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A Donald Trump presidency is sure to have reverberations at the United Nations (U.N.), and first on the chopping block could be its funding. 

The U.N. currently relies on the U.S. for about a third of its budget. President Biden increased U.S. financial contributions to the U.N., boosting it from $11.6 billion in 2020 to $18.1 billion in 2022. This gives a new administration wiggle room to withhold funds to the U.N. if its global interests do not align with the U.S.’, a notion some Republicans have already pushed for. 

The U.S. gave about three times as much that year as the next-highest contributors, Germany at $6.8 billion and Japan at $2.7 billion. 

“They will have to recalibrate now very much again in the Trump administration that will, I believe, be much more attentive, engaged and monitoring of the U.N.,” predicted Hugh Dugan, a longtime member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. 

“There are teams there that have been sleepwalking the last few years without U.S. pressure on accountability, efficiency and effectiveness.”

Trump will be in office when the international body elects its next secretary general in 2026, and the U.S. will have veto power over any candidate. 

“Over the next year and a half, it’s going to make an effort to look more managerially competent to avoid some of the stern green eyes seated across here – attention that Elon Musk and the Trump team will want to bring to the consideration of the secretary general selection.”

A Donald Trump presidency is sure to have reverberations at the United Nations, and first on the chopping block could be its funding. ( Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

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Trump would also likely once again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and the U.N. Global Compact on Migration. 

The U.N. particularly relies on the U.S. for global aid programs. In 2022, it provided half of all contributions to the World Food Programme, and about a third of all contributions to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the International Organization for Migration.

“There’s no doubt the U.N. is frightened and horrified,” of Trump taking office, said Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch. 

“We’re going to see budget cuts,” he said. “The most memorable being UNRWA.” 

President Biden addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Sept. 24, 2024. (REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs)

Trump cut funding to the organization that distributes aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Biden led the U.S. in reinstating that aid and earmarking $1 billion for UNRWA – before freezing that aid when it was revealed that some employees had links to Hamas. 

“I would say the Human Rights Office, which is based in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council, America gives voluntary funds to that bureaucracy. I could see that being cut,” Neuer said. 

Some wonder whether Trump and a Republican-led Congress might try to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. entirely. The GOP-controlled House passed a spending bill in June that would eliminate funding for the U.N.’s regular budget.

However, despite an adversarial tone toward global institutions, Trump is not expected to stop dealing with the U.N. altogether. In his first administration, he enjoyed a good relationship with Secretary General António Guterres, inviting him to the White House, and seemed to enjoy his yearly address to the General Assembly and the pageantry of world leaders traipsing through the New York City headquarters. 

“He engaged personally up there quite a lot. And during the opening of the General Assembly, he brought the White House up there, frankly, and lived up there for that week every year and operated. He recognizes the value of the organization, if just as a meeting place,” said Dugan.

The race to replace United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will take place in 2026. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

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Trump could also seek to push candidates for leadership over agencies like UNICEF and the World Food Programme that challenge U.N. orthodoxy and encourage American employment across the agency to counter China’s growing influence. 

China doubled the number of its nationals employed at the U.N. to nearly 15,000 from 2009 to 2021. 

“This was very much in the mind of the Trump administration when I worked in the White House that China’s growing its influence in subtle and not so subtle ways throughout the organization, affording it a globalized platform of legitimacy that they’re ready and willing to exploit to their national ends,” said Dugan. 

“The U.S. has to study the terrain of the organization better and identify, in particular, the key posts and influential offices that we should show up with our best talent and make sure that we are effective. The Chinese have been doing that really well.”

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Additionally, though the Biden administration did buck a number of U.N. resolutions that targeted Israel, he was naturally more supportive of international organizations as a whole. 

On Tuesday, voters in various states decided on ballot initiatives that would determine whether to expand and fund environmental and climate-related projects in their states.

In Berkeley, California, voters shot down a ballot measure to impose a tax on buildings 15,000 square feet or larger using natural gas, or appliances such as gas stoves for heat.

At the state level, California voters passed a ballot measure to finance climate projects across the state.

California voters passed Proposition 4, which will create a $10 billion taxpayer-funded bond for climate projects, including improvements to drinking water, wildfire prevention efforts, and protecting coastal areas from rises in sea level.

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The large Barren Ridge solar panel array is viewed from Highway 58 on April 4, 2017 near Mojave, California. (George Rose)

Prior to its passing, opponents of the measure warned that there would be financial implications for such projects and that the state should not take a loan-based approach to climate-related mitigation.

On Election Day, voters in Washington rejected an initiative to repeal the state’s climate policy.

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Residents voted against Washington Initiative 2117, which would have repealed the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The measure would have repealed the 2021 law and prohibited state agencies from implementing any carbon cap-and-trade system.

A wind turbine farm in the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington state side of the river. (Don and Melinda Crawford)

Proponents of the bill have heavily criticized the law and claim the current carbon tax has increased energy costs. A group opposing the bill, however, told Fox News Digital that passing the measure would mean “more pollution in our air and water.”

“Washingtonians said loud and clear that they value clean air and clean water — and they don’t want to go backwards,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement. “Washingtonians showed that they reject cynicism, and they support action and innovation to protect our kids’ and grandkids’ health. This a victory for clean air, clean energy jobs, and a stronger economy in the Evergreen State.”

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Rhode Island passed Question 4 on their ballots for a $53-million bond for land preservation, while Minnesota voters voted in favor of Amendment 1 to earmark funds from the state lottery to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund for environmental projects.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it is seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his second term. 

With two other cases outstanding and the legal jeopardy expected to diminish in the months ahead, here’s a timeline of Trump’s legal troubles after his first departure from the Oval Office. 

Federal cases

Classified documents case

Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts in June 2023 on charges stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump’s team initially requested a partial pause in light of the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States, wherein the court held that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts. 

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Judge Aileen Cannon eventually dismissed the case against Trump in July, finding that Smith was improperly appointed to the special counsel role under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

The Appointments Clause states, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

Smith was never confirmed by the Senate.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday it is seeking to wind down two federal criminal cases against President-elect Trump ahead of his second term. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Smith appealed the decision in August, with the filing reading, “The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded.”

Election interference case

Smith filed another indictment in connection to his investigation against Trump in August 2023. He was indicted on four federal charges stemming out of the probe, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued he should be immune from prosecution from official acts done as president of the United States. 

In July this year, the Supreme Court in its ruling on presidential immunity sent the matter back to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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Trump was indicted a second time in August. The new indictment maintained the previous criminal charges but narrowed the allegations after the Supreme Court ruling, clarifying Trump’s role as a current candidate and making clear the allegations regarding his conversations with then-Vice President Mike Pence in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate. 

