The Latest: House remains in the balance as world reaction to Trump victory keeps pouring in

By The Associated Press

Republican leaders are projecting confidence that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor Thursday, while Democrats insist they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate early Wednesday.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Back in Minnesota, Walz wrestles with the election’s outcome

Gov. Tim Walz vowed on Friday to make Minnesota a safe haven for the values that drove the Democratic presidential ticket he helped lead, while also promising to work harder to understand the concerns of President-elect Donald Trump’s voters.

Inside a high school auditorium in Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Minneapolis, Walz addressed supporters with his reflections on Trump’s election victory, an outcome he said left him searching for answers.

“It’s hard to understand why so many of our fellow citizens, people who we have fought so long and hard for, wound up choosing the other path,” Walz said.

Walz promised to make Minnesota a bulwark against a second Trump administration’s potential attacks on abortion rights, immigrants and labor unions. He also called on all Americans to bridge the political divides that have widened during the election.

“Maybe will sit down over a coffee, or a Diet Mountain Dew and just talk.”

Vance is back in the capital

Vice President-elect JD Vance has been spending Friday afternoon back on Capitol Hill. Vance was at his Senate office for a couple hours before departing — a small crowd gathered outside to cheer. “Go, JD!” someone said.

He declined to answer questions before meeting up with Boy Scouts for a tour at an otherwise empty Capitol.

Elon Musk joined Trump for a phone call with Zelenskyy

President-elect Donald Trump put billionaire Elon Musk on the line with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when the Ukrainian leader called to congratulate the incoming U.S. president, according to a Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the phone call.

The person, who was not authorized to comment on the matter publicly, confirmed that Zelenskyy and Musk spoke during the call with Trump, but that Musk did not appear to be on the line for the entire conversation. Trump seemingly handed his phone over to Musk, the person said, and that the Ukrainian president thanked the SpaceX owner for assisting his country with access to the Starlink satellite internet platform.

Trump’s interactions with Zelenskyy are being closely watched as he prepares to take over the presidency on Jan. 20 and has signaled a shift in Washington’s steadfast support for Ukraine against Russia’s nearly three-year-old invasion,

Trump promised to end the war swiftly and suggested that Kyiv agree to cede some territory to Moscow in return for peace.

The Trump transition said it would not comment on private meetings.

Trump speaks with the leader of the Palestinian Authority

The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the leader of the Palestinian Authority has spoken with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for the first time since his victory in the 2024 campaign.

In a statement Friday, Abbas’ office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah said that the president congratulated Trump on his victory and wished him success in his upcoming term. It said that Abbas told Trump he was ready to work with him in pursuit of peace and that Trump, in turn, “emphasized his commitment to the stop the war.”

The phone call follows months of resistance by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Biden administration’s push for a cease-fire that would see Israel end the war against Hamas in Gaza. Over 43,000 people have been killed, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

Trump and Abbas had a particularly rocky relationship during Trump’s first term, when his administration reduced outreach to the Palestinians and reversed decades of U.S. policy in the Mideast in Israel’s favor.

As right-wing commentators move mainstream, Alex Jones’ Infowars is up for grabs

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars broadcasts could end next week as he faces a court-ordered auction of his company’s assets to help pay the more than $1 billion defamation judgment he owes families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Or maybe not.

Both opponents and supporters of the bombastic internet show and radio host have expressed interest in bidding on the Infowars properties he has built over the past 25 years. They include Roger Stone, an ally of Jones and Donald Trump, and anti-Jones progressive media groups. If Jones supporters buy the assets, he could end up staying on Infowars.

Jones and other right-wing commentators once on the fringe have catapulted in popularity as many people have moved away from traditional news sources. Trump elevated them further during his 2024 campaign by repeating some of their conspiracy theories and appearing on several of their podcasts and shows. On Thursday, Jones, a long-time Trump supporter, even accepted proposals, some perhaps tongue-in-cheek, by Donald Trump Jr. and other conservatives to be the president-elect’s press secretary.

▶ Read more about the possible fate of Infowars

How Trump’s victory changed the calculation for migration

Trump’s victory instantly changed calculations for millions of migrants or potential migrants across the globe.

But perhaps not in the way Trump imagined.

