The White House News

President-elect Donald Trump congratulated Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., after the lawmaker won election to serve as the next Senate Republican leader.

Republicans won the majority in the House and Senate during the 2024 elections.

“Congratulations to Senator John Thune, the Newly Elected Senate Majority Leader. He moves quickly, and will do an outstanding job,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

RICK SCOTT KNOCKED OUT OF SENATE LEADER RACE ON FIRST BALLOT AS THUNE AND CORNYN ADVANCE

GOP Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and John Cornyn of Texas had also been vying for the role.

“While it isn’t the result we hoped for, I will do everything possible to make sure John Thune is successful in accomplishing President Trump’s agenda,” Scott said in a statement.

“We are united and prepared to enact President Trump’s agenda on day one, and I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to take advantage of the opportunities we will have next year to confirm nominees, address our national debt, extend the Trump tax cuts, and reverse the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous border policies,” Cornyn said in a statement.

MITCH MCCONNELL SINGS TRUMP CAMPAIGN PRAISES: ‘SHARPER OPERATION THIS TIME’

Thune will succeed current Senate Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., next year. McConnell, who has long occupied the post, did not seek another term in the role.

Trump noted that he looks forward to working with Thune and the other senators selected for various Senate Republican leadership roles.

“I look forward to working with him, and Senators John Barrasso (Senate Majority Whip), Tom Cotton (Senate Republican Conference Chairman), Shelley Moore Capito (Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman), James Lankford (Republican Conference Vice Chairman), and Tim Scott (National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman) to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he said in the post.

SENATE LEADER CONTENDER JOHN THUNE RESPONDS TO NEW TRUMP LITMUS TEST AHEAD OF ELECTION

Thune indicated during remarks on Wednesday that Republican senators will work with House colleagues to implement Trump’s agenda.

Election Day has come and gone, but officials in every state still have several important dates ahead to verify the final vote tally. The process for this election differs from in the past. Several changes were made because of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen,” then-President Donald Trump said before protesters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

When Congress passed its government spending bill in December 2022, it included the Electoral Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. The bill included changes to the process in which presidential election results are transferred from the states to Congress. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers backed the measure.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO ELECT NEW TRUMP-ERA LEADERSHIP WITH MAJORITY STILL UNDECIDED

“I was so pleased to see Democrats and Republicans work together to pass the Electoral Reform Act,” President Biden said on Jan. 6, 2023. “America is a land of laws and not chaos, a nation at peace and not violence.”

The new law updates legislation from nearly 130 years ago. After the election of 1876, when Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Samuel Tilden, both parties were accused of committing fraud. Republicans stuffed ballot boxes, and Democrats intimidated Black voters, who at the time overwhelmingly supported the Republican Party. Both parties claimed victory after fraudulent incidents were reported. Around 20 electoral votes were contested, but the Constitution contained no guidance on how to handle a contested election.

An electoral commission eventually decided each contested state in favor of Hayes, and about a decade later, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The law provided a system for certifying elections, but remained unchanged until 2022.

“You’ve got literally a group of insurrectionists trying to overturn the election based on an 1887 law from the Rutherford Hayes days that had not been updated,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

The 1887 law did not include a hard deadline for states to certify their appointment of electors or any guidance on how federal courts could resolve disputes over a state’s appointment of electors.

“It is vague and ambiguous and contributed to some of the confusion on Jan. 6,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

State Certification Deadline

The Electoral Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act now creates a deadline for when states must certify their appointment of electors. This must happen six days before the electors meet to vote.

Legal Challenges Deadline

The new law also includes an expedited procedure for courts to resolve disputes over state’s appointment of electors. Any challenges must be addressed before the state electors meet.

State Electors Vote

Members of the Electoral College meet in each state to cast votes for president and vice president.

Electoral Votes Arrive

The electoral votes must be received by the president of the Senate and the archivist no later than the fourth Wednesday in December.

