President-elect Trump announced a series of Cabinet picks as his Jan. 20 inauguration nears and Senate confirmation begins.

Trump nominated former Fox News contributor Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.

‘He will work alongside Harmeet K. Dhillon, a fellow Californian, and our incredible Nominee for United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Justice Department,’ Trump wrote. ‘Leo is a highly respected civil rights attorney and political analyst. He received his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has defended many high-profile cases throughout his incredibly successful career.

‘Leo will be a fantastic advocate for the American People, and ensure we will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ 

In an announcement Thursday evening, Trump revealed Christine Toretti as his pick for ambassador to Sweden. He said Toretti is an ‘incredible businesswoman, philanthropist, public servant, and RNC Committeewoman.’

‘She is Chairman of S&T Bancorp, and a former director of the Pittsburgh Federal Reserve Bank,’ Trump wrote. ‘Christine has been a tireless supporter of important causes as a Board Member of the International Medical Corps, former Chair of the Andy Warhol Museum, Director of the NCAA Foundation, founding Director of the Gettysburg Foundation, Trustee of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and Chair of the Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series in Pennsylvania, and the Dodie Londen Excellence in Public Service Series in Arizona.

‘Christine is one of fewer than sixty women who have received the Athena International Global Award.’

Trump also announced retired Army Capt. Sam Brown would serve as the next Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

‘Sam is an American HERO, a Purple Heart recipient, and successful businessman from Nevada, who has devoted his life to serving America,’ Trump said in the announcement. ‘He fearlessly proved his love for our Country in the Army, while leading Troops in battle in Afghanistan and, after being honorably retired as a Captain, helping our Veterans get access to emergency medications.
 
‘Sam will now continue his service to our Great Nation at the VA, where he will work tirelessly to ensure we put America’s Veterans FIRST, and remember ALL who served.’

The nominations come as Trump continues to round out picks for his Cabinet as Jan. 20 nears.

The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate will soon begin holding hearings for Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

Republicans will control the Senate with 53 seats to the Democrats’ 47 once Senator-elect Jim Justice of West Virginia is sworn in later in January and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appoints a senator to fill Vice President-elect Vance’s seat. 

President-elect Trump is hosting a group of Republican governors for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, Thursday evening.

The gathering comes a week and a half before the former and future president is inaugurated Jan. 20 and takes over the White House.

The meeting gives Trump a chance to speak with the GOP governors who will likely play an integral role in carrying out the Trump agenda in his second administration, including his push for mass deportation of immigrants with criminal records.

Among those attending the dinner are governors Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georiga, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Fox News confirmed.

DeSantis, a one-time Trump ally who clashed with the former president in 2023 and early last year during a contentious 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, mended relations a bit with the former president after the primary season. 

DeSantis endorsed Trump and helped raise money for the Republican nominee’s general election campaign.

Reynolds, the conservative two-term governor, drew Trump’s ire during the presidential primaries by endorsing DeSantis and serving as his top surrogate during the Iowa caucuses.

‘Excited to meet with President @realDonaldTrump tonight at Mar-a-Lago,’ Reynolds wrote in a social media post. ‘I stand ready to help enact his agenda of Making America Safe, Prosperous, and Great Again!’

Youngkin, who mulled a 2024 White House run of his own before deciding against it, teamed up with Trump a couple of times during the general election campaign.

Kemp, who in November took over as chair of the Republican Governors Association, was heavily criticized by Trump after refusing to help Trump overturn his razor-thin defeat to President Biden in Georgia in the 2020 election. And Trump urged, and then supported, a 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary challenge against Kemp by former Sen. David Purdue. But the former president toned down his criticism of the governor after Kemp crushed Perdue to easily win renomination on his way to re-election.

The two politicians appeared to patch up their differences in recent months, as Kemp supported Trump in the general election.

Politico was first to report on Trump’s dinner with the governors.

President-elect Donald Trump said he respects the Supreme Court’s decision to deny his request to stop his sentencing in New York v. Trump from moving forward, but said Thursday night he will appeal, while stressing that ‘lawfare’ has been an ‘attack on the Republican Party.’ 

Trump’s comments came just moments after the Supreme Court denied Trump’s emergency petition to block his sentencing from taking place on Friday, Jan. 10. The sentencing was scheduled by New York Judge Juan Merchan. 

Merchan, last week, said he would not sentence the president-elect to prison, but rather issue a sentence of an ‘unconditional discharge,’ which means there would be no punishment imposed. 

‘I’m the first president and probably one of the first candidates in history that’s under attack with a gag order where I’m not allowed to speak about something,’ Trump said during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago Thursday night with Republican governors. ‘This is a long way from finished and I respect the court’s opinion.’ 