The 165-page filing submitted by Smith, in which he laid out the case and alleged evidence he would use in an eventual trial against the president-elect, was unsealed in early October. Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered more documents to be open to the public later that month, just weeks before the presidential election. 

Trump’s team moved to dismiss Smith from the case in late October, arguing he was unlawfully appointed. 

State cases

Manhattan hush money case 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump in 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree relating to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bragg alleged Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right, indicted Trump in 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree relating to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. (Emily Elconin/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The president-elect was later found guilty on all counts, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime. He appealed the decision.

His sentencing date was initially set for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention where he was set to be formally nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. Judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing to Sept. 18 and once again to Nov. 26, after the presidential election.

Trump’s team requested the case be removed to federal court in October this year, citing the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and thus arguing he cannot be prosecuted for official acts he performed as president. Merchan is also scheduled to make a decision on Nov. 12 on Trump’s motion to vacate the case.

Georgia election case 

Trump was indicted in Georgia in August 2023 after a yearslong criminal investigation led by state prosecutors into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

In early 2023, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying District Attorney Fani Willis, pictured, failed to allege sufficient detail. (Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)

In early 2023, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying District Attorney Fani Willis failed to allege sufficient detail. It was then thrown into disarray when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade was later removed.

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The Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceeding in June until it heard the case to disqualify Willis. The court also said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the election.

When reached by Fox News Digital for comment on the state of the president-elect’s legal cases on Thursday, the Trump campaign said, “The American people have re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to Make America Great Again.”

“It is now abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, so we can, as President Trump said in his historic speech yesterday, unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

As the political left reflects on the 2024 election results, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., warned that “vilifying voters of color as white supremacists” will only push them further toward President-elect Trump.

“Popular explanations for the outcome of the election seem to include white supremacy, patriarchy, misogyny…” Torres noted in a post on X. 

“I am going to state the obvious here: vilifying voters of color as white supremacists will not attract them back to the Democratic Party. It will drive them further into Trump’s camp. The purpose of politics is not to repel but to attract. Condescension is the most powerful repellant in politics. Voters viscerally resent condescension and will punish you for it at the ballot box,” he added.

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Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York has said that demonizing “voters of color as white supremacists” will push them further toward President-elect Trump. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Trump soundly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday to win the 2024 White House contest. 

Torres has suggested that signs of the impending drubbing were clear.

“The signs of a decisive defeat were staring us in the face all along. We were simply in denial about them or willfully blind to them, substituting magical thinking for actual analysis,” he declared in a tweet.

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“Voters viscerally resent condescension and will punish you for it at the ballot box,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the presidential election. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“In recent history, there’s no precedent for an incumbent party winning a presidential election when the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the right track or headed in the right direction is in the 20s. The structural challenge was simply insurmountable,” he added.

Torres, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2021 and won another term in office during the 2024 election, has accused the “far left” of alienating people from the Democratic Party.

“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” the congressman opined in a post on X.

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Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said the far left panders to Twitter, Twitch and TikTok and is not representative of the real world. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

“There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling,” he added.

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The lawmaker has also suggested that his side of the political aisle should not push the idea that they suffer from a “messaging problem.”

“We should expunge from our vocabulary the words: we have a ‘messaging problem,'” Torres wrote on X. “When over 70% of Americans think we are on the wrong track or headed in the wrong direction, that is not a messaging problem. That is reality problem.

“Inflation and immigration are not ‘messaging problems.’ These are realities that produced discontent widespread enough to hand Donald Trump the presidency. We ignore the real-world messages that these realities send at our own peril,” he warned.

EXCLUSIVE: The tumultuous two years of the 118th Congress are likely to be capped by one more standoff over government spending.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., signaled to Fox News Digital that it was unlikely Republicans will move to kick fiscal 2025 federal funding discussions into the new year.

But he reiterated vows that House Republicans would fight against rolling all 12 annual appropriations bills into one large “omnibus” package, setting up a possible showdown with Senate Democrats.

“The ideal scenario would be we get an agreement for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Scalise said.

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise suggested he wants Congress to sort out fiscal 2025 funding before President-elect Trump comes to office so he can focus on current matters. (Getty Images)

He cited constraints on national security if Congress were to simply extend fiscal 2024 funding levels.

“When you think about defense funding, it costs us money to have short-term funding bills when you cannot do long-term procurement, to buy the kind of long-range defense systems that we need to compete with China,” Scalise said. “China is not operating on short-term spending bills, neither should we.”

Before recessing in September, House Republicans and Senate Democrats agreed to extend fiscal 2024 funding levels through what’s known as a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

That bought congressional negotiators through Dec. 20 to hash out a deal.

At the time, several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump demanded that the CR run into the new year in the hopes a new Republican administration would take the reins, something opposed by senior GOP lawmakers and national security hawks.

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Scalise cited concerns that a clean funding extension of last year’s levels could put the U.S. behind China in new military technology. Pictured here is Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)

If Republicans win the House in addition to the Senate and White House, Trump will have a say over how a GOP-controlled Congress handles spending in the fall next year. A number of House races remain undecided days after Tuesday’s general election.

Scalise also cited several other priorities, like the border crisis and extending tax cuts, that will take up much of the beginning of Trump’s term.

As for this year’s negotiations, however, both sides are still far apart.

House Republicans have accused Senate Democrats of slow-walking the process without having passed any of their own spending bills on the floor in a bid to force the GOP to swallow an end-of-year “omnibus” with excess spending and little transparency.

Democrats have in turn criticized House Republicans’ spending bills, several of which passed the House floor, as pushing draconian cuts and conservative policies deemed “non-starters.”

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not yet ruled out an omnibus this year. (Reuters/Cheney Orr)

“We have a lot of conversations to have with our members about the best approach,” Scalise said. “When we had left, we had already passed over 70% of the government funding bills through the House, and the Senate hadn’t passed any.”

“We’re trying to get agreements on the individual bills. That’s why the House did our job … hopefully we can start getting those agreements when we return.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about whether he anticipates an omnibus, which he has ushered through the Senate nearly every year he’s been majority leader, at the end of this year.

If an agreement is not reached by Dec. 20, the country could face a partial government shutdown just weeks before the new presidential administration.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is running to lead the Senate Republican campaign arm in the next election cycle, sharing the announcement exclusively with Fox News Digital.

On Friday, Scott launched his bid to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 2026 midterm cycle, after speculation last month that he planned to do so.

“Let’s do this! I’m running for NRSC Chair because two years of a Republican agenda is good, but four years of success under Donald J. Trump is even better,” he told Fox News Digital in a statement.

