On Politics

Thu Jan 23 2025

Rebecca Morin | Senior National News Reporter

@RebeccaMorin_

Howdy! It's Rebecca Morin, senior national news reporter at USA TODAY. Currently devastated that "Challengers" didn't get a SINGLE Oscar nomination.

Key Trump Cabinet pick moves one step closer to being confirmed

Some of President Donald Trump's Cabinet picks are on their way to confirmation. The Senate on Thursday cleared a key hurdle to confirming Pete Hegseth , Trump's pick to lead the Defense Department. It looks like he's on his way to a full confirmation vote on Friday. The nominee has faced allegations of sexual assault, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, along with other accusations. Read more.

•	Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against Hegseth. Follow live updates here.

Trump also had another Cabinet win. His pick to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe, was confirmed with a bipartisan 74-25 vote Thursday afternoon. He's the second of the president's picks to clear a vote after Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Read more.

•	Rubio, who was confirmed Monday, will make his first trip abroad to Panama – a country Trump has railed against as he's promoted reclaiming the Panama Canal.

More votes are set for the coming days, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump's nominee to be the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on Sunday.

President Donald Trump holds an executive grant of clemency in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday.

Kevin Lamarque, REUTERS

A politics pit stop

•	Breaking: Trump orders release of secret JFK, RFK and MLK assassination documents
•	This former president got love from Trump at his inauguration. Here's why.
•	Read what Biden wrote in a letter to Trump
•	Trump picks agent who shielded him in assassination attempt to lead Secret Service
•	Environmental justice advocates say Trump's orders ignore reality
•	Trump's first trip set for North Carolina and California

Judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship order

Some of Donald Trump's executive actions are already being blocked. A federal judge on Thursday blocked the president from implementing his executive order that would end automatic citizenship for children whose parents are foreign nationals, whether they're here legally or not. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said "this is a blatantly unconstitutional order." Read more.

Trump slams foes, outlines vision: 5 takeaways in first sit-down interview as president

With the Resolute desk in the backdrop, Donald Trump gave his first sit-down interview since being sworn in as president to ally and Fox News Host Sean Hannity. Trump in the wide-ranging interview spent time airing grievances he had with the past administration, saying he will work to undo many of Joe Biden's policies. He also laid out his vision for his own administration, such as overhauling FEMA. Read more.

•	Fox News aired the first half of the Hannity interview on Wednesday. A second part of the interview will be aired Thursday evening. Watch highlights of the interview here.

Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics? You can submit them here or send me an email at rdmorin@usatoday.com.