The Latest: Trump taps SC Rep. Mulvaney to run budget office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times local):
8:55 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney as his budget director, naming a tough-on-spending conservative and an advocate of balancing the federal budget to the important post.
An official on Trump’s transition team, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter before it is officially announced, confirmed Trump’s pick Friday evening.
Mulvaney, 49, was elected in the 2010 tea party wave and is a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, whose members pushed former Speaker John Boehner from power and have caused heartburn for current Speaker Paul Ryan.
As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney would be responsible for crafting Trump’s budget and overseeing the issuance of major regulations.
Mulvaney’s nomination would require Senate confirmation.
— By Andrew Taylor and Jonathan Lemire
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6:45 p.m.
One of President-elect Donald Trump’s top campaign advisers is moving forward with plans to form a nonprofit group that will support the Republican’s agenda in the White House.
The group is being formed with the backing of Trump and his family, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.
Brad Parscale, who steered the campaign’s data and digital operations, is leading the effort. Parscale confirmed his involvement to The Associated Press, saying the group will be “about supporting the conservative agenda and what the Trump movement stands for.”
The approach follows a model used by President Barack Obama, whose political advisers ran the group Organizing for Action.
— By Julie Bykowicz and Julie Pace
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1:35 p.m.
An Indiana union leader says a manufacturer criticized by President-elect Donald Trump for its plans to move jobs at its Indianapolis plant to Mexico has reached a severance agreement with the plant’s workers.
United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones said Friday that Milwaukee-based Rexnord and the union local had reached an agreement that “provides some certainty and benefits” to 300 workers who will lose their jobs at the Indianapolis bearings plant.
Rexnord’s facility is near Carrier Corp., which Trump criticized during his election campaign for moving jobs to Mexico. Trump later touted a deal to save hundreds of those jobs in exchange for about $7 million in state tax breaks and grants.
Trump later took to Twitter to rip Rexnord’s plans to move to Mexico. Jones says he has no knowledge of any direct talks between Trump and Rexnord.
Rexnord officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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1: 10 p.m.
Three protesters who sued Donald Trump claiming they were assaulted at one of his campaign rallies are asking the president-elect to sit for a deposition before he takes office next month.
Trump’s attorney says he intends to “oppose any efforts to dispose the president-elect.”
The protesters sued Trump this spring alleging they were assaulted at a March rally in Louisville, Kentucky, after Trump “incited a riot” by repeatedly shouting “get ‘em out.”
Trump’s attorney, R. Kent Westberry, filed a motion requesting the suit be dismissed. A federal judge must first rule on that issue before deciding whether Trump should be deposed.
Greg Belzley, a lawyer representing the protesters, said they asked the judge to consider a deposition before Trump “assumes the burden of the presidency.”
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12:55 p.m.
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is defending the nation’s intelligence officers amid dispute over the CIA’s conclusion that Russian hacks were aimed at helping Donald Trump win the election.
Trump himself has disputed the conclusion, calling it “ridiculous.” He has also refused daily intelligence briefings.
Without alluding specifically to those controversies, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina says in a statement Friday that the nation’s intelligence professionals “check politics at the office door and focus on their mission. They are tasked with keeping our nation’s leaders well-informed about events around the world.”
“We would all do well to remember the sacrifices they make on our behalf,” Burr added.
Burr also discussed plans for his committee to investigate Russian hacking efforts, as previously announced by Senate leaders.
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12:15 p.m.
President Barack Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough will have lunch Friday with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
McDonough has invited Priebus to dine at the White House along with former White House chiefs of staff. The White House says the lunch is similar to a meeting that former President George W. Bush’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, held to welcome Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama’s first chief of staff.
Emanuel is among those invited on Friday, as are former Obama chiefs Bill Daley and Jacob Lew, who now serves as Treasury secretary. Others invited to attend include former Bush chiefs Bolten and Andy Card, as well as John Podesta, who chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign and was chief of staff to Bill Clinton.
So are Samuel Skinner from George H.W. Bush’s administration, Ken Duberstein from Ronald Reagan’s administration and Jack Watson from Jimmy Carter’s administration.
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3 a.m.
Donald Trump’s barnstorming tour across the states that won him the White House continues to feature far more taunts of triumph than notes of healing after a bruising election.
Thursday’s rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, found the president-elect calling for the mostly white crowd to cheer for African-Americans who were “smart” to heed his message and therefore “didn’t come out to vote” for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
Trump said: “That was the big thing, so thank you to the African-American community.”
Trump’s victory lap continues Friday night with an event in Orlando, Florida, then wraps up Saturday in Mobile, Alabama.