Trump and his growing list of appointees are suddenly everywhere.
They're getting involved in efforts to reach a ceasefire to Israel's 14-month campaign in Gaza by engaging in Qatar. Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan has kept Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, informed on developments.
Trump has also been meeting with foreign leaders, including Hungarian President Viktor Orban, and has called for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.
On Thursday, Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year, and he rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange. In an interview with Time to coincide with the honorific, Trump suggested he would make changes to U.S. policy toward Ukraine and that he opposed Ukraine's use of U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper into Russia. Biden approved their use last month.
I'm Steve Holland, White House correspondent for Reuters, and I've spent many, many days in Palm Beach, Florida, since the election tracking Trump's latest developments. He has named loyalists to several high-ranking positions, and it is still unclear whether his most controversial choices including Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard will be confirmed by the Senate.
While Trump is talking about extreme ideas – like using the military to deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally – he seems more disciplined in his transition process than he was in 2016.
Gone are the photo ops with potential Cabinet picks in favor of closed-door deliberations. We are told he is playing an active role in deciding who should get senior positions in his government. Mar-a-Lago is a hotbed of activity with job seekers sometimes spending whole days camped out there. He's also busy preparing a blizzard of executive orders on immigration, energy and other priorities. He has held no news conferences and very few public events since his election.
We're waiting to see whether this relative discipline holds when he gets to the White House.
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