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Scott is hoping to lead Republicans in the next cycle of Senate elections. (Reuters)

“That means the entire four years of his presidency will create low inflation, secure borders and safe streets, leading to a generation of American prosperity! With Donald J. Trump in the White House and Republicans leading the U.S. Senate, we will protect our majority in 2026 and create opportunities for all Americans.” 

The South Carolina senator ran for president in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out and endorsing Trump. He was also considered a contender to be Trump’s running mate before Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, was chosen. 

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Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Scott additionally rolled out three high-profile endorsements to go with his campaign announcement.

Current NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., who just successfully led the campaign arm in helping Republicans take back the majority, has thrown his support behind Scott. 

“We took back the U.S. Senate in 2024, and there is no one I trust more to protect the majority in 2026 than Tim Scott,” Daines said in a statement. 

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Sen. Tim Scott spoke at a South Carolina GOP delegation breakfast Wednesday (Getty Images)

The South Carolina Republican was also endorsed by Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo.

“Tim’s inspiring message, record of fundraising and vision for the party makes him the perfect partner for President Trump,” Barrasso said. “Together, they will protect and grow the Republican majority. There’s nobody better than Tim Scott.”

“Protecting the majority and growing the party starts with a vision and the resources to compete anywhere. That is why I’m confident in Tim leading the NRSC into 2026,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in his own statement backing Scott. 

ELECTION NIGHT WINNERS AND LOSERS: 2024 EDITION

Minority voters shifted toward Trump in 2024. (iStock)

The election will be held on Nov. 13 and decided via a secret ballot along with other Senate GOP leadership races. 

Scott’s bid for the top NRSC role comes on the heels of the Republican Party and Trump seeing significant gains across the country with minorities in the 2024 elections. 

As one of only four Black senators in the 118th Congress and the only Black Republican senator, Scott has made a variety of efforts to reach minority voters on behalf of the GOP. 

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In the last three months, he held a Black financial literacy event in North Carolina, an event on Black Opportunity Zones in Wisconsin, a Black pastor event in Michigan and school choice events in Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Chicago. 

He also joined fellow Black Republican representatives Burgess Owens, R-Utah; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; John James, R-Mich.; and Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, earlier in the year to launch a weekly video series dedicated to the voices of Black members of the GOP. The series was called “America’s Starting Five.” 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub

Something suddenly struck me as I tracked all the finger-pointing and blame-shifting over Kamala Harris losing badly to Donald Trump.

As we watched her 107-day campaign, most of the coverage was absolutely glowing, as she was depicted as an inspiring trailblazer who would unify the country.

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But about five minutes after Donald Trump was declared president-elect, a very different portrait emerged.

Harris had run an awful campaign, making all sorts of missteps and blunders. She hadn’t done this, that and the other thing. She wasn’t up to the challenge. She couldn’t meet the moment.

Now they tell us?

A side-by-side of Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Images)

Doesn’t this suggest that the journalists, commentators and analysts were covering for her? That they knew the vice president was faltering, flubbing and failing, and weren’t being straight about it?

Well, here’s what that brings to mind.

For most of his term, President Biden was portrayed as a competent chief executive, maybe lacking pizazz, but more than capable of getting things done, whether you liked his policies or not.

Some age-related stories surfaced earlier this year, but both White House officials and those covering Biden assured readers and viewers that he was, in one phrase,

“sharp as a tack.”

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And then came the debate. Boom! The country saw the president struggling to form coherent sentences against Trump, and he would soon be pressured out of the race.

At that point, many media figures said sure, they had seen Biden’s mental acuity decline, and yes, he had often been hidden from them, but wasn’t it obvious? A few said White House officials had told them as long as two years earlier that there was no way Biden was capable of running for reelection. But of course that was off the record.

Vice President Kamala Harris gestures as she delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

In short, even as the president was looking confused or turning the wrong way, much of the press covered for him.

And you wonder why the media’s credibility ratings are in the toilet.

In the case of Harris, just as in the case of Biden, many journalists obscured the harsh reality of their problems until it was no longer in their interest to do so.

We’re getting a major dose of this because of all the sniping between the Harris and Biden camps.

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“Democrats are directing their rage over losing the presidential race at Joe Biden, who they blame for setting up Kamala Harris for failure by not dropping out sooner,” Politico reports.

“They say his advancing age, questions over his mental acuity and deep unpopularity put Democrats at a sharp disadvantage. They are livid that they were forced to embrace a candidate who voters had made clear they did not want — and then stayed in the race long after it was clear he couldn’t win.”

On the same site, columnist Jonathan Martin says “the Biden sympathizers want to pin her loss on, well, her. And the Harris defenders believe Biden’s undeniably at fault for creating the forbidding political environment she proved unable to overcome.

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“How can Harris’s defenders grumble about being dragged down by Biden when she could not find one substantive policy issue on which to break from the unpopular incumbent?”

What’s more, “where was the daring? There was no full-throated attempt at defensive politics and reassuring the country she’d govern from the center and reject extremists in both parties…If the other side assails you as a liberal without any clear and sustained response, well, voters will believe the attacks. Given the scale of difficulty she faced — and, yes, how bad that initial, internal polling was — why not take some risks?”

Now there were some suggestions, including from me, that Harris was being too cautious and sticking to talking points. I argued from the day she passed over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro that Tim Walz would do nothing for the ticket; now many pundits are simply stating that as fact. 

One exception to the wait-till-it’s-over approach is this mid-October piece in Axios:

“Many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his reelection bid and are still adjusting to being in a supportive role on the campaign trail…Some on the Harris team say that top White House aides aren’t sufficiently coordinating Biden’s messaging and schedule to align with what’s best for the vice president’s campaign.”

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The media have plenty to answer for in the wake of this election, including how they underestimated Trump’s chances and appeal to voters, and failed to grasp why Harris’ party seemed out of touch to many in the working class. 

But painting a rosy scenario when things were actually dark for Harris – even if there’s nothing she could have done to stop the Trump juggernaut – ranks right up there.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest political news from Washington, D.C.

Here’s what’s happening…

– 8 possible replacements for VP-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat

– How Kamala Harris’ failed 2024 presidential run mirrors her ill-fated 2020 campaign

– JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, will become first Indian American second lady

‘Peaceful and orderly’ transfer of power

President Biden addressed the nation from the Rose Garden on Thursday after his vice president, Kamala Harris, conceded the 2024 presidential election to President-elect Trump.

In brief remarks, Biden announced that he spoke with Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him on his victory and assure him that the entire Biden administration will work with his team “to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.” 

