Transcript of Trump Transition | Highlights for Nov. 12 | NBC News Highlights

Tonight, President-elect Trump tapping top allies to his foreign policy and national security teams. Expected to announce Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his pick for Secretary of State, according to multiple sources familiar with the transition process. He would be an historic choice. The son of Cuban immigrants, he'd be the first Latino to hold that position. Rubio was a fierce Trump rival in 2016 and vocal supporter during this year's campaign.

You know what Donald Trump is saying? When he's President, that ends. Our enemies will know we're strong and that will bring about peace and avoid war.

His hauchish views on China, Iran, and Russia honed in the Senate. He's also embraced Trump's position that the war in Ukraine should come to a swift end.

I think the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and strong and standing up to Russia. But at the end of the day, what we are funding here is a stalemate war. It needs to be brought to a conclusion.

A Trump ally describing Rubio as, quote, less MAGA than other options, but someone who Trump's base could trust. He's already getting bipartisan support. Democratic Democratic Senator John Federman posting Rubio, quote, is a strong choice, and I look forward to voting for his confirmation. Meanwhile, the President-elect picking another Florida Republican for a key role inside the White House, announcing congressman Mike Walsh as National Security Advisor. Walsh is a decorated green beret and combat veteran who takes a tough stance towards China and shares Trump's view that NATO allies must pay more for their own defense.

What I want to see are portions of NATO truly step up and do their fair share of defense spending.

And today, Trump announcing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is his pick for ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has previously rejected the notion that the West Bank is occupied by Israel. Late tonight, Trump's selecting his former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, as CIA Director, a Trump ally who Democrats argued politicized his role. For days, Trump has stayed out of the public eye as he interviews finalists and makes selections from a Mar-a-Lago war room, two Trump World sources say. Watching videos of their television appearances to see how effectively they can deliver his message. One more pick he's expected to announce soon, four sources tell NBC News, Republican South Dakota Governor Christie Noem to serve as his Secretary of Homeland Security. Noem, an outspoken Trump supporter with little experience in some of the areas she would potentially oversee, including FEMA and the Secret Service. Dhs also includes the Border Patrol and ICE, Noem recently touting Trump's mass deportation plan.

President Trump has already indicated that he to start by making sure we're deporting the most dangerous first, those criminals, murderers, rapists that are threatening safety in our communities.

And, Gareth, we should note right here, a big day tomorrow at the White House when President-elect Trump is expected to visit.

That's right, Lester. President Biden invited him to the oval office, something that President Trump did not do for Biden back in 2020. Melania Trump is not expected to attend. The President-elect will also meet with House Republicans on his first trip to DC since winning the election. Lester.

We are also following more We're breaking news right now. We've just understood that President-Elect Trump has announced a new defense secretary as well. He's a Fox News host and a military veteran with two Bronze stars, Pete Hegset. We're going to have much more on that in a few minutes. But first, we want to go to that other breaking news, John Ratlin. Radcliffe, his new director of the CIA. Ratcliffe served in the first Trump administration as director of National Intelligence. He also represented Texas' fourth Congressional district in the House for several years and worked as a federal prosecutor in the Lone Star State. For more on this appointment, I want to get right to NBC News Justice and Intelligence Correspondent, Ken Dilanian. Ken, what more can you tell us about Radcliffe?

Tom, John Radcliffe is a politician. He's not a foreign policy expert. He's a very partisan political figure who, when he was Director of National Intelligence for about eight months at the end of the Trump administration, showed a willingness to shade intelligence, to use intelligence in a way that he knew benefited from Donald Trump. At the same time, he's viewed in foreign policy circles as a grown up, as somebody who has some grounding, having held the job of Director of National Intelligence, and as somebody who was not willing to go along with Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But I'll go back to the partisan stuff. One example that stands out during his tenure is that he declassified some intelligence that the US intelligence community had obtained from Russia that purported to show that Russia had concluded that Hillary Clinton was trying to concoct a story of Donald Trump's connections to Russia in order to damage Donald Trump. That was disinformation. And even at the time he released it, he said that they weren't sure whether this was true or whether this was Russian mischief. A lot of Democrats saw that as a dirty trick, a way to use intelligence to benefit Donald Trump.

