Trump latest: ‘Ice baby’ Susie Wiles appointed as chief of staff

She is believed to have learnt to harness the impulses of Trump.

Given the prominence of her new role Wiles may find avoiding the spotlight a challenge.

A chief of staff plays a crucial role in the day-to-day running of a president’s administration.

As a senior aide to the president, they serve as advisers and help execute their boss’s agenda.

Usually they are gatekeepers and decide who spends time with or has access to the president.

The chief of staff is “absolutely critical to an effective White House”, said Chris Whipple, whose book The Gatekeepers details how the role shapes and defines a presidency.

“At the end of the day the most important thing is telling the president what he doesn’t want to hear.”

Fans of the television drama The West Wing may remember John Spencer’s Leo McGarry, chief of staff to the fictional President Bartlet.

Nigel Farage posed with Donald Trump’s youngest son, praising Barron, 18, for playing “a big part in his father’s stunning victory”.

Farage attended Trump’s election night celebration in Florida alongside other members of the president-elect’s inner circle.

Some commentators have suggested the UK government should exploit Farage’s close relationship with Trump to build ties with the incoming administration, but Labour has rejected the idea.

Alongside a picture of himself smiling alongside the towering Barron, Farage described the teenager as “very bright”.

Barron is reported to have influenced his father’s campaign strategy of appearing on male-dominated podcasts, including the widely popular one by Joe Rogan, in an ultimately successful attempt to woo young men.

Susie Summerall Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position of chief of staff to a US president.

In his first term, Trump appointed four chiefs of staff: Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows. It was the highest number of any one-term president since the role was established under President Truman in the 1940s.

Barack Obama also had four chiefs of staff during his two terms, as did Bill Clinton.

President Biden appointed two people to the cabinet level-position, Ron Klain and Jeff Zients.

JD Vance has welcomed the appointment of Susie Wiles as Trump’s chief of staff.

“This is great news,” the vice-president-elect wrote on X.

“Susie was a huge asset to President Trump on the campaign and will be a huge asset in the White House. She’s also just a really good person. Onward!”

Donald Trump has appointed Susie Wiles, his campaign senior adviser, as White House chief of staff.

Wiles, 67, will be the first woman to ever hold the title of White House chief of staff.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to make America great again,” Trump said in a statement. “It is a well-deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Wiles worked in the Reagan administration and has helped to elect dozens of Republicans, including Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, and Rick Scott, the Florida senator.

Just after he won the election on Wednesday morning, Trump said about her: “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back. Let me tell you, the ice baby. We call her the ice baby.”

Surveys overestimated the importance of abortion to voters and the media misidentified “shy Harris women” who would turn out for her eventually.

CNN analysis showed that Harris won women by ten points, compared with Hillary Clinton’s 13-point lead and Biden’s 15 points. Trump made gains with female voters as a whole, as well as with every other big demographic except the over-65s.

JL Partners had one of the most accurate projections for the electoral college and was one of very few polling organisations that predicted Trump winning the popular vote. How did they do it?

• Read in full: My firm called the US election right. This is where others went wrong

In one of his first post-election interviews, Trump has said that there is “no price tag” attached to his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

“We have no choice,” Trump told NBC News. “When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”

Trump has pledged to deport as many as 20 million migrants by invoking the archaic Alien Enemies Act. His dragnet approach, which is favoured by a majority of Americans, would cost $315 billion and shrink the US economy by at least 4.2 per cent, according to a report by the American Immigration Council, a non-partisan Washington DC think tank.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel about the brutal repression of women, has shot up Amazon’s bestseller list in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory.

The 1985 novel was at number three on the list on Thursday.

“Despair is not an option. It helps no one,” Atwood, 84, posted on X on Wednesday.

Dark futuristic novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 were also in the top 25 bestselling books.

All three novels gained renewed popularity during Trump’s first term in office.

Melania, Melania Trump’s memoir, is at number one, while Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir of vice-president-elect JD Vance, sits at number eight.

The Republicans have flipped yet another Senate seat.

Dave McCormick, a 59-year-old businessman, has defeated Bob Casey, a Democrat who had been seeking a fourth term in Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press.

With 99 per cent of the vote counted, McCormick holds a lead of just over 30,000 votes.

The result means that Republicans will have at least 53 seats in the Senate. Two races, in New Mexico and Nevada, are still to be called.

Casey was the longest-serving Democratic senator in Pennsylvania history. His father, Bob Casey Sr, is a former Pennsylvania governor.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director, told Times Radio that the president-elect was unlikely to try to deport Prince Harry.

Trump has previously said he would consider deporting Harry, 40, who has been living in Montecito, California, with his wife Meghan and their two young children, if he was found to have lied on official forms.

“I know Trump talked about that but deep down he’s a royalist and his mom is from Scotland, I think he has a lot of respect for the royal family,” Scaramucci said.