Trump has pledged to reduce immigration. But by narrowing the already limited legal pathways into the U.S., migrants will just recalibrate their plans and resort in greater numbers to hiring smugglers, experts say.

In many cases that will mean turning to organized crime groups that increasingly profit from migrant smuggling.

▶ Read more about how Trump’s win spurs worry among migrants — but isn’t expected to stop migration

What will US leadership look like under Trump on the world stage?

U.S. presidents usually pay lip service at least to being leaders of the free world, at the helm of a mighty democracy and military that allies worldwide can rally around and reasonably depend upon for support in return.

Not so under President-elect Donald Trump, a critic of many existing U.S. alliances, whose win of a second term this week had close European partners calling for a new era of self-reliance not dependent on American goodwill.

“We must not delegate forever our security to America,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at a European summit Thursday.

Based on Trump’s first term and campaign statements, the U.S. will become less predictable, more chaotic, colder to allies and warmer to some strongmen, and much more transactional in picking friends globally than before. America’s place in world affairs and security will fundamentally change, both critics and supporters of Trump say.

▶ Read more about what the U.S. role on the world stage might look like

A guide to the key figures in Donald Trump’s orbit

Donald Trump will return to the White House accompanied by a crew of longtime friends and aides as well as newfound, splashy allies.

The Republican president-elect has barely begun naming key figures in his administration, but he has kept a rotation of associates with him on and off the campaign trail in recent weeks who joined him on stage early Wednesday as he declared victory.

▶ Read more about these key figures

Judge cancels court deadlines in Trump’s 2020 election case

The judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines Friday after prosecutors said they need time to assess “the appropriate course going forward” after the Republican’s presidential victory this week.

Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Smith’s team has been evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases before the president-elect takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.

In a court filing Friday in the 2020 election case, Smith’s team said it needs “time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”

Smith’s team said it would inform the judge of “the result of its deliberations” by Dec. 2.

Expect leadership change at the FBI

Donald Trump lavished Christopher Wray with praise when he named him FBI director in 2017, introducing him as an “impeccably qualified individual” and a “model of integrity.”

So much has changed in the seven years since.

With Trump poised to reclaim the White House, Wray’s days as director are likely numbered. Though the director’s job carries a 10-year term, Trump’s blistering and repeated criticism of his own appointee throughout his time as president raises the likelihood that Trump would either replace Wray upon taking office or that Wray would leave on his own to avoid being fired. Such a move would give Trump a chance to reshape the FBI’s leadership in his own image at a time when he’s threatened to pursue his own political adversaries.

Trump’s transition office did not return an email seeking comment. An FBI official said Wray was continuing to lead the bureau on a day-to-day basis — including visiting the FBI’s election command post multiple times this week — and was planning with his team to lead the bureau into the next year. The official, an executive who interacts with Wray on a day-to-day basis, was not authorized to discuss the details publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

▶ Read more about the future of the FBI under Trump

The election was largely trouble-free, but a flood of misinformation raises future concerns

A relatively trouble-free presidential election was good news for those working to restore faith in the system. Less encouraging was a flood of misinformation that sought to undermine trust in voting and sow chaos, something experts say is likely to get worse in the years ahead.

The most significant test for officials on Election Day was a series of bomb threats reported in five battleground states, some of which forced polling places to be evacuated temporarily.

▶ Read more about election misinformation

FBI thwarts Iranian murder-for-hire plan targeting Donald Trump

The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Friday in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump before this week’s presidential election.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump.

AP VoteCast: Trump boosted his level of support among Catholic voters

Among several blocs of religious voters, including his loyal evangelical base, Donald Trump fared roughly as well in his victory over Kamala Harris as he did in his loss to Joe Biden four years ago. One notable difference: He did better this year among Catholic voters, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters.

In 2020, the Catholic electorate — one the biggest religious blocs in the nation — was almost evenly split, with 50% backing Trump and 49% favoring Biden, a longtime member of the faith.

This year, according to VoteCast, 54% of Catholic voters supported Trump and 44% backed Harris — a shift that was particularly notable in North Carolina, Florida and Texas.

