It’s been just three weeks since the election, and President-elect Donald Trump has already named most of his cabinet picks, including all of the big ones to head executive departments. They are, in a word, eclectic. A mix of traditional Republican establishment types, MAGA diehard and… former Democrats? It’s an open question whether Trump’s picks will find common cause beyond just wanting a seat at Trump’s table. Burgess Everett, Congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about how Trump...

President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to declare a national emergency – and maybe even use the military – to deport around 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. The consequences could be dire: millions of families separated, livelihoods upended, an even bigger backlog of immigration court cases, and a bill that could top $350 billion. Dara Lind, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, helps us separate facts from fears when it comes to Trump’s plan. And in...

If there’s something that many of Trump’s cabinet nominees have in common, it is being credibly accused of sexual assault. Why is Trump—and MAGA world more widely—so enthusiastic about not just tolerating but elevating men with sordid, even criminal, pasts? There’s Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for US Attorney General, who withdraw from consideration on Thursday after yet another allegation of sex trafficking. Then there’s Pete Hegseth, Trump’s slimy nominee for Secretary of Defense—not to mention...

In news that was somehow both genuinely surprising and 100 percent predictable, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be the next U.S. Attorney General on Thursday. If President-elect Donald Trump was upset about the whole thing, he didn’t show it. Within hours, he had a new pick for the job: Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, another longtime MAGA devotee. Still, it’s also not like Gaetz was Trump’s only problematic nominee, and it’s not clear how many of the...

The reality show that is President-elect Donald Trump’s White House appointments keeps on rolling. In the last few days, Trump has picked World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon to be his Secretary of Education, former acting Attorney General and toilet scammer Matthew Whitaker for U.S. ambassador to NATO, and billionaire former finance executive Howard Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce. Can any of these people win confirmation from the Senate? TBD! But Trump’s team says it...

Tuesday marked 1,000 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, plunging the European continent into its largest and deadliest conflict since World War II. The milestone was marked by yet another major escalation of violence, when Ukraine launched U.S.-made long-range missiles into Russia for the first time. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by issuing a new nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. It all comes at a tense time for Europe, as...

President-elect Donald Trump made a lot of questionable promises on the campaign trail. But one of the biggest ones was his promise to improve the economy by imposing at least a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods. For goods from China, he wants a minimum 60 percent tariff. Never mind that some economists say these tariffs, if imposed, could cost the average U.S. household an extra $2,600 a year. Stacey Vanek Smith, senior story editor at Bloomberg Audio, helps us break down what Trump’s...

In 2016, Donald Trump’s presidential win came as a surprise to many people, which inspired resistance and energized liberals and progressives across the country: from the ubiquitous pink hats of the Women’s March, to striking cab drivers fighting Trump’s attempted Muslim ban, scores of people came together to push back against unconstitutional policies. But after Trump’s 2024 win, that energy doesn’t seem there. Are people tired? Numb? Resigned? What does resistance look like when we have to...

Trump would love to be a dictator. His affinity for strongmen like Victor Orbán and Vladimir Putin is no secret. But will he actually take the country down that road? What does authoritarianism look like in 2024? This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin examine the president elect’s blustering and ask: will Trump really try to become an autocrat? Or is this just a lot of hot air from someone who doesn’t really understand how to work the levers of power. Cornell political scientist Tom...

Republicans clinched a governing trifecta late Wednesday after a handful of congressional race calls cemented the party’s House majority. As for Democrats, officially losing the House means the party will be shut out of power for at least the next two years. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier this week the party will have to figure out how to strategically wield its influence while in the minority, while also figuring out how to gear up for the next election. Brianna Tucker,...

The Trump cabinet pageant continues! And we’re all about to find out which of the judges – aka our elected U.S. senators – are willing to let President-elect Donald Trump run the show. On Wednesday, Trump selected Florida Rep. and contender for most hated member of Congress Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general of the United States. Gaetz has little relevant experience, but he is one of Trump’s most loyal — and vocal — supporters in Congress. At least one senator is already expressing...

President-elect Donald Trump announced more appointments on Tuesday, giving us a fuller picture of what his incoming administration is going to look like (tl;dr: It's bad). One cabinet spot that’s still open, though: Secretary of Education. Whoever gets the job, they’ll likely be tasked with implementing Trump's campaign promise to close the Department of Education, a long-time GOP goal that dates back to the Reagan Era. Erica Meltzer, national editor at Chalkbeat, explains why keeping that...

