Washington views every presidential inauguration as different from the previous one, but Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump will really stand out. VOA Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti explains. Cameras: Adam Greenbaum, Carolyn Presutti. …
Leave a commentwashington — Washington has been bracing for lots of things this week, including several more days of frigid temperatures and hordes of people and police for the presidential inauguration and related protests around the city next week. Officials said this week that they expected about 250,000 ticketed people to descend on the U.S. capital as Donald Trump takes the oath of office as president again. He last served from 2017 to 2021. Fewer visitors are expected for next Monday’s ceremony than were present at Trump’s first inauguration, local and federal officials said at a press conference. In 2017, they prepared formore
Leave a commentPamela Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to become attorney general, faced more questions from U.S. senators Thursday. Witnesses testified to her character and integrity to serve in one of the nation’s most critical positions. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports. …
Leave a commentPresident-elect Donald Trump’s choice to serve as secretary of state faced questioning from lawmakers Wednesday. Republican Marco Rubio told senators that if confirmed he would make U.S. national interest a priority. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reportss from Capitol Hill. …
Leave a commentDonald Trump will be sworn in January 20 as the only U.S. president with felony convictions, and this week saw a flurry of activity over the court cases still open against him. On Friday, a New York judge is to sentence Trump in one case. VOA Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti reports. …
Leave a commentwashington — Republican Vice President-elect JD Vance said Thursday that he would resign from his U.S. Senate seat from Ohio at midnight ahead of his inauguration later this month. President-elect Donald Trump and Vance defeated the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in the Nov. 5 U.S. election. Vance’s Senate seat will be filled by a person appointed by Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine. The replacement will serve until a special election is held in November 2026. The winner of that election will finish the remainder of Vance’s Senate term, which endsmore
Leave a comment2024 was a big year for elections. More than 70 national elections were held throughout the world, affecting more than half of the world’s population. Among the countries holding elections were some of the world’s biggest democracies — India, the United States, Indonesia and Bangladesh — as well as 27 European member states electing the new European Parliament. The total number of ballots cast in 71 elections and the European Parliament elections was more than 1.6 billion, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA. Voting against the status quo Elections acrossmore
Leave a commentU.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he has selected David Fink to serve as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. “David will bring his 45+ years of transportation leadership and success, which will deliver the FRA into a new era of safety and technological innovation,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. …
Leave a commentElon Musk, the billionaire ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has praised the far-right Alterative for Germany party ahead of the election due in Germany early next year. The party wants to end Western support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Henry Ridgwell reports. …
Leave a commentThe U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday lowered its target interest rate but signaled it might take longer than previously expected to bring inflation down to the central bank’s target rate of 2% per year. That means there will likely be fewer rate reductions in 2025 than had been projected. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee lowered the target range of the federal funds rate, a benchmark that is used to set rates for everything from mortgages to credit card loans, by one-quarter of a percentage point to between 4.25% and 4.5%. The reduction was widely expected, but FOMC members updatedmore
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday thanked deep-pocketed Democratic donors who raised record sums in last month’s election loss to President-elect Donald Trump and urged them not to lose hope and to remain politically engaged. Biden and Harris, along with their spouses, in remarks at the Democratic National Committee holiday reception sought to buck up key donors who the Democratic Party needs to stay committed as it tries to pick up the pieces. Republicans scored a decisive victory taking the White House and Senate while maintaining control of the House in an election where donorsmore
Leave a commentPresident-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest deportations in U.S. history raises questions about its feasibility and its legality. VOA immigration correspondent Aline Barros reports on how the U.S. military may be involved in those plans. …
Leave a commentPresident-elect Donald Trump has nominated New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be his United Nations ambassador. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer looks at the representative’s rising career and what lies ahead. …
Leave a commentWashington — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to make swift and sweeping changes as he takes office on January 20, deporting millions of migrants in the country illegally, imposing tariffs on imported goods that could raise consumer prices for Americans and pardoning rioters who tried to upend his 2020 reelection loss. Six weeks ahead of taking office for a new four-year tenure in the White House, Trump seemed emboldened by his victory last month, making him only the second American president elected to a second, nonconsecutive term after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s. “People like me now, you know?” hemore
Leave a commentU.S. senators will soon be weighing in on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. With many of the choices facing questions about their beliefs and qualifications, the confirmation process could look different this time. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. …
Leave a commentIn India, there are expectations that strategic ties with the United States will deepen during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. But New Delhi is bracing for pressure on trade ties with its biggest trading partner. From New Delhi, Anjana Pasricha reports. …
Leave a commentSince 2004, former New York Times editor and now artist Sheryl Oring has been giving Americans a chance to speak their truth to the world. Dressed in 1950s secretary attire, she invites the public to speak their mind and records it on her vintage typewriter as part of a project called, “I Wish To Say.” Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vladimir Badikov …
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — Several of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees and appointees were targeted with “violent threats,” including bomb threats and “swatting,” a spokesperson for the U.S. president-elect said Wednesday. The threats were made Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and law enforcement and authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those targeted, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Leavitt did not say who was targeted, and she did not elaborate on the nature of the apparent threats. Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Leavitt said the attacks “ranged from bomb threatsmore
Leave a commentPresident-elect Donald Trump says he intends to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy disagrees with much of the scientific community on subjects including vaccines and HIV/AIDS. VOA’s Anita Powell has our story. …
Leave a commentU.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced a set of economic advisers he wants to appoint for his administration, including international trade attorney Jamieson Greer as his pick to be the U.S. trade representative. Greer served in Trump’s first administration as the chief of staff to the trade representative, and Trump said Tuesday that Greer played a key role in both imposing tariffs on China and in the creation of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Trump said Kevin Hassett is his choice to lead the White House National Economic Council. Hassett led the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’smore
Leave a commentBANGKOK — Southeast Asia could see a new wave of factories moving in from China to evade the soaring tariffs U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed to impose on the world’s second-largest economy, trade experts tell VOA. But the trade surpluses the region has built up with the United States and its heavy use of Chinese inputs for its own exports may blunt the benefits, they add. A number of firms with factories in China, both Chinese and foreign owned, moved their plants to Southeast Asia to skirt the tariffs Trump imposed on the country — as high as 25% onmore
Leave a commentPresident-elect Donald Trump made a largely unexpected pick to run the world’s largest military, nominating Fox News television host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb has more. …
Leave a commentNearly three weeks after the 2024 election, with almost all of the votes counted, it has become clear that Donald Trump won his second term in the White House by orchestrating a nationwide rightward shift in voting patterns that largely persisted across most of the 50 states, whether their electoral votes went to Trump or to his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. The main force behind Trump’s victory was strong support from his base, which is generally made up of white Americans without a college degree. His win would not have been possible, however, had the president-elect not improvedmore
Leave a commentwashington — U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally. So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan. Nearly half of the nation’s approximately 2 million farmworkers lack legal status, according to the Labor and Agriculture departments, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers. Trump, a Republican, vowed to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegallymore
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