By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge who was nominated by Donald Trump says it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if the president-elect hands out mass pardons to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election, a rare instance of judicial commentary on a politically divisive subject.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed to the bench in June 2019, expressed his criticism during a hearing Tuesday at which he agreed to postpone a Capitol riot defendant’s trial until after Trump returns to the White House in January.

During his campaign for a second term as president, Trump repeatedly referred to Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages” and “patriots” and said he “absolutely” would pardon rioters who assaulted police “if they’re innocent.” Trump has suggested he would consider pardoning former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison after a jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.

“Blanket pardons for all January 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call,” Nichols said, according to a transcript. “And the possibility of some pardons, at least, is a very real thing.”

Nichols is one of over 20 judges who have presided over more than 1,500 cases against people charged in a mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many Capitol riot defendants have asked for post-election delays in their cases, but judges largely have denied their requests and forged ahead with sentencings, guilty pleas and other hearings.

Steve Baker, a writer for a conservative media outlet, pleaded guilty last Tuesday to Capitol riot-related misdemeanors after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper refused to pause the case until after Trump takes office. However, Cooper acknowledged that the case may never reach the punishment stage given the possibility of pardons.

Nichols commented on pardons during a hearing for Jacob Lang, a Capitol riot defendant who is jailed while awaiting a trial in Washington. Within hours of Trump’s victory this month, Lang posted on social media that he and other Jan. 6 “political prisoners” were “finally coming home.”

“There will be no bitterness in my heart as I walk out of these doors in 75 days on inauguration day,” wrote Lang, who was charged several days after the riot with repeatedly attacking police officers.

Nichols, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before working for the Justice Department, said he hasn’t delayed any trial solely on the basis of possible pardons. He noted that his decision to delay Lang’s trial was based in part on matters that they privately discussed under seal.

“I agree very much with the government that there are costs to not proceeding here, both to the trial team, to the witnesses and to the victims, as well as to the public, which has an interest in a determination of guilt or innocence in a case that has been pending as long as this one,” Nichols said.

Several days after the election, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras postponed a Jan. 6 trial that had been scheduled to start on Dec. 2. The defendant, William Pope, argued that his trial would be a waste of the court’s time and resources “because there will never be a sentencing, and I will be free.”

Contreras said he didn’t want to bring in dozens of prospective jurors for a two-week trial “just to have it go for naught.”

“Of course, it’s speculative, but there is a real possibility of that happening,” the judge added, according to a transcript.

A prosecutor objected to the delay, saying that “the speculative nature of what Mr. Pope hopes will be a pardon is not a sufficient reason to continue this trial.”

Judges have largely echoed that argument. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton refused to delay a Nov. 8 sentencing hearing for Anna Lichnowski, a Florida woman who believes she would be a good candidate for a pardon. Walton, who sentenced Lichnowski to 45 days in jail, wrote that the possibility of pardons is “irrelevant to the Court’s obligation to carry out the legal responsibilities of the Judicial Branch.”

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 19, the 324th day of 2024. There are 42 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

Also on this date:

In 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.

In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second crewed landing on the moon.

In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.

In 1999, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr testified before the House Judiciary Committee during impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.

In 2004, in one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history, Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest) and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands and fought with Detroit Pistons fans after a fan threw a drink at Artest, forcing officials to end the Pacers’ 97-82 win with 45.9 seconds left.

In 2017, Charles Manson, the cult leader behind the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles in 1969, died in a California hospital at the age of 83 after nearly a half-century in prison.

In 2022, five people were killed and 25 injured when a shooter opened fire at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Talk show host Dick Cavett is 88.
• Media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner is 86.
• Fashion designer Calvin Klein is 82.
• Poet Sharon Olds is 82.
• Sportscaster and former NFL wide receiver Ahmad Rashad is 75.
• Broadcast journalist Ann Curry is 68.
• Former NASA astronaut Eileen Collins is 68.
• Writer-filmmaker Charlie Kaufman is 66.
• Actor Allison Janney is 65.
• Actor Meg Ryan is 63.
• Actor-filmmaker Jodie Foster is 62.
• Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Gail Devers is 58.
• Entrepreneur Jack Dorsey is 48.
• Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kerri Strug is 47.
• Actor Reid Scott is 47.
• Film director Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) is 45.
• Actor Adam Driver is 41.
• NHL forward Patrick Kane is 36.

By HALELUYA HADERO

About one in five Americans — and a virtually identical share of Republicans and Democrats — regularly get their news from digital influencers who are more likely to be found on the social media platform X, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center.

The findings, drawn from a survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults and an analysis of social media posts posted this summer by influencers, provide an indication of how Americans consumed the news during the height of the U.S. presidential campaign that President-elect Donald Trump ultimately won.

The study examined accounts run by people who post and talk regularly about current events – including through podcasts and newsletters – and have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X or TikTok. They include people across the political spectrum, such as the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen and conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, as well as non-partisan personalities like Chris Cillizza, a former CNN analyst who now runs his own newsletter.

The report found that news influencers posted mostly about politics and the election, followed by social issues like race and abortion and international events, such as the Israel-Hamas war. Most of them — 63% — are men and the majority — 77% — have no affiliation, or background, with a media organization. Pew said about half of the influencers it sampled did not express a clear political orientation. From the ones that did, slightly more of them identified as conservative than as liberal.

During the campaign, both parties and presidential campaigns had courted influencers, including creators who weren’t very political, to compete for voters who are increasingly getting most of their news from non-traditional sources.

The Republican and Democratic national conventions had credentialed influencers to cover their events this past summer. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with Alex Cooper for her “Call Her Daddy” podcast and talked a little Bay Area basketball with the fellows on “All the Smoke.” Meanwhile, Trump hung out with the bros on the “Bussin’ With the Boys,” “Flagrant” and the popular podcaster Joe Rogan as part of a series of appearances targeting young male voters.

“These influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year amid the presidential election,” Galen Stocking, senior computational social scientist at Pew Research Center, said in a statement. “We thought it was really important to look at who is behind some of the most popular accounts – the ones that aren’t news organizations, but actual people.”

