, Americans stand together with Ukrainians as they bravely defend their territory and democracy. The Ukrainian-American community and friends of the Ukrainian people have worked hard to ensure that the memory of those who suffered during the Holodomor live on as we collectively seek to build a better, freer, and more just world.

Here’s a statement from team Trump about the Christie demotion. The statement includes an updated list of transition team members.

What follows is all quotation from the statement:

President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced that Vice President-elect Mike Pence will serve as Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team, and that Dr. Ben Carson, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, USA (Ret.), Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions will join the team’s Executive Committee as Vice Chairs.


President-elect Trump also announced that the following leaders will join the Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee:

Congressman Lou Barletta
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
Congressman Chris Collins
Jared Kushner
Congressman Tom Marino
Rebekah Mercer
Steven Mnuchin
Congressman Devin Nunes
Anthony Scaramucci
Peter Thiel
Donald Trump Jr.
Eric Trump
Ivanka Trump
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Trump Campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon
President-elect Donald J. Trump today also announced that Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, Rick Dearborn, will join the Presidential Transition Team as Executive Director.

Richard Bagger, Executive Director of the Presidential Transition Team during the preparation phase, will return to the private sector but will remain with the Team as an Advisor, as will preparation phase General Counsel Bill Palatucci.

Joining Dearborn on the Presidential Transition Team’s Staff Leadership lineup are:

Kellyanne Conway, Senior Advisor
David Bossie, Deputy Executive Director
Stephen Miller, National Policy Director
Jason Miller, Communications Director
Hope Hicks, National Press Secretary
Dan Scavino, Director of Social Media
Don McGahn, General Counsel
Katie Walsh, Senior Advisor

The Vice President-elect has tapped his three senior advisors, Nick Ayers, Josh Pitcock, and Marc Short, to work alongside him in this process.

The Kushner-Christie feud

Reminder via nj.com to go with the news of Christie losing his footing in Trumpworld again, after having been passed over as vice president:

In 2004, Christie as U.S. attorney for New Jersey prosecuted the government’s case against [Jared] Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner, the real estate executive, philanthropist and political donor. The elder Kushner pleaded guilty in federal court to 18 felonies, including making illegal campaign contributions and evading taxes.

Read more about the Kushner-Christie feud.

Here’s how control of Congress came out, in case you haven’t had time to look. The Democrats flipped two senate seats, where they needed five pickups to take control under a Trump presidency; and flipped six House seats, where they needed 30.

If you have progressive sympathies and are looking forward to the 2018 midterms, have a look at this:

“Quite good”

Pence replaces Christie as head of Trump transition – report

The Trump transition team gets a major staff reshuffle, two days after the election. Vice-president-elect has replaced New Jersey governor Chris Christie as head of the transition team, the New York Times reports.

Trump wanted Pence to run it owing to his “Washington experience and contacts,” the Times report says. Christie’s in the churn of advisers up and down, fate unclear:

The president-elect told advisers he wanted to tap Mr. Pence’s Washington experience and contacts to help move the process along, according to people familiar with the discussions. An executive committee, which will include members of Congress, will advise Mr. Pence as the process moves forward.

Mr. Christie, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who has been a top campaign supporter, will serve as vice chairs of the transition, the sources said.

Read further.

Here’s further on the transfer of power, via the media pool:

A steady stream of Trump tourists are visiting the lobby of Trump Tower this afternoon.

The New York City Veterans Day parade is over, leading to a slight uptick in tourists, despite the heavy law enforcement presence and security surrounding the building.

Many of them of them are wearing Trump campaign gear or carrying American flags. Several “Hillary for Prison” t-shirts have also been spotted.

A couple of uniformed Army soldiers took pictures with the doorman in front of the building.

The brass Trump Tower logo inside the lobby is a popular place for selfies, as is the fountain.

Tourists have been spotted recreating Trump’s escalator scene, using their phones to film their decent.

