Melania Trump refusing to meet Jill Biden due to Mar-a-Lago raid
Melania Trump is defying decades of White House tradition by refusing to take tea with fellow First Lady Jill Biden. And there’s a very intimate reason why.
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Melania Trump will not be taking First Lady Jill Biden up on an invitation to attend morning tea at the White House.
A source told the New York Post Ms Trump was still fuming about the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago which occurred as part of the Biden administration’s investigation into the handling of classified documents.
“She ain’t going,” the source told The Post.
“Jill Biden’s husband authorised the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting.
“Jill Biden isn’t someone Melania needs to meet.”
Ms Trump spoke about the August 2022 raid when she appeared on Fox and Friends in September while promoting her memoir.
“Yeah, it made me angry,” Ms trump said, describing the raid as an “invasion of privacy.”
Traditionally the outgoing First Lady invites her successor to tea while the incoming and outgoing president meet at the White House.
Trump is due to meet Mr Biden on Wednesday.
Ms Trump, 54, gracefully accepted the invitation from Michelle Obama in 2016.
However, she did not extend the courtesy to Dr Biden, 73, when Trump lost office in 2020.
Ms Trump is not the only member of her family turning down invitations.
The Post also reports Trump has told his golfing buddies he will be seeing a lot less of them.
“Although many presidents have all played golf while in the White House, he’s telling all his golf buddies that he’s putting away his clubs to focus on the country,” the clubhouse source from one of Trump’s favourite courses said.
“Between the security threats and the need to kick his administration into high gear, he says he doesn’t have enough time for golf the way he has had in the past.
“He’ll still hit the links on special occasions for a ‘working’ game,’ or play with major donors. “But his golf buddies — of which he has about 14 main players — will need to keep busy without him!”
Trump managed to squeeze in one last round after the election with top backer Elon Musk, granddaughter Kai and Republican supporter Caitlyn Jenner.
BIDEN, HARRIS APPEAR TOGETHER FOR FIRST TIME SINCE ELECTION
President Joe Biden told US veterans that serving as commander-in-chief had been the “greatest honour” of his life as he laid a wreath at a ceremony that marked his first appearance with Kamala Harris since her election defeat.
The event, at historic Arlington National Cemetery, was also the first time Vice President Harris has been seen in public since her November 6 speech in which she conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump.
At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Mr Biden and Ms Harris placed their hands on their hearts before participating in a wreath laying.
“This is the last time I will stand here at Arlington as commander-in-chief,” the president said in an address.
“It’s been the greatest honour of my life to lead you, to serve you, to care for you, to defend you – just as you defended us, generation after generation after generation.”
Mr Biden spoke of his visits to veterans cemeteries in Europe, adding he would never forget “standing in the cliffs of Normandy, 80 years after D-Day, to honour the service members and veterans who literally saved the world.”
Afterwards as “God Bless America” played, Mr Biden dabbed both eyes with a handkerchief.
The ceremony came shortly before Mr Biden hosts Mr Trump at the White House on Wednesday local time.
Mr Trump posted on social media Monday local time a picture of himself saluting in front of the American flag, with the wording: “Happy Veterans Day 2024.”
AMERICA’S GAZA AID DEADLINE TO ISRAEL HAS PASSED
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will meet American President Joe Biden at 3.30am AEDT on Wednesday at the White House after which Herzog will make a public statement according to his office.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Israel 30 days to resolve Gaza’s access to aid in a letter dated October 13.
As Biden meets with Herzog, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies are meeting with key US President-elect Donald Trump and his inner circle.
Trump and Netanyahu are aligned on their view that Iran is the chief cause of instability in the Middle East.
Axios reported Trump met with Netanyahu ally – Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday.
DEMOCRATS IN ‘DEEP, DARK STATE’
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Democrats are in a “deep, dark state” because they lost the Senate majority and the Republicans appear poised to hold the House majority, and they have no apparent heir.
“Everywhere you look, the Democrats are in this deep, dark state because they have no heir apparent, the incumbent president’s unpopular, and they hold no levers of power in Washington, most likely, come January,” Enten told CNN.
“The bottom line is this: For Democrats, there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel. It’s always darkest before it’s pitch black,” he added, quoting a line by the late Sen. John McCain.
