A 9/11 survivor is to become trade minister, and another TV presenter is also given a position. All developments in the news blog.
- A pastor, an oil fanatic and one with brain worm: The Trump II Cabinet
9:01 p.m.: Donald Trump has already been found guilty in a hush money trial. But the punishment is still missing. Its announcement could now be delayed for years. Read more about this here.
Billionaire Lutnick is to become trade minister
8:08 p.m.: Donald Trump’s cabinet is taking shape. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the president-elect is said to have chosen billionaire and CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, for the post of Commerce Secretary.
Lutnick has become one of Donald Trump’s loudest supporters in recent months and was considered a contender for the post of Treasury Secretary. The billionaire is also co-chairman of Trump’s transition team and, according to the Wall Street Journal, he is said to have spent much of the last few weeks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
During the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Howard Lutnick lost his brother Gary and 658 employees. He wasn’t in the office on the day of the attacks because he was taking his son to kindergarten. However, when he heard about the attack on the World Trade Center, he immediately drove to the scene to look for surviving employees. On the ground, he survived the collapse of the South Tower by taking refuge under a parked car.
3:19 a.m.: US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Republican congressman and current television host Sean Duffy to be Secretary of Transportation. Duffy will focus on “excellence, competence, competitiveness and beauty” in rebuilding America’s infrastructure and ensuring that “our ports and dams serve our economy without compromising our national security,” Trump said on Monday. The Ministry of Transportation, with a budget of around $110 billion, is facing major challenges: the high number of traffic fatalities, quality problems at Boeing and pressure from the auto industry, especially Tesla, to relax the rules for autonomous driving.
Duffy’s ties to Elon Musk’s company are therefore likely to receive particular attention. Musk, who heads the newly created efficiency agency in Trump’s administration, is already under increased scrutiny from the Department of Transportation over an investigation into Tesla’s autopilot system and a possible penalty for SpaceX for space license violations. If Duffy is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the second Fox News man in Trump’s administration alongside Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. Duffy works for Fox Business and is the father of nine children.
The ultra-conservative politician has no previous government experience, but he distinguished himself in reality TV formats such as “The Real World: Boston” and “Road Rules: All Stars”. He was also one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in his election campaign. When Duffy ran for Congress, he appeared on the campaign trail wearing a red flannel shirt and carrying an axe. He came from a “lumberjack dynasty,” he said at the time, and he would “take the ax with him to Washington”: According to Trump, he should lead Americans into a “Golden Age of Travel.”
4:41 p.m.: US President-elect Donald Trump is probably planning to use the military to carry out the mass deportations he has announced. This emerges from a post on Trump’s short message service Truth Social.
There, right-wing activist Tom Fitton posted that he had received reports that Trump was planning to declare a national emergency. According to the post, Trump also wants to use the military to carry out mass deportations.
Trump promptly commented on this post: “True!!!,” he wrote in capital letters, quoting Fitton’s post. Critics warn that Trump’s deportation plans could be enormously costly, tear families apart and could be responsible for the destruction of communities. According to a study by Edison Research, 39 percent of all Americans support the deportation of illegal immigrants and 56 percent reject Trump’s plans.
