President-elect Donald Trump on Friday announced that Karoline Leavitt would be serving as press secretary under his upcoming administration. 

President-elect Donald Trump has an ambitious agenda to reduce the size of the federal government, uproot the federal bureaucracy, and limit Washington’s intrusion into the daily lives of the average American citizen. Such goals have long been the aim of many a Republican executive, though few have managed to materially advance them.  Trump himself struggled to restrict the government in his first term, encountering significant resistance from entrenched executive agencies and congressional Republicans alike. Indeed, newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Co-Chief Elon Musk on Thursday reshared a meme commenting on Republican apprehensions toward budget cuts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday indicated he would ask that the House Ethics Committee not release its findings on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to serve as attorney general.

It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel state didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida. Yet that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water an hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November.

The state of Florida is suing current and former federal employees personally for allegedly ignoring storm victim households solely because of their political affiliation. Attorney General Ashley Moody sued current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials for “conspiracy to discriminate” against Florida hurricane victims because they expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump.