US election updates: Trump reportedly looks to China hawks for key security and foreign policy roles | US election 2024

Donald Trump is reportedly soliciting politicians with hardline positions on China for key roles in his incoming cabinet. The US president-elect has asked US Representative Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, multiple outlets reported, while the New York Times and Reuters said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was the favorite for secretary of state.

Waltz is also on the Republican China task force and is considered hawkish — advocating a more aggressive foreign policy — when it comes to China. He called for an American boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to what he called the “suppression” of information about the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan and its ongoing mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority population.

Rubio is a top China hawk in the Senate. Most notably, he urged the Treasury Department in 2019 to launch a national security review of popular Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. As the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he demanded that the Biden administration block all sales to Huawei earlier this year after the sanctioned Chinese tech company released a new laptop powered by an Intel AI processor chip.

During the campaign, Trump promised to impose tariffs of 60% on all Chinese imports, which could affect $500 billion worth of goods.

Here’s what else happened on Tuesday:

• Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, says the former New York congressman and gubernatorial candidate will focus on cutting regulations. Trump, who oversaw the rollback of more than 100 environmental regulations when he was last US president, said Zeldin was a “true fighter for America First policies” and that “he will ensure fair and swift deregulation decisions.”

• Trump confirmed New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik will be nominated as US ambassador to the United Nations in his administration. “She will be an incredible ambassador for the United Nations, delivering peace through strength and America First National Security policies!” Trump said in a statement. He also pointed to her efforts against anti-Semitism on college campuses amid the war on Gaza.

• Trump has reportedly tapped longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, to be deputy director of policy in his new administration. Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration. Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union.

• Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin is reportedly under consideration for a position to lead the Department of the Interior or Veterans Affairs in the Trump administration.

• Axios reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy, Ron Dermer, met Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, and that Dermer also met Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

• Kamala Harris made her first public appearance since her concession speech at a Veterans Day ceremony. The deputy chairman did not speak at the event.

• Democrat Cleo Fields has won Louisiana’s congressional race in a recently redrawn second majority-Black district. That turns a once reliably Republican seat blue, according to the Associated Press.

• Juan Merchan, the judge in Trump’s business fraud trial in New York, where he was convicted of 34 felonies earlier this year, will decide on Tuesday whether to overturn the conviction. This is reported by Reuters. The case is the only one of Trump’s four criminal charges to reach a verdict, and Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26 — though now that he’s on his way back to the White House, it’s unclear whether happen.