US election live: Marco Rubio’s hard stance on China signals ‘existential’ stand-off to come

Comments made by the man set to be named as one of Donald Trump’s most crucial men have put a fright up analysts around the globe.

Welcome to our live coverage of the aftermath of the US election.

President-elect Donald Trump continues to beef-up his White House team with the expected confirmation of former critic turned Trump cheerleader Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, the equivalent of our foreign minister.

The Republicans are inching closer to securing a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. If they achieve that they will have the trifecta of the presidency and both houses of Congress, which will make Mr Trump’s policy agenda much easier to implement.

It won’t be enough to make changes to the US Constitution, however, should that thought cross the President-elect’s mind.

Mr Trump is due to meet US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, US time, at the White House to discuss the handover of power in January.

In 2020, Mr Trump, who has never accepted that year’s election results, refused to meet with Mr Biden, and did not attend his inauguration.

On Wednesday, however, one face will be missing. Melania Trump has reportedly turned down an offer to meet with First Lady Jill Biden while their husbands talk.

Meanwhile Mr Trump has appointed billionaire Elon Musk to a new department, whose remit is to “slash regulations”. Said regulations may well apply, incidentally, to Mr Musk’s own companies.

Read on for the latest updates.

Originally published as US election live: Marco Rubio’s hard stance on China signals ‘existential’ stand-off to come