“That’s what the American people deserve,” Biden said…Read more

WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 07: U.S. President Joe Biden departs the Rose Garden after speaking on the 2024 election in the Rose Garden on November 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. Former President Donald Trump defeated Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden pledged to work with the Trump team to ensure a smooth transition and invited the former President for an Oval Office meeting. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

White House

DOUBLE DOWN: President Trump and Grover Cleveland: How presidential candidates triumphantly returned to the White House…Read more

IRAN’S ENEMY: Iran ‘terrified’ of Trump presidency as currency falls to an all-time low…Read more

‘FULL FIREPOWER’: ACLU vows to oppose Trump policies on LGBT issues, abortion and deportations…Read more

CABINET CANDIDATES: Here are the most talked-about candidates for top posts in Trump’s administration…Read more

FLORIDA TO DC?: DeSantis floats Florida surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo as candidate for Trump’s HHS secretary…Read more

CHIEF OF STAFF: Longtime Republican political operative Susie Wiles top contender for President-elect Trump’s Chief of Staff…Read more

‘YOU’LL LOSE’: Xi Jinping warns Trump US would ‘lose from confrontation’ with China as renewed trade war looms…Read more

Picture split showing China’s President Xi Jinping and President-elect Donald Trump. (Xi photo: Pedro Pardo – Pool/Getty Images| Trump photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Capitol Hill

GARDEN STATE VOTES: GOP Rep Thomas Kean projected to survive Susan Altman’s challenge in hotly contested New Jersey district…Read more

TEXAS REPUBLICAN SAFE: GOP Rep Monica De La Cruz projected to win re-election in Texas, fending off Democrat Michelle Vallejo…Read more

‘DOWN TO THE WIRE’: Steve Scalise predicts House control may be decided today…Read more

TRUMP FARM TEAM?: Rep.Massie ‘willing to help’ as agriculture secretary, but hasn’t received ‘commitments or offers’ …Read more

‘COMMITTED TO OUR VALUES’: Chuck Schumer preps for return to Senate minority after GOP victory…Read more

TIME TO MOVE ON?: House Democrat says the party needs to get past ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’…Read more

SOMBER ANNOUNCEMENT: Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly announces cancer diagnosis 2 days after winning re-election…Read more

U.S. Congressman Gerry Connolly seen in his official portrait. (connolly.house.gov)

INCUMBENT OUSTED: New York Dem Laura Gillen ousts incumbent Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in toss-up House race…Read more

RACE TO THE TOP: Rick Scott sees red wave as ‘best case scenario’ for Senate leader bid as he lobbies Trump for support…Read more

POWER GRAB: House leaders move quickly to consolidate power in show of confidence for Republican takeover…Read more

STAYING RED: Trump-backed incumbent Rep. Scott Perry wins re-election in Pennsylvania…Read more

Trail Dust

BIG TENT: Trump’s big tent: President-elect improved on 2020 performance in 4 counties with big minority populations…Read more

ACHILLES HEEL?: How Harris’ campaign was dogged by border czar, radical immigration views…Read more

‘MORALITY MATTERS’: Pro-life advocate says Trump victory is ‘huge’ for Catholic voters: ‘Morality matters’…Read more

GO WOKE, GO BROKE: New York Democrat rips ‘far left’ for Trump victory: ‘Ivory-towered nonsense’…Read more

‘NO RESPECT’: Top Philly Dem torches Harris camp as Dem blame game intensifies…Read more

‘DISASTROUS CAMPAIGN’: Bernie Sanders excoriates Democratic Party, calls campaign ‘disastrous’ after Trump victory…Read more

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 20, 2024.  (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

‘DOOMED’: Experts say this crucial campaign decision led to VP Harris’ ‘disastrous’ defeat…Read more

GENDER THEORY: Kamala Harris underperformed Biden’s numbers with women. South Dakota’s governor thinks she knows why…Read more

FAILED MOVEMENT: Moderate Republicans buck Cheney, throw support behind Trump…Read more

Across America

‘READY TO FIGHT’: Blue state gov summons legislature in response to Trump victory…Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Trump (Getty/AP)

BECOMING NAZI GERMANY?: Federal military draft agency reposts message suggesting US is becoming 1936 Nazi Germany: report…Read more

‘DECEPTIVE MANNER’: Giuliani set to appear in New York City courtroom after missing deadline to turn over assets…Read more

LEGAL LIMBO: Where does Trump’s New York sentencing stand after massive election win?…Read more

Get the latest updates on the Trump presidential transition, incoming Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

President-elect Trump won a majority Hispanic county in Texas for the first time in over 100 years on Tuesday night in a massive swing since losing that same county eight years ago.

Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in Starr County on Tuesday night by a margin of 57.7% to 41.8%, becoming the first Republican to carry the county, which sits along the U.S.-Mexico border, since 1898, Fox 4 Dallas reported.

In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Trump there by 60 points, a 76-point swing. 

Census data from 2020 shows that over 90% of residents in Starr County identify as Hispanic or Latino. 

TRUMP’S STAMINA AT AGE 78 IMPRESSES THE EXPERTS: ‘MENTAL AND PHYSICAL RESILIENCE’

Former President Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on Sept. 18. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump’s historic performance in Starr County comes in an election where he continued to make inroads with Hispanic voters nationwide.

Trump gained 6 points of support from Hispanics over 2020, leaving Democrats single-digit favorites among the bloc, according to data compiled by the Financial Times and other outlets.

FOX NEWS CHANNEL DRAWS MORE THAN 10 MILLION VIEWERS ON ELECTION NIGHT AS TRUMP’S HISTORIC VICTORY UNFOLDED

Border Patrol picks up a group of asylum seekers from an aid camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Sasabe, Arizona. (Justin Hamel/Getty Images)

Trump flipped Miami-Dade County in Florida, one of the largest Latino communities in the nation, winning it by about 2% more than President Biden did in 2020.

“Hispanics are people of faith, family, hard work, searching for the American dream, and I think those are the values of the Republican Party” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican who represents the southern half of Miami plus the Keys, told Fox News Digital.

“The Democrat Party has gone way left to the extreme left, almost to the point of socialism. And many of us fled our countries fleeing socialism. And so that doesn’t attract us,” said Gimenez, who is the only Cuban-born congressman.

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Vice President Kamala Harris gestures during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A Fox News Voter Analysis showed Trump’s crossover appeal to Democratic constituencies was foundational to his success. He improved on his 2020 numbers among Hispanics (41%, +6 points), Black voters (15%, +7 points) and young voters (46%, +10 points).

These rightward shifts were particularly notable among Hispanic men (+8 points), Black men (+12 points) and men under 30 (+14 points) from 2020.

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Susie Wiles, a longtime GOP operative, will serve as President-elect Trump’s White House chief of staff. 

Largely avoiding the spotlight, Wiles has been widely credited for running what was Trump’s most disciplined and well-executed campaign. 

During his victory celebration in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump gave a special thanks to Wiles for her prominent role in the campaign. 