Nile Gardiner, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, said on Thursday that Trump’s election victory means Harry would no longer be “shielded” from scrutiny.

President Biden will not pardon his son Hunter, the White House press secretary has confirmed.

Karine Jean-Pierre said that other pardons would be under consideration.

The 54-year-old son of the president was convicted in July of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. Prosecutors said he lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

He will be sentenced on December 4.

In September, he pleaded guilty to nine charges, including three felony tax offences and six misdemeanour tax offences. He will be sentenced on those charges on December 16.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve has said he will ignore demands to resign if Donald Trump orders it.

Jerome Powell pointed out that the president cannot legally force him to step aside.

He was asked if he would resign if Trump asks him to do so, and replied: “No.”

Trump appointed Powell in 2017, but then criticised him for his monetary policy decisions.

Powell’s term expires in May 2026, and a member of Trump’s team told CNN that Trump would allow Powell to remain in his position.

Rudy Giuliani was in court in Manhattan today to be berated by the judge for failing to hand over property to two women who won damages from him.

Giuliani was ordered in December last year to pay $148 million in damages for spreading lies about two Georgia poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Moss.

Giuliani declared bankruptcy, so he was ordered to hand over his $5 million Manhattan penthouse, a Mercedes, two dozen high-end watches, a jersey signed by the famed baseball player Joe DiMaggio, and jewellery.

Lawyers for the two women went to the apartment last week and found it empty.

“That’s the one piece of property sitting here in Manhattan that can’t be moved,” said Aaron Nathan, their lawyer. “Everything else has been game playing.”

Stephen Mull, a veteran diplomat who was US ambassador to Poland and Lithuania, has been appointed by the Biden administration to oversee the transition to the Trump team.

Trump’s liaison to the State Department will be Brian Hook, a former Iran special envoy.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the State Department, said Mull has already begun work.

“The peaceful transfer of power is an essential element of our democracy that is vital to our nation’s security,” Miller said. “That’s why it’s so important for us to conduct a smooth, efficient and professional transition process.”

Donald Trump has told NBC News that he thinks Tom Cotton is “fantastic”, increasing speculation that the Arkansas senator will be part of Trump’s cabinet.

Cotton, a former army infantry officer and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was under consideration to be Trump’s defence secretary when he was first elected in 2020.

He is considered one of the front-runners to be secretary of defence in the new administration.

Mike Pompeo, a graduate of the military academy West Point — the US equivalent of Sandhurst — is another contender. Pompeo was Trump’s CIA director from 2017 to 2018 and secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.

President Biden “believed that it was the right decision” to drop out of the race, the White House press secretary said at the daily briefing.

“The president is very proud of what he was able to accomplish,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“He was very proud, and when he made that decision to hand over the torch, pass the torch to the vice-president, he believed it was the right decision to make at that time. He believed that she was ready.”

Biden has frequently said choosing Kamala Harris as his vice-president was one of the best decisions he has made.

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, said he had called a special session of the state legislature to protect its progressive policies in anticipation of significant changes to federal law under Trump.

Newsom said additional resources were necessary to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights” on climate change, reproductive rights and immigration.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” he said in a statement.

Newsom, who has clashed repeatedly with Trump, has made no secret of his ambitions for higher office.

Marc Bennetts

President Putin has welcomed Donald Trump’s promises to try and mend relations with Russia and bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

In his first comments on Trump’s election victory, Putin congratulated the new US president-elect and said he would be willing to hold talks with him.

“What has been said [by Trump] about a desire to restore relations with Russia and to help end the Ukrainian crisis deserves attention, at the very least,” Putin said today at a forum in Sochi, the Black Sea city.

He also said Trump’s had behaved “courageously” and “like a man” in the aftermath of an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania in July.

Putin did not congratulate President Biden in 2020 until more than a month after the election.

A surging US stock market just got another boost as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent to a new range of 4.5 per cent to 4.75 per cent.

The cut was widely anticipated as inflation in the US has continued to cool from its 2022 peak.

The timing, coming two days after Trump’s victory, is awkward for the politically neutral Federal Reserve but purely coincidental.

On Wednesday, the three major indexes, The Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, closed at record highs, as the markets were buoyed by Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

Stocks continued to rally into Thursday, as investors anticipate lower taxes and deregulation from the incoming Republican administration.

Melania Trump was seen as so inscrutable that her step-daughter Ivanka nicknamed her “The Portrait”.

When Trump first took office in 2017, his wife was memorable for her absence. Compared with the close political alliances within the marriages of the Clintons and the Obamas, that spousal advisory position was, in the Trump hierarchy, supplanted by Ivanka. Melania resisted moving into the White House for months, and frequently bowed out of accompanying her husband on official events.

Now, her memoir, Melania, is the No 1 bestselling book in the country.

