Trump hints Canada could become 51st state as Musk expresses doubt over speaker: Live

Election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell is being dragged into court by a merchant cash advance firm that accuses the MyPillow CEO of ducking out on nearly $1.5m in outstanding debt.

Justin Rohrlich has more.

Muriel Bowser had this to say about her latest encounter with the president-elect ahead of his inauguration next month:

The duo first met in late 2016 to discuss Trump’s last swearing-in and started out on friendly terms, until falling out badly over the policing of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Washington in response to the killing of George Floyd in summer 2020 and then the Capitol riot six months later.

Speaking of which, US attorney Matthew Graves, the chief federal prosecutor charged with taking action against the pro-Trump insurrectionists, announced yesterday that he will be stepping down on January 16, four days before the Republican is sworn-in once again.

Here’s Alex Woodward again with a look at some of the most notorious January 6 defendants that Trump could now pardon when he returns to the White House.

Almost 50 percent of conservatives believe the US military should be used to detain undocumented immigrants in camps until they can be deported, according to polling from the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute.

Trump has already suggested that his administration would deploy the Armed Forces for what he is calling the “largest mass deportation operation” in American history.

He also has vowed to invoke a 226-year-old law to detain immigrants in camps.

The poll shows that Trump’s base appears to support the plans, even as most Americans likely oppose them.

Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.

Tom Homan, the former acting director of  has been Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tapped by Trump to lead the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, has hit back at Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett after she said he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Crockett warned MSNBC on Saturday that the plan would see the separation of families in her state and many others and result in people being held in encampments.

Homan took to Newsmax last night to dismiss her criticism.

“So, look, I don’t know who this lady is,” he said.

“I don’t care about what they say about Tom Homan, because I’ve done this job for a long time.”

He added that Trump has been given a mandate by the electorate to fix the border and save lives and denounced the Biden administration’s policies on immigration and border security.

“President Trump is going to secure this border and save lives just not of Americans, but of aliens, too,” Homan said.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, the czar said he plans to reinstate policies that will hold families in detention centers, a point Crockett cited in her interview with MSNBC.

“All of a sudden, the discussion goes from family detention to family separation,” Homan responded.

“Family detention is the complete opposite of family separation.”

With all of that in mind, here’s Alex Woodward with a look at what steps Trump plans to take to tackle the issue when he enters office on January 20.

The president-elect’s comprehensive election win over Kamala Harris on November 5 inspired the world’s biggest digital currency to record highs, with investors excited by the prospect of a crypto-friendly commander-in-chief.

But the digital asset wavered at $92,556 in London at 6.44am this morning, according to Bloomberg, which is about $15,700 below the record high it set in mid-December.

Smaller rivals like Ether and Dogecoin, a favorite with the memestock crowd, also struggled for energy.

Trump’s support for more favorable regulations and a national Bitcoin reserve lifted digital assets considerably in response to the election but scaled-back expectations for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve have cooled that frenzy of late.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss has actually been getting closer and closer to the president-elect, quite literally.

The far-right activist, very much on Steve Bannon’s side in the spat over immigrant visas, gave an interview to conservative host Eric Bolling’s YouTube show yesterday in which she attacked Elon Musk’s influence over Trump, saying he had made “junkies” of the right with his generous donations to the cause.

“This is the problem when you allow a billionaire to make a $200m donation,” she told Bolling.

“And so maybe we really do need to have campaign finance regulations in this country. I mean, essentially, what is happening – and I love President Trump, I’m not saying that President Trump is bought and paid for – but it sounds like people are scared of crossing the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch. OK?

“Nobody wants to cross this guy, the richest man in the world who controls access to social media, the digital town square and is now basically has everybody in a codependent abusive relationship like they’re a bunch of junkies.

“Because he’s been able to monetize the platform so that all the conservatives using his platform are essentially addicted. They’re a bunch of addicts now. Addicted to social media because their voices were silenced for so long. And it’s like cutting a junkie off cold turkey, OK.

“You’re going to go crazy and you’re going to have withdrawals. And he understands now that he’s created this codependent, junkie versus supplier relationship where if you question or if you try to criticize Elon Musk, you will be demonetized.”

Here’s Mary Papenfuss with more on Loomer.

The president-elect’s influential new friend has expressed doubt about the current speaker of the House of Representatives as he seeks re-election later this week.

The Big Tech boss responded to an X post by Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie, in which the latter warned against allowing Mike Johnson to hang on to the gavel given that the GOP had already witnessed him “partner with the Democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget”.

“You might be right, but let’s see how it goes,” Musk told Massie, undermining Trump’s call for party unity issued just yesterday.

Speaking of Johnson, Republican congressmen Jeff Van Drew and Thomas Burchett have been making fools of themselves attempting (rather tentatively) to support him on Fox.

Since posting a full-throated endorsement of Mike Johnson’s candidacy for the House speakership yesterday, Donald Trump has been busy reposting titbits of media coverage favorable to his interests on Truth Social.

Among these were articles from conservative news sites promoting the prospect of his administration entering negotiations with Canada about becoming America’s 51st state (!) and acquiring Greenland, the president-elect seemingly floating these outre ideas to his supporters to see how they take.

Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary, for one, is all for the annexation of his homeland and has been busy talking up the prospect with Trump’s former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News.

Also on Truth Social, the president-elect has been getting revenge on Joe Biden for calling on him to learn some “decency” from the late Jimmy Carter by recirculating old pictures of his son Hunter meeting with Chinese business executives and Xi Jinping, alleging in the interest of influence peddling, for which Trump offers no evidence.

Last week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to block a federal law’s imminent ban on TikTok in the United States if the popular app’s Chinese parent company doesn’t sell it by next month’s deadline.

Here’s what Trump’s legal team told the court — and what happens next: