Donald Trump will begin choosing allies for top government jobs “in the days and weeks ahead”, the team leading his transition to power said.
Around 4,000 government positions need to be filled, which includes appointing the next secretary of state and heads of cabinet departments.
Trump has previously pledged to put Elon Musk in charge of a government efficiency drive, with Fox News suggesting in October that the SpaceX owner could serve as the “secretary of cost cutting”.
Mr Musk has referred to the potential drive as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, which is the name of a meme and a Musk-backed cryptocurrency.
Senator Marco Rubio, who was a finalist to become Trump’s running mate, is understood to be in the running for the secretary of state job.
Billionaire investor John Paulson and economic advisor Scott Bessent, who donated $1 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, are believed to be under consideration for treasury secretary.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination for president, is expected to join the cabinet, US media said.
Reports also said that Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has been sceptical of vaccines and fluoride in tap water, is also being lined up for a position overseeing health and food safety.
Biden breaks silence on Harris’s
defeat
Joe Biden has broken his silence on Kamala Harris’s landslide defeat, insisting selecting her as his vice-president was “the best decision I made”.
The president praised the Democratic nominee for her “integrity” and “courage”.
“What America saw today was the Kamala Harris I know and deeply admire. She’s been a tremendous partner and public servant full of integrity, courage and character,” Mr Biden said in a statement after Ms Harris’s concession speech.
Watch: US talk show host tears
up at ‘terrible night’ for America
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel became visibly emotional during the opening monologue of his US chat show on Wednesday night, describing Donald Trump’s election victory as a “terrible night”.
Visibly distraught and struggling to hold back tears, Mr Kimmel said: “It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech.
“It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on social security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO, for the truth, and democracy and decency,” he added.
Mr Kimmel went on to say that it was a “really good night” for Vladimir Putin and “all the wriggling brain worms who sold what was left of their souls to bow down to Donald Trump”.
Australia’s ambassador to US
deletes posts calling ‘destructive’
Trump a ‘traitor’
Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd and prime minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday became the latest in a list of high-profile figures to distance themselves from disparaging remarks made about Trump, with the ambassador’s office scrubbing posts from his social media and website to “eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued”.
Dr Rudd’s now-deleted posts included one from 2020 in which he described Trump as “the most destructive president in history”.
Xi Jinping congratulates Trump
on election victory, Chinese
media says
Chinese president Xi Jinping called Donald Trump to congratulate him on his election victory, Chinese state-run media said.
Xi is reported to have told Donald Trump that a healthy and sustainable relationship between the US and China was in the interest of both countries.
Han Zheng, China’s vice president, also called vice president-elect JD Vance to congratulate him, the report said.
