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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Tom McCarthy

Trump chooses Nikki Haley and Betsy DeVos for administration posts – as it happened

Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley stumped for Marco Rubio and then Ted Cruz during primary season. Photograph: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Summary

We’re going to wrap up our politics live blog coverage for the week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Can Trump get Apple to build in US?

Donald Trump told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he is going to “get” the company to start manufacturing its products in the United States, the president-elect told the New York Times on Tuesday.

Trump revealed that he had received a post-election phone call from Cook during which he said, “Tim, you know one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States.”

According to Trump’s account, Cook responded, “I understand that,” and Trump went on to promise incentives through tax breaks and reduced regulations.

“I think we’ll create the incentives for you, and I think you’re going to do it,” Trump said he said.

Read further:

(h/t @daveweigel)

Yes we cran.

Who writes this stuff.

Impeach.

Further reaction to the DeVos pick for education secretary:

Obama closes with thanks from his family to the American people.

“Let’s get on with the pardoning because it’s Wednesday afternoon and everybody knows that Thanksgiving traffic can put everyone in a fowl mood.”

Get this guy offstage.

Obamas’ nephews pet the turkey, Tot. That’s cute.

Obama: 'no way I'm cutting this habit cold turkey'

Here goes Obama. He says he won’t embarrass his daughters with “a cornycopia of dad jokes about turkeys.”

The president gets off some strong punning:

He has brought two nephews this time, Austin and Aaron Robinson [sp?]. “They still believe in bad puns,” he says. “The still have hope.”

“Malia and Sasha are thankful by the way that this is my last [ceremony]...What I haven’t told them yet is we’re going to do this every year from now on. No cameras, just us, every year.

No way I’m cutting this habit cold turkey’

Updated

The turkey pardoning ceremony commences:

Heated debate over DeVos pick

The president of the national education association does not like the Betsy DeVos pick for education secretary:

DeVos has tweeted that she is not a supporter of Common Core education standards:

Further reaction, via @politicsK12:

Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on ‘politicized science’

Donald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on “politicized science”, his senior adviser on issues relating to the space agency has said.

Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding in favor of exploration of deep space, with the president-elect having set a goal during the campaign to explore the entire solar system by the end of the century.

This would mean the elimination of Nasa’s world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena. Nasa’s network of satellites provide a wealth of information on climate change, with the Earth science division’s budget set to grow to $2bn next year. By comparison, space exploration has been scaled back somewhat, with a proposed budget of $2.8bn in 2017.

Bob Walker, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said there was no need for Nasa to do what he has previously described as “politically correct environmental monitoring”.

“We see Nasa in an exploration role, in deep space research,” Walker told the Guardian. “Earth-centric science is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission.

“My guess is that it would be difficult to stop all ongoing Nasa programs but future programs should definitely be placed with other agencies. I believe that climate research is necessary but it has been heavily politicized, which has undermined a lot of the work that researchers have been doing. Mr Trump’s decisions will be based upon solid science, not politicized science.”

Read the full piece:

Bush: DeVos 'an outstanding pick'

Former Florida governor, education policy wonk and ex-presidential candidate Jeb Bush praises the DeVose pick, hailing her “allegiance to families”:

The full Bush statement on DeVos:

Betsy DeVos is an outstanding pick for Secretary of Education.

She has a long and distinguished history championing the right of all parents to choose schools that best ensure their children’s success. Her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next.

I cannot think of more effective and passionate change agent to press for a new education vision, one in which students, rather than adults and bureaucracies, become the priority in our nation’s classrooms.

I congratulate Betsy and look forward to her bold leadership at the U.S. Department of Education.

But really, Bush can’t get enough of Trump’s picks:

Stein raises recount fund

Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, is prepared to request recounts of the election result in several key battleground states, her campaign said on Wednesday.

Stein launched an online fundraising page seeking donations toward a $2m fund she said was needed to request reviews of the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Stein said she was acting due to “compelling evidence of voting anomalies” and that data analysis had indicated “significant discrepancies in vote totals”.

Her move came amid calls for recounts or audits of the election results by groups of academics and activists concerned that foreign hackers may have interfered with election systems.

Donald Trump won unexpected and narrow victories against Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and may yet win Michigan, where a result has not yet been declared.

Trump: DeVos 'will reform the US education system'

Donald Trump has released a statement describing grand plans for American education under the leadership of Betsy DeVos, his education secretary nominee. DeVos is a Michigan philanthropist who has chaired the state Republican party who “has kept a low national profile,” according to Chalkbeat: “She has neither worked in public education nor chosen public schools for her own children, who attended private Christian schools.”

DeVos’ husband, Dick, is an heir to the Amway fortune and a former company president, AP reports. Trump called DeVos “a brilliant and passionate education advocate.”

“Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families,” Trump said in a statement. “I am pleased to nominate Betsy as Secretary of the Department of Education.”

Updated

Trump picks DeVos as education secretary

Donald Trump has chosen charter school advocate Betsy DeVos to be his education secretary, the AP reports.

The nomination is subject to senate confirmation.

The education policy web site Chalkbeat had said that a DeVos appointment could indicate that Trump intends to go through with a sweeping school vouchers plan and would leave the future of Common Core education standards an open question.

At Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J. on Saturday.
At Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J. on Saturday. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Updated

Red, white and blue

George HW Bush, 92 years old and thankful:

When Jimmy Fallon cum Pepe tousled the future president-elect’s hair:

Erdoğan scolds US protesters protesting Trump

Turkey’s president is accusing anti-Donald Trump protesters in Western nations of not respecting democracy or the result of the US election, AP reports:

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also suggests that any leader who doesn’t serve the West’s interests is denounced as a despot.