Even though 85% of news influencers have a presence on X, many of them also have homes on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Racial minorities, young adults and adults with a lower income were more likely to get their news from news influencers, according to the report. Most of the people surveyed by Pew said news influencers have helped them better understand current events, while roughly a quarter say what they hear has not made much of a difference. A small share — 9% — say influencers have confused them more.

Media analysts have long been concerned about how influencers – most of whom don’t have to abide by editorial standards – could fuel misinformation, or even be used by America’s adversaries to churn out content that fits their interests. On social media, though, some influencers have positioned themselves as figures presenting neglected points of view.

Pew, which is doing the study as part of an initiative funded by the Knight Foundation, said 70% of the survey respondents believe the news they get from influencers is somewhat different than what they hear elsewhere. Roughly a quarter said it was “extremely or very different.”

The report found TikTok is the only one of the major platforms where influencers who identify as right-leaning do not outnumber those who are more liberal. Pew said news influencers on the short-form video app were more likely than those on other sites to show support for LGBTQ+ rights or identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The platform also had the smallest gender gap for news influencers.

AP media writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Today is Monday, Nov. 18, the 323rd day of 2024. There are 43 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 18, 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and four others were killed on an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide resulting in the deaths of more than 900 cult members.

Also on this date:

In 1928, “Steamboat Willie,” the first cartoon with synchronized sound as well as the first release of the character Mickey Mouse, debuted on screen at the Colony Theater in New York.

In 1987, an underground fire broke out in the King’s Cross St Pancras subway station in London, causing 31 deaths.

In 1991, Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut.

In 1999, 12 people were killed and 27 injured when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed.

In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry, the first state supreme court to do so.

In 2005, eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted of murdering his wife at a criminal trial, a civil jury decided the actor was behind the killing and ordered him to pay Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million.

In 2021, more than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated; a New York judge dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation had found new evidence that undermined the case against them.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Author Margaret Atwood is 85.
• Actor Linda Evans is 82.
• Actor Delroy Lindo is 72.
• Comedian Kevin Nealon is 71.
• Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon is 68.
• Actor Oscar Nunez is 66.
• Actor Elizabeth Perkins is 64.
• Rock musician Kirk Hammett (Metallica) is 62.
• Author and lecturer Brené Brown is 59.
• Actor Romany Malco is 56.
• Actor Owen Wilson is 56.
• Commentator Megan Kelly is 54.
• Actor Chloe Sevigny (SEH’-ven-ee) is 50.
• Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz is 49.
• Rapper Fabolous is 47.
• NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is 44.
• Actor-comedian Nasim Pedrad (nah-SEEM’ peh-DRAHD’) is 43.
• Actor Damon Wayans Jr. is 42.
• Olympic track and field gold medalist Allyson Felix is 39.
• Fashion designer Christian Siriano is 39.
• Actor Nathan Kress is 32.
• NFL quarterback Caleb Williams is 23.

Today is Sunday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2024. There are 44 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 17, 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born actor who had become one of America’s biggest movie stars of the 1980s and ’90s, was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.

Also on this date:

In 1800, Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon told a gathering of Associated Press managing editors at a televised news conference in Orlando, Florida: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

In 1968, the last minutes of a tense NFL matchup on NBC between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders were preempted by the children’s film “Heidi.” The network received thousands of calls from angry viewers and formally apologized.

In 1989, an estimated 10,000-15,000 Czechoslovakian students demonstrated in Prague against Communist rule; hundreds of thousands joined the protests in the following days. Dubbed the “Velvet Revolution” for its nonviolent nature, the protests led to the resignation of the Communist Party’s leadership on Nov. 28.

In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut (haht-shehp-SOOT’) in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers were killed by police.

In 2020, President Donald Trump fired the nation’s top election security official, Christopher Krebs, who had refuted Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and vouched for the integrity of the vote.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Film director Martin Scorsese (skor-SEH’-see) is 82.
• Actor-model Lauren Hutton is 81.
• Actor-director Danny DeVito is 80.
• Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim is 80.
• “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels is 80.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes is 79.
• Film director Roland Joffe is 79.
• Former House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) is 75.
• Actor Stephen Root is 73.
• TV host-entertainer RuPaul is 64.
• Actor Dylan Walsh is 61.
• TV host-model Daisy Fuentes is 58.
• R&B singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe) is 57.
• Actor Rachel McAdams is 46.

Today is Saturday, Nov. 16, the 321st day of 2024. There are 45 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 16, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of an 800-mile (1,290-kilometer) oil pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to the port city of Valdez.

Also on this date:

In 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state of the union.

In 1914, the newly created Federal Reserve Banks opened in 12 cities.

In 1982, an agreement was announced in the 57th day of a strike by National Football League players.

In 1988, Benazir Bhutto was voted prime minister of Pakistan, the first woman to be elected to lead a Muslim-majority country.

In 1989, six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter were slain by army troops at the University of Central America José Simeón Cañas in El Salvador.

In 2001, investigators found a letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont containing anthrax; it was the second letter bearing the deadly germ known to have been sent to Capitol Hill.

In 2001, the first film in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (U.S. title: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”) debuted in theaters around the world.

In 2006, after midterm elections that saw Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi was nominated by the Democratic caucus to become speaker of the House. (Pelosi would officially become speaker by House vote the following January, becoming the first woman to serve in the role.)

In 2018, a U.S. official said intelligence officials had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL’ khahr-SHOHK’-jee).

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Miguel Sandoval is 73.
• Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is 72.
• NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte is 68.
• Actor Marg Helgenberger is 66.
• Former MLB All-Star pitcher Dwight Gooden is 60.
• Jazz singer Diana Krall is 60.
• Actor Lisa Bonet is 57.
• Actor Martha Plimpton is 54.
• Olympic figure skating gold medalist Oksana Baiul (ahk-SAH’-nah by-OOL’) is 47.
• Actor Maggie Gyllenhaal (JIHL’-ehn-hahl) is 47.
• Actor-comedian Pete Davidson is 31.

Time and again during his campaign, former and future president Donald Trump made the Jan.6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol a centerpiece of his rallies, calling them heroes or hostages and promising pardons.

“The moment we win,” Trump told a Wisconsin crowd in September, “we will rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Harris regime, and I will sign their pardons on Day 1.”

Trump is now being asked to deliver.