Pieces of financial regulatory law may survive Trump - report

“The Trump administration is eyeing a more limited repeal of the 2010 Dodd Frank financial regulatory law, despite the Republican president-elect’s campaign promise for a full repeal of the financial overhaul, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing unnamed sources,” Reuters says. Here’s the WSJ:

Instead, Mr. Trump’s team is focused on rescinding or scaling back the individual provisions Republicans find most objectionable, such as the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s authority to designate large nonbanks systemically important and thus subject to tougher regulation from the Federal Reserve.

These people said another priority is overhauling a separate section of Dodd-Frank, Title II, that gives financial regulators the authority to take over a failing financial firm and liquidate it—an alternative to the government’s 2008 strategy of bailing out banks by handing them equity capital.

At the same time, a Trump administration is expected to embrace other aspects of the massive law, these people said, including efforts to boost the transparency of credit-rating firms and regulate derivatives products—the complex financial instruments at the heart of the financial crisis.

Mr. Trump’s financial policy team is still being assembled and its priorities could change.

Is this real life

In February, Graham joked about Cruz’s murder on the floor of the senate.

Jane Sanders believes Bernie would've won

Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur flags an interview with Jane Sanders, wife of Bernie, on CNN.

“Talk to you in 2019,” she says.

Trump famously doesn’t settle lawsuits, but there are two signals out there that one of the Trump University lawsuits may be headed for settlement, at the recommendation of none other than judge Gonzalo Curiel:

The headline “Immensely wealthy white guy unbothered by Trump win” would be unfair to Buffett’s efforts and his family’s efforts to get out the nonwhite vote in Omaha.

Buffett expresses optimism about the country’s economic future, saying he’s “100%” optimistic. “In my lifetime, the real GDP per person has gone up six for one... we have $57,000 of GDP per capita... this system will produce more and more stuff and better and better stuff.”

More:

Oh sure I support any president of the United States. It’s very important that the American people coalesce behind the president... he deserves everybody’s respect. And we proved with Bush v Gore, I mean the whole country went back to work... you’ve got to be behind the president.

The two most important things in my mind, by far the most important thing, is what person is likely as president to minimized the chances of weapons of mass destruction being used... the world changed in 1945... you can’t stop the random acts... it does make a difference in terms of whether you get a Cuban missile crisis... it’s temperament and judgment... other things are going to fall into place. But one mistake there...

We’ve got an unbelievably prosperous country... we will have an ever-more prosperous country... I agreed with Bernie Sanders on that, as far as that’s concerned.

Updated

Here’s next month’s Vogue: (more here):

Updated

Trump wants to spend but Republicans hold purse strings

Donald Trump has vowed to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges, airports and railways, but the path to delivering on that promise is full of potholes, the AP reports:

When President Barack Obama tried to do it, a Republican Congress fought him at almost every turn, and Trump would have to contend with his party’s deep-seated dislike for government spending and higher taxes to meet the $1 trillion tab for his proposals.

The transportation industry sees hope in Trump’s plans, which he made the first policy issue in his Wednesday victory speech.

“We are going to fix our inner cities ... We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none,” he said. “And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”

But Trump has been vague what about he’d do and what it would cost. During the campaign he said he’d double the $275 billion boost in government infrastructure spending proposed by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. A recent paper by Trump advisers calls for using federal tax credits to generate $1 trillion in private sector infrastructure investment over a decade. To offset the cost of the credits, U.S. corporations would be encouraged to bring home profits parked overseas to avoid taxes, in exchange for a low tax rate.

If that corporate tax “repatriation” idea sounds familiar, it’s probably because Obama has been urging Congress to do that, and Clinton cited repatriation as the way she would pay for her infrastructure plan.

Read further.

The transfer of power continues at Trump tower. The pool reports:

Jared Kushner and Eric Trump both entered Trump Tower at 12:38p and went upstairs.

Obama to meet May

Barack Obama will meet UK prime minister Theresa May, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande and Italy’s Matteo Renzi in Germany on November 18, Downing Street said.