He made the comments in Ankara, Turkey, at meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation.

Erdoğan said: “In America they started calling Trump a dictator. In various countries of the Europe they spilled into the streets and started saying ‘dictator.’ Why aren’t you respecting the results of the ballot box?”

Erdogan at a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Erdogan at a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul on Wednesday. Photograph: Yasin Bulbul/AP

German government expresses revulsion at Nazi-style salutes in USA

BERLIN (AP) The German government expressed revulsion Wednesday at Nazi-style salutes such as those performed at a recent far-right event in Washington, but said it was confident the United States can tackle the issue.

Video published by The Atlantic showed participants at the event Saturday raising their arms in salute during a speech by Richard Spencer, head of the white-nationalist National Policy Institute.

“Speaking generally, whenever we see videos from anywhere showing people raising their hand to do Hitler salutes we are repulsed,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday after being asked about the clip .
“It goes against the principles and values of our politics,” he added.

Nazi Germany was responsible for genocide and war that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in the 1930s and 1940s. After the war, Germany made it a criminal offense to display Nazi imagery including the salute, which was usually accompanied by the cry “Sieg Heil!” which translates as “hail victory.”

Seibert said the fact that the incident is being widely discussed in the United States was a good sign. “We have great faith in American civil society, media and politics to address such bad developments, such terrible events,” he said.

White-nationalist groups have existed in the United States for decades but drew increased attention last summer when activists showed up at the Republican National Convention to celebrate Donald Trump’s nomination as the party’s presidential candidate.

Spencer, who is credited with coining the term “alt-right,” was filmed Saturday saying “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” to cheers from the audience.

Personal anti-Semitic attacks through mail continue

The presidential campaign and election of Donald Trump has witnessed an outpouring of overtly anti-Semitic attacks through the mail, in graffito, in person and by other means.. Neo-Nazis held a conference last weekend in DC where they evoked Hitler. The movement may not be large but it’s visible and empowered with the rise of Trump, who claims not to want to boost white-supremacists and Nazis but who has managed to communicate extremely effectively to them that he is their man, and whose chief strategist proudly declared in July that his web-site was “the platform for the alt-right” meaning racists, white-supremacists, and neo-Nazis.

Those who discern a moment of historic global crisis in the rise of Trump garner among the evidence correspondence such as this:

Read Matthew Yglesias of Vox on what’s happening:

On Monday, November 14, six days after Donald Trump’s election as the next president of the United States, and on the day that Trump had selected Steve Bannon to be his strategic adviser, I came home to a letter addressed to me personally, at my home.

The envelope contained four pages’ worth of anti-Semitic propaganda printed on three sheets of paper.

Read further.

Updated

Each year the turkeys up for presidential pardon come from an out-of-state farm. This year the turkey pair Tater and Tot are traveling from Iowa. The presidential turkey has its own Twitter feed. Check it out

The Turkeys stay in a hotel, gross

Jesus wept.

Trump to deliver Thanksgiving message

In a sure addition to the holiday spirits of everyone, Donald Trump will appear today to deliver a Thanksgiving message, his transition team says.

It’s not yet known when Trump will appear. He’s at his Mar-a-Lago place in Palm Beach, Florida, where he’s spending the weekend.

Per the press pool:

[Trump’s spokespeople] did not elaborate on the president-elect’s activities today, saying the Trump family expects “some degree of privacy” during the holidays.

Fair bet that tens of millions of Americans also would appreciate some degree of privacy during the holidays. See you Monday then?

Summary

Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of Donald Trump’s transition to the White House. Know-it-all Newt Gingrich has said that Trump’s bedimpled son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may need an “anti-nepotism” waiver to continue working with Trump, who told the New York Times yesterday that Kushner might achieve peace in the Middle East. (Trump seemed serious.)

“I think they would have to get a waiver to the anti-nepotism law,” Gingrich said on Fox News on Wednesday, in comments snagged by Politico. “That might be a little tricky, although I think if they worked at it, they could do it.”

Trump picks Haley

Donald Trump has chosen South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations. Haley is the first woman Trump has named for a top-level administration post during his White House transition so far.

Trump said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press that Haley is “a proven dealmaker, and we look forward to making plenty of deals” and that she “will be a great leader representing us on the world stage”.

Read further.

Back in February.
Back in February. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

Racists decry Trump for perceived mushiness

President-elect Trump’s disavowal of Richard Spencer and his far-right thinktank the National Policy Institute, a day after video of Spencer’s supporters giving the Nazi salute at an event in Washington DC surfaced, has dismayed some of his supporters on the “alt-right”.

“This constant virtue signaling needs to finally end, otherwise our civilization will simply collapse,” a commenter wrote underneath the article of Trump’s disavowal on rightwing news site Breitbart.

People in the myriad “alt-right” communities that have flourished online in recent years are also expressing their displeasure that Trump appears to have abandoned the most extreme of his policies – at least for now – such as building a wall and prosecuting Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama to pardon turkeys

It’s nearly Thanksgiving, which can mean only one thing: Barack Obama is going to appear outside the White House and pardon two turkeys, and one or both of his daughters will be forced to suffer through it in public. Here’s our 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 coverage of the ceremony. This is Ronald Reagan’s fault.

Awkward

DJRP

This is the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He was elected three times with double-digit margins and served for 15 years. He ran for president twice, and he met with Trump this week about a possible administration post. Word?

Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.

Updated

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