Trump’s cabinet latest: President-elect selects Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio

Thune beat out Florida Senator Rick Scott, a favorite of allies of Trump’s such as Elon Musk, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who previously held the job of whip.

First elected in 2004, Thune beat former majority leader Thom Daschle.

Trump has announced that former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be the next director of national intelligence.

Republicans will control both houses of Congress next year.

The GOP held onto their narrow majority, giving them the opportunity to pass much of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

Democrats flipped a number of seats, including in California and New York. But they didn’t win enough to make up for losses of incumbent Democrats like Yadira Caraveo in Colorado or Republicans flipping Michigan’s open 7th district seat that was vacated when Elissa Slotkin won her senate race. Democratic Representatives Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania both fell short.

Many races remain uncalled, but Republicans earned the required 218 votes to keep the lower chamber.

Trump issued a statement on Wednesday officially nominating Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be his Secretary of State.

While Trump’s relationships with many of his cabinet secretaries in his first administration ended badly, few were as chaotic as his failed connections with his attorneys general – Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr. Trump fired Sessions after he recused himself from the Russia investigation and Barr eventually resigned after the 2020 election amid Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Donald Trump’s potential education secretary pick has floated the idea of a national mandate to require Bibles in classrooms.

Oklahoma’s chief school official Ryan Walters, one of the names rumored to be in the running to become the next education secretary, did not reject the idea of rolling out the controversial policy across schools nationwide when it was put to him on Tuesday.

“Look, if you’re teaching American history, the Bible has to be included and we cannot allow left-wing activists to sit here and say we don’t like Christianity,” Walters told Blake Burman on NewsNation’s The Hill.

“We will ensure that history is taught in every class. That means kids will know American exceptionalism. That means kids will know the role that faith played. We will be unapologetic about that here in Oklahoma,” he added, pointing to the policy already in place in his home state.

“We want to make sure that every student knows the role that the Bible played in American history.”

The newly elected chair of the Senate Republican Conference, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that he’s “looking forward to working with Senator Thune and the rest of this leadership team. I’m very grateful for the confidence that my peers placed in me.”

“We all remember what it was like when President Trump was in office and we had Republicans in charge of the Senate. We had low prices, we had high wages, we had a secure border, we had a strong military, we had a peaceful, stable world,” he claimed. “Starting on January 3, that’s what we’ll all be working to build again with President Trump, with Mike Johnson, and the rest of the House Republicans on behalf of the American people.”

Joe Rogan has divulged a list of what he called “hilarious” requirements that Vice President Kamala Harris had in order to appear on his show.

“They had requirements on things she didn’t want to talk about,” he said. “She didn’t want to talk about marijuana legalization — which I thought was hilarious.”