Trump said he thought the court’s ruling was a ‘very good opinion for us,’ noting that the justices ‘invited the appeal.’ 

‘We’ll see how it all works out,’ he said. ‘I think it’s going to work out well.’ 

But Trump reflected on the ‘lawfare’ that he has been victim of, saying that it ‘was an attack on the Republican Party.’ 

‘This was an attack on the Republican candidate who just won an election by record numbers—the highest number of Republican votes by far ever gotten, and we won all the swing states, we won the popular vote by millions of people,’ he said. ‘They tried to stop that from happening—they tried to stop this election from happening or to bloody somebody up so badly they couldn’t win.’ 

Trump said that ‘the people got it and we won by the largest number.’ 

Trump filed an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in an effort to prevent his Jan. 10 sentencing, scheduled by Judge Juan Merchan, from taking place. 

‘The application for stay presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied for, inter alia, the following reasons. First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal,’ the order states. 

‘Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge’ after a brief virtual hearing,’ the court ruled. 

The order also noted that ‘Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would grant the application.’ 

Trump needed five votes in order to have his request granted. The note on the order suggests Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voted with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Katanji Brown Jackson. 

Trump’s sentencing is now expected to move forward, with the president-elect expected to appear virtually for the proceeding, scheduled for 9:30 am Friday. 

Merchan set Trump’s sentencing in New York v. Trump for Jan. 10 after a jury found the now-president-elect guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree, stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and has appealed the ruling but was rejected last week by Merchan. 

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Jan. 20. 

Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and repeatedly railed against it as an example of ‘lawfare’ promoted by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts ahead of November. 

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has issued blistering criticism of liberal megadonor George Soros in recent days after President Biden awarded the Hungarian-born progressive with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

‘A travesty that Biden is giving Soros the Medal of Freedom,’ Musk posted on X last week in response to news that the nation’s highest civilian honor would be presented to Soros, whose massive financial empire has been used all across the country to fund campaigns of progressive politicians, legislation, ballot measures and initiatives.

In another post, Musk wrote that Soros was a ‘genius’ when it came to arbitrage, finance or politics, but ‘I just wish he loved, rather than hated, humanity.’

‘George Soros’s hatred of humanity includes Israel btw,’ Musk posted on X referencing a news story with the headline, ‘Israeli ambassador to UN slams George Soros for funding Hamas-supporting NGOs: Report.’

Musk also posted a meme of Biden handing the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Emperor Palpatine from the ‘Star Wars’ film franchise and joked, ‘George Soros looking quite good here. Must be the lighting.’

In another post, Musk posted a screenshot from Soros’ website accusing him of spending ‘billions to create the fake asylum-seeker nightmare that is destroying America and Europe.’

On Thursday, Musk responded on X to a comment from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni where she said that Musk is ‘not a danger to Democracy’ but rather ‘George Soros is.’

‘And Soros is being defeated,’ Musk responded.

Soros, a mega-Democrat donor, runs a web of non-profits that bankroll various candidates around the world who align with his progressive agenda, including his Open Society Foundations. Soros has given over $32 billion to Open Society Foundations since 1984, according to its website. 

‘President Biden’s decision to award George Soros the Medal of Freedom is a slap in the face to the citizens and crime victims suffering under the policies and politicians he has promoted,’ Zack Smith, Heritage Foundation legal fellow and co-author of ‘Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities,’ recently told Fox News Digital.

‘Soros has been a major donor to far-left politicians and has promoted policies that undermine the rule of law in our country. Given Biden’s embrace of these policies and the funding Soros has provided, this looks like nothing more than an effort to reward and keep happy one of the Left’s major donors (and his family). It cheapens what should be a prestigious award and gives everyday Americans yet another reason to be disgusted by the current Administration’s actions.’

Soros has long been blamed by many experts and analysts for rising crime in major cities after his support of liberal district attorneys has pushed for a ‘reimagining’ of policing or policies like ending cash bail or lowering sentencing requirements.  

A dozen of the 25 Soros-linked district attorneys on the ballot in November were defeated or recalled, signaling a backlash against progressive policies that critics say are to blame for a surge in crime across the country in recent years.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Open Society Foundations for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman confirmed he will meet with President-elect Trump ahead of the former and upcoming president’s second inauguration on Jan. 20. 

‘President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted. I’m the senator for all Pennsylvanians – not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,’ Fetterman told Fox News on Thursday. 

