WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he would nominate hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to be Treasury secretary in his second term, a critical role in tax policy, global finance and managing the U.S. debt load.

To become the presumptive nominee, the founder of Key Square Group overcame scrutiny from the right over ties early...Read more

WASHINGTON — Russ Vought, the hard-driving budget director from President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, will be nominated for a second stint in the job.

An unapologetic fiscal and social conservative, Vought is an aggressive advocate of cutting nondefense spending — but not what he calls the earned entitlements, Social ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he’d be bringing his brand of populism to the powerful Senate Finance Committee next year, with a wide remit over tax, trade, Social Security, social safety net programs and health care policy.

But no final decisions have been made, despite the Vermont independent’s assertion late Friday that he�...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s uncertainty about his slate of Treasury secretary candidates has led to rival factions once again trying to win his favor.

After a flurry of meetings this week, including discussions with new contenders, Trump has yet to make a decision on who will lead the charge for the sweeping economic agenda...Read more

On the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2017, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente called the Monterey Police Department to report that a patient had come in for a sexual assault exam.

The woman, the nurse told police, said she had been sexually assaulted four days earlier while at a Republican women’s conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Spa in the ...Read more

LANSING, Mich. — The criticism, drama and refusals to concede that marked Michigan's last two statewide elections were missing Friday, as the Board of State Canvassers certified Republican Donald Trump's 80,156-vote win over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential contest.

The canvassers' meeting inside the Michigan Senate's Binsfeld ...Read more

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz on Friday ruled out a possible return to Congress after dropping his bid to become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

The former Florida lawmaker told a right-wing podcast that he wouldn’t try to walk back his resignation from the deep-red seat that he recently won in a reelection landslide despite the ...Read more

ATLANTA — All votes have been counted and President-elect Donald Trump’s clear victory in Georgia is confirmed.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified the election results Friday after two audits and unanimous approval by county election boards across the state.

The final count showed Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on Friday indefinitely adjourned President-elect Donald Trump’s punishment for covering up a hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels after his first election victory.

In a brief order, the judge confirmed Trump’s sentencing would not go ahead next Tuesday and set a new schedule...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump will bring legal baggage to the White House in January, even if he succeeds in pausing or getting rid of the four federal and state criminal indictments against him.

Trump’s reelection is expected to end the two federal cases, given the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. His ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Linda McMahon once claimed an unearned education degree from East Carolina University.

Now the New Bern native is nominated to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Education.

Trump announced Tuesday that McMahon, best known as a founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, is nominated to be the next education ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland counties are sharply divided over whether to assist President-elect Donald Trump with what he says will be the largest deportation program in American history.

A Baltimore Sun survey found widely divergent responses to Trump’s proposal — from Harford County’s pledge to “fully support” his efforts to Anne Arundel...Read more

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Crossing the Divide

I developed the idea for this course in 2016 during an Amtrak writing residency program. I spent over two weeks crisscrossing the United States via train while working on my 2021 book ...Read more

Now that the elections are over, you might be left feeling exhausted, despondent and disillusioned – whether your preferred candidate won or not. You are not alone.

Survey after survey has found that Americans agree that the political system is not serving them.

Americans say they are angry at the political dysfunction, ...Read more

History is full of examples of governments using forced segregation against ethnic minorities.

From settler colonialists coercing Indigenous peoples into reservations, Nazis forcing Jews into ghettos or the United States segregating Black Americans through redlining and zoning policies, displacement and housing have long been at the ...Read more

Shortly after the 2024 election was called in Donald Trump’s favor, he declared that voters had given him “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

As the popular vote margin shrinks, however, this claim seems less plausible. But it puts Trump squarely within the historical tradition of how presidents – and those around them �...Read more

The fate of TikTok in the U.S. has been up in the air since 2020, when President Donald Trump moved to ban the popular video app because of national security concerns.

That set off four years of back-and-forth between the app’s Chinese owners and the U.S. government, with a possible ban scheduled to go into effect one day before Trump’s ...Read more

We commend Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for standing firm and opposing the dismissal of the hush money/Stormy Daniels case that resulted in Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions in New York last spring.

Now Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan should do the right thing and stay Trump’s sentence until he ...Read more

The U.S. fiscal outlook has dramatically deteriorated since the last time we ran a surplus in 2001, and President Joe Biden — like Democratic and Republican presidents before him — shares some responsibility for our high and rising debt. But it’s not too late to start turning things around.

During his time in office, Biden approved more ...Read more