Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to meet with House Republicans on DOGE plans
Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head to Capitol Hill next week to meet with House Republicans on their plan to slash regulations and other parts of the federal government.
Speaker Mike Johnson announced he will host them on Thursday, Dec. 5 to discuss “major reform ideas” to “revive the principle of limited government.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” Their roles have been described as “outside of government” advisers on how to make drastic cuts to various federal agencies and their workforces.
Musk, in particular, has become a member of Trump’s inner circle as the president-elect prepares for a second term. The Tesla billionaire spent Thanksgiving with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Earlier this week, Musk proposed abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.
Trump on the campaign trail vowed to dismantle federal bureaucracy but did not specifically call for the CFPB to be eliminated. To gut an entire agency would be a difficult task, and would require legislation from Congress.
CFPB, which was formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers and review practices of the nation’s banks, lenders and other institutions, has long been a target of conservative attacks over its cost and its regulations.
Earlier this year, the CFPB survived a legal challenge led by former Trump administration Solicitor General Noel Francisco on behalf of a group of payday lenders alleging the agency’s structure was illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, upheld the agency’s funding mechanism as constitutional.
Musk also recently reposted on social media the names of specific people and jobs that he suggested be cut. They include employees at the Department of Energy and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. “So many fake jobs,” Musk wrote in one post.
Musk and Ramaswamy outlined more of their plans for DOGE in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published last week.
They said they were helping Trump’s transition team bring on board a “lean team of small-government crusaders” that would be aimed at three core actions: repealing regulations, reducing the administrative workforce and saving costs.
“We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail,” they wrote. “Now is the moment for decisive action. Our top goal for DOGE is to eliminate the need for its existence by July 4, 2026 — the expiration date we have set for our project.”
Legal and logistical hurdles remain for Musk and Ramaswamy’s goal to slash the government. But they will get some help on Capitol Hill by a new congressional subcommittee aimed at eliminating government waste in conjunction with DOGE. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of Trump, has been chosen to chair the panel.
Ramaswamy, in response to Johnson’s announcement of next week’s meeting, said he’s had “great discussions so far” with House and Senate GOP leaders about DOGE.
“Congress appears serious about delivering structural reform. We look forward to productive meetings in D.C. next week,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday pledged to continue support to Ukraine as she met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss his so-called “victory plan” to bring an end to war with Russia.
Harris cast the conflict as a fight for fundamental principles of “freedom and independence.”
“We also know that other would-be aggressors around the world are watching to see what happens in Ukraine,” Harris said. “If Putin is allowed to win, they will become emboldened, and history reminds us, and history is so clear in reminding us, the United States cannot and should not isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Isolation is not insulation.”
Harris also appeared to take a swipe at her political opponents — former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — who’ve floated Ukraine ceding territory to Russia as part of negotiations to end the war.
“However, in candor, I share with you Mr. President, there are some in my country who would, instead, force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality and would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations,” Harris said.
“These proposals are the same of those of Putin. And let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” she added.
This is Zelenskyy’s fifth visit to Washington since Russia’s invasion began in Feb. 2022, and he now faces an increasingly partisan environment with an election just weeks away.
Trump ratcheted up his criticism of Zelenskyy and Ukraine on Wednesday, calling Zelenskyy the “greatest salesman on Earth” and painting a picture of an “obliterated Ukraine.”
The former president also suggested Ukraine should’ve made a “deal” before the war started. Trump said, “If they made a bad deal it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living.”
Trump also accused Zelenskyy of making “little, nasty aspersions” about him, likely referring to Zelenskyy’s comments to The New Yorker casting doubt on Trump’s claim he could quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war.
After sources saying Wednesday Trump was not expected to meet with Zelenskyy, Trump told reporters Thursday afternoon Zelenskyy had asked to meet and that they would do so Friday morning at Trump Tower.
“I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and President Zelensky quite quickly,” Trump said, but when asked what that would look like, he responded, “I don’t want to tell you what that looks like.”
And when asked to respond to respond to what a reporter said was Harris’ suggestion that his strategy amounted to “surrender” to Russia, Trump said, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. And, it’s not a surrender. What my strategy is to save lives. I want to save lives. Millions of people are dead. Millions more than they even think about. And it’s not my fight, but it is a fight to save humanity.”
Zelenskyy has also called Vance “too radical,” taking issue with his statements that a Trump-Vance administration’s approach to the war would likely include Ukraine ceding territory to Russia and the current line of demarcation becoming a demilitarized zone. Vance said on Wednesday that “everything would be on the table” when asked if Ukraine should cede land.