Norm Pattis, the Connecticut lawyer defending Joseph Biggs, a member of the militant Proud Boys organization that the government says organized the violent break-in at the Capitol, has written a long letter to Trump that appeals to his grievances with the criminal justice system and argues that clemency might contribute to political unification.

“Mr. President, you are no stranger to prosecutions warped by partisan vendetta,” Pattis wrote. “Mr. Biggs also has been victimized by a cynical misuse of the law.”

The letter congratulates Trump on “your re-election to the Presidency” before turning to an exhaustive history of presidential clemency through U.S. history. Pardoning Biggs and other insurrectionists would serve “the broader public interest,” Pattis wrote, in the same way “liberal” grants of presidential pardons to confederates helped reunite the country after the civil war.

“These are divisive times. The divisions were acute in 2020, when millions believed the election was stolen and turned out to make sure electoral integrity was preserved. Suspicions and bitterness about the election lingers to this day. A pardon of Mr. Biggs will help close that wound and inspires confidence in the future” Pattis wrote.

Pattis defended Biggs at his 2023 trial in Washington and is pressing an appeal.

Biggs was one of the leaders of the militant, far-right Proud Boys on Jan. 6, 2021 when thousands of Trump supporters, inflamed by the outgoing president’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged, stormed the Capital in what the Justice Department calls an attempt to block certification of President Joseph Biden’s victory

Since then, in what has been described as the most extensive criminal investigation in U.S. history, more than 1,500 rioters have been charged and more than 600 imprisoned.

Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran from Florida, was charged with a long list of crimes including seditious conspiracy for trying to block the transfer of government power to Biden. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, but Pattis said federal prosecutors are appealing in an effort to lengthen the sentence and have cut off his military pension because of the sedition conviction.

Biggs is the first Proud Boy to ask Trump for clemency, but others have said they also intend to seek pardons.

The government presented evidence in court that Biggs was part of a Proud Boys “Ministry of Self Defense,” the purpose of which was to “prevent, hinder and delay” the certification of the election results and “oppose by force the authority of the United States.”

The Proud Boys, federal prosecutors said, were “at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol’s defenses, leading to the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government.”

While Trump promised repeatedly during the campaign to pardon Capitol rioters, neither he nor his transition team have said how he intends to do it.

In his letter, Pattis asks Trump to issue pardons directly rather than relying on the Justice Department pardon attorney, an office Pattis said is characterized by delay and potential bias.:

“No matter how big the shake up at Justice will be come January 2025, the agency has gone all in on the theory that January 6, 2021 was a direct threat to democracy,” Pattis wrote. An agency empowered by hyperbole will with difficulty learn to hear the more subtle message that justice requires.”

“Much is written and has been said about so-called ‘lawfare,’ that is, the targeting of political opponents for legal process by those in power, Pattis wrote. “The Justice Department’s obsession with January 6, 2021, has wasted enormous resources and eroded confidence in the even-handed administration of justice.

“Mr. President, the time for a pardon is past due. We ask you to make the pardon of Mr. Biggs a top priority in your administration,” he wrote.

“We make this appeal directly to you because we believe in the power of justice and the ability of a courageous leader to make a real and sustaining difference in American life.”

By Sierra Van Der Brug, Sydney Barragan, SCNG

Four Los Angeles-area residents were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of insurance fraud and conspiracy after allegedly falsely claiming a bear got into their vehicles and damaged them.

There was no bear, rather, a person in a bear costume was seen in video footage provided with insurance claims.

Dubbed “Operation Bear Claw,” the California Department of Insurance began an investigation after an insurance company suspected fraud when the suspects, residents of Glendale and Valley Village, in January reported a bear had gotten into their Rolls-Royce Ghost in Lake Arrowhead.

Video footage was provided to the insurance company. The footage was reviewed by investigators, who determined the video showed a person in a bear suit. A biologist from the California Department of Wildlife also reviewed the footage, concurring with investigators that the footage “was clearly a human in a bear suit,” according to a news release from the Department of Insurance. After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the home of the suspects.

The investigation also revealed two other insurance claims made by the suspects at other insurance companies, citing the same date and location of loss and bear-related circumstances, with different vehicles, a Mercedes G63 AMG and a Mercedes E350.

“This is definitely unique, but we have seen, through our cases, that people will do a lot of things to try and get an undeserved insurance payout,” said Allison Hensley,  deputy press secretary at the Department of Insurance

Photos provided by the department showed the reported damage, puncture and scratch marks on the interior doors and seats of the vehicles.

“It isn’t the first case that we’ve seen that has baffled us, but this one definitely was the first one in a while,” Hensley said.

The financial impact on the insurance companies of the alleged fraud totaled over $140,000.

By Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is already making big bets on what take two for a White House led by Donald Trump will mean for the economy.

Since Election Day, investors have sent prices zooming for stocks of banks, fossil-fuel producers and other companies expected to benefit from Trump’s preference for lower tax rates and lighter regulation. For retailers, meanwhile, the outlook is murkier because of uncertainty about whether they’ll be able to absorb any of the higher costs created by tariffs.

Professional investors are warning about the risk of getting carried away by the momentum. While strong rhetoric on the campaign trail can cause these big swings, not all of the promises turn into actual policy. Plus, the broad U.S. stock market tends to move more on long-term growth in profits than anything else.

— Stan Choe

Here’s a look at where Wall Street is placing its bets at the moment:

Technology

Technology stocks soared in Trump’s first term, helped by the administration’s tax policies. But the relationship was tempestuous: Trump’s immigration stance threatened a source of high-skilled immigrants that comprises a significant part of the industry’s work force and his trade wars threatened international sales and supply chains.

This time around, tech could benefit from an anticipated loosening of antitrust regulation that discouraged big deals from getting done and threatened to rein in the power of Google, Apple and Amazon. What’s more, Trump is expected to clear the way for Big Tech to make more inroads in artificial intelligence technology — an area increasingly seen as a crucial battleground in the duel for global power between the U.S. and China.

Trump’s vow to impose tariffs and other restrictions on trade does pose a potential downside for chip makers, particularly stock market darling Nvidia. A possible rollback of Biden administration efforts to boost U.S. semiconductor production also is a concern.

Still, in a sign of tech’s more conciliatory attitude, Trump’s election was greeted by congratulatory posts from most of the industry’s luminaries, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

— Michael Liedtke

Retail

Trump’s victory brings a big dose of uncertainty for the retail industry.

