Trump taps podcaster for AI ‘czar’ as Biden considers blanket pardons before transition: Live

Donald Trump has selected former senator David Perdue to serve as the US ambassador to China amid escalating military and trade tensions.

The president-elect said the former senator from Georgia “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China”.

Mr Perdue, who lived in Hong Kong during a 40-year career as a business executive, will be “instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain peace in the region and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders”, Trump added.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar has the full story.

President Joe Biden, who granted clemency to his son Hunter last week, is said to be mulling preemptive pardons for US officials who are perceived to be at risk ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.

The move would hope to shield Trump dissenters from potential retribution after the president-elect has repeatedly vowed to take revenge against those who have opposed him, according to CBS.

No specific names have been formally recommended to Biden, despite reports that the president debated the possibility of issuing the pardons with senior White House aides.

Donald Trump has tapped a podcaster to be his artificial intelligence and crypto czar, marking the latest Elon Musk ally to be picked for the president-elect’s next administration.

David Sacks, host of the All-In podcast and former Paypal chief who worked with Musk for more than two decades, has been nominated for the newly-created role as AI and crypto regulation are “critical” areas for the incoming commander-in-chief.

“David has the knowledge, business experience, intelligence and pragmatism to MAKE AMERICA GREAT in these two critical technologies,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the US.”

The think tank behind Project 2025, the conservative blueprint linked to President-elect Donald Trump, is launching an effort to back Trump’s imperiled selection for secretary of defense in its latest attempt to wield influence in the incoming Republican administration.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Thursday that his group will spend $1 million to pressure senators unwilling to back Pete Hegseth, whose nomination to lead the Pentagon has come into question due to his views on women serving in combat and reports about his personal behavior.

“We certainly hope” to slash the number of federal agencies from 428 to 99, as Musk has vowed, Johnson said in response to a question from Fox News host Martha McCallum in an interview Wednesday night. “We want to be willing partners in that,” he added.

Amid a slew of damning allegations about Pete Hegseth’s excessive drinking and sexual impropriety, Hegseth’s friends at Fox News are publicly pushing back on the claims while urging Republicans to push through the ex-Fox & Friends host’s nomination for defense secretary.

Justin Barangoa has the story.

Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas — who was displaying a blown-up image of Rowe behind Trump, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at Ground Zero in Manhattan during a 9/11 memorial this year — at first accused Rowe of putting the president’s detail out of position so he could stand behind him.

It was then that things got heated, as Alex Woodward reports.

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough was absolutely apoplectic on Thursday over a column written by The Atlantic’s David Frum, opening the show with a 22-minute tirade over Frum’s complaint about the program apologizing for a “flippant” joke about Fox News.

Besides directly addressing Frum’s column, which featured the conservative pundit alleging that Morning Joe was displaying “fear” in the face of a new Trump administration, Scarborough and co-host/wife Mika Brzezinski also took the opportunity to lash out at critics of their recent fence-mending visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Justin Barangoa has the story.

Rhian Lubin has the story.