So that's what Democrats would say are the negatives about him. On the positive side, though, testimony from the January sixth committee showed that he was not willing to go along with Donald Trump's efforts to return the election. He advised against White House officials participating in that. He said it would be bad for Donald Trump's legacy, and he did not come up in any of the criminal investigations of what happened during that period.

Ken, you've done a lot of reporting on the CIA. How do you think he'll be received by the agents there?

Warely, cautiously. But the thing about the CIA is there are very few political appointees, really just the director and the general counsel. Everybody else there are career people, and they have long memories, and they know how to handle, and they know how to win over directors. I think they're make an effort to wrap their arms around him and try to take him into their confidence. He's going to have access to the most esoteric secrets in the government. Look, big picture here, as we're seeing with Marco Rubio and Mike Walsh, the National Security Advisor or combat veteran. Some Democrats are pleasantly surprised with the caliber of people. They're not people they're going to ever agree with on a partisan basis, but these are people with records in the foreign policy area, people who understand understand the world, and who are not necessarily on board with shrinking this America first idea that the United States should not project power around the world, which is a bit of a surprise so far, Tom.

Now, President-Elect Trump naming Fox News host, Pete Hegsith, as Secretary of Defense. I want to get right to Lieutenant Colonel Danny Davis. He served more than 21 years in the military, including four combat deployments. Lieutenant Colonel, we thank you for being here. We You noted that Hegsith has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he does have two Bronze stars. What is your reaction to the news? I understand you've been on his shows before on Fox News.

I have, yeah, several times, actually. Listen, I think He's a good pick. He's definitely unconventional, which is standard data for Trump, I guess, because no one saw this. He wasn't on anybody's radar. I'm talking to a number of people who are on the Trump transition team, and he didn't hit any of those radars. This came out of left field. But look, you got to look at his policies and the things that he's talked about. Trump wants somebody in there who's going to bring his America First agenda that wants a strong military, but that also doesn't want to use the military in fighting any wars that are not necessary unless it's for our national defense. I think that we can count on Hegsef to come in because he really understands veterans issues. He understands the value of human life, and he's not going to want to move things in any direction that's neocon thing or get us into wars we don't need to fight.

He's somebody who's obviously defended our country, and he's been awarded with two Bronze stars, as we mentioned, along with other awards, too, in the military. Went to Harvard and Princeton, from what I understand here from reading this release here. But he's now going to manage this massive Department, the Department of Defense. What does it take to run that Department? Obviously, he knows warfare, he knows combat, but he's going to have to manage a massive staff, along with all of our different branches of the military.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. That is a monumental task. I worked in the Pentagon almost three years, so I know firsthand what that's like and how huge the challenge is. I feel confident that they're going to make sure that he gets probably a Deputy Secretary of Defense who does have lots of time in the building, as they say, and that does have experience with that. I'm very confident that they'll do that because they're going to recognize that he doesn't have a lot of the first-hand experience at managing this massive organization like that. But I think the primary purpose that Trump probably wanted was somebody whose vision he shares at the top, and then they can bring in other people to help manage some of those other bureaucratic issues. That's what I would expect to see.

Looking back at secretaries of defense that have been successful and some that have been not so successful, what do you think are the keys to making sure that that secretary knows what they're doing and they're able to implement? Obviously, at the end of the day, it's to protect our country.

The most important thing, I think, is, frankly, to be honest and to not just say, Hey, everything's rosy if it's not. We've seen too much example of that over many years. I won't go into the details of those. But if you see that there's a problem here and then it's not popular, Then we can't just say, Yes, we'll keep going down that path. For example, there's lots of people who want to say we should potentially go to war with China over Taiwan if they invade them. But right now, we don't have the military capacity to do that. Every computer The regulation you want to look at for the last half decade or so has validated that. It is time for the Department of Defense to say, Okay, I get what the policy we want, but if we don't have the capacity to succeed, then we can't go down that path. The other issue that's playing really big in the Russia-Ukraine war is if we see our stocks of our national defense going down too low in key areas, then we have to say, Hey, we got to do something different. We can't just keep giving this stuff away to everybody else if we're not even going to have enough.