Trump has proposed extending 2017 tax cuts for individuals and restoring tax breaks for businesses that were being reduced. He also wants to further cut the corporate tax rate. Those would be tailwinds for shoppers and businesses, analysts said.

But the president-elect’s trade proposals could have a huge downside. He’s proposed 60% tariffs on Chinese goods and tariffs of 10% to 20% on other imports. Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, a research firm, said retailers would either take a big hit on profits or be forced to increase prices.

As opposed to Trump’s first term, retailers will have a harder time absorbing tariffs this time because their costs of doing business are already higher, Saunders said.

Many companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.

The National Retail Federation is forecasting higher prices for U.S. shoppers if Trump’s new tariffs are implemented. For example, an $80 pair of men’s jeans would cost $90 to $96.

— Anne D’Innocenzio

Energy

Trump has said he wants to “drill, drill, drill” starting on Day 1 of his presidency, so it’s expected that traditional fossil fuel-focused companies will get a boost and renewable energy outfits could be disadvantaged.

Oilfield services companies including Haliburton and Schlumberger would likely benefit from initiatives to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Natural gas companies including EQT and CNX Resources could benefit from facilities and pipeline projects. Meanwhile, clean energy companies, such as First Solar and many electric vehicle makers, could have a harder time growing if Trump cuts tax credits and other incentives for the industry.

But remember Trump’s first term, says Austin Pickle, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The thought back then, like now, was that Trump would boost prices for oil-and-gas stocks. But energy stocks ended up struggling late in his term when the price of oil briefly went below zero during the COVID-19 pandemic.

— Damian Troise

Health Care

Drugmakers, insurers and other health care companies could benefit from fewer regulatory roadblocks to mergers and a lighter regulatory stance overall.

Insurers, in particular, may see some regulatory relief for Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately run versions of the government’s Medicare program mainly for people ages 65 and older. Under Democratic leadership, some insurers were facing smaller bonus payments tied to their Medicare Advantage plans. Some drugmakers are facing revenue hits on certain drugs covered by Medicare. Those challenges could abate under Republican rule, analysts at Morningstar noted.

A second Trump administration also may challenge health care companies.

The approval of drugs and vaccines could become less predictable, depending on the role anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plays, said Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen.

Health insurers that sell coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces or manage state-and-federally funded Medicaid coverage could face challenges if Republicans attempt to dismantle parts of the law, said Julie Utterback of Morningstar.

In particular, extra subsidies that help people buy marketplace coverage are slated to expire at the end of next year, which could lead to enrollment drops.

— Tom Murphy

Autos

The auto industry is another that should welcome less restrictive regulations but dread tariffs.

Trump is likely to roll back or scrap tailpipe emissions limits for 2027 through 2032 imposed by the Biden administration. Companies like General Motors, Ford and Stellantis could more easily sell larger, less-efficient vehicles without paying hefty fines.

Companies would also face less pressure to sell more electric vehicles to offset emissions from big trucks and SUVs, which make big profit margins, said Kevin Tynan, research director for The Presidio Group.

Tariffs are a different story. Trump has threatened tariffs on imported vehicles to force more production in the U.S. The threat of 100% tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico is a big concern.

Morningstar analyst David Whiston said such tariffs could potentially cost General Motors, Stellantis and Ford billions in profits. About 30% of GM’s North American production comes from Mexico, while it’s 24% for Stellantis and about 15% for Ford.

Whiston notes that tariffs on vehicles built in Mexico would violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term. But that can be reworked in July of 2026. Whiston said those tariffs would mean higher prices and many buyers already can’t afford the current average price of over $47,000.

Trump also has threatened to get rid of electric vehicle tax credits that have helped boost sales of EVs.

— Tom Krisher

Banks

Bank stocks could benefit if Trump’s policies boost the U.S. economy and more customers apply for loans. In addition, Wells Fargo banking analyst Mike Mayo believes the Trump victory can usher in a “new era” of lighter financial regulation after 15 years of stricter oversight following the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Under Biden, banks were facing requirements to set aside more capital to reduce risk, but the Trump administration is likely to take a step back.

Dealmaking could see a revival under Trump, which would help banks with large investment banking operations like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. That also increases the odds the pending merger between Capital One Financial and Discover Financial gets federal clearance. Regional banks should benefit if a growing economy prompts the creation of new small businesses or the expansion of existing ones.

— Paul Harloff

Building materials and construction

Construction companies are looking at a mixed bag, with lighter regulations a plus but higher materials costs a potential minus.

Construction companies, including homebuilders KB Home and PulteGroup, could benefit from tax incentives and more friendly regulations. A surge in development could help relieve some pressure on a housing market pressured by a lack of supply for new homes. A boost in construction could also help suppliers of raw materials including steel and aggregates used in concrete.

But the potential for overall raw material price increases is a threat. Higher costs could cut into profits for construction companies and homebuilders. Steel tariffs could help shield U.S. producers from competition, but a jump in global prices as a result could negate that benefit, while also squeezing construction companies.

Plans for an immigration crackdown could worsen an existing labor shortage and result in delays for projects.

— Damian Troise

Crypto

Trump, once a crypto skeptic, has pledged to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Money has poured into crypto assets since he won. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has surged above $86,000. Shares of crypto platform Coinbase have surged more than 60% since the election.

Crypto industry players welcomed Trump’s victory, in hopes that he would push through legislative and regulatory changes that they’ve long lobbied for. And Trump had promised that, if elected, he would remove the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry and repeatedly called for more oversight.

— Wyatte Grantham-Phillips

By JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to undo President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case as prosecutors consider how to proceed in light of last week’s election and his lawyers argue for dismissal so he can run the country.

The postponement comes at a dramatic and dynamic point in the case, which focused on how Trump accounted for payments to a porn actor before the 2016 election and produced a first-ever conviction of a former commander-in-chief.

Sentencing had been set for Nov. 26. But prosecutors now say they’re reassessing, and they appear open to the possibility that the proceedings can’t go as planned.

“These are unprecedented circumstances,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in an email to the court. He said prosecutors need to consider how to balance the “competing interests” of the jury’s verdict and the presidency.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove, meanwhile, argued the case must be thrown out altogether “to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”

The messages were part of an email chain released Tuesday, when New York Judge Juan M. Merchan had been set to rule on Trump lawyers’ earlier request to toss his conviction for a different reason — because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity.