“Let me also express my tremendous appreciation for Susie [Wiles] and Chris [LaCivita], on the job you did. Susie, come, Susie,” he said. “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The ice baby. We call her the ice baby. Susie likes to stay in the background. She’s not in the background.” 

INSIDE THE REPUBLICAN VICTORIES IN SUBURBAN NEW YORK: ‘FED UP WITH ONE PARTY DEMOCRATIC RULE’

Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles is seen at Nashville International Airport in Nashville, Tennessee, as former President Trump arrives on July 27.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump described Wiles as “tough, smart, innovative” and said she is “universally admired and respected.” 

He noted her place as the first female chief of staff in U.S. history, saying: “I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Veteran GOP strategist John Brabender told Fox News Digital: “If they searched high and low in the entire world, there is not a better choice than Susie Wiles for White House Chief of Staff.”

When it comes to Wiles, Brabender said, “nobody’s going to have a better relationship with the president, who understands that she is there to help him however she can, and he will respect that.”

“Susie will have no other agenda than helping the president help people,” Brabender emphasized. And he noted that “everybody who works for Susie in the White House will be vetted by Susie which means that there’re going to be nothing but the best.” 

A longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020, Wiles’ decades-long political career stretches back to working as former President Reagan’s campaign scheduler for his 1980 presidential bid. 

Wiles also ran Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as the manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign. 

President-elect Trump brings Susie Wiles to the podium at an election night watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Wiles currently serves as a senior adviser to Trump and is campaign co-chair alongside Chris LaCivita.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was previously floated as a possible contender for chief of staff, but recently told “The Guy Benson Show” that he would not take the position if it was offered. 

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“People always ask if I’m going to be chief of staff — no, I’m not going to be… that’s a no,” he said. 

Fox News Digital’s Aishah Hasnie, Paul Steinhauser, Aubrie Spady and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Conservative political experts pointed to President-elect Trump’s decisive victory Tuesday as a main reason anti-Trump protests have been more muted compared to 2016. 

While some protests have taken place across the country since Tuesday, their focus has not been solely on Trump, and the turnout has not been the same as when thousands took to the streets in 2016 after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton. 

In Seattle, for example, where demonstrators protested on election night, the focus was more on the war in Gaza, and both Democrats and Republicans were chastised by demonstrators. A protest Wednesday night in Chicago similarly focused on that war and was only loosely connected to Trump’s win. 

Anti-Israel protesters in Chicago took to the streets one day after Trump’s victory to rally against the government’s approach to the Israel-Gaza war.    (WFLD)

Meanwhile, people around the country have taken notice of the more muted protests compared to 2016. 

SEATTLE POLICE ARREST 5 DEMONSTRATORS IN ELECTION NIGHT PROTEST 

“It’s strangely quiet,” Daily Wire reporter Kassy Akiva noted Wednesday on X, one day after the election. “I don’t see any major protests being planned right now.”

“I have to say, Williams College was very quiet today. Certainly no demonstrations, no collective mourning, no whining or crying that I saw,” observed political science professor Darel Paul.

CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SPRAY US EMBASSY IN LONDON WITH ORANGE PAINT AFTER TRUMP REELECTION VICTORY

“There’s not going to be anyone out there saying this time that [Trump] is an illegitimate president,” political strategist David Kochel pointed out. “He certainly has a much more legitimate stake in the office, because he will end up winning the popular vote. And I do think there’s some tension in the country when a candidate doesn’t win the popular vote but wins the Electoral College, and he doesn’t have that tension this time.”

Others, including Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the co-author of “Next Gen Marxism: What It Is and How to Combat It,” agreed with Kochel’s point about Trump’s decisive victory resulting in a more muted protest response.

“We haven’t seen the same level of hysteria yet that met Trump’s first victory,” Gonzalez said. “Trump’s first victory was a bigger surprise to the body politic, to the system, because nobody expected him to win. This time, he had won before.”

“It is hard to gin up discord when the win was so significant,” Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund Chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin added. 

COLIN KAEPERNICK SUGGESTS TRUMP ‘TARGETED’ AND ‘MINIMIZED’ HIM FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS

Gonzalez and others, however, did note that while the protest response to Trump’s victory may be lighter than what was seen in 2016, that could change once he begins enacting policy changes.

Thousands of people protest in the streets against President-elect Trump in Los Angeles, on Nov. 12, 2016. Hundreds were arrested during the protests.  (Getty Images)

“I think it’s important to use the word ‘yet,’ because I think that we will see the same level of out-of-control hysteric opposition to Trump,” Gonzalez said. 

Aron Boxer is a former special education teacher and the founder of the Connecticut-based Diversified Education Services. He describes himself as a moderate conservative and said he agreed with Gonzalez’s take that protests could heat up in the future.

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“There’s been some pretty inflammatory rhetoric coming from [former GOP Rep.] Adam Kinzinger, [New York Attorney General] Letitia James, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and even [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] when she spoke the other night and said that they’re going to fight. Listening to their words, it really sounds like they’re almost giving the public a little wink and a nod, encouraging them to speak up,” Boxer said. 

“It seems like they’re trying to kind of rally the troops… and I think that these things do take some time to take shape.”

Mike Davis, a staunch ally of President-elect Donald Trump, had some harsh words for New York Attorney General Letitia James during an appearance on “The Benny Show” podcast on Thursday. 

“Let me just say this to Big Tish James, the New York Attorney General … I dare you to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term,” the founder of the Article III Project said. “Because listen here sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time. And we will put your fat a– in prison for conspiracy against rights and I promise you that.” 

Davis warned James to “think long and hard before you want to violate President Trump’s constitutional rights or any other American’s constitutional rights.” 

“It’s not going to happen again,” Davis said. 

NBA COACH DOC RIVERS SAYS ‘WE HAVE TO SUPPORT TRUMP’ AFTER BASHING HIM THROUGHOUT ELECTION CYCLE

Mike Davis, right, on The Benny Show.  (@bennyjohnson)

James ordered Trump to pay a $454 million bond payment earlier this year as part of a civil fraud case brought against the former commander-in-chief. The New York AG accused Trump of overinflating the value of his assets to get better loans. 

Trump later appealed the ruling. His attorneys called New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling “draconian, unlawful, and unconstitutional.”

After Trump’s electoral victory on Tuesday, James and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to fight back against any potential “revenge or retribution” that may be coming their way now that President-elect Trump will be returning to the White House.

In his interview with Johnson, Davis also took shots at Fulton County Attorney General Fani Willis, who brought charges against Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference National Town Hall. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation)

“[Fani Willis] is going to get disqualified from this case. This case will go to another district attorney in Georgia and no one in their right mind would bring this case again because it is not a crime to object to a presidential election,” Davis said. 

Willis, a Democrat, won her bid for re-election on Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Courtney Kramer. 

