Trump news live: Betting odds reveal Cabinet pick least likely to be confirmed after Matt Gaetz withdrawal

Donald Trump’s second term as president is being shaped by the loyal allies who stood by him during his four years outside the White House.

As the clock ticks down to his inauguration on January 20, all eyes will be on Mar-a-Lago as Republicans jostle for a cabinet spot or a senior role in the West Wing.

And those are filling fast. A slew of potential appointees have emerged for top Cabinet or West Wing roles and a handful of contenders for other vital positions have emerged.

He has also nominated former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who infuriated critics with claims about ‘biolabs’ in Ukraine, to be Director of National Intelligence.

Joe Biden broke down in tears as Jill hailed her ‘husband and hero’ during the president’s final farewell dinner at the White House, but there were no signs of Kamala Harris.

The outgoing US President was overcome with emotion as the First Lady paid tribute to his decades of service during a party on the South Lawn thanking Democrat supporters and donors.

On Friday evening, Jill praised her husband’s 40 years of service, including his last four years as the President of the United States.

‘What I’ve watched you do for more than 40 years is extraordinary… Joe what you’ve done the last four years is breathtaking,’ the First Lady said, as Biden wiped a tear from his cheek.

After Biden reached for a tissue from his pocket, his wife raised a glass, toasting to: ‘My husband and hero, Joe Biden,’ before the pair shared a kiss on the podium.

The president then took to center stage for his speech, cracking a joke while urging guests and supporters: ‘If you have a seat, please take it. Don’t jump in the pool!’

‘Jill and I are hosting this dinner tonight for a very simple reason to say thank you. Thank you to so many dear friends,’ he continued.

‘We began this journey to redeem the soul of the nation and define the light in the darkness. And I never could have gotten to where the White House has become without you and we never could have gotten as much done as we did without you. And that’s not hyperbole. I mean it from the bottom of my heart.’

Vice President Kamala Harris is now in Hawaii enjoying a long vacation after her dramatic defeat by President-elect Donald Trump.

But political insiders who know her say she will already be thinking about a potential return to the campaign trail.

‘Of course she’s going to try and run again,’ one well-connected Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com, citing Harris’ ambition as a factor.

It means her devastating loss to Trump may not be the end of her political career.

Indeed, polls show Harris is the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

She leads with 41 percent of Democrats in a Puck News/Echelon Insights survey, while other possible candidates remain in single digits.

However, the poll also showed that 59 percent of Democrats would like to look beyond Harris when searching for a champion to lead them out of the political wilderness.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff are scheduled to return to the continental U.S. from Hawaii today.

The couple has spent the past week vacationing on the big island.

They will spend the Thanksgiving holiday in San Francisco.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Harris’ down time last week in her briefing.

‘The vice president has taken time off to go spend time with her family. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I think she deserves some time to be with her family and to have some down time,’ Jean-Pierre said.

‘She has worked very hard over the last four years, and her taking a couple of days to be with her family — good for her,’ she added and then ended her briefing.

President Joe Biden and his family will spend their Thanksgiving on Nantucket.

Barron Trump, the youngest son of Donald and Melania, has returned home to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday and was seen dining alongside his parents at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night.

The Florida compound has been Trump’s primary residence since leaving the White House in January 2021 but has recently been the backdrop to several high-profile gatherings following Trump’s presidential win earlier this month.

In the footage shot on Saturday night, Barron could be seen eating out on the patio alongside other club regulars as he was sat next to his father who was wearing a navy blue suit and blue tie, while his mother was dressed in an all-white ensemble.

Melania’s father, Viktor Knavs, Barron’s grandfather, was also seen dining alongside the Trumps.

The private members club looked bustling as the tables appeared to be full of diners with the venue becoming the hottest venue in town since Trump’s historic win.

Despite temperatures in Palm Beach being in the low 70s, the gas heaters had been fired up to keep everyone warm under the yellow and white awning.

Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai has taken to TikTok to perform his iconic YMCA dance on board his private jet.

In a brief 14 second TikTok video, Kai alongside her friend Emma Markin performed her grandpa’s signature dance moves, moving her arms from side to side and displaying a thumbs up.

‘Learned these moves from the best’, Kai wrote.

The dance took place in the luxurious surroundings of Trumps Boeing 757 private jet complete with varnished walnut interiors, and golden tasseled cushions sitting on a comfy-looking couch.

Kai, Trump’s eldest grandchild, has been garnering a lot of attention on social media and has quickly racked up 1.2 million followers ever since she appeared on stage at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July of this year – and helping him connect with younger voters.

‘To me, he’s just a normal grandpa,’ Kai said during her speech. ‘He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking. He always wants to know how we’re doing in school.’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is under fire after being accused of holding therapy ‘cry sessions’ for department staffers upset over Donald Trump’s election victory.