Instead, Merchan told Trump’s lawyers he’d halt proceedings and delay the ruling until at least Nov. 19 so that prosecutors can suggest a way forward. Both sides agreed to the one-week postponement.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung heralded the delay. He said in a statement that the president-elect’s win makes it “abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, including this case, which should have never been filed.”

Prosecutors declined to comment.

A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payout was to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Trump.

Trump says they didn’t have sex, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the prosecution was a political tactic meant to harm his latest campaign. Trump is a Republican. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, is a Democrat, as is Merchan.

Just over a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions they took in the course of running the country, and prosecutors can’t cite those actions even to bolster a case centered on purely personal conduct.

Trump’s lawyers cited that ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House aides.

Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case.

Trump’s criminal conviction was a first for any ex-president. It left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of a fine, probation or up to four years in prison.

The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing a personal attorney for the Daniels payment.

The then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, fronted the money. He later recouped it through a series of payments that Trump’s company logged as legal expenses. Trump, by then in the White House, signed most of the checks himself.

Prosecutors said the designation was meant to cloak the true purpose of the payments and help cover up a broader effort to keep voters from hearing unflattering claims about Trump during his first campaign.

Trump said that Cohen was legitimately paid for legal services, and that Daniels’ story was suppressed to avoid embarrassing Trump’s family, not to influence the electorate.

Trump was a private citizen, campaigning for president, when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was reimbursed, and Cohen testified that they discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.

Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the verdict. While urging Merchan to nix the conviction, the president-elect also has been trying to move the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge repeatedly said no to the move, but Trump has appealed.

Trump faces three other unrelated indictments in various jurisdictions.

But Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has been evaluating how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case against Trump before he takes office, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, a Georgia election interference case against Trump is largely on hold while he and other defendants appeal a judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting it.

---

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 12, the 317th day of 2024. There are 49 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 12, 2019, Venice saw its worst flooding in more than 50 years, with the water reaching 6.14 feet (1.87 meters) above average sea level; damage was estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Also on this date:

In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., and gave the green light to traffic.

In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.

In 1954, Ellis Island officially closed as an immigration station and detention center. More than 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States via Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.

In 1970, the Bhola cyclone struck East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. The deadliest tropical cyclone on record claimed the lives of an estimated 300,000-500,000 people.

In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, en route to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

In 2021, a judge in Los Angeles ended the conservatorship that had controlled the life and money of pop star Britney Spears for nearly 14 years.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor-playwright Wallace Shawn is 81.
• Rock musician Booker T. Jones is 80.
• Sportscaster Al Michaels is 80.
• Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 79.
• Author Tracy Kidder is 79.
• Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island is 75.
• Actor Megan Mullally is 66.
• Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comăneci (koh-muh-NEECH’) is 63.
• Olympic gold medal swimmer Jason Lezak is 49.
• Golfer Lucas Glover is 45.
• Actor Ryan Gosling is 44.
• Actor Anne Hathaway is 42.
• Golfer Jason Day is 37.
• NBA point guard Russell Westbrook is 36.

Today is Monday, Nov. 11, the 316th day of 2024. There are 50 days left in the year. Today is Veterans Day.

Today in history:

On Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice aboard a railroad car in the Forest of Compiègne (kohm-PYEHN’-yeh) in northern France.

Also on this date:

In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed the Mayflower Compact, calling for a “civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation.”

In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.

In 1938, Irish-born cook Mary Mallon, who’d gained notoriety as the disease-carrying “Typhoid Mary” blamed for the deaths of three people, died on North Brother Island in New York’s East River at age 69 after 23 years of mandatory quarantine.

In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off on a four-day mission with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard; it was the tenth and final crewed flight of NASA’s Gemini program.

In 1987, following the failure of two Supreme Court nominations, President Ronald Reagan announced his choice of Judge Anthony M. Kennedy, who went on to win confirmation.

In 2020, Georgia’s secretary of state announced an audit of presidential election results that he said would be done with a full hand tally of ballots because the margin was so tight; President-elect Joe Biden led President Donald Trump by about 14,000 votes out of nearly 5 million votes counted in the state. (The audit would affirm Biden’s win.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Music producer Mutt Lange is 76.
• Actor Stanley Tucci is 64.
• Actor Demi Moore is 62.
• Actor Calista Flockhart is 60.
• TV personality Carson Kressley is 55.
• Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 50.
• Musician Jon Batiste is 38.
• Actor Tye Sheridan is 28.

Today is Sunday, Nov. 10, the 315th day of 2024. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 10,1969, the children’s educational program “Sesame Street” made its debut on National Educational Television (now PBS).

Also on this date:

In 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

In 1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina, a mob of as many as 2,000 white supremacists killed dozens of African Americans, burned Black-owned businesses and forced the mayor, police chief and aldermen to resign at gunpoint, before installing their own mayor and city council in what became known as the “Wilmington Coup.”

In 1954, the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, depicting the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Arlington, Virginia.

In 1975, the Great Lakes freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank after being caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior; all 29 crew members were lost.

In 2019, Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned after weeks of public protests in response to alleged election fraud in Bolivia’s general election the previous month.

In 2021, Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand in his murder trial, testifying that he was under attack and acting in self-defense when he shot and killed two men and wounded a third during a turbulent night of street protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (He would be acquitted of all charges.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Lyricist Tim Rice is 80.
• Country singer Donna Fargo is 79.
• Film director Roland Emmerich is 69.
• Actor-comedian Sinbad is 68.
• Actor Mackenzie Phillips is 65.
• Author Neil Gaiman (GAY’-mihn) is 64.
• Actor Hugh Bonneville is 61.
• Actor-comedian Tommy Davidson is 61.
• Long jump world record holder Mike Powell is 61.
• Country singer Chris Cagle is 56.
• Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan is 56.
• Actor Ellen Pompeo (pahm-PAY’-oh) is 55.
• Rapper-producer Warren G is 54.
• Actor Walton Goggins is 53.
• Football Hall of Famer Isaac Bruce is 52.
• Rapper-actor Eve is 46.
• Country singer Miranda Lambert is 41.
• Actor Josh Peck is 38.
• Actor Taron Egerton is 35.
• Golfer Jon Rahm is 30.
• Actor Kiernan Shipka is 25.
• Olympic gold medal pole vaulter Armand Duplantis is 25.
• Actor Mackenzie Foy is 24.

