Donald Trump wins Arizona as US House moves closer to Republican control – US politics live | US politics

Scrambling to construct an administration in the wake of his shock victory eight years ago, Donald Trump looked far beyond his inner circle, and those who ardently embraced his agenda. Not this time.

The president-elect has charged Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, and one of the few high-profile figures in corporate America to vocally endorse his campaign, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda.

The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has made no secret of his plan to stack the new White House with loyalists – and keep out anyone who threatens to derail his pledges.

Last time around, Trump “picked unfortunately”, Lutnick told NewsNation last month, describing the hires he made in his first term as “freshman” mistakes. “He’s the CEO. Why would you pick someone who’s going to try to go the other direction? That would be silly.”

Lutnick, who says he talks to Trump every day, was on the sidelines in 2016 and 2020 when his friend won and lost the presidency. In 2024, he went all in – raising millions of dollars and loudly making the case for his ally’s political comeback

Trump “is going to build the greatest team to ever walk into government”, Lutnick declared to a triumphant crowd at Madison Square Garden last month, with nine days left of the campaign. As transition co-chair, he is in charge of that construction.

President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo will not be asked to join his administration, reports Reuters.

“I will not be inviting former ambassador Nikki Haley, or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump administration, which is currently in formation,” Trump posted on social media. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country.”

Trump is meeting with potential candidates to serve in his administration before his 20 January inauguration as president. Reuters reported on Friday that Trump met prominent investor Scott Bessent, who is a potential US Treasury secretary nominee.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, endorsed Trump for president despite having criticized him harshly when she ran against him in the party primaries, reports Reuters.

“I was proud to work with President Trump defending America at the United Nations,” Haley wrote on X. “I wish him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years.”

Pompeo, who also served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under Trump, had been mentioned in some media reports as a possible defense secretary and was also seen as a potential Republican presidential candidate, before he announced in April 2023 he would not run.

Pompeo could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Separately, Trump said the 2025 presidential inauguration will be co-chaired by real estate investor and campaign donor Steve Witkoff and former Senator Kelly Loeffler.

Republican US representative Eli Crane won reelection in a Republican-leaning congressional district covering vast swaths of rural Arizona, reports the Associated Press (AP).

Crane faced Democrat Jonathan Nez, the former Navajo Nation president, in the second district race. Nez was vying to become the first Native American to represent Arizona in Congress.

In a statement late Saturday, Crane commended Nez for entering the race and thanked voters. Crane wrote:

I will continue using every tool in my arsenal to fight against the corruption and selfish interests of the DC elites to put rural Arizonans FIRST.

I’m laser-focused on working with President Trump to lower inflation, secure the border and return to peace through strength.”

The district covers much of north-eastern Arizona and dips south to the northern Tucson suburbs.

Nez said in a statement late on Saturday that he called Crane to congratulate him on a hard-fought victory. “Although we didn’t get the outcome we hoped for, the work we began together is not over,” Nez wrote.

Crane, a former Navy Seal who served in the military for 13 years, is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus and a staunch ally of president-elect Donald Trump, who won Arizona. Crane was among eight US House Republicans nationally who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker in 2023.

Donald Trump won the presidential election in Arizona, the Associated Press (AP) declared on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of all seven battleground states and locking in a decisive electoral college victory over the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Trump, who had secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House by early Wednesday, now has what is expected to be a final total of 312 votes to Harris’ 226.

The win returned the state to the Republican column after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and marked Trump’s second victory in Arizona since 2016. Trump had campaigned on border security and the economy, tying Harris to inflation and record illegal border crossings during Biden’s administration.

Trump has also won the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by winning six of the seven swing states – he narrowly lost North Carolina – and won 306 electoral college votes to Trump’s 232.

Trump also won 306 in his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.

The Ap said Trump has won 74.6m votes nationwide, or 50.5%, to Harris’ 70.9m, or 48%.

Meanwhile, Republican US representative Eli Crane won reelection to a US House seat representing Arizona’s second congressional district. The freshman lawmaker defeated former Navajo Nation president, Jonathan Nez, who was vying to become the state’s first Native American representative.

In a statement late on Saturday, Crane commended Nez for entering the race and thanked voters.

More on that in a moment, but first, here are the latest developments in US politics:

• Protests against Trump erupted in the US on Saturday as people on both coasts took to the streets in frustration about his re-election. Thousands of people in major cities including New York City and Seattle demonstrated against the former president and now president-elect amid his threats against reproductive rights and pledges to carry out mass deportations at the start of his upcoming presidency.

• Biden and Trump will meet on Wednesday in the Oval Office, the White House announced on Saturday. “At President Biden’s invitation, President Biden and president-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday,” the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement.

• Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the US House of Representatives, a critical element for Trump to advance his agenda when the president-elect returns to the White House in January. The AP reported that three US House races in Arizona were too early to call on Saturday, most notably the first and sixth congressional districts.

• The president-elect has charged Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, and one of the few high-profile figures in corporate America to vocally endorse his campaign, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda. The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and co-chair of Trump’s transition team, has made no secret of his plan to stack the new White House with loyalists – and keep out anyone who threatens to derail his pledges.

• A senior adviser to Trump said that the incoming US administration’s priority for Ukraine will be achieving peace rather than helping it regain territory captured by Russia in the almost three years of the war. In an interview with the BBC, broadcast on Saturday, Bryan Lanza, who has been a political adviser to Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign, said: “When Zelenskyy says we will only stop this fighting, there will only be peace, once Crimea is returned, we’ve got news for President Zelenskyy: Crimea is gone.”

• An employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has been fired from her job and is being investigated because she told a disaster relief team she was directing in Florida after Hurricane Milton to avoid homes displaying election campaign signs supporting Trump, conduct that the agency head on Saturday called “reprehensible”.