CONSERVATIVE POLITICOS SHARE REACTIONS TO PROTEST RESPONSE AFTER TRUMP WIN: ‘IT’S STRANGELY QUIET’

Willis made headlines just a month into her tenure, announcing in February 2021 that she was investigating whether Trump and others broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow loss in the state to Biden. 

The case is largely on hold while Trump and other defendants appeal a judge’s ruling allowing Willis to continue prosecuting the case. 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks to the media after winning the Democratic primary on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Buckhead, Ga.  (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fox News Digital has reached out to the offices of James and Willis seeking a response to Davis’ comments. 

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A former Supreme Court clerk and Senate aide, Davis has been suggested as a possible candidate for White House Counsel in the forthcoming Trump administration. 

Davis has dismissed these rumors, writing on X: “No, thank you. I want to serve as Viceroy.” 

Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a stark warning to President-elect Trump following his landmark victory, promising that if anyone tries to “come for my people,” they will have to “come through me.”

“People have often said that I’m a happy warrior, and I’ve always taken seriously my role as a happy warrior on behalf of this state,” Pritzker said in a news conference Thursday. “Even today, when I’m struggling with many of the difficult questions this election poses, my optimism for the future remains undiminished.”

“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans: I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” he said. “You come for my people, you come through me.”

BIDEN SPEAKS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE HARRIS LOSS, AS TRUMP AND ALLIES EYE TRANSITION PROCESS

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker held a news conference Thursday to discuss the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, issuing a warning that if anyone tries to “come for my people,” they will have to “come through me.” (Governor JB Pritzker via X)

Pritzker’s words of warning came after he promised to protect residents from Trump’s “backward” agenda.

“Over the years ahead, we’ll do more than just protect against possible reversion to an agenda that threatens to take us backwards,” he said. “We will continue to advance a positive, productive and inclusive agenda of our own.”

HARRIS FORMALLY CONCEDES ONE DAY AFTER TRUMP’S SWEEPING VICTORY

“Despite his threats to health care coverage and educational opportunity and a fair minimum wage, Illinois will continue to invest in the well-being and prosperity of all our people.”

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at a news conference hosted by Biden-Harris 2024 National Advisory Board members in Des Moines, Iowa. (Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Illinois has maintained some of the strongest abortion protection laws under Pritzker, launching the Midwest state to become a safe haven for women seeking abortions.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Pritzker’s office for comment.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden still has no plans to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September.

Hunter’s plea spared him from a public trial over his failure to pay taxes while he spent lavishly on drugs, escorts, luxury hotel stays, clothing and other personal items.

The plea also came after he was convicted of three felony gun charges in June. The first son, prosecutors said, lied on a mandatory gun purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

After Hunter was convicted of the crimes, President Biden indicated he did not plan to pardon his son.

POLL COMPARES WHETHER TRUMP, HUNTER BIDEN SHOULD GET PRISON SENTENCES, ACCORDING TO US ADULTS

Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, attends the Democratic National Convention at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Thursday, Jean-Pierre was asked again if President Biden had any intentions of pardoning Hunter, who is scheduled to be sentenced on the gun charges on Dec. 12 and the tax fraud charges on Dec. 16.

“We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no,” the press secretary said.

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich followed up on the question, asking if a commutation, or a lesser sentence, was off the table for Hunter.

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

Hunter Biden is seen after making a statement during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., about testifying publicly to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Dec. 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Heinrich reminded Jean-Pierre that she had previously said Biden would not consider a commutation of Hunter’s sentence.

“Yes, that stands,” Jean-Pierre said.

“You’re saying that still stands?” Heinrich asked for clarification.

‘IT’S STILL NO’: KJP SUGGESTS BIDEN WON’T PARDON HIS SON IN THE TAX CASE

Hunter Biden and President Biden.

“Yeah,” Jean-Pierre responded.

The president’s son was indicted on three felonies and six misdemeanor counts alleging he evaded paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while simultaneously spending money on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” according to the December 2023 indictment.

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Prosecutors also allege the tax returns Hunter ultimately did file falsely claimed that things like prostitutes, strip club visits, porn website subscriptions and other personal expenses were actually deductible business expenses.

The aim, according to the indictment, was to “evade assessment of taxes to reduce the substantial tax liabilities” that Hunter faced.

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison fired back at Bernie Sanders in a post on X after the progressive senator from Vermont claimed that Democrats have lost the working class.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” wrote Sanders in a Nov. 6 post.

Harrison slammed the recently re-elected Senator Sanders in a post earlier on Thursday, claiming “this is straight up BS…”

BERNIE SANDERS EXCORIATES DEMOCRATIC PARTY, CALLS CAMPAIGN ‘DISASTROUS’ AFTER TRUMP VICTORY

“Biden was the most-pro worker President of my life time- saved Union pensions, created millions of good paying jobs and even marched in a picket line and some of MVP’s plans would have fundamentally transformed the quality of life and closed the racial wealth gap for working people across this country,” wrote Harrison. 

“From the child tax credits, to 25k for a down payment for a house to Medicare covering the cost of senior health care in their homes. There are a lot of post election takes and this one ain’t a good one,” he concluded. Harrison’s post currently has over 18,000 likes.

Harrison’s post comes as many fingers are being pointed within Democratic circles to attribute Vice President Harris’ definitive loss to any possible guilty party.

Sanders referred to the Harris campaign as “disastrous” in his X post, asking “Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) delivers remarks on stage at NHTI Concord Community College before U.S. President Joe Biden on October 22, 2024, in Concord, New Hampshire. The visit was to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of lowering the cost of prescription drugs. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

“Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing?” added Sanders. “Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.”

HOUSE DEMOCRAT SAYS THE PARTY NEEDS TO GET PAST ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME’

Vice President Harris has gained only 226 Electoral College votes thus far, according to the Fox News Decision Desk. She has been projected to lose critical swing states Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Jaime R. Harrison, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.   (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Democrats didn’t just suffer defeat at the top of the ticket, but across the board. According to projections from the Fox News Decision Desk, Republicans are set to take the majority of both the House and Senate.

Harrison is not expected to seek re-election as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, per Reuters. He was first chosen for the post in 2021 after President Biden took office.

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Sanders, 83, has served as senator since 2007 and won another six-year term on Tuesday despite many seats in the chamber flipping red.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden believed he made the right decision to drop out of the presidential race in July, acknowledging there are many election experts analyzing the failed efforts by the Democratic Party with their own opinions on the race dominated by Republican President-elect Trump.

Jean-Pierre spoke to reporters during a press briefing Thursday afternoon, saying Biden had called Trump to congratulate him on his victory, assuring Trump he would direct his administration to work with Trump’s team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition of power.