“There’s no heir apparent,” Enten said.
“We can see this perhaps best by … taking a look at the early poll leader for 2028: There isn’t one. There’s no early favourite there. There’s no early clear favourite, and that is really unusual.”
TRUMP’S PICK TO OVERSEE LARGEST DEPORTATIONS IN US HISTORY
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that his former ICE director Tom Homan will oversee the largest deportation of immigrants in US history.
Mr Trump posted news of the appointment to his Truth Social account:
“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders (“The Border Czar” (sic)), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security. I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.”
Mr Homan has said that Mr Trump will use the US Army to round up and deport illegal migrants in an unparalleled crackdown.
Mr Homan, who led immigration enforcement during part of Mr Trump’s first administration, appeared at the Republican National Convention in July, telling supporters: “I got a message to the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden’s released in our country: You better start packing now.”
Mr Homan said he would revive Mr Trump’s “remain in Mexico” program, in which Mexicans would have their asylum applications processed on their side of the border.
Mr Homan said in an interview on 60 Minutes last month: “I hear a lot of people say, ‘The talk of a mass deportation is racist. It’s threatening to the immigrant community,’” he said, while adding it should only ‘be threatening to the illegal immigrant community.’
Mr Trump has vowed to tackle migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the federal government to round up and deport foreigners belonging to enemy countries – as part of a mass deportation drive he named Operation Aurora.
Aurora is the town in Colorado where armed Latinos were seen on video rampaging through an apartment block in footage that sparked fears of illegal immigrants and violent gangs infiltrating America.
Next, Mr Trump named top immigration adviser Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy in an administration zeroing in on an unprecedented border crackdown, according to reports.
Mr Miller was the architect of Mr Trump’s immigration plan during his first term in office.
Meanwhile, Mr Homan appeared on Fox News and declared he didn’t care what people thought of the president-elect’s hard line policy on immigration.
“Frankly, I don’t care what people think about me, especially in the left,” Mr Homan said when asked how he planned to handle criticism of the border policy.
“When you create a crisis this big, all these other bad things happen. That’s why we have to secure the border.
“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat or independent for border security is national security. We should all be on the same side on that.
“I’ve been clear. President Trump’s been clear. Public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority because they have to be, they pose the most danger in this country,” he said.
Mr Homan had earlier insisted that ICE would carry out the mass scale deportations in a “humane manner”.
Mr Trump’s cabinet is rapidly taking shape with the president-elect passing over Nikki Halley to appoint conservative senator Elise Stefanik, leading voice against campus anti-Semitism, as UN envoy.
KREMLIN DENIES TRUMP CALLED PUTIN
The Kremlin on Monday denied a US media report that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president-elect Donald Trump shared a call about the Ukraine conflict.
The Washington Post had reported that Mr Trump had urged the Russian leader not to escalate the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the report was “simply false information”, denying any phone call took place.
The Post, citing several people familiar with the call who spoke on the basis of anonymity, reported that Trump had reminded Putin of the sizeable US military presence in Europe.
A source briefed on the call told Axios that Mr Trump essentially said to Mr Putin: “Don’t escalate because I have weapons too.”
During the election campaign, the Republican repeatedly promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours but refused to detail his plan for peace, leaving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to fear he would cut off US military aid and force him to give up territory.
Mr Trump also spoke with Mr Zelensky in the aftermath of his win over Vice President Kamala Harris, a call that was joined by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who looms as an influential figure in his new administration.
Reports of the talks came as US and Ukrainian officials told The New York Times that Moscow’s military had 50,000 soldiers ready to fight for territory in the Kursk region of Russia that had been seized by Ukrainian forces.
Mr Putin had been full of praise for Mr Trump after his victory, calling him “a courageous man”.
“What was said [by Mr Trump] about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis – in my opinion, this deserves attention at least,” the Russian President said.
As the fallout from the election continued, Mr Trump clinched the highest popular vote total for any Republican candidate in history, eclipsing his record of 74.2 million votes from four years ago.
He also intervened in the race for the Republican leadership in the Senate, saying party members needed to choose someone who would agree to push through his appointments to key posts without votes in the chamber.
Mr Biden is set to host Mr Trump at the White House on Thursday (AEDT).
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