The top Republican on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson, did not meet Zelenskyy when he visited Capitol Hill earlier Thursday to meet with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers. Johnson told reporters he would not be in town, but if he had sat down with Zelenskyy would have aired grievances about his tour of an American munitions manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania.
Zelenskyy made the case to lawmakers for permission to strike deeper into Russia at military targets using U.S.-supplied weapons. Several senators on both sides of the aisle expressed a desire for Biden to give Zelenskyy authorization to do so.
But the White House continued to express opposition to such a move.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, peppered with questions on the issue during Thursday’s briefing, told reporters not to “expect any new announcements” coming out of Zelenskyy’s one-on-one meeting with Biden.
“Our policy has not changed,” Jean-Pierre said. “They’re going to talk on a range of issues today. What we can say and what we can commit to is that we will continue to support Ukraine as they continue their fight against Mr. Putin’s aggression, into Ukraine. And so that is our commitment, that’s what the president is focused on.”
In the Oval Office, Biden said he looked forward to discussing Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” and said he saw two key pieces in aiding Ukraine.
The first, Biden said, was to “strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield.” He then highlighted the new $2.4 billion package of security systems announced earlier Thursday and his directive to the Pentagon to allocate all remaining security system funding by the end of his term.
The second, Biden said, was to “look ahead to help Ukraine succeed in the long term” by helping Ukraine join NATO and the European Union as well as reforms to counter corruption, strengthen democracy and enhance security in the nation.
“Let me be clear: Russia will not prevail in war. Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin, Lauren Peller, Michelle Stoddart and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams will stand trial on federal corruption charges starting on April 21, 2025, a judge said Friday.
The date upset the defense, which argued for a schedule that could end the trial no later than early April to accommodate “grave, grave Democratic concerns,” namely the mayor’s reelection campaign.
The defense argued Adams needed resolution of the criminal case by the time the New York City ballot is set in the spring.
“There is a point in early April when people know who is on the ballot,” defense attorney Alex Spiro said during a hearing on Friday. “He’s either running with this hanging over his head or he’s running with this over.”
Judge Dale Ho said he appreciated the interest in a speedy trial “that any defendant has, but particularly that Mayor Adams has given the election cycle.”
“But I also have to be realistic about what I think can get done,” he continued.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that accused him of accepting years of luxury travel gifts in exchange for, among other things, persuading the fire department to approve the opening of the new Turkish consulate in Manhattan despite the lingering safety concerns of inspectors.
Defense tries to get bribery charge dismissed
The defense argued during the hearing Friday that a bribery charge should be dismissed because the alleged conduct does not meet the legal definition of bribery.
With Adams silently looking on in court, defense attorney John Bash argued federal prosecutors failed to show Adams did anything more than broker meetings and set up phone calls.
“The agreement has to relate to something specific and it has to relate to government power,” Bash said. “They had no agreement for a specific action.”
The defense argued Adams could not take an official action on behalf of his Turkish patrons because, at the time, he was in a largely ceremonial job of Brooklyn borough president and not the mayor with authority over the New York City Fire Department.
“The pressure must in some sense arise from the official’s governmental authority,” Bash said.
Federal prosecutors disagreed. They argued that even if Adams had no authority over the fire department, his position still gave him access.
“You don’t have to have a supervisory role to pressure,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said, calling the alleged bribery “as clear as day.”
The prosecutor argued Adams knew when he accepted the travel gifts “he is entering a transactional relationship.”
Scotten said, at most, Adams is entitled to a clarifying jury instruction and not an outright dismissal of the charge.
The judge has not issued a ruling yet on the defense’s request.
(WASHINGTON) — With about six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks on the tax code and U.S. manufacturing in battleground Georgia on Tuesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris has her own economic speech scheduled for Wednesday in Pennsylvania, another critical swing state. Later this week, she will travel to Arizona for some campaign events and to visit the southern border, according to a source familia with her plans.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Trump, in Georgia, hits on economy, immigration and more
In remarks in battleground Georgia focused on the economy and the tax code, Trump said dealing with immigration is first step in his economic plan.
In Savannah, Trump again said migrants with legal protected status in Springfield, Ohio, need to be deported and repeated his discriminatory and false argument that undocumented immigrants were stealing jobs from Black and Hispanic communities. He went on to call on local officials to “move the people back to the country from which they came.”
Trump spent much of his speech focused on increasing domestic production by tariffing other countries, telling Georgians they soon would be “stealing” jobs from other countries.