• Read in full: She’s back! Inside the mind of Melania Trump

Days before the election, James Carville, the longtime Democratic strategist, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times headlined “Three Reasons I’m Certain Kamala Harris Will Win”.

The former senior adviser to Bill Clinton was among the many party luminaries trying to figure out how it all went horribly wrong after Trump’s decisive election victory.

“We had every advantage, but we had the perception of disorder on every kind of level — foreign policy, border policy, economic policy,” Carville said in a video published on Politicon.

“And the hardest thing is that I look across this country, and tens of millions of people fell for this shit, and it’s depressing,” he added.

“I’ll snap out of it. But I’m in a very, very dark tunnel right now.”

Bruno Waterfield, Budapest

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged Britain’s “unwavering” support to Ukraine after meeting President Zelensky in the wings of a pan-European summit in Budapest.

The bilateral meeting took place amid fears that Donald Trump will abandon Ukraine and sue for peace with Putin, committing Kyiv to neutrality for decades and giving territory seized by Russia since the invasion in 2022.

“As you know, our support for Ukraine is unwavering,” Starmer said. “And I strongly believe that not only should it be unwavering, but we need to step up, and I was very pleased to be able to say that. It’s very important that we see this through. It’s very important that we stand with you.”

Zelensky thanked Starmer and criticised unnamed European countries for “strongly” pushing Ukraine to compromise with Russia.

“There has been much talk about the need to yield to Putin, to back down, to make some concessions,” he told the summit, hosted by Hungary which is close to Russia. “Hugs with Putin won’t help. Some have hugged him for 20 years, yet things only worsen.”

Bruno Waterfield, Budapest

Europe needs to face a “new reality” on support for Ukraine after Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday, Viktor Orban will tell a dinner of European Union leaders tonight.

The Hungarian prime minister is hosting the meal and will kick off an informal discussion on relations with the US, with Ukraine as the “number one issue”.

“The world is a different place since this Tuesday. Europe needs to face the new reality,” he said. “Those who want peace are increasing in numbers.”

Orban, the European leader who is personally closest to Trump, said that he would call for a ceasefire as a “first step”.

“If you talk too much about the situation after the war, it can reduce the chances of a ceasefire,” he said, refusing to discuss whether Ukraine should give up territories that are occupied by Russia.

Kamala Harris’s former boyfriend and mentor has told Times Radio that the vice-president will bounce back from Tuesday’s election defeat.

Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor, told John Pienaar that Harris had proven herself to be resilient as she rose from California attorney-general to presidential candidate.

“This is a person who is focused on being an elected official and carrying out all the things that she has dreamed of that addresses the needs of people,” Brown said.

He added that Harris had relied on bad advice from the Democratic consultants to formulate her message, and ceded the votes of the working class to Donald Trump.

“Democrats have always been the advocates for the poor, for the downtrodden, for those who don’t have an equal chance. In this election, we did not pursue that religiously and effectively.”

• The real Kamala Harris, according to ex-boyfriend who ‘made her career’

Late-night comedy hosts who have spent years railing against Donald Trump have been struggling to process his election triumph.

Jimmy Kimmel, a frequent antagonist of the president-elect, quipped that he would be leaving the US during Wednesday night’s monologue.

“Who knows what he’s going to do?” Kimmel, who hosts ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, said. “He said he has a list of enemies. You think I’m not on that list?”

Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, told viewers he had proudly displayed his “I voted” sticker on election day.

“Today I wore my ‘I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity’ sticker.”

Desi Lydic, hosting The Daily Show on Comedy Central, described the aftermath of election day as a “waking nightmare”.

“America elected its first criminal president before electing its first female president.”

Susie Wiles, the Trump campaign co-chairwoman who helped to mastermind his election victory, is the frontrunner to be named as the next White House chief of staff, according to an NBC News report.

Wiles, 67, is Trump’s longtime political strategist and trusted confidante. She worked in the Reagan administration and has helped to elect dozens of Republicans, including Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, and Rick Scott, the Florida senator.

After remaining largely out of sight throughout the campaign, Trump singled out Wiles for special praise in his election night victory speech.

“Susie likes to stay sort of in the back. Let me tell you, the ice baby. We call her the ice baby,” Trump said.

The role of chief of staff is often referred to as the toughest job in Washington, being both a gatekeeper to the president and at the centre of every major decision.

Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, has told US military forces that the Pentagon will ensure a “calm, orderly and professional” transition to the incoming Trump administration.

In a memo to all departments, Austin wrote that the US military stands ready to carry out the next commander-in-chief’s policy decisions and to “obey all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command”.

He added that the US military will “stand apart” from politics and defend the US constitution and the rights of all citizens.

During the campaign, Trump said he would be open to using the Insurrection Act to send active troops to quell domestic civil unrest and help law enforcement agencies to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants.