Congress Counts Electoral Votes

Congress will once again count the votes on Jan. 6, but several clarifications have been made to the process. If any members object to the votes, it must be submitted in writing and signed by at least one-fifth of the House and one-fifth of the Senate.

“The Congress still has options in case of a truly extraordinary circumstance. But we avoid an arms race or objections with almost no support,” said Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, during a hearing on the bill in September 2022.

While the 1887 law did not explicitly state the vice president could decide on the electoral count, the 2022 language clarifies the role of the vice president. It states:

“The President of the Senate shall have no power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.”

President-elect Donald Trump spent much of his time on the 2024 campaign trail pledging to restore U.S. energy dominance through bolstering oil and gas production, expanding fracking and lifting a pause on liquefied natural gas exports, a sharp contrast with his predecessor and prompting new questions over how he will move to enact some of these sweeping changes. 

Trump vowed at a Pennsylvania rally last month that he would lift the Biden administration’s “war on energy” and “disastrous” energy policies that he argued permeated the current administration.

“They annihilated your steel mills, decimated your coal jobs, assaulted your oil and gas jobs and sold off your manufacturing jobs to China and other foreign nations all over the world,” Trump said of the Biden administration.

It’s not the first time Trump has used energy and climate issues to cut a sharp contrast with his predecessor. 

BIDEN ADMIN TOUTS JOB WELL DONE REPLENISHING OIL RESERVES DESPITE DEPLETING THEM BY HALF OVER LAST 4 YEARS

The Republican president-elect has vowed to use his second White House term to re-exit the Paris climate accord, undo strict emissions standards for vehicles and power plants, and bolster production of U.S. oil and gas, including through fracking, which is the controversial technology by which pressurized fluids are used to extract natural gas from shale rock.

In the days after his victory, industry groups representing the nation’s biggest oil and gas producers told Fox News Digital they have little doubt Trump will make good on these promises in a second term.

“Energy was on the ballot” in the 2024 elections, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement.

In electing Trump, Sommers said voters “sent a clear signal that they want choices, not mandates, and an all-of-the-above approach that harnesses our nation’s resources and builds on the successes of his first term.”

But some areas will be more difficult for Trump to act on unilaterally.

EPA’S NEW RULE TO CHARGE OIL AND GAS COMPANIES FOR EMISSIONS COULD FACE A TRUMP RECKONING

Trump has for months vowed to “undo” the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats’ marquee climate and clean energy spending legislation that allocates $369 billion in subsidies aimed at reshoring investments for electric vehicle manufacturing and battery production as well as new utility-scale wind and solar projects.

Trump has described the law as the “greatest scam in history,” but on his own it’s unclear what actions he could take to undo the legislation.

Though Trump now enjoys majority Republican support in both the House and Senate, it’s unlikely he would move to completely overturn the Inflation Reduction Act, in part because a large chunk of the funds designated under the law to help subsidize the build-out of clean energy projects and manufacturing plants has already been awarded.

Much of the funding, in fact, has gone to Republican-led states.

TRUMP’S ELECTION WIN SIGNALS A SHIFT IN US ENERGY: PAUL DABBER

Other hurdles also exist. Since the IRA is a law, Trump could not move on his own to undo the legislation. 

But he could take certain steps to restrict eligibility for certain tax credits or incentives.

As president, Trump could tighten restrictions for automakers eligible for the electric vehicle tax credit, ramping up manufacturing costs and in turn making electric vehicles more expensive for consumers.

Trump is also likely to introduce new tariffs on certain Chinese-made EVs and other products in a bid to incentivize Beijing to build more of its EVs in the U.S.

On that front, Trump said this year he is considering tariffs of “60% or higher” on Chinese-made EVs to prevent their vehicles from saturating the U.S. market.

But this could backfire, some experts warn. The Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy estimated that even a 10% tariff on Chinese-made EVs could raise taxes for U.S. consumers by more than $300 billion per year.

It could also threaten retaliatory measures from Beijing and other trading partners, including retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, the group said.

Still, Republicans and industry groups are unlikely to let up on the pressure to act. 