A Downing Street spokesman said:

The prime minister will meet her Quint counterparts - the leaders of the US, Germany, France and Italy - in Berlin on November 18, where they will discuss a range of global issues expected to include Syria, Libya, and Russia/Ukraine.

Concerns raised over Trump accessing global surveillance network

Privacy and human rights campaigners have expressed fears over the prospect of Donald Trump gaining access to the vast global US and UK surveillance network.

They criticised Barack Obama’s administration for being too complacent in the wake of the 2013 revelations by the NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, and making only modest concessions to privacy concerns rather than carrying out major legislative changes.

The concern comes after Snowden dismissed fears for his own safety if Trump, who called him “a spy who has caused great damage in the US”, was to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin to have him extradited.

Snowden, wanted by the US on charges under the espionage act, found asylum in Russia in 2013 but his visa is due to expire in July next year.

Privacy and human rights campaigners in the US and UK say a Trump presidency will tip the balance between surveillance and privacy decisively towards the former. The UK surveillance agency GCHQ is so tied up with America’s NSA, often doing work on its behalf, it could find itself facing a series of ethical dilemmas.

On the campaign trail, Trump made an ambiguous remark about wishing he had access to surveillance powers.

Read further:

---

O'Malley 'taking hard look' at DNC post

Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, he of the miserably failed 2016 presidential bid, acknowledges speculation around his taking the reins of the Democratic national committee and says he’s “taking a hard look”:

Since the election, I have been approached by many Democrats who believe our party needs new leadership. I’m taking a hard look at DNC Chair because I know how badly we need to reform our nominating process, articulate a bold progressive vision, recommit ourselves to higher wages and a stronger middle class, and return to our roots as a nationwide, grassroots party.

At the DNC in Philly.
At the DNC in Philly. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Other names being batted around include representative Keith Ellison, Bernie Sanders’ stalwart congressional ally; and Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and Democratic national committee chair during Obama’s first election.

Updated

But... the polling averages... in Wisconsin... had Clinton six points ahead... and the state hasn’t voted for a Republican since Reagan...

Trump won Wisconsin by 1% or 27,257 votes.

Trump tower: coffee and food runs

The pool sends this:

Various staff has been up and down over the last couple of hours -- mostly coffee or food runs. At 12:12p Eric Trump was spotted leaving the building while talking on the phone.

The increasingly complete, county-by-county election results are here for your perusal, including some of our thumbnail guides to the electoral dynamics of each state, which now we’re wondering, how did those stand up?

Of Florida we wrote, “if Clinton beats Trump by more than 30 in Miami-Dade, look out.”

Clinton won Miami-Dade by 29.6 points.

Of Pennsylvania: “watch whether Clinton can improve on Obama’s 2012 performance in the Philly ’burbs: Bucks county (Obama +1.2%) and Chester county (Romney 0.5%). Also, where is Clinton in old-coal Luzerne county (Obama won by 4.9%)?”

Clinton won Bucks by 0.6 points.

Clinton won Chester by 9.3 points.

Trump won Luzerne by 19.6 points.

Updated

Investigation underway after 2 racist signs posted above water fountains at Florida high school

Here’s a local WFTV9 report from Jacksonville, Florida (where Trump underperformed past Republican candidates but still won the county by 1.5%):

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - School leaders are investigating after two racist signs, one reading “colored” and one reading “whites only,” were posted above two water fountains at First Coast High School.

A picture of the signs was posted on social media and shared with Action News Jax on Thursday evening. We reached out to Duval County Public Schools to get more information.

DCPS spokesperson Laureen Ricks sent Action News Jax the following statement:

“School is investigating, but it appears to be a prank. Staff immediately removed the notes once it was brought to their attention.”

Updated

White House officials say President Barack Obama is prepared to spend his final major foreign trip talking about Donald Trump, the AP reports:

Obama leaves Monday for a six-day trip to Greece, Germany and Peru. In Greece, he’ll tour the Parthenon, give a speech about globalization and meet with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (TSEE’-prahs).

