Trump endorses Mike Johnson, responds to Jimmy Carter's death 21 days ahead of inauguration

WASHINGTON - With just 21 days to go until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump is solidifying his cabinet and sharing support for policies backed by Elon Musk, all while battling a sexual abuse verdict. Here's the latest. 

Trump endorses Mike Johnson for House Speaker

President-elect Donald Trump endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson Monday ahead of a critical vote this week. 

Trump said Johnson "is a good, hard working, religious man" and said he "will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN" in a post on Truth Social. 

Johnson thanked Trump, saying he is "honored and humbled" by the support. 

The support from Trump comes despite frustration from Republicans over a spending deal Johnson pushed through the House that failed to raise the debt limit. 

Far-right criticism over the spending ordeal has left Johnson’s continued leadership of the incoming GOP majority once again in jeopardy. Though a deal was reached, averting a holiday shutdown, Johnson had to rely on Democrats to keep the government running, highlighting the limits of his influence and exposing cracks in his party’s support.

The speaker’s first two funding plans collapsed as Trump, who does not take the oath of office until Jan. 20, interceded with calls to suspend or lift the government debt ceiling.

Johnson now faces a Jan. 3 leadership vote with a very narrow margin – he can only lose a single Republican vote to still win the seat. 

Rep. Victoria Spartz, one of the Republicans who opposed Kevin McCarthy’s initial bid for the speakership, said in a statement Monday that "our next speaker must show courageous leadership to get our country back on track."

The Indiana lawmaker went on to make a series of demands for the next leader of the GOP majority, which included major spending reform. Rep. Andy Harris, who is the chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, had also indicated that Johnson’s future as speaker is not guaranteed before the holidays.

In a Dec. 20 post on X, Harris said that Republicans have not done enough to bring down "spending, deficits and inflation" since Trump’s electoral victory in November.

Because of this, Harris wrote, "I am now undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress."

Appeals court upholds $5 million award in sexual abuse verdict against Trump 

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.

The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.

Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in an $83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump's lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had made multiple decisions that spoiled the trial, including his decision to allow two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify.

The judge also had allowed the jury to view the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump boasted in 2005 about grabbing women’s genitals because when someone is a star, "you can do anything."

"We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings," the 2nd Circuit said. "Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial."

Jimmy Carter dead at 100: Trump & Biden respond

In the wake of former President Jimmy Carter's death, President Joe Biden addressed the nation. 

"Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character. Faith and humility mattered, but I don't believe it's a bygone era," Biden said. "We'd all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter."

"Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character. Faith and humility mattered, but I don't believe it's a bygone era," Biden said. "We'd all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter."

"Decency, decency, decency. … Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk?"

President-elect Trump issued a statement on Sunday remembering Carter and his late wife Rosalynn Carter.

"Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude."

Trump later wrote that although he "strongly" disagreed with Carter philosophically and politically, he realized that the former president "truly loved and respected" the U.S. and all it stands for.

"He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect," Trump said. "He was truly a good man and, of course, will be greatly missed. He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office."

Flags to fly at half staff on Inauguration Day

After the passing of former president Jimmy Carter, flags are expected to be at half staff when Donald Trump is sworn in to his second term on Inauguration Day.

What we know: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs states that the flag should fly at half-staff for 30-days following the death of a president or former president. For other political figures, like a vice president or Supreme Court chief justice, the time period of mourning is ten days.

Under this understanding, the flag would remain at half staff until at least January 28.

The backstory: This isn't the first time a presidential death has put flags at half staff on Inauguration Day. Harry Truman's death in December 1972 left flags at half staff for when President Richard Nixon was sworn in for his second term in January 1973.

The rules for flying a flag at half staff were created in 1954 under a proclamation from President Dwight Eisenhower.

H-1B visa feud: Trump defends visas amidst rift

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump defended the H-1B visa, a program that allows highly skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the U.S. 

The issue has divided his supporters, many of whom championed his hardline immigration policies. 

"I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them," Trump told The New York Post on Saturday.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramazwamy, Trump’s picks to run the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, posted on social media in favor of expanding the visa program. Both entrepreneurs in the tech industry, they rely on workers with H-1B visas. 

"If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win," Musk wrote on X.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said in a FOX News interview that H1-B visas are being "abused" in the U.S. and argues that many American workers are being forced to "train their replacements."

"I think the abuses of the H-1B program have been evident, where you have sort of the sons and daughters of those factory workers who lost their jobs, got white collar jobs as accountants, and they're, you know, training their replacements, the foreign workers who are undercutting their wages," said Schmitt. "So I think the solution here President Trump has actually articulated in 2020 is to reform that system and, you know, get rid of the abuses, make it merit-based and make sure that we're not undercutting wages and having, you know, Americans train their foreign replacements." 

The debate between  the factions of Trump’s supporters played out on social media, with Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur, going head-to-head with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks.

Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.

"There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent," he said in a post. "It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley."

Looking ahead to 2025: Donald Trump & JD Vance 

With under a month until Trump’s inauguration, Republican strategist Corrine Clark says she thinks Trump will "hit the ground running on some things that are within his executive control." 

"I also think he has the power to set the tone on dismantling a lot of these deep state executive agencies that he's running against. I think he will direct Congress on that," said Clark to FOX 5’s Steve Chenevey. "I know he said his favorite word, the most beautiful word in the English language is tariffs. So we can also hope for some big economic news coming out of the next administration that will empower the American worker and hopefully get our economy back on track."

When it comes to Vice President-Elect JD Vance, Democratic strategist Nicole Brener-Schmitz says his role is "a tricky one." 

"I's really dependent on what the president sort of tasks them and gives them as this is their responsibility," said Brener-Schmitz. "We haven't seen much of Vance even since the election… we see a lot of Trump, we see a lot of his cabinet picks. We see a lot of Elon Musk. And Trump has a hard time, you know, really sharing that that center stage. So I'll be curious to see what he ends up giving Vance to really have under his purview. But I sincerely hope it has nothing to do with foreign policy."

Clark says Vance should focus on the "interests of the American worker." 

"I think he will have a large role in directing Congress to defend our workers, to defend our families, to implement tax credits for families that make America a more affordable place to live and a better place to be for a family. And that will also encourage people to have kids, which I think is great," said Clark. 

Looking into 2025, both Clark and Brener-Schmitz both stressed the necessity of reaching across the aisle. 

"I also want to focus on the American public and promoting a better environment for everyone to live," said Clark. "I think that means getting a lot of people on board with these bipartisan Trump agenda talking points that we've heard this whole election cycle, supporting our economy, supporting our workers, defending our families."

"Is there some government waste? Sure," said Brener-Schmitz. "But let's keep our humanity in this. Let's not just mass deport people. Let's make sure that we are keeping good union jobs so that people can be raising their families."

Trump transition news today

• Why has Russia rejected Trump’s Ukraine truce plan? (Al Jazeera)
• Sen. Cardin says Trump's tough talk on Panama Canal could push allies to China, Russia (ABC News)
• In shift, Trump downgrades soaring rhetoric on campaign promises (The Hill)

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