TRUMP SELECTING ZELDIN FOR EPA ROLE SHOWS HE IS PREPARING TO ‘LAWYER UP’ THE AGENCY, JOURNALIST SAYS

The American Petroleum Institute published a five point “policy road map” this week, seeking to influence the incoming administration’s actions in the auto manufacturing sector. Among its asks: Rolling back the Biden administration’s stringent fuel economy standards for vehicles, which target an 8% reduction in tailpipe pollution for both 2024 and 2025 model years and then increase to 10% in 2026.

It also asked Trump to issue a five-year plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling leases.

“Our country has a generational opportunity to fully leverage U.S. energy leadership to improve the lives of all Americans and bring stability to a volatile world,” Sommers said in a letter that API sent to Trump alongside its plan.

“It has never been more vital that America control its energy future.”

But others doubt Trump will renege on an industry that has already seen billions of dollars of investments from automakers. 

“Presidents come and go, but the auto industry motors on,” Mark Schirmer, director of industry insights and corporate communications at Cox Automotive, told reporters this week.

The newly confirmed chief of the Los Angeles Police Department made it clear during a recent hearing that his department will “not assist” with the “mass deportations” in comments that sparked social media backlash.

“Since my appearance before the committee on public safety, the national election has caused many Angelenos to feel a deep, deep fear, especially in the immigrant community,” new LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said at a November 8 city council meeting before being sworn in as the department’s 59th chief. 

“I have met with members of the community and heard that fear. We also heard some of that just now at public comment. I know we’ll speak more about immigration later in this hearing, but I want to be unequivocally clear here in my opening comments,” McDonnell continued. “LAPD will protect our immigrant community, LAPD officers will not take action to determine a person’s immigration status, and will not arrest someone for their status, and LAPD will not assist with mass deportations.”

McDonnell went on to say that Los Angeles is a “city of immigrants.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLAN TOUTED AS A ‘COST SAVINGS’ OPPORTUNITY FOR AMERICANS

“I know immigrants are being disparaged right now,” McDonnell said. “But I want the people of Los Angeles to know my viewpoint. Our nation was built by immigrants and L.A. is such an extraordinary city because of people here from literally all over the world.”

McDonnell’s comments sparked criticism from conservatives on social media and a clip of the hearing was posted on X by the popular conservative account LibsofTikTok.

“Who wants to tell him that they’re getting deported whether he likes it or not,” the account posted.

“Time to send in the Feds,” conservative influencer Harrison Krank posted on X.

“Get out of California while you still can!” political commentator Gunther Eagleman posted on X.

McDonnell, while previously serving as LA County Sheriff during Trump’s first term, worked with federal immigration agents to deport illegal alien criminals, Los Angeles Times reported, but said during the hearing he would not do so in his current role while pointing to specific policy, including Special Order 40, that prohibits it.

McDonnell was pressed in the hearing by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez on the issue of immigration pointing to the “seismic shift in the national landscape” and asked him to talk about what “protections are guaranteed” for Los Angeles residents illegally living in the United States.

TRUMP SAYS MASS DEPORTATIONS ‘NOT A QUESTION OF A PRICE TAG’

“We don’t stop somebody, we don’t arrest somebody, we don’t deal with people based on their immigration status, everybody gets to be treated equally across the city and so we will continue with that as part of who we are,” McDonnell said in the hearing.

“That’s also bolstered in recent years by the Trust Act and California Values Act in more recent years so the path forward is very clear,” McDonnell said. “LAPD is here to serve all of our communities, immigration is not a factor in how we deal with any individual or any group of people in any of our communities, the way we’re successful as a police organization is if when a crime occurs people are willing to come forward as a witness, as a victim, and be able to be part of the criminal justice process to hold people accountable for their crimes.

The Trust Act became law in California in 2014, after being signed by then Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, and limits the amount of time and reasons ICE hold requests can be honored by local jails.