Angela Rayner has revealed she has spoken with JD Vance, the vice-president-elect, with the pair agreeing to “build on” the special relationship between the two countries.

The UK’s deputy prime minister said she and her future US counterpart “spoke about our plans for the future and how, working together, we build on the special relationship between our great countries”.

Vance, a senator for Ohio, criticised the Labour Party’s approach to immigration after their election victory, saying that under their rule the UK could be the first “truly Islamist” country with nuclear weapons.

Rayner responded by saying she did not recognise the comments and said she was “looking forward” to meeting Vance.

She has criticised Donald Trump in the past, calling him a “buffoon” who has “no place in the White House” during the pandemic.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader, said that control of the House of Representatives “remains very much in play”.

With votes still being counted in 35 House races, Republicans have 209 seats to the Democrats’ 191 in the race to reach a 218 majority.

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, is increasingly confident that his party will retain their narrow majority and hand Trump control of all three levers of democratic power in Washington DC after they reclaimed the Senate and the presidency.

In a statement, Jeffries said: “The path to take back the majority now runs through too-close-to-call pick-up opportunities in Arizona, Oregon and Iowa,” along with several Democratic-leaning districts in California.

“We must count every vote,” he said.

Analysis from Damian Whitworth

Biden, who entered the White House four years ago promising to restore stability, is leaving it in a state of physical infirmity that forced him from the race.

But when he performs like he did today, dignified and presidential, but with the ability to display a light touch, one can’t help wondering how things would have been if he had been younger and more vigorous at the start of the campaign.

He is 81 — 82 next month. If president-elect Trump is in the Rose Garden making a speech after the next election — and that could be a big “if”, depending, perhaps, on the political colours of whoever follows him — he will be 82, several months older than Biden is now.

Chris Ruddy, Trump’s longtime friend and chief executive of the cable network Newsmax, told Andrew Neil on Times Radio that the president-elect wasn’t concerned about past critical comments made by David Lammy.

Ruddy said that Trump likes the British foreign secretary, and that they had a productive meeting in Trump Tower during UN general assembly week in September.

“President Trump likes Britain,” Ruddy said.

“I think there’s certain people that probably want to rile him up too, have made an issue of the Labour people coming over,” Ruddy said, referring to the Labour Party sending volunteers to the US to knock on doors for Kamala Harris.

“We all know that this happens. Conservative Party people send people over, and this is a common practice. I think what probably got his goat was it’s a sitting Labour government.”

Analysis from Damian Whitworth

Biden was keen to use his first remarks to the country since his party’s devastating defeat, to get them to think about something he is laser-focused on: his legacy.

The election result was to a great extent a verdict on his presidency. Many people did not feel as well off as they had under Trump. Biden emphasised in his speech that the American economy is strong compared with other leading economies, a message that did not cut through with voters.

He touted his infrastructure bill, almost pleading with Americans to recognise its achievements, saying the effects might not be felt for years, but they would be there. He knows exactly how long he has got left and this won’t be the last time he tries to talk about his own achievements as the country is consumed by the noise of the arrival of the predecessor who has become his successor.

The eyes of the world might have been on Arizona and Nevada right now. Both take a long time to count their votes and neither state has yet been declared for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.

But none of it matters to the overall result. Trump has already won the other five swing states and is the clear overall winner.

He looks set to win Nevada and Arizona too, which would make it 312 electoral college votes to Harris’s 226, the most decisive win by a Republican since George Bush Sr in 1988.

Trump will also win the popular vote which he didn’t manage in victory in 2016 or defeat in 2020.

President Biden sought to bring the country together in his address to the nation from the White House Rose Garden, telling viewers: “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbour only when you agree.”

This was Biden as his most statesmanlike, doing his grandfather of the nation act in which he referenced his granddaughter sitting in the front row, and mentioned things both his parents had said to him.

In stressing that he would do everything to ensure his administration worked with Donald Trump to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, he was promising to do something that Trump did not do for him. In his folksy style he urged voters on both sides to see each other as fellow Americans. “Bring down the temperature,” he pleaded.

During the speech, Biden stressed that the investments in infrastructure and manufacturing by his administration were only just beginning to be felt.

“Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people,” he said. “But the vast majority of it will not be felt — will be felt over the next ten years.”

“We have legislation we passed that’s just, only now, just really kicking in,” Biden said.

He said these policies would benefit people who are in “real difficulty”.

Biden said he had assured Trump that his administration would work with the president-elect’s transition team “to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.”

“That’s what the American people deserve.”

“I will do my duty as president. I’ll fulfill my oath, and I will honor the Constitution. On January 20, we’ll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America,” he said.

Biden closes his short speech with a call to arms for his supporters.

“The American experiment endures. We’re going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going. But above all, we need to keep the faith.”

Biden returns to why he ran for the presidency. He said there was an ongoing “struggle for the soul of America”, a slogan he used during his presidential run in 2020.