That is going to call for some hard decisions and some hard choices on the policy side.

Lieutenant Colonel Davis, we thank you so much for joining Top Story in such quick notice and for helping us out and understand this new appointment. We appreciate it. Okay, we're following more breaking Trump transition news at this hour. President-elect Trump tapping Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami to lead a Department of Government Efficiency. He's also confirmed just moments ago what we would have been reporting that he will name South Dakota Governor, Christine Noem, to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Mbc's Von Hillier joins us tonight now with the latest on all this fun. Obviously, the big news right now that just happened moments ago, Elon and Vivek Ramaswami. What do we know about this new government agency and how will it work?

Exactly. A lot has developed since the start of the show, Tom. For Elon Musk and Vivek Ramiswami, this idea of the Department of Government Efficiency, number one, exactly how is it created? What does it actually look like? Is there a budget and a staff behind it? These details are very unclear. What I can tell you, though, is that Elon Elon Musk over the course of the last week has been a consistent presence at Mar-a-Lago ever since Donald Trump's election. But even before election day, Elon Musk had been on the campaign trail on behalf of Donald Trump. Elon Musk had talked about the fact that the US annual federal budget is about $6 trillion. He had been telling crowds that he would be able to cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget, which would be slashing it by one-third annually. Donald Trump himself had echoed this on the campaign trail, saying that he would put Elon Musk in charge of government efficiency and bring him in his administration to do just that. Now, one week after his election, he is now promising to go forward with that campaign promise. Now, when we're talking about $2 trillion out of the federal budget, we're talking about staggering numbers that Elon Musk, even himself, admitted would be causing hardships for Americans on the outset, but that it would be financially beneficial the country in the long term.

Of course, we're talking about the federal budget. You're talking about defense spending, immigration spending. You're talking about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. There's no details that have been provided here at this time, but Donald Trump suggesting that the two men, Ramiswami and Musk, will have until mid-2026 to figure this out and bring efficiency to the federal government. Again, very little details is exactly what that means at this point, Tom.

You know, Vaunt, do you think, and I know you would be speculating here, but do you think Elon Musk Vivek maybe are, I don't know if the word is disappointed, right? But they were such staunch supporters of President-elect Trump. I know Elon Musk spoke about this agency. This is a big thing for him. But for Vivek, weren't there other ideas and plans for him?

That was the question mark as to where Vivek Ramiswami would potentially go. But though he was also in discussion as potentially an appointment to fill JD Vance's Ohio US Senate seat, he's an Ohio resident himself. I think for Vivek Ramiswami to actually be tied to the world's richest man, Elon Musk, it's not necessarily a bad gig depending on exactly where it goes and how long of a leash that they have. But again, so much of the budget is going to also rely on lotmakers in the Republican majorities on Capitol Hill to sign off on said budget. This is going to be complicated in intense few months. I think we should expect in Washington, DC.

President-elect Donald Trump's new White House administration administration is taking shape fast. Trump making some key pics in the last 48 hours. You can see these are all fierce Trump loyalists, a late-breaking one coming down in the last few minutes. Trump announcing his nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegset, a Fox News channel host, the President-elect calling Hegset a, true believer in America first, adding that he used his platform at Fox News to fight for our military and our veterans. That's not all. The President-elect also announcing a new department altogether The Department of Government Efficiency. He says that this one will be led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Trump's former political rival turned loyalist, Vivek Ramiswami. Trump issuing a statement saying, The pair will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy/excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies. Also, in the last few minutes, Trump officially tapping Republican governor, Christie Noem for DHS Secretary. Lots to get into here. Let's bring an NBC news, resident Trump expert, Von Hillier. Von, let's start with the Department of Government Efficiency. What's this about? What are they expected to do here? I keep thinking of Elon Musk rolling into then Twitter headquarters with the sink Posting, let that sink in.