‘I’ve been clear that no one is my gatekeeper. I will meet with and have a conversation with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation,’ he added. 

A source familiar with the meeting told Fox Digital it will take place over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. It will be the first known meeting between Trump and a sitting Democratic senator at Mar-a-Lago. 

Fetterman endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president during the 2024 election cycle but was one of the few Democrats who spoke publicly about Trump earning a strong showing of support among voters – most notably in his battleground home state of Pennsylvania. 

‘There’s a difference between not understanding, but also acknowledging that it exists,’ Fetterman told the New York Times in October of Trump’s support. ‘And anybody who spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing.’

In another interview ahead of the election, Fetterman acknowledged Pennsylvania voters shared a ‘connection’ with Trump before also launching expletives directed at Trump and mocking the former president’s campaign.

‘I’ve been saying this, whether it was Biden or then became Harris, I said it’s going to be very close. And Trump definitely has a connection with voters here in Pennsylvania, and that’s why it’s going to be close,’ Fetterman said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ in November ahead of Election Day. 

Trump ultimately won Pennsylvania, which served as a key state in him securing the election overall. Following the win, Fetterman said it was a ‘serious flex’ and chastised Democratic rhetoric ahead of the election that attempted to case Trump as a ‘fascist.’ 

‘I think this election was a serious flex for bros. And you know, it was strange that Democrats are like, ‘Oh, childless cat ladies. How dare you.’ OK, that is weird. I don’t know why [JD] Vance would say that – you can be pro-family without insulting people that choose not to have kids or are unable to have kids,’ Fetterman said.

‘I love people that are absolutely going to vote for Trump. They’re not fascists. They’re not those things. I think if you go to the tickle switch, use those kinds of terms, then it’s kind of hard to walk back on those things. That’s kind of a word that really isn’t part of the vernacular for voters. Scolding harder or clutching the pearls harder, that’s never going to work for Democrats,’ Fetterman said.

Special Counsel David Weiss is expected to release his final report on his years-long investigation into Hunter Biden as soon as next week, Fox News has learned. 

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony firearm offenses stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea. 

The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16, but his father, President Joe Biden, pardoned him on all charges in December. 

The federal investigation into Hunter Biden began in November 2018. 

But it wasn’t until 2023 that whistleblowers from the IRS, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, brought allegations of politicization in the federal probe of Hunter Biden to Congress. 

The two alleged that political influence had infected prosecutorial decisions in the federal probe, which was led by Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who they said had requested to become a special counsel. 

After Shapley and Ziegler testified publicly, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to continue his investigation of the first son and, ultimately, bring federal charges against him in two separate jurisdictions — Delaware and California. 

Justice Department regulations require Weiss to transmit any final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has pledged to release as much as possible to the public. 

The Justice Department and Special Counsel Weiss’ office declined to comment. 

Meanwhile, President Biden’s pardon of his son came after months of vowing to the American people that he would not do so. 

But on last month, the president announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden ‘has committed or may have committed’ from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. 

‘From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ Biden said. ‘There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.’

Biden added, ‘I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.’ 

The House passed legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court on Thursday in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

In one of the new Congress’ first acts, the bill passed 243-140, with 45 Democrats joining Republicans in support of it. 

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a swift vote to have it on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk by the time he takes office. 

Libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has not been afraid to break with his colleagues on Israel-related bills, questioned why the legislation was a week-one priority for the new congressional term. Massie was the only Republican ‘present’ vote – none opposed the legislation. 

‘The United States is a sovereign country, so I don’t assign any credibility to decisions of the International Criminal Court. But how did a bill to protect Netanyahu make it into the House rules package to be voted on immediately after the Speaker vote? Where are our priorities?!’ he wrote on X last week. 

The legislation was reintroduced by Texas Reps. Chip Roy, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, both Republicans. 

On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. All three Hamas leaders were killed in the past year. 

Netanyahu fired Gallant shortly after the U.S. presidential election. 

Khan’s application was unprecedented – the first time the criminal court had sought arrests for Western-allied officials. 

The judges on the ICC panel in November granted the warrants, finding that Netanyahu and Gallant had ‘committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others. The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.’ 

‘The ICC is an illegitimate body that has no business interfering with our sovereignty or that of our allies,’ said Roy. 

‘The ICC’s attempt to obstruct Israel’s right to defend itself has only prolonged the war and prevented the release of American hostages by boosting Hamas’ morale,’ Mast said in a statement. 

Israel has carried out a vicious campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Trump has warned both sides to wrap up the conflict, and Hamas to return the hostages by the time he takes office on Jan. 20. 