“I’ve said many times, you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbour only when you agree,” he said.

“The will of the people always prevails.”

President Biden began his speech from the White House Rose Garden by reflecting on US democracy.

“For over 200 years America has carried out the greatest experiment in democracy in the world.

“The people vote and choose their own leaders. In a democracy the will of the people always prevails.”

He said he would direct his entire administration to ensure a peaceful and orderly transfer of power.

“That’s what the American people deserve.”

He also praised Kamala Harris’s campaign, saying she “has a backbone like a ramrod”. “She gave her all,” he added.

Trump explicitly promised to take retribution on his political foes during the campaign.

The president-elect has said he would appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden “and the entire Biden crime family”.

In August, Trump shared a post on Truth Social calling for “military tribunals” to investigate Barack Obama.

Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have long been in the president-elect’s crosshairs. As have legal figures such as Jack Smith, the special counsel, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, and some of the judges presiding over his criminal cases.

A large anti-Trump protest is scheduled to take place in New York City on Saturday.

The “protect our futures” rally will be held at Columbus Circle in Manhattan at midday (5pm GMT).

“It is critical to make clear that New Yorkers will continue to stand together, in community, against the danger to come,” protest organisers said.

Since Trump’s victory, sporadic demonstrations have been held in cities across the US including Chicago and Philadelphia.

President Biden is due to address the nation from the White House at 11am ET (4pm GMT) to discuss Trump’s transition into power.

It will be his first speech on-camera since Trump’s election victory.

After repeatedly characterising Trump as a threat to US democracy during the 2024 campaign, Biden is expected to deliver a call for unity.

Trump has accepted his invitation to visit the White House in the next few days to ensure a smooth transition. No date has been set for the meeting yet.

President Macron has warned other European leaders that if Russia wins against Ukraine they will face an expansionist “imperial power” at Europe’s gate.

He told a meeting of 42 European leaders in Budapest that the continent faces a “decisive moment” and must shape its own destiny.

“We have two blocs, the US on one hand and China on the other. First and foremost they will defend their now interests,” he said, adding that “our role is not to comment” on Trump’s victory.

In a reference to Viktor Orban, the Hungarian host’s “pro-peace” stance and others, such as Turkey, who are closer to Russia, Macron said no country on the continent of Europe can allow Putin to win in Ukraine.

History was made on Tuesday night with the election of the first transgender woman to the House of Representatives.

Sarah McBride, a 34-year-old state senator, was chosen to represent Delaware. She said on Wednesday night that she was among “beneficiaries of seemingly impossible change becoming a reality”.

McBride said that was because “previous generations persevered despite every reason to give up”.

She concluded: “As I assume the privilege of serving the state I love in Congress, I pledge my unwavering faith in our continued ability to turn our hope into historic progress — because it has always been in our country’s most significant challenges that we take our biggest steps forward.”

During his address to European leaders earlier in Budapest, President Zelensky had also praised Trump’s “commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs”.

“The concept of ‘peace through strength’ has proven its realism and effectiveness more than once. Now, it is needed once more,” Zelensky said.

But the Ukrainian leader also appealed to European powers and the US to continue arming his forces in the fight against Russia.

“We need sufficient weapons, not just support in talks. Hugs with Putin won’t help,” the Ukrainian leader said in an apparent reference to pictures showing United Nations chief Antonio Guterres hugging president Vladimir Putin at a summit in Russia.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the Kremlin has noted Donald Trump’s words about trying to resolve the Ukraine crisis, even if he exaggerated the speed at which he could do it.

Trump has repeatedly said he could settle the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day if he was re-elected president.

“If the new administration is going to look for peace, not for the continuation of the war, it will be better in comparison with the previous one,” Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

Asked about Kamala Harris’s warning that Putin would eat Trump for lunch, Peskov said with a chuckle: “Putin does not eat people.”

Voters in five states were asked on Tuesday whether they wanted to change their existing drug policies.

Marijuana was legalised in Nebraska, but voters in Florida, North and South Dakota chose not to legalise the drug. Arkansas votes have not been counted yet.

It is legal in around half of all states — Colorado legalised it for recreational use in 2014, becoming the first in the nation to do so. In Massachusetts, psychedelics were legalised.

President Macron has told other European leaders that “our role is not to comment” on Trump’s victory, and warned that if Russia wins against Ukraine they will face an expansionist “imperial power” at Europe’s gate.

He told a meeting of 42 leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, in Budapest that the continent faces a “decisive moment” and must shape its own destiny.

“We have two blocs, the US on one hand and China on the other. First and foremost they will defend their now interests. Do we want to read the history written by others; the wars launched by Vladimir Putin; the US election, China’s technological or trade choices. Or do we want to write our own history. I think we have the strength to write it. We can not afford to disappear geopolitically.”

