Maggie Haberman

The Trump transition team was only recently alerted to the payment by Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for secretary of defense.

A detailed memo sent to the Trump transition team claims the incident occurred when Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for defense secretary, spoke in Monterey, Calif., in 2017.

President-elect Donald J. Trump is more contemptuous than ever of Washington expertise and determined to hire people based on loyalty.

Sergio Gor, who has helped run the publisher that produces the former president’s books, has been tapped to run the presidential personnel office, people briefed on the matter said.

President-elect Donald J. Trump appeared to have gained some clarity on what he wanted in an attorney general while he was in Washington, the city he left in 2020 after weeks of his election lies.

Mrs. Trump declined the invitation for the traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidential spouses.

The president-elect appears to have settled on the Florida senator, who has taken hard-line positions on China, Iran and Venezuela, to be the nation’s top diplomat.

Trump Offers Elise Stefanik Role as U.N. Ambassador

Trump Transition Signals Focus on Deportations, as Miller Assumes Influence

Control of the House is still unclear, but President-elect Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party, which has already won a majority in the Senate, are expected to bring significant policy shifts to Congress and cases already before the Supreme Court.