The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would sanction any foreigner working to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. citizens or those of an allied country. 

It spans the 32-member NATO security alliance and 19 major non-NATO countries, including Israel. 

It would also claw back any funds the U.S. has designated for the ICC and prohibit any future money from going to the court. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. When the legislation passed the House last during the Congress, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not take it up for a vote in the upper chamber. With Republicans in charge, Thune is intent on passing the legislation and getting it to the president’s desk by the time he is inaugurated. 

House Republicans on Thursday introduced a bill for the United States to repurchase the Panama Canal after President-elect Trump raised concerns that the critical waterway is under Chinese control. 

The bill, named the Panama Canal Repurchase Act, was introduced by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a member of the Select Committee on China and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. 

‘President Trump is right to consider repurchasing the Panama Canal,’ Johnson said in a statement. ‘China’s interest in and presence around the canal is a cause for concern. America must project strength abroad – owning and operating the Panama Canal might be an important step towards a stronger America and a more secure globe.’

The bill has 15 other Republican co-sponsors: Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Randy Weber, Troy Nehls and Brian Babin of Texas; Mike Collins, Barry Loudermilk and Andrew Clyde of Georgia; Barry Moore of Alabama; Jack Bergman of Michigan; Mike Rulli of Ohio; Neal Dunn and Aaron Bean of Florida; Erin Houchin of Indiana; Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona; and Mike Lawler of New York. 

If it becomes law, the bill would give the president authority to act in coordination with the secretary of state, to ‘initiate and conduct negotiations with appropriate counterparts of the Government of the Republic of Panama to reacquire the Panama Canal.’

From the date the measure is enacted, the president has 180 days to submit a report to Congress detailing the progress of the negotiations, potential challenges and anticipated outcomes.

The U.S. Department of State estimates around 72% of all vessels that travel through the Panama Canal are coming from or going to a U.S. port. 

Noting the canal’s strategic importance to the United States, Johnson’s office also noted how the waterway is a key transit point for U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Defense vessels. 

Without access to the canal, ships would be forced to travel 8,000 additional miles around South America. 

‘More than 10,000 ships use the Panama Canal each year, generating billions of dollars of tolls which would economically benefit America,’ Johnson’s office said. 

At a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Trump was asked if he would assure the world he would not use ‘military or economic coercion’ to gain control of the Panama Canal, as well as Greenland. 

‘No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But, I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,’ Trump said. ‘Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China. China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China. And they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made.’ 

The Panamanian government has denied that China is controlling the Panama Canal, which the United States relinquished on the last day of 1999 under a treaty negotiated decades before by the late former President Jimmy Carter. 

Johnson’s office referenced China’s growing influence in the region around the Panama Canal. 

‘In 2018, Panama was the first country in Latin America to join the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Belt and Road Initiative, and investments from PRC firms in canal infrastructure has only increased since. Further, PRC companies have managing rights for the two ports on either side of the canal,’ the congressman’s office wrote. 

Two seaports on either side of the Panama Canal have been run for decades by the Hong-Kong-based company Hutchison Ports PPC, the New York Times reported. 

The newspaper highlighted how the Chinese government has increasingly implemented its national security laws on the island of Hong Kong that can force companies to comply with intelligence-gathering and military operations. 

President-elect Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence shook hands at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday in their first public interaction in four years.

Pence was seen standing up to shake Trump’s hand as the former president arrived inside Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral for the funeral. After the two acknowledged each other and appeared to say a few words, Pence shook the hand of former First Lady Melania Trump.

Former Second Lady Karen Pence, who was seated next to her husband, did not stand up, shake Trump’s hand, nor did she appear to acknowledge him.

Trump and Pence have not been seen publicly together since the two left the White House on rocky terms four years ago after not seeing eye to eye on the results of the presidential election and what legal recourse Trump had to contest it. 

Pence briefly ran unsuccessfully for president against Trump in the 2024 presidential primary — dropping out in Oct. 2023 — and did not endorse Trump at any point leading up to the November election. 

The two have publicly criticized each other over the past few years, including in 2023 when Trump called Pence ‘delusional’ and the former vice president said last year he could not ‘in good conscience’ endorse Trump.

All five living men who once occupied the White House — the so-called presidents’ club — President Biden and former presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and Trump were in the same room on Thursday for the first time since the 2018 funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.

Former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Al Gore were also in attendance. 

Following the funeral, Carter’s remains will be flown to Georgia by the U.S. Air Force aboard Special Air Mission 39 for a private ceremony in his hometown of Plains.

Carter, the 39th president, died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100 after he was admitted to hospice care in 2023.