“Vote for Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from Korea to North Carolina, from Germany to right here in Georgia, they’re going to come to Georgia, from Germany and a lot of other places,” he claimed.
“I’m outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands, but under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs. Did you ever hear that expression before? Have you ever heard that? ‘We’re going to take other countries’ jobs.’ It’s never been stated before. We’re going to take their factories,” Trump claimed.
The former president also touched on Ukraine, just hours after President Joe Biden urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to never “waver” in support for Ukraine.
“I think that we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated,” Trump claimed — a campaign pledge he often repeats but offers no specifics on how to accomplish.
Trump then seemingly praised Russia.
“That’s what they do, is they fight wars,” he said. “As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight and it’s not pleasant.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Nebraska governor won’t call special session to change electoral votes system
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen released a statement Tuesday confirming he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November general election — meaning that the Republican-led effort to change the state electoral college to winner-take-all is tabled, for now.
“My team and I have worked relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election,” Pillen said. “Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done.”
“Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators,” he added.
Pillen specifically cited opposition from state Sen. Mike McDonnell, who on Monday said he would not support such a change before the 2024 election.
The switch would have likely benefitted Trump and made the electoral map more difficult for Harris.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Oren Oppenheim
Trump attacks Harris’ plan to visit the border
Trump is now weighing in on Harris’ plans to visit the southern border this Friday in Arizona, labelling the visit as “political” and accusing her of attempting to “con the public” of her border record.
“After almost four years, Border Czar Kamala Harris has decided, for political reasons, that it’s time for her to go to our broken Southern Border. What a disgrace that she waited so long,” Trump wrote on his social media, repeating his disparaging rhetoric on migrants.
While Harris has been to the southern border, the trip marks her first visit since lauched her campaign at the end of July.
Trump has made immigration central to his 2024 campaign, pledging mass deportations and a border shutdown among other hard-line policies. He visited the border last month, the same day Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Harris planning a visit to southern border this week: Source
Vice President Harris is planning to visit the southern border during her visit to Arizona on Friday, according to a source familiar.
This would be Harris’ first visit to the southern border since she jumped to the top of the ticket at the end of July.
Immigration has been a big issue in the 2024 race, with Donald Trump and Republicans inaccurately calling Harris the “border czar” and blaming her for the border crisis. Harris, in turn, argues that Trump and Republicans are at fault for killing the bipartisan border bill earlier this year.
Harris has overseen the Biden administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration as vice president, and visited the border in 2021, after she came under fire for not having done so.
Trump expected to return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5: Sources
Trump is expected to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the city of his first assassination attempt, next Saturday for a rally, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans.
The rally is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Trump has long promised to return to Butler to honor the victims who died at his July rally.
“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in July.
NBC News was first to report the news.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Lalee Ibssa, Kesley Walsh and Soorin Kim
Harris won’t attend the Al Smith dinner, a presidential campaign staple
Vice President Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner next month in New York, breaking with tradition of major party nominees sharing laughs at the benefit dinner, and will instead be on the campaign trail, a campaign official confirmed to ABC News.
“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” the official said.
The dinner, which benefits Catholic Charities, is scheduled for Oct. 17. It has become a traditional stop on the presidential campaign trail, with both the Republican and Democratic nominees attending and delivering remarks full of roasts. In recent years, both nominees attended the gala, including in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. (The latter was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The official also added that Harris’ team informed the dinner’s organizers she would be absent, but was willing to attend in a later year as president.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Melania Trump to sit for her 1st interview of 2024 election cycle
Former first lady Melania Trump will sit down for her first interview of the 2024 election cycle with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt as she continues to promote her new book.
The interview is set to air on Thursday, Fox announced on Monday.
While Melania Trump has remained relatively quiet this campaign cycle, mainly appearing with the former president at closed-door events, she has been more active online recently as she launches her forthcoming memoir, “Melania.”
Her book is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump again says it’s too late for another debate amid challenges from Harris
Trump is again ruling out another debate against Harris, arguing it would be “a very bad thing” for the country.
“Well, I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, we’re good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin in a phone conversation that aired Monday morning.
Harris said over the weekend she accepted an offer from CNN for a debate on Oct. 23.
Her team has also noted that there have been presidential debates in years past in the final weeks before Election Day.
“The final 2020 debate was October 22,” the Harris campaign wrote on X. “The proposed CNN debate is October 23.”
Trump also debated Hillary Clinton for a third time around the same timeframe: Oct. 19, 2016.
Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls
A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.
Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.
In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.
Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.