Additionally, Jean-Pierre said Biden had spoken with Vice President Kamala Harris to congratulate her on a “history-inspiring campaign.”

“For some people, this election is a time of victory, and for others, it’s a time of loss,” she said. “To state the obvious, Tuesday night’s results were not our team’s desired outcome. There’s going to be a lot of postmortem analysis of what happened in the coming days, in the coming weeks, even in the coming months.”

BIDEN CONGRATULATES TRUMP, PLEDGES ‘PEACEFUL AND ORDERLY’ TRANSFER OF POWER

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday President Biden believes he did the right thing by stepping out of the presidential race in July. (Fox News )

One reporter asked Jean-Pierre to address the criticism directed at Biden for the loss.

“What I can say, and this is something the president says all the time: ‘You get knocked down, you get back up,’” Jean-Pierre said, noting the president made that exact statement moments earlier. “The president believes he made the right decision on behalf of the American people, on behalf of this country, to step aside.”

After the 2022 midterms, Biden decided to seek re-election despite polls in 2023 showing that about 80% of the American public believed the octogenarian was too old to serve another term.

HARRIS FORMALLY CONCEDES ONE DAY AFTER TRUMP’S SWEEPING VICTORY

President Biden delivers the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., March 7.   (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

“What he believed is that 14 million voters decided in the primary to make him and the vice president, obviously she was on the ticket, the nominee,” Jean-Pierre said when asked again if Biden made the right decision to run for president. “Fourteen million Americans decided that. So, they made their decision on who they wanted.

“Now, as we know, in July the president made a decision to step aside and he immediately … endorsed the vice president,” she added.

Jean-Pierre was also pressed on whether it was wrong for the president’s team in 2023 to firmly encourage rising stars in the Democratic Party and others who participated in the 2020 cycle to rally behind Biden and not consider running for president.

HOW TRUMP WON: THE DETAILS FROM THE FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS

President-elect Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

She refused to get into a specific conversation but said it was not unusual for party members to rally behind their leader, which, in this case, was Biden.

“What I can say is what the president decided to do, what the president believed and what the president is going to continue to do, [which] is put the American people first,” Jean-Pierre said.

She was also pressed about whether Biden still stands by his description of Trump being an existential threat to democracy.

Jean-Pierre said Biden believes what he said at the time and believes he had an obligation to be honest with Americans.

She backed her statement up by pointing to comments made by former chief of staff John Kelly, who referred to Trump as a “fascist.”

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During a series of interviews conducted with the media and published in October, Kelly recounted multiple occasions when the former president allegedly praised Adolf Hitler. Kelly also insisted Trump met the “general definition of a fascist” and would govern like a dictator if allowed.

Jean-Pierre said Kelly was clear in his statements, while also pointing to statements made by Trump about the enemy within, going after people who disagree with him.

“Look, we’re being very clear here,” Jean-Pierre said. “The outcome was not what we wanted, and the Americans have made a decision that we want to respect. We want to respect the decision that the American people have made, and we are going to make sure that the American people get what they deserve, which is a peaceful transfer of power.”

Congressman Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who delivered a critical victory for the GOP on election night, explained his success to Fox News on Thursday, saying that “voters in New York are fed up with one party Democratic rule.”

Two days after the election, several House races remain uncalled, and control of the lower chamber of Congress remains undetermined. If Republicans can eke out a majority, the party will have a unified federal government until at least 2026.

Lawler won his race with 52.4 percent of the vote, defeating his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Mondaire Jones by 6.8 points.

REPUBLICANS WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE OF HOUSE MAJORITY AS KEY RACES REMAIN TOO CLOSE TO CALL 

Mike Lawler, Republican candidate for New York’s 17th Congressional District,  greets supporters at the end of Senate candidate Bill Weber’s speech during an election night party, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, in Pearl River, N.Y.  (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Lawler’s district, New York congressional district 17, is just north of New York City and is primarily suburban, middle-class. Politically, the district is fairly split between party lines, making it a highly targeted district for both sides. Democrats poured in millions in hopes of flipping the seat blue.

The race ended up being one of the most expensive House races in the country.

Republicans also garnered victories in nearby districts 1, 11 and 12, all of which are suburban areas near New York City.

Lawler said that ultimately, New Yorkers’ concerns over inflation, the cost of living and crime pushed him to victory.

“In a state like New York where Democrats control everything and they have created an affordability crisis, a crime crisis, the migrant crisis exploding, billions of dollars of taxpayer money, voters had had enough,” Lawler said. “Voters want us to focus on the issues that impact them most acutely and that is the economy, that is the border, that is the international crises that we’re seeing, energy policy.”

TRUMP-BACKED PA SENATE CANDIDATE FLIPS LONGTIME DEM SEAT RED IN NAIL-BITER ELECTION

line up in front of the East Village re-intake, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City, United States on Dec. 4, 2023. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Lawler homed in on the border crisis as especially important to his constituents.

“What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris allowed over the last three and a half plus years, 10.5 million migrants coming into the United States, its unfathomable,” he said. “It’s created a crisis in states like New York where they’re spending billions of dollars.”

David Laska, spokesperson for the New York state Republican Party, told Fox News Digital that the victories in his state were spurred on by President-elect Donald Trump’s clear messaging to voters on issues that they care about.

In the presidential race, Vice-president Kamala Harris won New York. However, she earned nearly 6 percent less of the vote share than Biden did in 2020.

“Kamala Harris tried to run on vibes. What does that even mean? What a joke,” he said. “President Trump ran on inflation, immigration, those were the issues that mattered to Americans. And you saw Republican victories up and down the ballot.“

TRUMP TRAIN CHUGS PAST 2020 MARGINS, PARTICULARLY AMONG HISPANICS, URBAN NORTHEASTERNERS 

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Americans cast their ballots today in the presidential race between Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as multiple state elections that will determine the balance of power in Congress. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Laska believes Tuesday’s election is indicative of a broader political realignment of working-class voters who no longer believe the Democratic Party cares about their needs. Put simply, he said that people just wanted change.

“Look, New York is a blue state, but it’s not progressive blue. It’s not woke blue. It’s blue-collar blue. It’s working-class blue. These are the old ‘Reagan Democrats’ as we used to call them. And you might be calling a lot of them ‘Trump Democrats,’” he said. “When you look back on this chapter of history, because voters of all stripes had economic concerns, had concerns about immigration, and again, President Trump spoke to those. Kamala Harris did not.”

The Dearborn, Michigan-led movement to ditch President Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris ended up throwing its support behind President-elect Trump on Election Day.

“They were seeing that President Trump was giving a little attention to the Arab and Muslim community and Vice President Harris was sort of shutting down our community,” Mike Hachem, a Dearborn-based leader of the Abandon Biden movement, said of Dearborn voters in an interview with Fox News Digital Thursday.