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s name wasn’t on the ballot, but history will likely remember Kamala Harris’ resounding defeat as his loss too.

As Democrats pick up the pieces after President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, some of the vice president’s backers are expressing frustration that Biden’s decision to seek reelection until this summer — despite long-standing voter concerns about his age and unease about post-pandemic inflation as well as the U.S.-Mexico border — all but sealed his party’s surrender of the White House.

“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Harris’ unsuccessful run. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we may be in a very different place.”

Biden will leave office after leading the United States out of the worst pandemic in a century, galvanizing international support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and passing a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will affect communities for years to come.

But having run four years ago against Trump to “restore the soul of the country,” Biden will make way after just one term for his immediate predecessor, who overcame two impeachments, a felony conviction and an insurrection launched by his supporters. Trump has pledged to radically reshape the federal government and roll back many of Biden’s priorities.

“Maybe in 20 or 30 years, history will remember Biden for some of these achievements,” said Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University. “But in the shorter term, I don’t know he escapes the legacy of being the president who beat Donald Trump only to usher in another Donald Trump administration four years later.”

The president on Wednesday stayed out of sight for the second straight day, making congratulatory calls to Democratic lawmakers who won downballot races and to Trump. Biden invited Trump for a White House meeting, and the president-elect accepted.

Biden is set to deliver a Rose Garden address Thursday about the election. He issued a statement shortly after Harris delivered her concession speech Wednesday, praising Harris for running an “historic campaign” under “extraordinary circumstances.”

Some high-ranking Democrats, including three advisers to the Harris campaign, expressed deep frustration with Biden for failing to recognize earlier in the election cycle that he was not up to the challenge. The advisers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign in July, weeks after an abysmal debate performance sent his party into a spiral and raised questions about whether he still had the mental acuity and stamina to serve as a credible nominee.

But polling long beforehand showed that many Americans worried about his age. Some 77% of Americans said in August 2023 that Biden was too old to be effective for four more years, according to a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

The president bowed out on July 21 after getting not-so-subtle nudges from Democratic Party powers, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Biden endorsed Harris and handed over his campaign operation to her.

Yang argued that Democratic Party leaders also deserve blame for taking too long to push out Biden. With few exceptions, most notably Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Democrats shied away talking publicly about Biden’s age.

“Why was this not coming from any Democratic leaders?” Yang said. “It’s a lack of courage and independence and an excess of careerism, if I just keep my mouth shut, we’ll just keep on trucking along.”

The campaign was also saddled by anger among some Arab American and young voters over its approach to Israel’s conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an ally of Biden and Harris, said in a statement that Democrats lost the thread on working class Americans’ concerns.

“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” the Vermont independent said. “Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing?”

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison took to social media Thursday to push back on Sanders’ critique, saying that Biden was “the most-pro worker President of my life time.”

Harris managed to spur far greater enthusiasm than Biden was generating from the party’s base. But she struggled to distinguish how her administration would differ from Biden’s.

Appearing on ABC’s “The View” in September, Harris was not able to identify a decision where she would have separated herself from Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, giving the Trump campaign a sound bite it replayed through Election Day.

The strategists advising the Harris campaign said the compressed campaign timetable made it even more difficult for Harris to differentiate herself from the president.

Had Biden stepped aside early in the year, they said, it would have given Democrats enough time to hold a primary. Going through the paces of an intraparty contest would have forced Harris or another eventual nominee to more aggressively stake out differences with Biden.

The strategists acknowledged that overcoming broad dissatisfaction among the American electorate about rising costs in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and broad concerns about the U.S. immigration system weighed heavy on the minds of voters in key states.

Still, they said that Biden had left Democrats in an untenable place.

Harris senior adviser David Plouffe in a posting on X called it a “devastating loss.” Plouffe did not assign blame and said the Harris campaign “dug out of a deep hole but not enough.” The post was later deleted.

At the vice president’s concession speech on Wednesday, some Harris supporters said they wished the vice president had had more time to make her pitch to American voters.

“I think that would have made a huge difference,” said Jerushatalla Pallay, a Howard University student who attended the speech at the center of her campus.

Republicans are poised to control the White House and Senate. Control of the House has yet to be determined.

Matt Bennett, executive vice president at the Democratic-aligned group Third Way, said this moment was the most devastating the party has faced in his lifetime.

“Harris was dealt a really bad hand. Some of it was Biden’s making and some maybe not,” said Bennett, who served as an aide to Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration. “Would Democrats fare better if Biden had stepped back earlier? I don’t know if we can say for certain, but it’s a question we’ll be asking ourselves for some time.”

Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.

Amara Omeokwe | (TNS) Bloomberg News

Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential contest injects deep uncertainties into the U.S. economic outlook that could alter the Federal Reserve’s policy calculus in the months ahead, while renewing questions about how fiercely he might pressure the central bank during his second term in the White House.

In his campaign, Trump promised to wield tariffs more aggressively against U.S. trading partners, deport millions of undocumented immigrants and extend his 2017 tax cuts. Those policies, if enacted, could put upward pressure on prices, wages and the federal deficit, according to many estimates.

That would complicate the Fed’s job as officials seek to lower inflation to their 2% objective while protecting the labor market. Amid that delicate task, the central bank could fall under an uncomfortable political spotlight should Trump follow his previous pattern of publicly attacking Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Fed officials on Thursday are widely expected to lower their benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point, a move that will come on the heels of a half-point cut in September. They have projected one more quarter-point cut this year, in December, and an additional full point of reductions in 2025, according to the median estimate released in September.

Policymakers, however, may now approach the question of when and how much to cut more cautiously as they assess how Trump’s economic proposals will be turned into actual policies, said Derek Tang, an economist at LH Meyer/Monetary Policy Analytics.

“On the margin, they might think we might get higher inflation risk over the next few years with tariffs or lower immigration,” Tang said. “Their psychology might be, ‘By cutting a little bit more slowly, that gives us a little bit more time to observe what’s actually happening with inflation expectations and the labor market.’”