A Cato Institute report in 2018 concluded that deportations went down in the city of Los Angeles after the Trust Act and dropped 39% while the rest of the country experienced a 9% drop.

McDonnell told Rodriguez he will be “very clear” about these immigration positions to whoever he talks to, regardless of “what we hear as part of the rhetoric of political discourse.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the LAPD asking whether McDonnell believes it is “wrong” to deport criminal illegal aliens and whether his department would assist in that effort but did not receive a response.

“If they’re not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] is going to do their job,” Tom Homan, who was acting ICE director during the first Trump administration and was recently named “border czar” under Trump, told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday about jurisdictions that oppose a deportation effort.

Homan also pledged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be empowered to go after the 425,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes and currently roaming free in the United States, according to a recent ICE report.

“We’re going to go get them,” Homan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. 

“And I saw today numerous governors from sanctuary states saying they’re going to step in the way. They better get the hell out of the way. Either you help us or get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do their job. We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE that the Biden Administration put on them and let ICE do what they do, what they do best,” he added.

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report

There’s growing chatter that it may be time to play taps for the purveyors of traditional media.

Much of the presidential campaign played out on television. But TV, along with print, is being written off as old news, a horse-and-buggy relic, the last of the dinosaurs to inhabit the earth.

Now this is the point in the narrative where I say that podcasts and digital media are the hot new players, that the candidates made all kinds of news on these outlets, and that they’re more entertaining than organizations built around actual journalism. All true. I’m a podcaster myself. It’s a freewheeling forum.

But the phrase making the rounds in conservative circles is this: “You are the media now.”

TRUMP, DEFYING MEDIA PREDICTIONS, MAINLY PICKS SEASONED CAPITOL HILL VETERANS SUCH AS MARCO RUBIO

And what that means is that anyone can have a voice. The average person can start a Substack page or a blog or a podcast and draw a following. The average person can sound off on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X. The corporate barbarians no longer control the gates.

And this is a healthy thing. It opens up the national conversation and allows for unconventional and unorthodox ideas to circulate – such as that the Covid lockdown was not such a great idea and that the Hunter Biden laptop was not Russian disinformation.

Elon Musk, in a pitch for X, has embraced the concept: “Something’s wrong with the press, guys. Journalism is dead. What the heck is going on? It’s bizarre.”

But the mirror image of everyone being the media is that everyone has to be a media consumer. The online world, as everyone knows, is filled with vitriol and conspiracy theories. It’s up to each person to filter that out (or not), and whether to stay in a cocoon that reinforces his or her opinions.

WHY THE MEDIA WAITED TILL NOW TO ADMIT HARRIS RAN A LOUSY CAMPAIGN

This is especially true in the Trump era, given his attacks on “fake news” and a basic disagreement on fundamental facts. Despite the president-elect’s stunning margin of victory, this is still a fiercely divided country with two diametrically opposed views of reality. 

Charlie Warzel at the Atlantic has written smartly about this:

“Media institutions were somehow failing to meet the moment, but it was also unclear if they still had any meaningful power to shape outcomes at all.

“News sites everywhere have seen traffic plummet in the past two years. That’s partly the fault of technology companies and their algorithmic changes, which have made people less likely to see or click on articles when using products like Google Search or Facebook.”

But, says Warzel, “audiences are breaking up with news, too. An influencer economy has emerged on social-media platforms. It’s not an ecosystem that produces tons of original reporting, but it feels authentic to its audience.”

Yet the obituaries for traditional media are premature. Sure, it was a great idea for Trump to spend three hours with Joe Rogan and for Kamala Harris to appear on “Call Her Daddy.”

MEDIA LIBERALS SAVAGE KAMALA AS TRUMP PICKS EXPERIENCED HARD-LINERS

But when Harris spent a month hiding from the media, the pressure grew for her to do a sitdown television interview. She eventually did with CNN’s Dana Bash.

Another major event was the vice president’s contentious interview with Fox’s Bret Baier.

Meanwhile, the leaks on Trump’s appointees have mainly been to the big newspapers and cable networks.