VoteCast documented a racial divide. About 6 in 10 white Catholics supported Trump, and about 4 in 10 supported Harris. By contrast, about 6 in 10 Latino Catholics supported Harris, and about 4 in 10 supported Trump.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast’s findings on religion

Trump 2.0 will alter global climate fighting efforts. Will others step up?

Global efforts to fight climate change stumbled but survived the last time Donald Trump was elected president and withdrew the United States from an international climate agreement. Other countries, states, cities and businesses picked up some of the slack.

But numerous experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even further from climate efforts in a way that could cripple future presidents’ efforts. With Trump, who has dismissed climate change, in charge of the world’s leading economy, those experts fear other countries — especially top polluting nation China — could use it as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions.

Trump’s reelection comes as the world is on track to set yet another record hot year, and has been lurching from drought to hurricane to flood to wildfire.

▶ Read more about the future of global climate action

Leonard Leo says there’s no rush to replace Alito and Thomas

Trump’s election could give him a chance to nominate up to two more Supreme Court justices if Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas retire, but a prominent conservative legal activist says there’s no rush.

“No one other than Justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed, and, frankly, just crass,” said Leonard Leo, who serves as co-chair of the conservative Federalist Society and has been a driving force in securing nominations of conservative justices.

His comments come after Republican judicial advocate Mike Davis, a Trump ally who runs The Article III Project, speculated online that Alito could be “gleefully packing up his chambers.”

Trump rebuilds ‘blue wall’ with red bricks

Republicans landed historic victories in Pennsylvania this week, winning the battleground state’s valuable presidential electoral votes, posting a two-seat gain in its U.S. House delegation and sweeping all four statewide offices on the ballot, including a U.S. Senate seat.

The strong performance means Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania in two out of three tries, after Republicans had lost six straight presidential elections there.

Something similar happened in the other “blue wall” states of Michigan and Wisconsin, Rust Belt states where Trump prevailed again after losing in 2020. Still, Democrats held on in key Senate races in Wisconsin and Michigan, if just barely, and the results played out differently in each state.

▶ Read more about how Democrats’ “blue wall” states were painted Republican red

Jeffries predicts a closely divided House

Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, is preparing for another narrowly divided Congress, no matter which party wins the majority.

In an interview on New York’s Spectrum News, Jeffries insisted that Democrats “still have a pathway to taking back the majority” if the party can flip a series of seats in Arizona, Oregon and California where votes are still being counted.

“Whatever happens with the majority in the next Congress, Democrats will be no shorter than 212 to 214 votes,” Jeffries said.

He added that the race for control will come down to eight seats that Republicans currently hold. However, it has been extraordinarily difficult for either party to flip seats in this election. Across the country, Republicans and Democrats have been able to flip just three seats each so far.

Still, Jeffries led House Democrats through an election where they did not suffer the same degree of loss as their counterparts in presidential and Senate races.

“We’ve been able to withstand that presidential wave that broke against us,” he said.

House Democratic leader says party should be ‘proud’ of Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has led the House caucus through an election where Democrats have not suffered the same degree of loss as their counterparts in presidential and Senate races, said Friday that his party should be “proud” of the legislative accomplishments of the Biden administration.

“It’s a record that both progressives and centrist members of both the House and the Senate supported,” Jeffries said on New York’s Spectrum News, listing legislation like the American Rescue Plan, a largescale infrastructure deal and legislation to address climate change.

“More needs to be done to meet the needs of the American people, to build an economy that works for everyday Americans because there are far too many people that are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck,” Jeffries added.

Democrats retain control of Pennsylvania’s House despite banner year for Republicans

Democrats retained majority control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Friday by holding onto a Johnstown area district, giving them just enough votes to keep the speakership and determine the chamber’s voting agenda.

The win by incumbent Rep. Frank Burns is the final House race to be called in a year when none of the 203 districts are changing hands. It gave Democrats a 102-101 margin and dashed Republican hopes of returning to control after two years in the minority.

Burns’ win is some consolation to Democrats in what has otherwise been a banner electoral year in Pennsylvania for the Republican Party. Former President Donald Trump won in the state, Dave McCormick beat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, two Democratic congressional seat were flipped and Republican candidates won all three of the state row offices.

▶ Read more about the one-seat majority.

