Donald Trump is reportedly tapping up politicians who hold hardline positions on China for key roles within his incoming cabinet. The US president-elect has asked US Representative Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, multiple outlets reported, while the New York Times and Reuters said Florida senator Marco Rubio was favourite for secretary of state.
Waltz is also on the Republican’s China taskforce and is considered hawkish – advocating for a more aggressive foreign policy – when it comes to China. He called for a US boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to what he termed the “suppression” of information about the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, and its ongoing mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uyghur population.
Rubio is a top China hawk in the Senate. Most notably, he called on the treasury department in 2019 to launch a national security review of popular Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. As the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, he demanded the Biden administration block all sales to Huawei earlier this year after the sanctioned Chinese tech company released a new laptop powered by an Intel AI processor chip.
During the campaign, Trump promised to impose tariffs of 60% on all Chinese imports, which could affect $500bn worth of goods.
Here’s what else happened on Tuesday:
Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the former New York congressman and gubernatorial candidate will focus on cutting regulations. Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental rules when he last was US president, said Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions.”
Trump confirmed that New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik would be nominated as the US ambassador to the United Nations in his administration. “She will be an incredible ambassador to the United Nations, delivering peace through strength and America First National Security policies!”, Trump said in a statement. He also pointed to her efforts against antisemitism on college campuses amid the war on Gaza.
Trump has reportedly selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration. Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration. Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organisation of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin is reportedly being considered for a position to lead the Department of Interior or Veterans Affairs in Trump’s administration.
Axios reported that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy, Ron Dermer, met Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, and that Dermer also met Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner.
Kamala Harris made her first public appearance since her concession speech at a Veterans Day ceremony. The vice-president did not speak at the event.
Democrat Cleo Fields has won Louisiana’s congressional race in a recently redrawn second majority-Black district. That flips a once reliably Republican seat blue, according to the Associated Press.
Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over Trump’s business fraud trial in New York that saw him convicted of 34 felonies earlier this year, will decide on Tuesday whether to overturn the verdict, Reuters reports. The case is the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to reach a verdict, and Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 26 November – though now that he is headed back to the White House, it is unclear if that will happen.