The ten richest people in the world got $64 billion richer on Wednesday, thanks to Trump’s win — with his chief cheerleader Elon Musk crowned the biggest winner.

Musk’s net worth jumped by $26.5 billion to $290 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His wealth soared thanks to Tesla’s share price rising almost 15 per cent, while its rivals’ value fell.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration, because Trump will likely end Biden’s subsidies for the EV industry — harming smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the US anytime soon.

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, congratulated Trump on Wednesday as he watched his wealth grow by $7.1 billion. Bezos, the week before, defended his paper’s decision not to endorse Kamala Harris — insisting it was nothing to do with his business interests.

Democrat-leaning businessmen also benefitted — among them the former Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, the former Google executives Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Warren Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO. None of them endorsed a candidate this year.

President Macron beat Sir Keir Starmer in the race to congratulate Donald Trump, according to The Telegraph. Binyamin Netanyahu also spoke to the president-elect before Starmer.

Macron spoke to Trump shortly after midday in the US on Wednesday, while Starmer did not get through until 2pm.

Trump has remained at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since his election win, and is co-ordinating his White House transition from there. He will, however, travel to Washington DC to meet President Biden in the coming days for the traditional handover meeting — a courtesy Trump did not extend to Biden in 2020.

“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’” said Trump at the Chicago Economic Club in October. “It’s my favorite word.”

He wants to impose tariffs on products entering the United States — which is $3 trillion of goods a year. Companies will have to raise their prices to cover the cost.

He wants a 60 per cent tariff on imports from China, and up to 25 per cent on imports from other countries. Trump argues that it will boost American domestic productivity, but economists say countries will impose retaliatory tariffs on American imports, starting a trade war.

He wants, for instance, a 200 per cent tariff on cars made in Mexico — most major car makers have factories in the US but still heavily rely on parts imported from other countries. It won’t be quick, easy or cheap to bring those industries back to the US, and consumers will pay.

Donald Trump’s victory has dampened hopes of a successful outcome to the Cop29 climate negotiations which start next week.

Negotiators from 193 countries are due to meet in Baku in Azerbaijan, with African and Arabic countries set to demand a large increase in global financial support, equivalent to more than $1 trillion a year.

When he was last in power Trump withdrew America from the Cop negotiations, and ceased contributions to the UN’s climate fund. He has called climate change a hoax and pledged to dismantle President Biden’s policies for cutting carbon emissions.

Jeff Ordower, North America director of the environmental charity 350.org, said: “The next Trump administration will be isolationist and dangerous to climate. But in that darkness, there is some hope that in diminished US power, other nations can step up, and states like California can follow.”

President Zelensky has rejected offering Russia any concessions in Ukraine, following reports that Donald Trump will press Kyiv to concede territory and set up a demilitarised zone.

At a summit of European leaders in Hungary, Zelensky suggested these moves would be detrimental to his country and Europe more broadly.

“There has been much talk about the need to yield to Putin, to back down, to make some concessions. It’s unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader added that following Trump’s victory: “We do hope that America will become stronger. This is the kind of America that Europe needs. And a strong Europe is what America needs. This is the connection between allies that must be valued and cannot be lost.”

Iran and its proxy groups Hezbollah and Hamas have declared indifference to Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, despite its implications for US foreign policy on the Middle East.

President Pezeshkian of Iran downplayed the significance of Trump’s election on Thursday, saying it would have no impact on Tehran’s policy, state media reported.

“It makes no difference to us who won the US election,” he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, adding that Iran had prioritised “developing relations with Islamic and neighbouring countries”.

Hopes have been raised that a change in US administration may promote the chances of a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. However Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s leader, claimed that the vote would have no bearing on the future of the conflict.

“We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments,” he added, echoing similar statements from Hamas.

In the battle for control of the US House of Representatives, 40 races remain too close to call across 15 states on Thursday.

Republicans are confident that they will win a majority in the House — adding it to their presidential and Senate victories — though the final results could still be days away as ballots are still being counted. Democrats went into election day with hopes of seizing control of the House from Republicans, who held a slim 220-212 majority.

As it stands, Democrats need to win 22 of the outstanding districts to take the majority, while Republicans would need to win 12. Republicans have already flipped six districts, Democrats have flipped two.

President Biden is scheduled to address the nation today for the first time since Trump was confirmed as his successor in the White House. The speech will be at 11am local time in Washington (4pm UK time).

Biden, 81, last night invited the president-elect, 78, and his transition team to a meeting at the White House.

In his remaining ten weeks in office, Biden is likely to continue to push his foreign policy agenda, but there is a risk other world leaders may perceive him as a lame duck ahead of Trump’s inauguration in January.

The prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency provides a window of opportunity to end Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, France’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

During a visit to Jerusalem, Jean-Noel Barrot said: “I believe a window has opened for putting an end to the tragedy in which Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region have been immersed since October 7,” referring to last year’s attacks by Hamas.