Blinken, who is expected to be replaced by Marco Rubio in January, has frequently clashed with the Republican-controlled Congress, being held in contempt in September for skipping a hearing on the disastrous exit from Afghanistan.

California Congressman and Trump ally Darrell Issa wrote an open letter to Blinken smashing the State Department for the rumored counseling sessions over Trump’s win, calling them ‘disturbing.’

Reports of the meetings first came out November 11, when a memo to department employees titled ‘managing stress during change’ was sent out less than a week after Trump’s victory.

Sources told the Washington Free Beacon the meetings amounted to a ‘cry session’ for bereft liberal staffers.

Issa wrote to Blinken this week: ‘I am concerned that the Department is catering to federal employees who are personally devastated by the normal functioning of American democracy through the provision of government-funded mental health counseling because Kamala Harris was not elected President of the United States.’

Democratic allies of Joe Biden plotted a secret harassment campaign to keep a third-party challenger out of the 2024 election in order to ensure his victory, even as polls showed voters wanted another option and there were concerns about the president’s health.

Their plan included ‘bird dogging’ members of Congress who would support such an option by sending activists to confront them at their offices.

It also details a target harassment campaign against No Labels founder Nancy Jacobson and her husband, Mark Penn, a longtime Democratic operative. The plan was to send clowns to block their Georgetown home and drive their neighbors crazy with early morning noise.

No Labels – which Penn is not a part of – was running a $70 million effort to field an alternative presidential candidate and get a third-party line on state ballots. But the centrist group dropped its efforts after Biden’s allies damaged their ability to recruit a contender.

No Labels is now fighting back in federal court and public documents show an incredible proposal from Democrat strategists to clear the way for Biden to win a second term, using techniques straight out of a spy novel.

‘Everyone loves a good wake up action- especially the neighbors,’ the email read. ‘For this, we’d show up at 6am with a truck carrying musical performers and activists marching and chanting. It usually lasts for an hour. We can hire getty to get the event on the wire,’ a Democratic strategist wrote in emails exchanged between various people involved with efforts to oppose No Labels.

Marjorie Taylor Greene laid out her plans for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which include taking on so-called Sanctuary States and Cities.

The Georgia Congresswoman and fierce Trump ally will soon have a new powerful job assisting the Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy-led department.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer plans to create a Congressional subcommittee chaired by Greene.

She outlined what some of her work may involve in an interview on Sunday and said first on her list will be to make the mayors and governors of areas harboring illegal migrants sing for their supper.

‘I’d like to talk to the governors of sanctuary states and the mayors of sanctuary cities and have them come before our committee and explain why they deserve federal dollars if they’re going to harbor illegal criminal aliens in their states and their cities,’ she told Fox News.

Trump has promised to declare a national emergency and use the military to deport millions of illegal immigrants from America.

Mayors of cities like Boston and Denver have promised to defy the order which will likely get them a front row seat with Greene.

A Fox News contributor making a personal admission that swayed her opinion about Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense by Donald Trump, .

Leslie Marshall, a Democrat strategist and radio talk host, opened up about her experience as a rape victim while coming out in opposition to Hegseth’s nomination.

Hegseth, an ex-Fox News anchor, was accused of sexual assault in 2017. He has denied the accusation, though his attorney has admitted to paying off the accuser to keep her from going public.

Marshall appeared on the network Sunday and said that she had to oppose Hegseth despite liking him ‘as a person.’

‘I dreaded talking about this today. I met Pete a long time ago. We spent, middle of the night, waiting to go on during 2016, before the election, and I like him as a person,’ she said.

Marshall added: ‘I am a rape victim, and I can tell you there’s a reason one in 10 rapes go unreported, and it’s very difficult for a woman to go in and have a rape kit done. It’s physically, mentally, and emotionally very difficult to go through that process, as I have.’

President elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order on his ‘first day in office’ to ban transgender members of the military.

The controversial order would cause as many as 15,000 active service members to be ‘medically discharged’ – deeming them unfit to serve, according to The Times.

Trump seeks to issue the executive action on January 20, 2025 or Day 1 of his term, the Times said, preventing any transgender people from enlisting in the military as all branches continue to struggle with recruitment.

The 78-year-old former president has nominated former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense and has pledged to purge all government agencies of ‘woke’ policies.

In a podcast interview recently, Hegseth called the inclusion of transgender people in the service ‘pushing boundaries.’

He suggested that you can’t integrate trans people in as easily as people of different races were integrated ‘because being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences.”

Hegseth also said that transgender people were ‘not deployable’ because they are ‘reliant on chemicals.’

DailyMail.com has reached out to spokepersons for Trump for comment.