Thousands of New Yorkers march against Trump"s re-election Thousands of New Yorkers have gathered for the Protect Our Futures march, protesting Donald Trump’s re-election as president. Labor unions, immigrant rights groups and LGBTQ+ advocates held aloft a banner reading “We Won’t Back Down” as they marched outside the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Columbus Circle this afternoon. Here’s some footage from the ground: Gluesenkamp Perez has balanced progressive policies with some measures popular with Republicans during her tenure, including securing the US-Mexico border – something she criticises Biden for failing to do – and introducing a constitutional amendment to force presidents to balance the budget. She supports abortion access and has hammered Kent, who previously has said he supported a national abortion ban, for changing his position after the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade. Kent now says abortion laws should be left up to the states. Gluesenkamp Perez supports policies to counter climate change, but also speaks openly about being a gun owner. A top priority is pushing a “right to repair” bill that would help people get equipment fixed without having to pay exorbitant prices to the original manufacturer. Kent, a former Green Beret who has called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden, cited inflation and illegal immigration as top concerns. The two disagreed on a major local issue: the replacement of a major bridge across the Columbia River between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. Gluesenkamp Perez supports plans to replace the existing bridge; Kent argued that a separate new bridge should be built while the old one is maintained. Here is more non Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who has just won re-election to Washington State’s third Congressional District. Via the Associated Press: Two years ago, Gluesenkamp Perez, who owns an auto-repair shop with her husband, came out of nowhere to win the seat, which hadn’t been in Democratic hands for over a decade. She beat the Trump-endorsed Kent by fewer than 3,000 votes out of nearly 320,000 cast, making it one of the closest races in the country and setting the stage for a tough election fight this year. Her predecessor, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, held office for six terms but failed to survive the 2022 primary after voting to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. The district narrowly went for Trump in 2020, making it a crucial target for both parties this year. The race gained additional attention last week when an arson attack struck a ballot box in Vancouver – the district’s biggest city – scorching hundreds of ballots. People who cast their votes in that box were urged to contact the county auditor’s office to receive replacement ballots. Today So Far Thanks for joining us today. Here is a summary of the latest developments on today’s US politics blog: Joe Biden has invited Donald Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11am ET. The meeting will be the first between the current and former president after the 2024 election. Trump announced the formation of the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, which will be chaired by real estate investor Steve Witkoff and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler. As the president-elect begins to select his cabinet, he shared on Truth Social today that the administration will not include either former UN ambasssador Nikki Haley or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Thousands of New Yorkers gathered for the Protect Our Futures march, protesting Trump’s re-election as president from outside Trump Tower, as more demonstrators gathered outside the offices of the Heritage Foundation (which authored the controversial Project 2025) in Washington DC. A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee has been fired after she instructed her team to avoid dispatching aid to houses with Trump signs following Hurricane Milton. More than two months after the deadline to sign presidential transition paperwork passed, Trump’s incoming administration still has not signed the agreement with the General Services Administration. The agreements coordinating the transition, which were due 1 September, mandate that the incoming president agree to an ethics plan and limit and disclose private donations. A record 13 women will lead their states as governor next year, breaking the previously held record of 12 set after the 2022 election. Democratic senator re-elected to Washington state House seat Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has won reelection to Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District, the Associated Press reports. Her victory gives the Democrats 201 House seats to Republicans’ 212 as the final votes are tallied to determine which party will control the House with 218 votes. Gluesenkamp Perez was first elected to the Senate two years ago when she won a close race for a seat that hadn’t been held by a Democrat in more than a decade. Now that he has been re-elected, Donald Trump has a number of cabinet positions to fill – but his administration won’t include either former UN ambasssador Nikki Haley or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Trump said on Truth Social. As Real Clear Politics reports, it’s looking increasingly likely Trump may nominate Richard Grenell as his secretary of state. The former US ambassador to Germany and previous acting director of national intelligence is seen as a Trump loyalist, although Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty and Florida senator Marco Rubio are also reportedly under consideration. If you’re curious what Donald Trump’s decisive victory says about the current fault lines in American politics, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe has reported on Trump’s victory among Latino and Hispanic voters. Here’s more: The raucous early morning celebration in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood was of a magnitude not seen since the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died eight years previously. In the immigrant-saturated suburb of Westchester, too, Latinos partied beyond daybreak as Donald Trump’s return to the White House was confirmed. Wednesday morning’s revelry in south Florida reflected a stunning victory for Trump in the previously solid blue, Hispanic-majority county of Miami-Dade that had not been won by a Republican presidential candidate in more than 30 years. His victory was fueled largely by the support from Latino and Hispanic voters, particularly Latino men, that was repeated in county after county in swing states elsewhere as the Democratic party’s blue wall crumbled and the former president was elected to also be the next. In Pennsylvania, hordes of Puerto Ricans who saw their homeland demeaned as a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally barely a week before, flocked to give him their vote. As it appears increasingly likely that Republicans will control the presidency, the Senate and the House, Democratic governors across the United States are drawing up plans to “Trump-proof” their states. California governor Gavin Newsom has drawn perhaps the most attention after tweeting a reaction to Donald Trump’s election-night victory. Newsom has already called for the state legislature to