South Carolina governor picked to be UN ambassador while DeVos chosen to lead education department, as the first women named for top-level positions
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9.24pm GMT
We’re going to wrap up our politics live blog coverage for the week. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all--even the haters and losers!
8.58pm GMT
Donald Trump told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he is going to “get” the company to start manufacturing its products in the United States, the president-elect told the New York Times on Tuesday.
Trump revealed that he had received a post-election phone call from Cook during which he said, “Tim, you know one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States.”
Related: Could Donald Trump really get Apple to 'build a big plant' in the US?
8.01pm GMT
1945: “Hey”
2016: “Hey”
1945: “How’s it going?”
2016: “…”
1945: “You let Nazis come—“
2016: “We let Nazis come back, yes…”
(h/t @daveweigel)
7.56pm GMT
Yes we cran.
.@POTUS: When someone says you can't have more Thanksgiving dinner, say, "Yes we cran." https://t.co/bJStXpl94S https://t.co/GaxpB8Wo9C
7.55pm GMT
Who writes this stuff.
.@POTUS: Malia and Sasha are thankful this is my final presidential turkey pardon, but there's no way I'm cutting this habit cold turkey. pic.twitter.com/RdMjj9OOvU
7.54pm GMT
Impeach.
Obama before pardoning the Turkey: "Yes we cran" Trump has big shoes to fill.
there's still time to impeach him right https://t.co/gNUqLuHLCJ
7.51pm GMT
Further reaction to the DeVos pick for education secretary:
Wonder if her brother, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, will get something too. https://t.co/fcE5sLef97
Trump's picked huge Koch donor club member, billionaire Amway heiress Betsy Devos, as Education Sec. Drain the swamp?
Interesting paragraph from @JaneMayerNYer's "Dark Money" re Betsy DeVos. pic.twitter.com/wXg9IHAoZz
7.51pm GMT
Obama closes with thanks from his family to the American people.
“Let’s get on with the pardoning because it’s Wednesday afternoon and everybody knows that Thanksgiving traffic can put everyone in a fowl mood.”
7.46pm GMT
Here goes Obama. He says he won’t embarrass his daughters with “a cornycopia of dad jokes about turkeys.”
The president gets off some strong punning:
No way I’m cutting this habit cold turkey’
7.43pm GMT
The turkey pardoning ceremony commences:
7.31pm GMT
The president of the national education association does not like the Betsy DeVos pick for education secretary:
Nominating Betsy DeVos shows just how out of touch @realdonaldtrump is with what works best for students, parents, educators & communities.
Many of you are asking about Common Core. To clarify, I am not a supporter—period. Read my full stance, here: https://t.co/qB2nAXvX0B
Vouchers, charters, and more: Trump's education secretary pick @BetsyDeVos has a huge #schoolchoice track record: https://t.co/yvFPpjwEI4 pic.twitter.com/Kap9mTPVIU
Very excited about Betsy DeVos as Ed Sec. Could be strongest since my boss, Bill Bennett--and Betsy will have a more cooperative Congress.
Here's what the main Democratic education reform group, @DFER_news, thinks: pic.twitter.com/bkttxLnnPV
Trump has chosen the most ideological, anti-public ed nominee since the creation of the Dept of Education. https://t.co/4NwFn5fzvx
I mean, American Federation for Children, which she chairs, has model voucher legislation as PDFs: https://t.co/y9yq5EDq3J
7.15pm GMT
Donald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on “politicized science”, his senior adviser on issues relating to the space agency has said.
Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding in favor of exploration of deep space, with the president-elect having set a goal during the campaign to explore the entire solar system by the end of the century.
Related: Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on ‘politicized science’
6.33pm GMT
Former Florida governor, education policy wonk and ex-presidential candidate Jeb Bush praises the DeVose pick, hailing her “allegiance to families”:
Betsy DeVos is an outstanding pick for Secretary of Education. I look forward to her bold leadership at the USDOE.https://t.co/PioGyTQe4t
Betsy DeVos is an outstanding pick for Secretary of Education.
She has a long and distinguished history championing the right of all parents to choose schools that best ensure their children’s success. Her allegiance is to families, particularly those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder, not to an outdated public education model that has failed them from one generation to the next.
Great pick by the President-elect. Mauricio Claver-Carone is one of the strongest advocates for a free Cuba. https://t.co/P9sgzaREvu
6.31pm GMT
Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, is prepared to request recounts of the election result in several key battleground states, her campaign said on Wednesday.
Stein launched an online fundraising page seeking donations toward a $2m fund she said was needed to request reviews of the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
6.21pm GMT
Donald Trump has released a statement describing grand plans for American education under the leadership of Betsy DeVos, his education secretary nominee. DeVos is a Michigan philanthropist who has chaired the state Republican party who “has kept a low national profile,” according to Chalkbeat: “She has neither worked in public education nor chosen public schools for her own children, who attended private Christian schools.”
DeVos’ husband, Dick, is an heir to the Amway fortune and a former company president, AP reports. Trump called DeVos “a brilliant and passionate education advocate.”
6.14pm GMT
Donald Trump has chosen charter school advocate Betsy DeVos to be his education secretary, the AP reports.
