Trump News

Rupert Murdoch's conservative New York Post took a swipe at President-elect Donald Trump's pick for the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday night, joking that Mar-a-Lago must be seeing an outbreak of brain-eating worms.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that in 2010, a worm got into his brain, “ate a portion of it and then died.” At the time, he said he was suffering from cognitive difficulties. Doctors found it was a parasitic infection: A pork tapeworm larva.

At a popular LGBTQ cabaret in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, Lisa Frankenstein wasn't about to let the topic of Donald Trump go without mention.

"I don't know about all of you, but I've found it really hard to find a place to get my feelings out in a way that makes me feel better," the drag show host told a crowd at the Oasis nightclub last weekend, just days after the Republican's presidential reelection.

A former New York City mayor minced no words in describing his reaction to President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

"It is dangerous," Bill de Blasio told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night. "I mean that's the only way to say it."

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius didn’t mince words when it came to her thoughts about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. possibly taking over the position she once held.

“To have someone coming into a scientific agency that is a vaccine skeptic and may well undo decades of public health work I think is terrifying for the American public who rely on HHS from cradle to grave for resources for information for public health for oversight of our food and medicines,” Sebelius said. “And that to me is a very frightening aspect for the American public.”

Former President Donald Trump is now urging the Senate to go into recess so he can make executive branch appointments without requiring congressional approval — potentially including controversial picks like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for attorney general. This move has left some GOP allies uneasy, and one of Trump's own White House press secretary candidates has noted it would be "pushing the limits" of his authority.

CNN's Phil Mattingly told Jake Tapper that while presidents have often used recess appointments, no president has tried to strong-arm the Senate into recess solely to make these appointments.

A conservative writer for a well-known conservative publication on Thursday honed in on two key issues that he views as disqualifying for Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the country’s next Health and Human Services secretary – a selection he urged Republican senators to reject.

Writing that Senate confirmation of RFK Jr. would be “a monumental disaster,” National Review editor Philip Klein took issue with the wide grip the prominent anti-vaxxer would wield over the massive department, which oversees the FDA, CDC and National Institutes of Health.

Donald Trump's pick of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to lead the Justice Department, even as he faces a House Ethics Committee report on allegations he engaged in sex trafficking, illicit drugs, campaign finance offenses, and a number of other misdeeds, could prove too much for Senate Republicans, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN's Jake Tapper.

But all the same, she cautioned, one shouldn't underestimate the GOP's capacity to swallow their pride for Trump.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow joined her colleague Nicolle Wallace on Thursday afternoon to discuss the president-elect making good on his promise to appoint unqualified loyalists.

Maddow said it's time Americans "get real and realize this is really what we're up against."

Dr. Sanjay Gupta tries to stay above the political fray, said CNN anchor Jake Tapper, but he couldn't remain silent on his opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

"You know, it's not often that the entire medical and public health community will be in lock-step on something, but they're pretty close on this in terms of their significant concerns, horror even," about RFK Jr., said Gupta.

A CNN analyst said Thursday that Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet picks that continue to stun Capitol Hill are just another example that the president-elect better be taken “at his word.”

CNN’s Jamie Gangel revealed Republicans' private views about Trump’s still-evolving administration Thursday as news broke he'd offered Robert Kennedy Jr. the role of Health and Human Services secretary.

President-elect Donald Trump just put the "fox in charge of the henhouse," a livid CNN analyst said Thursday.

Trump's Truth Social announcement that he wanted vaccine-denier (and bear crime scene-stager) Robert F. Kennedy to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services outraged CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner.

Donald Trump has already queued up an uncomfortable loyalty test for Senate Republicans with a long string of controversial nominees even they would struggle to support, like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for attorney general — and it remains to be seen whether there will be any serious resistance. However, reportxed Paul Kane for The Washington Post, there are already signs that many Senate Republicans — particularly those from small states — are looking to "rally around their own" instead of Trump.

"Sen. John Thune (South Dakota) overcame doubts about his past criticism of President-elect Donald Trump and won his secret-ballot election in an old-fashioned manner. Thune assembled a coalition that began with other GOP allies from similarly small states, defeating big-state, big-money rivals from Texas and Florida," wrote Kane. He did so partly by assuring colleagues he would back Trump where important — but gave some hints that he might not align in some ways.

The House Ethics Committee reportedly heard testimony from a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) when she was 17 years old.

Sources familiar with the Ethics Committee investigation told ABC News that the woman testified for multiple days over the summer. The woman said Gaetz assaulted her while she was in high school, the sources said.