hold a special session before Trump’s inauguration. But Newsom is not the only Democratic governor preparing for Trump’s second administration. Illinois governor JB Pritzker has spent the days since the election combing through Project 2025, and tells the Chicago Sun Times: “You come for my people, you come through me.” Meanwhile, Massachusetts governor Maura Healey told MSNBC that her state’s law enforcement will not assist in mass deportations if Trump orders them. More protesters are gathering in cities across the US to denounce Donald Trump’s re-election. Although widespread, the protests are decidedly smaller than many that occured following the president-elect’s first victory in 2016. Here’s a sense of where demonstrations are taking place: Seattle Portland Denver Thousands of people gathered outside Trump Tower in New York today to protest against Donald Trump’s re-election as president, while more gathered in Washington DC in response to fears that the new administration could further threaten abortion rights after Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022. Here’s footage of the events: The Women"s March holds DC protest of Project 2025 architect Protesters from the Women’s March gathered outside the offices of the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC this afternoon to criticize the conservative thinktank that published Project 2025. The rally was organized to advocate for abortion access and “as a chance to build community and power in the wake of the 2024 election”, a Women’s March spokesperson told CNN. The Women’s March intends to hold another demonstration in Washington DC on 18 January, two days before Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his second term as president. Although all the votes are not yet counted in the tally for which party will control the House of Representatives, it’s looking likely that Republicans will have a majority in the chamber. What’s less clear is who will lead the party. Although current speaker Mike Johnson is seeking another term, Politico reports that some conservatives are looking for ways to signal their opposition to the current leader in a secret ballot next week. In lighter news, New Jersey senator-elect Andy Kim spent election night awaiting the results of his race in the hotel that his family lived in for several weeks after they moved to the state. Kim’s win on Tuesday night will make him the first Korean American to serve in Congress. A Federal Emergency Management Agency employee has been fired after she instructed her team to avoid dispatching aid to houses with Donald Trump signs following Hurricane Milton. The Guardian’s Joanna Walters reports: A employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has been fired from her job and is being investigated because she told a disaster relief team she was directing in Florida after Hurricane Milton to avoid homes displaying election campaign signs supporting Donald Trump, conduct that the agency head on Saturday called “reprehensible”. Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the federal agency, posted on X: “More than 22,000 Fema employees every day adhere to Fema’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors.” She continued: “Recently, a Fema employee departed from these values to advise her survivor assistance team not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump. This is a clear violation of Fema’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.” Here are some images coming through the newswires of Saturday’s protests across New York City led by various advocacy organizations in response to Donald Trump’s re-election: Trump campaign announces leaders of inauguration committee Donald Trump has announced the formation of the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, an organization that will “plan inaugural events”, the Trump-Vance campaign said in a statement on Saturday. The co-chairs of the committee have been announced as real estate investor Steve Witkoff and former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler. “On election night, we made history and I have the extraordinary honor of having been elected the 47th President of the United States thanks to tens millions of hardworking Americans across the nation who supported our America First agenda. The Trump Vance Inaugural Committee will honor this magnificent victory in a celebration of the American people and our nation,” Trump said in a statement. “This will be the kick-off to my administration, which will deliver on bold promises to Make America Great Again. Together, we will celebrate this moment, steeped on history and tradition, and then get to work to achieve the most incredible future for our people, restoring strength, success, and common sense to the Oval Office,” he added. With Donald Trump’s re-election, the supreme court is once again in play. During Trump’s first administration, the president-elect appointed three justices, which ultimately created the conservative majority that overturned Roe v Wade. As he returns to office, Trump could appoint new justices – especially if the aging conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito retire. Senate Democrats are also currently debating whether to rush to replace liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is 70, although they may struggle to confirm a replacement before Joe Biden leaves the White House. The US presidential election is already having international reverberations – from the war in Ukraine to global trade. One issue on many voters’ minds: the war in Gaza. Here’s Jason Burke with more about how the US elections could keep Benjamin Netanyahu in power until 2026: Benjamin Netanyahu is set to stay in power in Israel until elections due in 2026 and possibly longer, analysts and officials now believe, after a tumultuous week in which the 75-year-old veteran politician successfully fired his defence minister and was boosted by the results of the US election. Netanyahu’s newly reinforced position could lead to further intensification of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, and prolong the conflict in Gaza, critics fear – although the incoming US president Donald Trump has said he wants to swiftly end both wars. Many observers have been surprised by the political resilience of Netanyahu, who is blamed by most Israelis for the failures that allowed Hamas to launch its bloody attacks into Israel last October, killing around 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages. More than two months after the deadline to sign presidential transition paperwork passed, federal transition officials tell Politico that they expect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will sign the agreement with the General Services Administration. The GSA coordinates the transition between incoming and outgoing presidential administrations, including by providing security clearances, briefings, access to federal facilities, documents and personnel. The agreements coordinating the transition, which were due 1 September, mandate that the incoming president agree to an ethics plan and limit and disclose private donations. As Politico reports, “rejecting help from GSA could have helped shield the federal government’s access to [the Trump team’s] materials. It also would have allowed them to accept unlimited sums of money for the transition without disclosing the identities of its donors.”