What are we going to see here?

Exactly. Let's just stick with the facts of what we know here, Gatti, if we could. Just in the last few minutes, the Trump campaign put out a press release with three paragraphs outlining that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramiswami, as a pair, will be in charge of this new Department of Government Efficiency. Now, exactly how do they create an actual new Department and what does that look like? Is there actual staff? Is there a budget behind it? That is not clear. Now, what I can tell you is that before the election, Donald Trump was out on the campaign trail, sometimes even with Elon Musk, and was touting the fact that he would put Elon Musk in charge of such a program as this inside of the federal government in order to cut potentially $2 trillion out of a $6 trillion annual budget. Elon Musk himself said that Americans would face immediate hardships. When we're talking about a $6 trillion budget, we're talking about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense spending. A lot of money is spent by the federal government towards a variety of social programs, but also things like our own US defenses. So exactly where would they cut?

Elon Musk hasn't been specific on that here. But of course, they're going to also have to work with the Republican majorities in the US Congress to pass any such budget. There's a lot of outstanding question marks as to exactly what this looks like. But Donald Trump, so far, is going through with his promise to tap these individuals, Elon Musk at the forefront, to go in and become a part of his administration in order to go and try to pull off such a feat as this.

These are just a couple of names. Trump also tapping Pete Hegset, Christie Noem for key positions. What went into these decisions, especially with Hegset?

Pete Hegset is, again, I think, objectively a head turner of a decision to lead the Pentagon as the Secretary of Defense. He was a major in the Army National Guard. He is a veteran who served in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Iraq. He is somebody, though, who has worked for the last many years as a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend Edition. He ran a nonprofit organization, advocacy organization for veterans. Pete Agseth has been a frequent critic of Democratic administrations on Fox programming, and somebody, though, that has remained a close ally to Donald Trump. He is I think that somebody who is not necessarily an experienced military leader, but somebody who Donald Trump clearly trusts to put into this capacity. You also mentioned Christie Noem, the South Dakota governor, who is going to be the head of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes a broad portfolio from the US Secret Service to the Border Patrol to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These are some big positions. Ratcliffe, John Ratcliffe, was just named to be the CIA director. So this was quite the evening for Donald Trump as he fills out these top positions of his cabinet and his administration, got it.

We've been hearing rumblings for Secretary of State and the name Marco Rubio. We haven't We haven't heard that officially yet, but what are you hearing? Can you talk to us about some of the other big announcements we're going to be seeing here in the next few days?

Yeah, I think Marco Rubio, folks were most likely more familiar with. He is somebody who's been a US Senator for more than 10 years now from Florida. He is somebody who is going to satisfy more of the establishment in not only Republicans, but also some Democrats up on Capitol Hill in Washington. He was known as being a foreign policy hawk tough on China, Iran, Cuba. But he has taken a softer position in terms of US military intervention over the course of the last couple of years, falling more in line with Donald Trump's foreign policy agenda, particularly over Russia, Ukraine. He has suggested openly that potentially Ukraine, in order to end Russia's invasion, will need to come up with a settlement in which they seed some of their land. Last spring, he voted against more than $80 billion of US supplemental military aid to Ukraine. Donald Trump, again, turning to Marco Rubio as somebody who he clearly has grown to trust after eight years ago running against him in that memorable Republican primary in 2016 when the two had attention to relationships. But ever since, they've really grown to have a much stronger relationship.

A lot of moving parts tonight. Ron Hillier out there in Palm Beach. Thanks so much. An NBC news contributor and former GOP congressman from Florida, Carlos Curbelo, is here with us to help break this down. Thanks so much for being with us. We were just talking about Marco Rubio. I know that's still a big question, Mark, but you're from Florida. You've had a lot of dealings with Marco Rubio over the years. What are your thoughts about him for a possible Secretary of State?