Obama in Germany will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and with a group of European leaders. He’ll attend an Asia economic summit in Peru.

The trip was imagined as a goodbye tour and a chance to bolster support for Obama’s agreements on Iran’s nuclear program, trade and climate change.

But deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes says Obama expects to face questions about how Trump’s election affects those deals. Trump has vowed to renegotiate or withdraw from those deals.

Read further.

Trump’s team is discussing ways to punish disloyal Republicans, Politico reports:

Donald Trump has 70 days to build a government and figure out how to run it, but some of his allies are spending the early days of his transition plotting revenge against those they believe slighted Trump — and them.

Since Trump’s shocking upset victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, several people who worked on his team have discussed ways to punish Republicans who were hostile to the New York billionaire’s anti-establishment campaign, including blocking them from administration or transition posts, or lucrative consulting work, according to a handful of people involved in the conversations. [...]

“My phone is ringing off the hook with people who were on the outs asking how they can get into Trump world,” said one operative who worked with Trump’s campaign. “I’m telling them there is no f---ing way they’re getting inside.”

Obama speaks at a Veterans’ Day service:

Sanders 'not ruling out' 2020 run

This came out yesterday, but in case you missed it, AP reports:

Bernie Sanders is leaving open the possibility of another presidential bid as shell-shocked liberals focus on helping the Democratic Party rebuild after Donald Trump’s victory.

“Four years is a long time from now,” said the 75-year-old Vermont independent, noting that he faces re-election to the Senate in 2018. But he added: “We’ll take one thing at a time, but I’m not ruling out anything.”

Here’s another dispatch from Trump’s America:

11am on 11/11, when World War I hostilities formally ended in 1918.

Immigrants fear Trump deportations

Ivy has lived in the US for most of her life, but with Donald Trump now president-elect, she’s gathering her belongings in one safe place in case she is abruptly deported.

The 26-year old is one of the more than 741,500 people the government granted temporary deportation relief to, through Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) policy, and who are now wondering: will I be deported by Trump?

“There’s no time for us to just feel, we have to act,” she said. “The bottom line is here and this is it.” Ivy asked for her full name not to be used because of the influx of hate mail she has received since Trump’s victory.

Seattle on Wednesday night.
Seattle on Wednesday night. Photograph: Karen Ducey/Getty Images

It was not clear how Trump would implement many of his campaign promises, but one of his clearest targets for destruction as president was Daca. He promised to “immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties” and to ensure that “anyone who enters the US illegally is subject to deportation”. [...]

Ivy is grateful that she was raised in New York City, where immigrants have long been the backbone of the city. But that feeling of appreciation is harder to cling to when faced with the reality that 59.8 million Americans voted for Trump, whose campaign was defined by anti-immigrant sentiments.

“I think this election has changed my optimism,” Ivy said, before adding: “The system doesn’t work for you, you have to work the system.”

Read the full piece:

'Million women march' after inauguration

Organizers are planning a “million women march” on Washington, DC, on Saturday, 21 January, the day after the inauguration.

Check out the Facebook page:

This is an INCLUSIVE march, and EVERYONE who supports women’s rights are welcome:

- Women & Girls & Femmes & GNC
- Men & Boys
- Families
- People of Color
- Immigrants
- LGBTQ Community
- Disabled Folks
- Climate Change Advocates
- ALL religious communities
- Anyone else who wants to come out in support!

Thousands of people turned out to march against President-elect Donald Trump in Denver, Colorado on November 10, 2016 in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday night.
Thousands of people turned out to march against President-elect Donald Trump in Denver, Colorado on November 10, 2016 in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday night. Photograph: Helen H. Richardson/Getty Images

Michael Moore predicted Trump’s victory powered by white blue-collar voters. Now he predicts “a massive resistance.”

Sanders: 'this is America'

Senator Bernie Sanders:

Updated

Further via the Trump transition press pool:

Trump’s Senior Communications Adviser Jason Miller arrived as well as senior advisor Stephen Miller.

Trump’s deputy campaign manager David Bossie entered the building at 9:00 a.m.

At 9:06 a.m. Trump campaign CEO Stephen K. Bannon arrived.

At 9:07 a.m. Hope Hicks arrived.

Trump receives advisers at Trump tower

Here’s what Donald Trump says he’s up to this morning:

Trump pool reporter Zeke Miller of Time magazine describes new security measures at Trump tower, which initially included Miller’s being not allowed into the building:

Good morning from midtown Manhattan where your transition pool is holding in a media pen across Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower after being denied entry to the building by NYPD. (Even to the Starbucks!) The building is now a fortress. The sand trucks which ringed the building around Election Day have been replaced by jersey barriers and NYPD-marked concrete blocks. 56th street has been closed and now has NYPD-USSS joint checkpoints on each end. (This appears to be where the motorcade is staged, along with an FDNY ambulance on permanent standby.) There is large and overt police presence around the building and pedestrian access has been restricted along 56th between 5th and Madison, and along 5th between 56th and 57th.

Technically we have a “lid” from the President-Elect’s office, but we have no assurance there won’t be movements.

Update:

The only action so far: the Trump Tower marquee was briefly papered-over for window cleaning.

Note: The New York City Veterans Day Parade is scheduled to pass in front of Trump Tower later this morning.

Update:

Your pool has made it into Trump Tower. It appeared to be an NYPD communication issue. We’re now holding on the benches in the atrium and grabbing coffee.

Update:

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski arrived at about 9:30 while talking on the phone. He acknowledged the pool and seemed like he’d stop to talk to us, before boarding one of the Trump Tower elevators.

Brad Parscale arrived at ~9:40

Rudy Giuliani arrived at ~9:50

Reid: Trump's election 'emboldened the forces of hate'

Retiring senate majority leader Harry Reid, who delivered a Hillary Clinton win and a Democratic senate race win in Nevada in an election when Democrats mostly lost, has issued a statement declaring that Donald Trump’s election “has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.”

“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics,” Reid says.

He goes on and on.

“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate.”

Read it here:

Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 ... oh wait, that’s over. Good morning, hello and welcome to our blog about US politics.

Why America elected Trump

Why America elected Trump

Still counting

Mitt Romney lost by about 5m votes, 60.6m to Obama’s 65.4m. While the 2016 votes are still being counted – provisional and absentee ballot counting will last for weeks – it appears that Donald Trump won not only with fewer votes than Romney got, but, as Cook political report’s Dave Wasserman points out below, with a smaller proportion of the vote.

Here’s the current tally:

Clinton

60,556,142 – 47.6%

Trump

60,116,240 – 47.3%

Others

6,458,802 – 5.1%

Take a hike

A Hillary Clinton supporter who was “heartbroken” over Tuesday’s election says she decided to go on a hike in the woods – and ran into the former presidential candidate herself.

Margot Gerster said in a Facebook post that she was heading home following her hike Thursday in Clintons’ hometown of Chappaqua, New York, when she saw Clinton and former President Bill Clinton walking their dogs.

Gerster said she hugged the former Democratic nominee and told her that one of her “proudest moments as a mother” was taking her daughter with her to vote for Clinton. She posted a picture with Clinton that she says was snapped by the former president.

The picture’s here in this video:

The president-elect tweets

Two tweets, one contradiction and, more broadly, the still-dawning realization that @realdonaldtrump is soon the world’s most powerful person:

It’s Veterans’ day:

Bombshell Kelly memoir

The New York Daily News reports:

Fox News host Megyn Kelly, in her upcoming memoir “Settle for More,” claims President-elect Donald Trump received a question ahead of the first Republican presidential primary debate.

Thank you for reading and please join us in the comments.

Updated

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