Speaking alongside Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, Barrot cited Trump’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars” as well as Israel’s recent “tactical successes”.

Barrot said he hoped a “diplomatic solution” would emerge “in the coming weeks”. “Force alone will not be enough to guarantee Israel’s security,” he added, and said that “military success could not be a substitute for a political perspective”.

“It is time to move towards a deal that would allow for the liberation of all hostages, a ceasefire and the mass entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to prepare for the day after.”

Campaigners for press freedom have criticised Donald Trump’s rhetorical attacks on the media, warning that his second term marks a “dangerous moment” for journalism.

“On the campaign trail and during his previous administration, president-elect Donald Trump has frequently deployed violent language and threats against the media. His election to a second term in office marks a dangerous moment for American journalism and global press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said.

In the run-up to election day, Trump repeatedly threatened the media, telling a crowd in Pennsylvania that he wouldn’t mind if journalists got shot. He also repeatedly threatened to strip broadcasters of their licences over news coverage that he disapproved of.

Between September 1 and October 24, Reporters Without Borders found that Trump personally insulted, attacked or threatened the press at least 108 times in his public speeches and remarks — not including social media posts or statements by his campaign staff.

The European Union fears that the US under Donald Trump will abandon Ukraine and pressure it to sue for peace with Putin.

“Our interest is that Russia does not win,” said President Macron, arriving at the European summit in Budapest.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that she would push Trump to take a stand against Putin. “It is in all our interests that the autocrats of this world get a very clear message that there’s not the right of might and it’s in our common interest that we do not allow the big neighbour to bully others,” she said.

A mega-summit of more than 40 leaders from across Europe, including Sir Keir Starmer, has opened in Hungary’s national football stadium in Budapest.

The arena is named after Ferenc Puskás, the legendary Hungarian-Spanish football player. “We are playing in this stadium now, the whole of Europe is on the field,” said Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s controversial nationalist leader, who describes himself as “football mad”.

The gathering — to be followed by a dinner of EU leaders — will be dominated by Trump’s victory and political turmoil in Germany.

Olaf Scholz, whose fractious coalition government collapsed last night, is missing the first part of the summit, the fifth meeting of the wider European Political Community. He will arrive in Budapest on Thursday afternoon to take part in talks with EU leaders.

Rudy Giuliani will face another day in court today after two Georgia election workers who were defamed by the former New York City mayor said that he is ignoring a court order to surrender his luxury apartment.

The former personal lawyer to Donald Trump has been asked to hand over the property to Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss within seven days.

The property would partially satisfy a $148 million judgment that a Washington DC jury awarded Freeman and Moss in December 2023.

The property includes Giuliani’s Manhattan co-op apartment, a 1980 Mercedes, sports memorabilia and cash accounts. Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of destroying their reputations through lies that they tried to help steal the 2020 US presidential election from Trump.

By Samer Al-Atrush, Middle East Correspondent

When Donald Trump won his first election in 2016, he was welcomed with open arms by Middle East governments that had ended up loathing Barack Obama, who left office after straining relations with Israel, Egypt and much of the Gulf.

Trump came in with the promise of a business-first approach. “Trump was a merchant who conducted himself as a merchant and they love merchants,” a senior Arab official told me. “He came and sold American positions for the highest bidder.”

However, much has changed over the past four years and now Trump will be dealing with a region that has no appetite for the unpredictability that comes with him in the White House. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which had egged on Trump against Iran during his first term, have been forced to make peace with Tehran after it lashed out with attacks that disrupted Saudi’s oil production and shipping off the UAE’s coast.

Donald Trump could focus on a Gaza ceasefire while being “very tough” on Hezbollah and Iran, Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, has suggested.

“The theocrats in Iran will be extremely nervous about Trump’s election, because I think the likelihood would be that Trump will be more supportive of Israeli taking a tough line towards Iran, the source, let’s say, of most of the instability in the Middle East”, he told Times Radio.

“And there will certainly be Sunni leaderships, particularly Saudi Arabia, who are very enthusiastic about the return of Trump, because he was favourable to their interests in this deeper conflict in the Middle East between Shia and Sunni Islam.

“So I think on the Middle East, perhaps it’s easier to see the way forward. My expectation would be that Trump … focuses on a ceasefire in Gaza, but at the same time is very tough on Hezbollah and Iran. But I mean, that’s purely speculative.”

The Nato secretary-general is among world leaders seeking a meeting with the new US president-elect.

Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister, said on Thursday that strengthening ties between Russia and North Korea are not only a threat to European security, but also for the United States.

“Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea in return for North Korean help with the war against Ukraine and this is a threat not only to the European part of Nato but also to the US,” Rutte said before a meeting with European leaders in Budapest. “I look forward to sit[ting] down with Donald Trump to discuss how we face these threats collectively.”

Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, congratulated Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, on Thursday, who was a prominent backer of Donald Trump. Meloni said in a post on X that she had spoken to her “friend” Musk in recent hours.

“I’m convinced that his commitment and vision can be an important resource for the United States and Italy as we work together to meet the challenges of the future,” Meloni said.

The right-wing Italian prime minister and the world’s richest man have repeatedly praised each other in public in recent months, so much so that Musk replied to a joke on X in September to say the two were not having an affair.

Musk flew to Italy twice last year to meet Meloni in June and December. On Wednesday, Meloni also congratulated Trump after his victory.

The president-elect’s transition office is considering a plan to establish an 800-mile demilitarised zone along the front lines in Ukraine.

The proposal would also include assurances from Kyiv that it would not join Nato for at least 20 years, according to the Wall Street Journal. It would also confirm Russia’s seizure of approximately 20 per cent of formerly Ukrainian territory currently occupied since the invasion.

Neither the US nor a US-funded international body would police the demilitarised zone, but it remains unclear who would.

“We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European,” a member of Trump’s team told the WSJ. We are not sending American men and women to uphold peace in Ukraine. And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it.”

Among those present as Donald Trump gave his victory speech in Florida early on Wednesday was Nigel Farage.

The MP for Clacton is already involved in an attempt to persuade the president-elect to rip up a British deal to hand over the Chagos Islands, a strategic archipelago in the Indian ocean, according to reports. Legal advice criticising the deal to cede the islands to Mauritius was “put into the former president’s hands” by Farage, according to the Independent.

The justice department has begun considering how to bring to a close the two federal criminal cases pending against Donald Trump. It has a standing policy of not bringing criminal charges against sitting presidents.

Trump faces four charges in a federal court in Washington over his alleged role in trying to overturn the 2020 election result. In another federal case in Florida, he is charged with 40 felonies connected to his alleged retention of classified government documents.

Trump has already promised to fire Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who is overseeing the two cases. As president, Trump will be able to hire a new attorney-general, the head of the department, who would have control over the cases and the power to kill them off.

Donald Trump’s picks for his cabinet will reflect those who aided his stunning comeback to power.

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, bet heavily on a Trump presidency and will be rewarded with influence in the White House, possibly through a role promoting economic efficiency.

Advisers such a Stephen Miller, the architect of the Muslim ban, and Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, will inevitably be crucial to influencing the political direction of the new administration.

Miriam Adelson, the widow of the casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, was among the biggest donors to Trump’s re-election effort. She could be vital in helping Trump achieve his aims in the Middle East.

For secretary of state, contenders include the Florida senator Marco Rubio, the former national security adviser Robert O’Brien and the Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty.

Richard Grenell, the outspoken Trump loyalist who has been ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence, is an outside shot for secretary of state but would have a smoother route to becoming national security adviser, a post that does not require Senate confirmation.

John Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund manager and major Trump donor, is considered a potential candidate for Treasury secretary, along with Robert Lighthizer, who was the US trade representative under Trump.

Mike Pompeo, variously CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s last term, might be offered a role as secretary of defence. Tom Cotton, the conservative Arkansas senator, could also be in contention for defence.

Trump’s family will also be given senior positions. Widely mocked during Trump’s first presidency, “Don Jr”, 46, has emerged as a shrewd campaigner and trusted adviser with unrivalled influence within the Maga movement.

Barack Obama singled out inflation and the pandemic as two excuses for Harris’s poor performance in a tweet responding to Trump’s victory last night.

He said while the election was “not the outcome we had hoped for”, he accepted the need for a peaceful transition to power. The former president said his country had “been through a lot” in the last few years and that a lot of people felt as if they were “treading water”.

Obama was initially slow to endorse Harris when Biden stepped down, but swung behind her to appear at rallies during the campaign.

Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, will serve champagne to EU leaders in Budapest tonight and is touting himself as Donald Trump’s “point of reference” in Europe.

He tweeted last night: “Mar-a-Lago calling. Just had my first phone conversation with President Trump since the elections. We have big plans for the future.”

He will tell other EU leaders that it is now “necessary” to rethink their Ukraine strategy amid “concerns about Europe’s ability to continue its military and financial support for Ukraine without the support of the United States”.

Orban is also expected to tell leaders to “change the EU’s approach from one of war to one of peace”.

Iran has called Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election an opportunity for the United States to reassess past mistakes.

“We have very bitter experiences with the policies and approaches of different US governments in the past,” Esmaeil Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA on Thursday, adding Trump’s win was a chance “to review previous wrong policies”.

Donald Trump is preparing to appoint key senior members of his cabinet as Kamala Harris, the vice-president, promises to ensure the peaceful transfer of power in a concession speech last night.

The president-elect is being presented with a “wide array of experts” as he begins to form a government, according to aides.