Powell will almost certainly face questions about how the election affects the Fed’s outlook when he holds a press conference at 2:30 p.m. Thursday following this week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

The Fed chair frequently drew Trump’s ire during his first presidential term. Those barbs have continued, with Trump saying as recently as August that Powell had been “a little bit too early and little bit too late” on policy decisions.

Having a ‘Say’

Trump has also said he believes presidents should have “say” on the Fed’s interest-rate policy, and suggested policymakers acted for political reasons when they lowered rates by a larger-than-usual half percentage point in September.

In an October interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Trump subsequently said he doesn’t think he should be able to order the Fed what to do, but has the right to comment on the direction of interest rates.

The totality of his rhetoric has nonetheless stoked speculation he could seek to curb the Fed’s autonomy and upend a decades-long practice of allowing the central bank to conduct monetary policy independently of the executive branch. During Trump’s first term, he explored firing Powell, a move that would have been unprecedented and legally questionable, according to legal scholars.

The Fed has guardrails surrounding it that could protect it against presidential interference. A president’s appointees to the Fed’s Board of Governors must be confirmed by the Senate, and Congressional committees maintain oversight of the central bank, for example. Powell and other officials have repeatedly assured the public they aim to stay out of partisan politics and don’t take political considerations into account when setting monetary policy.

Sowing Doubt

Still, a president’s public and vocal criticisms of the Fed can sow doubt, said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University.

“There’s certainly that structural independence,” Binder said. But “no degree of structural insulation can protect it if people begin to doubt that it’s going to do what it says it’s going to do.”

Some of Trump’s advisers have pushed back against concerns he could seek to meddle with the Fed.

“My impression: He doesn’t want to be in the room. He just wants to be a voice that’s heard,” said Scott Bessent, a top Trump economic adviser and chief executive at the hedge fund Key Square Group. “He understands that central bank independence anchors long-term inflation expectations, which anchors long-term rates,” he said in an October interview with Bloomberg News.

Kevin Hassett, who served as the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, said in an interview with Goldman Sachs released in October that suspicions of coordination between the Fed and the executive branch “should be taken seriously, and the next administration should choose a neutral Fed leadership.”

Trump’s most direct way to influence the Fed will come through appointments of key personnel in coming years. He has already said he won’t reappoint Powell, whose term as chair ends in May 2026. Fed Governor Adriana Kugler’s term expires in January 2026, while Powell’s governor slot opens up in January 2028. Trump will have the opportunity to name appointees for each of those positions.

Multiple sources close to the Trump campaign, including Bessent, have said Hassett could be Trump’s eventual choice for chair.

The president-elect will also be able to nominate a vice chair for supervision — a powerful regulatory role that oversees the nation’s largest banks. President Joe Biden filled the post with Michael Barr, whose term ends in July 2026. Barr has drawn sharp criticism from the banking industry and Republicans over an initial proposal to boost the capital banks must hold. The Fed and other regulators are now revising the plan.

Recent holders of Barr’s position have resigned shortly after the election of a president from the opposite party, Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., wrote in an October research note.

If Barr “follows this precedent after a Trump victory then the new president could quickly influence regulatory policy, even if his influence over monetary policy is less immediate,” Feroli said.

With assistance from Reade Pickert.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Dana Hull | (TNS) Bloomberg News

No billionaire did more to help Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential election than Elon Musk. The Tesla Inc. and SpaceX boss will now find out whether it pays off or he ends up getting burned.

Musk, whose growing political apparatus has already proved its mettle, will gain more than just an ally in the White House. Trump has floated giving him an official role cutting government spending — and with it the power to influence policy and the federal agencies that oversee his vast empire of companies.

“He’s a character. He’s a special guy. He’s a super genius,” Trump said of Musk while addressing his supporters overnight. “We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many of them.”

Already, shares in Tesla are surging. The stock climbed as much as 15% in early U.S. trading as investors look to cash in on a Trump return to the White House. Musk also posted a chart early Wednesday morning the he said showed record usage of X, his social network.

“Let that sink in,” he said on X, posting a fake photo of himself carrying a sink into the White House’s Oval Office — a nod to when he brought a sink to Twitter headquarters after taking over the social media company.

In the last few months, Musk was Trump’s most aggressive surrogate. The world’s richest man propped up Trump on X, hosted town halls in the critical state of Pennsylvania and appeared at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally with even higher billing than the Republican’s own running mate, JD Vance.

Musk spent more than $130 million on Trump and down-ballot Republicans in competitive House races, vaulting him to the highest echelons of donors this election cycle. On Election Day, Musk voted in Texas and then flew on his private jet to Florida to watch returns with Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago. His PAC posted a photo of him sitting shoulder to shoulder with Trump and Dana White, the chief executive officer of UFC, at the festivities.

“Musk is new to politics, but it means a lot for a billionaire and a tech mogul to go all in for President Trump,” said Jondavid Longo, the Pennsylvania state director of Early Vote Action, an organization dedicated to registering Republican voters. Trump’s win in Pennsylvania was key to his victory, helping him flip battleground states he had lost in 2020 but won in his first run for president in 2016. Musk donated $1 million to the group.

Musk has much to gain financially from the incoming administration. He oversees an empire of six companies, several of which are highly entangled with the U.S. federal government. SpaceX has become an increasingly vital partner to NASA and the U.S. Defense Department, with contracts worth billions. Tesla has staked its financial future on a pivot to autonomous robotaxis, a risky pursuit facing serious regulatory hurdles. X remains hugely influential.

Musk’s personal fortune swung wildly during Joe Biden’s four years in office, reaching as high as $340 billion and as low as $124 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Still, it has largely trended upward. As of Election Day, his net worth was $263.8 billion.

During the campaign, Musk pitched a job for himself running an agency in charge of cutting government bureaucracy and waste. Trump heartily embraced the idea and regularly mentioned it on the campaign trail.

“I’m going to get Elon. And he’s great at this. He’s going to be our cost cutter,” said Trump at a campaign rally in Michigan in late September. Trump calls the new position the “Secretary of Cost Cutting,” while Musk has joked that he’ll lead a DOGE, what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, in a nod to the cryptocurrency he’s long promoted.