Look, Gatti, early the morning after the election when Donald Trump came out and said that he wanted to unite the country, Marco Rubio is the type of pick that can actually do that. We saw that today because he got some plotits from Democratic senators who said they trusted Rubio and they would be happy to vote for him. This is the pick that really can unite both sides of the political spectrum. However, it's not official yet. We understand that there are some isolationists in the MAGA movement who have concerns over Rubio, and some of these people are publicly expressing these concerns. We'll see if he does end up making it. But clearly, Rubio is someone who members of Congress trust and who a lot of policy experts think would bring stability and predictability to Trump's foreign policy.

We've heard these rumors for quite some time. We've been expecting the official statement, and instead, we've seen some surprises along the way before that, including this new Department of Government Efficiency, a whole new department you've served in Congress. You know how slow the government can move, and you know the inner workings, at least on Capitol Hill. When you hear of Jake and Elon, possibly headed to Washington with the big machete to start carving out excess spending. What goes through your mind?

Look, this isn't an actual department. Departments have to be authorized by Congress and funded by Congress. This is essentially a new office in the White House. I mean, these men are going to be important advisors to the President. They're going to review every department, make their recommendations. I think those recommendations will probably be reflected in the budget that presidents send to Congress around springtime of every year. Now, it's important to note, Gatti, that those budgets are typically ignored by members of Congress from both parties, regardless of who's in the White House. At the end of the day, if they really do want to slash government spending, they're going to have to go to Congress and get bipartisan majorities to get that done. There's some they can do around the edges through attrition and through other methods, but- But not $2 trillion. That It would be very difficult for the executive to do unilaterally. To cut $2 trillion, you're going to have to go to Congress and see where they're willing to cut from.

It does seem like we're headed, though, into uncharded territory. You've got Vivek, you've got Elon Musk, these are some of the most active, self-professed edge lords out there. They're very good at bringing publicity with them. I can see this idea of going in front of buildings or going down hallways and and trying to find excess waste all streamed live onto Elon Musk's platform. If that happens, if there are these callings for, You're fired, you're fired, you're fired, what actually happens in the halls of government When it comes to HR, when it comes to due process? Is it easy to fire somebody that works for the government?

Look, imagine in the private sector, employees have protections. In the public sector, those protections tend to be even stronger. I do expect Musk and Ramiswami to draw a lot of attention to this, to perhaps try to influence members of Congress. We've seen them in just recent days, trying to influence the vote for Senate majority leader tomorrow through social media. I think They're probably going to see some of those tactics, but they have to be careful. If employees feel like they're being harassed, they have legal recourse. This could really turn into an ugly process if they try to showboat too much around it, if they try If you don't draw too much publicity, it could end up backfiring.

It almost sounds like social media coming to life and then ending up in court. Quite possibly. Now, when it comes to Pete Hegset for Secretary of Defense, that is also a very big surprise here. He has served in Iraq. He's served in Afghanistan. But what does that tell you about what President-elect Trump is looking for in the military?

Look, loyalty is important to Trump. I don't want to overstate that because I think it's important to every President, but I would say it's more important to Trump than to most Presidents. Clearly, that's what he's going for here. I think a Republican Senate majority is going to be fairly deferential to Trump on most cabinet picks. When it comes to defense, when it comes to state, those are really important. I don't think the President can take the Senate majority for granted. There are a handful of independent-minded Republican senators serving, and they are going to scrutinize these candidates. So someone like Hegsef, he has to be ready for that Senate confirmation hearing because he can't assume that it's just going to be a cakewalk.

Not just that Senate confirmation hearing. I mean, the balance of power here, he tapping people that are serving in Congress, and those seats are going to be vacant for a little bit of time.

Well, that's a very big deal in the House, Scott. I know NBC News still hasn't projected which party will control the House. It certainly seems like Republicans will, by a handful of votes, we already have Elise Stefanik and Mike Walsh leaving the Congress. Republicans have to be very careful, especially given how ambitious the agenda they're seeking to pursue early in this next term.

A bright new world. Carlos, thank you so much for being with us.

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