America Weekly
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US Politics Weekly
The United States political scene has been busy since the presidential election early in the month. Since Donald Trump’s landslide win, the president-elect has been appointing his cabinet ahead of taking office in January.
Trump has already appointed some high-profile names and has even carved out a role for tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Everything has gone a little quiet on the Democratic side. The party are still trying to understand how it went so horribly wrong for them.
It’s been a week of finger-pointing with everyone from Joe Biden to George Clooney being blamed for the loss.
There’s a lot of anger since news that the Harris campaign spent $1 billion during the campaign as well as questions over whether Oprah Winfrey was paid to endorse Kamala Harris.
The blame game will likely pick back up again as the GOP looks on course to win both chambers of Congress. If so, Trump’s presidential win, coupled with Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress (Senate and House of Representatives), will likely mean Trump will be able to easily enact his legislative agenda.
“Donald, congratulations … Welcome, welcome back”
Joe Biden
Republican Party must know
Republicans win house giving them full control of government
Republicans have officially won control of the US House of Representatives, securing the 218 seats needed for a majority. Alongside victories in the Senate and Donald Trump’s return to the White House as president-elect, the GOP now holds full control of the federal government.
Elon Musk hired! Billionaire to co-lead Trump’s new ‘government efficiency’ body
Billionaire Elon Musk has been tapped by Donald Trump to co-lead a new body aimed at overhauling government operations. The body dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency (or “Doge” for short, a nod to the cryptocurrency Musk famously supports), aims to streamline bureaucracy and cut federal spending. Trump described the organisation as an external advisory body working alongside the White House and the Office of Management and Budget.
Republicans win Senate
The Republican Party has secured control of the U.S. Senate, flipping key seats in West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana. With these wins, Republicans are guaranteed at least 52 of the Senate’s 100 seats, though a few races remain undecided. In West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice won the seat previously held by Democrat Joe Manchin. In Ohio, Bernie Moreno defeated incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown, and in Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy unseated long-serving Democrat Jon Tester.
US Treasury yields jump and Bitcoin hits record as Trump wins election
US Treasury yields jumped and Bitcoin surged to a new record as markets reacted to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Republicans have taken back control of the Senate, while Trump is due to return to the White House after winning the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania.
Trump wins Arizona, sweeping all seven battleground states
Donald Trump has won the presidential election in Arizona, Edison Research projected on Saturday, completing a sweep of all seven battleground states and locking in a decisive Electoral College victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican Trump, who had secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House by early on Wednesday, now has what is expected to be a final total of 312 votes to Harris’ 226.
A look at the week’s headlines on the front pages of the USA newspapers.
Democratic party highlights
It’s been a tough week …
Trump’s win has been described as resounding. It was closer than you think
While media members and political experts are labeling Trump’s win sweeping, Harris lost the election by less than a million votes in the key swing states. If those votes went her way, she’d be the president-elect today even without winning the popular vote.
Democrats blame George Clooney for Trump’s election win
George Clooney is the unlikely scapegoat of election backlash after he called for Joe Biden to resign from the US presidential election months ago. The actor, 63, wrote a viral op-ed for the New York Times in July where he directly called for Biden to step down from his candidacy in order to give the Democrats a shot at the election. Now, some disappointed voters are pointing fingers at Clooney, accusing him of influencing the election negatively.
Harris’s campaign rack up a debt despite record fundraising
It was a record-breaking fundraising campaign: Vice President Kamala Harris raised more than $1bn in less than four months, during which she strove to win the US presidency after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July. Now, as the dust settles on her failed bid, following her November 5 defeat to Donald Trump, a storm threatens to kick off over those very finances, after a Democratic National Convention (DNC) official declared that the Harris campaign was $20m in debt.
Kamala Harris ditched Joe Rogan podcast interview over progressive backlash fears
Kamala Harris’s fears of a progressive backlash killed a plan for her to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, a campaign official has said, shedding light on a decision that infuriated some Democrats who are reeling after Donald Trump’s election victory. The Harris campaign and Rogan, whose audience is bigger than that of many television networks, had discussed an interview for his podcast — a move some Democrats hoped would help Harris reach young men who were gravitating towards Trump.