In that role, Musk has vowed to help cut an unprecedented $2 trillion from the federal budget. He hasn’t specified the agencies he’d go after, but regularly rails against the regulators with oversight of his own companies. In a long diatribe on the Joe Rogan podcast this week, he described a SpaceX rocket that sat on a launchpad for two months waiting for regulatory approval.

“We could build the rocket faster than they could approve the paperwork,” he said. “It’s like Gulliver being tied down by a million little strings. It’s not like any one string is the problem but you’ve got a million of them.”

A broad remit would give the Tesla, SpaceX and X boss leverage to reshape federal agencies that both regulate — and have the power to investigate — his many companies. He has already said he would use whatever power he gets to push for a federal approval process of fully autonomous vehicles. Current rules prevent manufacturers from putting more than a couple thousand cars on the road per year without steering wheels or other controls.

It’s not uncommon for U.S. presidents to tap executives and business leaders to fill their administrations, but none quite like Musk. During his first term, Trump appointed Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who had been his campaign’s finance chair, to be Treasury Secretary. The role cutting government spending is not expected to be a Cabinet level position, meaning Musk wouldn’t be required to step away from his CEO duties.

Already Musk’s support has influenced the president elect. After the billionaire’s endorsement in July, Trump changed his tune on electric vehicles. Trump went from entirely railing against what he called “crooked Joe’s insane electric vehicle mandate” to, at times, praising EVs.

“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly, Elon. So I have no choice,” Trump said during an August rally.

Trump also embraced Musk’s ambitions of reaching Mars — using SpaceX rockets — by 2028, or by the end of the Republican’s term. “We will land an American astronaut on Mars. Thank you, Elon. Thank you. Get going, Elon,” Trump said at an October rally.

Musk’s policy interests go beyond those that benefit his companies. Like Trump, he has pushed conspiracy theories and misinformation about immigrants to his more than 200 million followers on X.

But it’s one thing to campaign together. It’s another to work together. The president-elect is known for turning on even his most loyal friends and colleagues. Musk and Trump may be aligned for now, but tension points could arise between two men known for their egos.

On EVs, for example, Tesla has received billions from President Biden’s policies, which Trump has vowed to dismantle. The two own rival social media companies and not too long ago, Musk was calling for Trump to “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset.”

Whatever happens between the two men, Musk will leave this election cycle with a robust political machine that he can use to not only bolster his businesses but his pet policy desires.

“America PAC is going to keep going after this election,” Musk said on an X Spaces Tuesday. Musk said the group is “preparing for the midterms and any intermediate elections at the district attorney and sort of judicial levels.”

Musk’s America PAC, which spent $153 million on behalf of Trump, now has contact information from scores of voters, which it can use going forward.

Democrats are painting Musk as their billionaire foil, echoing a Harris campaign warning that Trump’s “buddy Elon Musk is spending huge sums of money on his own ads hammering the Vice President.” They had pleaded with voters not to let the richest person on the planet buy the election.

But, in many ways, he did.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Donald Trump’s election victory was history-making in several respects, even as his defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris prevented other firsts. She would have been the nation’s first Black and South Asian woman to be president.

He’s the oldest to be elected

At 78, Trump is the oldest person elected to the U.S. presidency. When sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025, he will be a few months older than Joe Biden was at his inauguration in 2020. Trump’s running mate, 40-year-old JD Vance, will be the third-youngest vice president.

It’s the second time someone has won two non-consecutive terms

Several U.S. presidents have served more than one term, and Trump joins the group. He was the 45th president and now will be the 47th. But only one other president did it the way Trump will — with a gap between terms. That was Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd president after the 1884 election, and as the 24th president after the campaign of 1892.

He’s been convicted of felony crimes

Trump is in line to become the first U.S. president with a felony conviction. In May, New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

He’s been impeached (twice)

Trump already is the only president in U.S. history to face impeachment proceedings twice while in office. In each case, he was acquitted by the Senate on all counts.

After months of campaigning, the Republican president and vice president candidates cast their votes Tuesday morning.

Former President Donald Trump has cast his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida and says his latest presidential campaign was the best yet.

“I ran a great campaign. I think it was maybe the best of the three. We did great in the first one. We did much better in the second one but something happened. I would say this is the best campaign we’ve run,” he said, standing next to his wife, Melania Trump.

“It seems that the conservatives are voting very powerfully,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida.

“It looks like Republicans have shown up in force,” he said.

Trump is suggesting he won’t challenge the results of the election — as long as it’s fair.

“If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge,” the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear.

Speaking to reporters after voting in Florida, Trump said that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence should he lose.

“I don’t have to tell them,” because they “are not violent people,” he said.

While talking with reporters, Trump refuses to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion ballot measure.

Asked about the measure, which would keep the state’s six-week restriction in place, he avoided answering by simply saying he’d done “a great job bringing it back to the states.”

The second time, he snapped at a reporter, saying: “You should stop talking about it.”

Trump had previously indicated he would back the measure, but then changed his mind, saying he would vote against it.

The abortion measure would prevent lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability, which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks. If it’s rejected, the state’s current abortion law would stand.

Asked if he had any regrets about his campaign, Trump responded, “I can’t think of any.”

Trump planned to visit a nearby campaign office to thank those working on his behalf.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance voted in Cincinnati this morning.

“Look, I feel good. You never know until you know, but I feel good about this race,” Vance said after he and his wife cast their ballots.

Vance said he would depart for Palm Beach, Florida, later Tuesday to be with Trump as results come in.

Their rivals, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, voted by mail and early in-person, respectively.

Voters are heading to the polls to cast their ballots for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in one of the nation’s most historic presidential races.

It’s raining across much of the nation’s midsection Tuesday morning and forecasters say storms are possible in large swaths of the country later in the day. That hasn’t stopped lines of voters before dawn.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Liza Fortt, a 74-year-old Black woman, arrived at her polling location in a wheelchair and not feeling well. But she said she ventured out anyway to vote for Harris. She said she never thought she’d have such an opportunity — to cast a ballot for a Black woman in a presidential race.

“I’m proud, to see a woman, not only a woman, but a Black woman,” Fortt said.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance voted in Cincinnati Tuesday morning.

“Look, I feel good. You never know until you know, but I feel good about this race,” Vance said after he and his wife cast their ballots.