So-called “legacy” outlets – which, by the way, all have major websites – do reporting as well as commentary. For all their flaws, they are slower because journalism takes time and mistakes are embarrassing. And even those who don’t trust these news organizations will cite them when it’s politically convenient: “Even the New York Times says–”

In fact, for all of Trump’s use of Truth Social and self-posted videos, he cares about the legacy media as much as anyone. He talks to reporters virtually every day, even those he doesn’t like, and monitors the TV and newspaper coverage, so he can hit back at anything he deems inaccurate or unfair. And, as the campaign showed, he is impervious to the avalanche of negative coverage, and the consistently glowing coverage of Kamala didn’t help her in the end.

Newspapers, while largely abandoned by younger people staring at their phones, also have an echo-chamber influence. The other day, The New York Times reported that lawyers at the Justice Department are worried about a Trump purge. The story was covered on cable all day long.

Says Warzel: “Independent online creators aren’t encumbered by any of this hand-wringing over objectivity or standards: They are concerned with publishing as much as they can, in order to cultivate audiences and build relationships with them. For them, posting is a volume game. It’s also about working ideas out in public. Creators post and figure it out later; if they make mistakes, they post through it. Eventually people forget.”

The old run-and-gun approach.

So I’m not buying the notion that traditional journalism is washed up, especially those outlets that do investigative reporting. They still play a pretty central role, which is why the campaigns spent zillions on TV ads.

But it may also be telling that Chris Wallace, with his three-year CNN contract expiring, is leaving to start a podcast.

My takeaway is that those of us in the news business now have to share the microphone with millions of other voices. And I’m not losing any sleep over that.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., will keep his seat in Arizona after fending off a challenge from Democrat Kirsten Engel, according to The Associated Press’ race call Wednesday night.

The race for the 6th Arizona Congressional District seat was tight, with Ciscomani receiving 49.6% of the vote compared to Engel’s 47.9%. Unofficial election results on the state’s website show he only leads Engel by 7,020 votes.

Democrats were hoping to flip the seat after a tight race between the same candidates in 2022.

Ciscomani’s win completed the congressional races in Arizona and secured a Republican majority in the U.S. House by hitting the 218 threshold.

REPUBLICANS PROJECTED TO KEEP CONTROL OF HOUSE AS TRUMP PREPARES TO IMPLEMENT AGENDA

Ciscomani has brandished bipartisan credentials and fought off a conservative challenger in July, where he touted the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump.

“Congressman Juan Ciscomani is doing an incredible job representing the great people of Arizona’s 6th Congressional District,” Trump said on Truth Social in May. “Juan is working hard to Secure our Border, Defend our Wonderful Military and Veterans, Promote Election Integrity, and Expand American Jobs and the Economy.”

REP. CISCOMANI FENDS OFF PRIMARY CHALLENGE FROM FELLOW REPUBLICAN AHEAD OF TIGHT ELECTION

Ciscomani had embraced border security as a key issue, with the state being at the front of the historic crisis at the southern border.

“I have been consistent in my willingness to work with anyone – on either side of the aisle – to address the crisis at the border,” Ciscomani told Fox News Digital in September. “However, Vice President Harris’ visit to the border smells like nothing more than a photo opportunity to try and score political points.”

Engel had hit Ciscomani on the question of abortion, and in a recent debate revealed that she has experienced a miscarriage.

“I’m a woman. I’ve had complications. I’ve had miscarriages,” she said in October, according to Arizona Central. “This is not something that we leave to politicians. Last time I checked, Juan, you’re not a doctor. I don’t trust you with my health care. I’m sorry, I don’t trust you with my daughter’s health care. We need to leave this to women and their doctors.”

She also challenged his claim to be a moderate.

“You present yourself as a moderate, but you cave to the extremists in your party. The extremists are driving the dysfunction. They are scaring seniors because if they are in control, they will do these things,” she said.

Arizona, which had a number of close House and Senate races, was also seen as a key swing state for the presidential election.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.