The incoming Trump Administration 2.0 is starting to take shape. And as expected, it’s a Democrat’s worst nightmare. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner with white nationalist views, to be his deputy chief of staff. He also officially announced his picks for ‘border czar,’ EPA director and U.N. ambassador, all of them in line with his repeated promise to appoint loyalists that will help him bend the government to his whims. Zack Beauchamp,...

We’re starting to get a fuller picture of what the incoming Congress is going to look like under President-elect Donald Trump. Republicans have clinched a majority in the Senate and seem poised to take the House, too. But on the whole, it’s a less rosy picture for the party than Trump’s win suggests. Republican Senate candidates drastically underperformed the incoming president. Over in the House, the GOP isn’t expected to make any significant gains on its existing narrow majority. Burgess...

Trump won over America by securing electoral votes in all seven swing states and gaining ground in historically blue areas. On this week's "How We Got Here," Max and Erin cope with post-election grief by going through the election data bit-by-bit. They discuss what we can learn about America, its political trajectory, and where we go from here.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation Thursday for the first time since Election Day. He promised to “honor the constitution on January 20th” and peacefully hand over power to President-Elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the blame game and painful soul-searching within the Democratic Party has begun in earnest. Jon Favreau, co-host of ‘Pod Save America’ and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, stopped by to discuss what comes next. And in headlines: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome...

Vice President Kamala Harris officially conceded to President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday in her first public comments since the election. Speaking to a crowd of hundreds of campaign staffers and students at her alma mater, Howard University, Harris called accepting the results a “fundamental principle of American democracy.” But she encouraged her supporters to keep fighting for the ideals her campaign championed, even in the face of defeat. ‘What A Day’ newsletter editor Greg Walters...

Welp. That happened. Former President Donald Trump declared victory in the presidential race in the early hours of Wednesday morning. As of 3 am Wednesday, The Associated Press had not officially called the race, but it had declared Trump the winner of three crucial swing states: North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, effectively cutting off any path to victory for Vice President Kamala Harris. Democrats did see a few wins down ballot. Erin Ryan, co-host of the Crooked podcast ‘Hysteria,’...

Happy Election Day! Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump spent their final full day on the campaign trail converging on the must-win state of Pennsylvania. Harris spent her entire day in the Keystone State, making direct appeals to Latino voters and young voters. For Trump, Pennsylvania was one of three swing states he stumped in Monday, continuing to muddle his closing message all along the way. Alyssa Mastromonaco, former White House deputy chief of staff under...

Election Day is tomorrow! More than 75 million people have already voted. And a slew of new polls released over the weekend show good news for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Naturally, former President Donald Trump responded by railing against the polls at his rallies, even though polls aren’t predictions, and both candidates have a good shot at winning Tuesday. Nate Silver, polling guru and author of the Substack newsletter “Silver Bulletin,” stops by to tell us what the polls are —...

If Trump wins the presidential election, Project 2025 gives us an inkling of what his next term might look like. But due to a power struggle within the far-right, there could be another plan that’s just as threatening. On this week’s “How We Got Here,” Max and Erin hear from New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger about the America First Policy Institute and its political goals with a second Trump term.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump spent their Thursdays courting voters in the Southwest. Trump started his day in New Mexico, a state that Democrats are expected to easily win, before heading to events in Nevada and Arizona. Harris also spent her day in the two Western swing states, wrapping up the night at a rally with pop megastar Jennifer Lopez. With just four days left until Election Day, Alex Wagner of MSNBC's ‘Alex Wagner Tonight’ joins us to talk about...

In the wake of former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday, Major Puerto Rican stars with tens of millions of social media followers have been throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. On Wednesday, singer Nicky Jam, who endorsed Trump last month, renounced his support for the former president in a video to his supporters, citing the joke a comedian made at the rally about Puerto Rico being an ‘island of garbage.’ Adrian Carrasquillo, a national...

Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her closing arguments in a speech at the Ellipse in Washington D.C. — where then-President Donald Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to march to the Capitol – to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Stef Kight, political reporter for Axios, breaks down the pitch Harris is making to voters in the final week of the presidential race. The fallout from Trump’s anti-Puerto Rican remarks in Madison Square Garden continues. The chairman of...