The nomination is subject to senate confirmation.
5.54pm GMT
Red, white and blue
Only in LA would this be the iconic image of Thanksgiving 2016 @ABC7 + The 405 #mydayinla pic.twitter.com/Zd7rKtcWyA
5.53pm GMT
George HW Bush, 92 years old and thankful:
Of course, Barbara and I feel blessed and #thankful to live in the greatest nation on earth and for the selfless patriots who keep us free. pic.twitter.com/4W37GIApbo
5.35pm GMT
When Jimmy Fallon cum Pepe tousled the future president-elect’s hair:
Still my favorite comment on the 2016 election pic.twitter.com/vxMDr2Gzov
5.19pm GMT
Turkey’s president is accusing anti-Donald Trump protesters in Western nations of not respecting democracy or the result of the US election, AP reports:
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also suggests that any leader who doesn’t serve the West’s interests is denounced as a despot.
He made the comments in Ankara, Turkey, at meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation.
5.04pm GMT
BERLIN (AP) The German government expressed revulsion Wednesday at Nazi-style salutes such as those performed at a recent far-right event in Washington, but said it was confident the United States can tackle the issue.
Video published by The Atlantic showed participants at the event Saturday raising their arms in salute during a speech by Richard Spencer, head of the white-nationalist National Policy Institute.
5.01pm GMT
The presidential campaign and election of Donald Trump has witnessed an outpouring of overtly anti-Semitic attacks through the mail, in graffito, in person and by other means.. Neo-Nazis held a conference last weekend in DC where they evoked Hitler. The movement may not be large but it’s visible and empowered with the rise of Trump, who claims not to want to boost white-supremacists and Nazis but who has managed to communicate extremely effectively to them that he is their man, and whose chief strategist proudly declared in July that his web-site was “the platform for the alt-right” meaning racists, white-supremacists, and neo-Nazis.
Those who discern a moment of historic global crisis in the rise of Trump garner among the evidence correspondence such as this:
Top Jewish Constitutional scholar Sanford Levinson, who is visiting professor at Harvard Law School, got this anti-Semitic letter yesterday: pic.twitter.com/H0bZ6a8XcL
This was sent from England. https://t.co/5Yes2lvNUt
On Monday, November 14, six days after Donald Trump’s election as the next president of the United States, and on the day that Trump had selected Steve Bannon to be his strategic adviser, I came home to a letter addressed to me personally, at my home.
The envelope contained four pages’ worth of anti-Semitic propaganda printed on three sheets of paper.
4.43pm GMT
Each year the turkeys up for presidential pardon come from an out-of-state farm. This year the turkey pair Tater and Tot are traveling from Iowa. The presidential turkey has its own Twitter feed. Check it out
The Domino Family: 4th generation Iowan farmers, 9 years raising turkeys, & caretakers of the Presidential Flock. #TurkeyPardon2016 pic.twitter.com/P9oDSrLCiH
The holiday tradition continues as The Willard welcomes two special guests, Tater and Tot, as they prepare for #TurkeyPardon2016 pic.twitter.com/1L6bPT8adk
Today President Obama will pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey. Yesterday I found Tater & Tot in their hotel suite @WillardHotel. pic.twitter.com/uH6ODadTZq
4.32pm GMT
Jesus wept.
INBOX from President-Elect Trump: Get your Trump Christmas ornament. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/i7LxWcIS9X
4.32pm GMT
In a sure addition to the holiday spirits of everyone, Donald Trump will appear today to deliver a Thanksgiving message, his transition team says.
It’s not yet known when Trump will appear. He’s at his Mar-a-Lago place in Palm Beach, Florida, where he’s spending the weekend.
[Trump’s spokespeople] did not elaborate on the president-elect’s activities today, saying the Trump family expects “some degree of privacy” during the holidays.
4.09pm GMT
Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of Donald Trump’s transition to the White House. Know-it-all Newt Gingrich has said that Trump’s bedimpled son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may need an “anti-nepotism” waiver to continue working with Trump, who told the New York Times yesterday that Kushner might achieve peace in the Middle East. (Trump seemed serious.)
“I think they would have to get a waiver to the anti-nepotism law,” Gingrich said on Fox News on Wednesday, in comments snagged by Politico. “That might be a little tricky, although I think if they worked at it, they could do it.”
"It was a pretty easy pick, really, for the president elect" @JasonMillerinDC says of Haley
Asked about Nikki Haley’s diplomatic qualifications, Jason Miller cites her "overseas trade and business recruitment missions”
Related: Donald Trump's 'alt-right' supporters express dismay at disavowal
Instead of any more takes on @realDonaldTrump, just please constantly share and re-share this gif. pic.twitter.com/LPxUDUXOLO
In today's @playbookplus, BANNON meets with CUBAN https://t.co/vukNfxV5Mp pic.twitter.com/EEsfpVsqeJ
DJ Rick Perry during Vanilla Ice's performance on #DWTS tonight pic.twitter.com/9z43h5a9Y4
Rick Perry had hoped to make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Instead, he only made it to A1A Beachfront Avenue https://t.co/I2lqqrmWuG
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