The comments come after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, with the president-elect carrying the critical battleground state of Michigan along the way. That victory was in no small part because of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, a city with the largest per capita Muslim population in the country that sent a shocking message by supporting Trump’s bid to return to the White House.

HARRIS MAKES LAST-DITCH APPEAL TO MICHIGAN’S MUSLIM VOTERS

President-elect Trump (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Traditionally a dependable Democratic voting bloc, displeasure with the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in Gaza caused many Muslim Americans in Michigan to spark a movement to “Abandon Biden,” resulting in over 100,000 voting “uncommitted” instead of supporting the president’s re-election bid during the Democratic primary earlier this year. 

That angst over the administration’s handling of the war carried over to Harris when she was elevated to the top of the Democratic ticket, with activists around Dearborn arguing the vice president had not done enough to earn back the votes of the city’s Muslim community.

But despite the widespread dissatisfaction with Democrats, many in the community expressed skepticism about throwing their support behind Trump, with some pointing to a first term that featured robust support for Israel and restrictions on travel from multiple Muslim-majority countries to the United States.

Hachem, who would go on to help launch the Arab Americans for a Better America PAC, set out to change that, teaming up with like-minded members of the community and raising funds that were used for outreach and advertisement in support of Trump in the Dearborn area.

A billboard truck ad placed in the Dearborn area by the Arab Americans for a Better America PAC. (Mike Hachem)

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Meanwhile, Trump seemingly began to pick up some momentum with Muslim leaders in the state, earning the endorsement of multiple Muslim mayors and religious leaders in southeast Michigan.

The combined effort seemingly paid off, with Trump winning 42.5% of the vote in Dearborn, while Harris won just 36.2% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who also made a large appeal to the Dearborn community, pulling in 18.37%.

The result marked a stark departure from how Dearborn voted in the 2020 election, which saw 68.97% of the city’s voters support Biden compared to just 29.72% who supported Trump. This year also saw Trump take nearby Dearborn Heights, another city with a large Muslim population, with 44% of that city’s voters casting ballots for the former president compared to 38% who supported Harris.

An ad placed in the Dearborn area by the Arab Americans for a Better America PAC. (Mike Hachem)

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“The Arab and Muslim population looked at it as, ‘Hey, we’re getting the attention now, we’re getting the recognition that we fought 60 years to get, and now President Trump is putting us on the stage,'” Hachem said. “President Trump is acknowledging that we exist and that we are part of the fabric of this nation.”

Longtime Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick are still wading through their election results, with McCormick’s campaign saying that even though the race is tight, the Republican will prevail. 

“McCormick is up 30,679 votes with more to come, as ruby red Cambria County is still outstanding. While votes continue to be counted, any way you slice it, Dave McCormick will be the next United States Senator from Pennsylvania,” Elizabeth Gregory, McCormick’s communications director, said in a comment Thursday provided to Fox News Digital. 

More than 98% of the votes have been tabulated in the high-stakes Senate race, with McCormick showing a slight lead over Casey, at 48.94% to Casey’s 48.49% support, Fox News’s race results show. The results are too close to make an official call, and they will likely face a recount. As of Thursday afternoon, 31,503 difference in McCormick’s favor. 

Cambria County, which is home to the city of Johnstown, is a reliably red jurisdiction that was granted a two-hour extension of polling hours on Tuesday after a “software malfunction” temporarily delayed the scanning of ballots in the precinct. The county has voted for Republican presidential candidates each cycle since Mitt Romney’s 2012 run. 

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Former President Trump listens as Senate candidate David McCormick speaks during a campaign rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 4, 2024. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

Pennsylvania has three recount options: statewide automatic recounts ordered by the secretary of the commonwealth; recounts ordered by a county election board; and recounts that are ordered by the court. 

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Former President Barack Obama joins Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf at a campaign rally for Pennsylvania Democrats on Sept. 21, 2018, in Philadelphia. (Getty Images/Mark Makela)

An automatic recount would occur in this case if a candidate’s margin of victory is no more than 0.5% of total votes cast. A recount submission must be submitted to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s office no later than 5 p.m. on the second Thursday after Election Day. 

The Casey campaign touted earlier Thursday that they, too, are confident that the senator will end the campaign with another re-election win. 

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Journalist Chuck Todd speaks with GOP Senate Candidate Dave McCormick after touring the Lackawanna Petroleum And Gas College on May 10, 2022, in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images)

“The count in Pennsylvania is still continuing,” Casey for Senate spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said earlier on Thursday. “Yesterday, the vote margin shrunk by 50,000 votes and this race is now within half a point, the threshold for automatic recounts in Pennsylvania. With tens of thousands more votes to be counted, we are committed to ensuring every Pennsylvanian’s vote is heard and confident that at the end of that process, Senator Casey will be re-elected.”

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Casey has served in the Senate since the 2006 cycle. He faced his most uphill election battle this year against McCormick, an Army combat veteran and former CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

The majority in the House of Representatives appears within reach for Republicans, who have already won control of the Senate and White House.

Associated Press race projections show Republicans holding 209 seats compared to 196 seats for Democrats as of Thursday afternoon.

A total of five sitting House lawmakers are projected to lose their re-election bids so far – three Republicans and two Democrats.

Several races involving GOP incumbents in California are still too close to call and are likely to be pivotal to the House majority. 

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Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed confidence in keeping the House. (Getty Images)

Republicans in three Arizona districts, as well as GOP lawmakers in Nebraska, Iowa, and Oregon are also still awaiting result projections.

Whichever party reaches 218 victories first will hold the House majority in the 119th Congress.

But House Republican leaders have been touting confidence in their eventual victory, with the top four House leaders already formally announcing bids to hold the same spots in a January House majority.

“It appears we’re going to hold the House and flip the Senate,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital on Wednesday night. “California’s the main state still. You know, in a lot of those close races, our incumbents are leading the way — by small margins, but we knew there would be small margins.”

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said margins were expectedly tight. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

It’s a far cry from House Democrats, whose hopes of winning the majority are rapidly decreasing. Multiple sources told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Democrats were bracing for Republicans to win complete control of Congress and the White House.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pointed out that a Republican victory is not a forgone conclusion, however.

“It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear,” Jeffries said in a statement that also congratulated President-elect Trump.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged patience as the votes are counted. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Democrats have scored key wins in projections by unseating Republican incumbents in three New York seats – Reps. Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Anthony D’Esposito.

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Republicans are projected to flip three seats as well – one vacated by a Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., to run for Senate, and two districts held by moderate Democrats in Pennsylvania. 

The GOP also saw former House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., projected to survive his toughest race yet as of Thursday afternoon. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.