AP VoteCast: How Donald Trump built a winning 2024 coalition

Big shifts within small groups and small shifts within big groups helped propel Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The Republican candidate won by holding onto his traditional coalition — white voters, voters without a college degree and older voters — while making crucial gains among younger voters and Black and Hispanic men, according to AP VoteCast, a far-reaching survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

His Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, made small gains — most significantly with white urban men with a college degree — but it wasn’t enough to offset her losses elsewhere.

▶ Read more about the coalition.

Borrowers hoping for student loan forgiveness in limbo

Savannah Britt owes about $27,000 on loans she took out to attend college at Rutgers University, a debt she was hoping to see reduced by President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts.

Her payments are currently on hold while courts untangle challenges to the loan forgiveness program. But as the weeks tick down on Biden’s time in office, she could soon face a monthly payment of up to $250.

“With this new administration, the dream is gone. It’s shot,” said Britt, 30, who runs her own communications agency. “I was hopeful before Tuesday. I was waiting out the process. Even my mom has a loan that she took out to support me. She owes about $18,000, and she was in the process of it being forgiven, but it’s at a standstill.”

President-elect Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have criticized Biden’s loan forgiveness efforts, and lawsuits by GOP-led states have held up plans for widespread debt cancellation. Trump has not said what he would do on loan forgiveness, leaving millions of borrowers facing uncertainty over their personal finances.

▶ Read more about the fate of student loan borrowers.

The view from an Israeli settlement named after Trump

Israeli residents of “Trump Heights” are welcoming the election of their namesake, hoping Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency will breathe new life into this tiny, remote settlement in the central Golan Heights.

During his first term, Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel thanked him by rebranding this outpost after him.

But a large-scale influx of new residents never materialized after that 2019 ceremony, and just a couple dozen families live in Trump Heights, or “Ramat Trump” in Hebrew. Job opportunities are limited, and Israel’s more than yearlong war against Hezbollah militants in nearby Lebanon has added to the sense of isolation.

Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements.

“President Trump’s return to the White House definitely puts the town in the headlines,” Ori Kallner, head of the Golan’s regional council, said.

▶ Read more from Ramat Trump.

How Trump went from diminished ex-president to victor

As he bid farewell to Washington in January 2021, deeply unpopular and diminished, Donald Trump was already hinting at a comeback.

“Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form,” Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews, where he’d arranged a 21-gun salute as part of a military send-off before boarding Air Force One. “We will see you soon.”

Four years later, he’s fulfilled his prophecy.

▶ Read more about his path back to the presidency.

Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation

A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.

The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country.

The short-lived Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together” would have been unlikely to remain in place after Donald Trump took office in January. But its early termination creates greater uncertainty for immigrant families as many are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House.

▶ Read more about the decision.

Hungary’s Orbán predicts Trump will end support for Ukraine

Donald Trump’s biggest European fan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is predicting that his administration will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Orbán’s comments were a signal that Trump’s election could drive a wedge among EU leaders on the question of the war.

Hungary’s leader is hosting the second of two days of summits Friday in the capital, Budapest. The war in Ukraine will be high on the agenda for a gathering of the EU’s 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance are key elements for the continent’s security.

The nationalist Hungarian leader has long sought to undermine EU support for Kyiv, and routinely blocked, delayed or watered down the bloc’s efforts to provide weapons and funding and to sanction Moscow for its invasion.

“If Donald Trump had won in 2020 in the United States, these two nightmarish years wouldn’t have happened. There wouldn’t have been a war,” Orbán said. “The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war.”

▶ Read more about the comments.

Turkey’s president praises Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Donald Trump over his election victory and expressed optimism for stronger relations between Turkey and the United States during his second term.

In comments made late Thursday, Erdogan also voiced hope that conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine could come to an end through collaboration with Trump.

Erdogan said Trump had won the election despite facing significant challenges, including an assassination attempt and criminal charges.

“Despite this, he continued his election campaign with much strength, tirelessly and with resilience,” Hürriyet newspaper and other media quoted Erdogan as telling journalists during a flight back from trips to Kyrgyzstan and Hungary.

Erdogan has said that in the upcoming period, he would raise the issue of a possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria with Trump.

Election officials say key Maine race must go to ranked choice counting

Maine election officials say a pivotal congressional race in the state must go to ranked choice counting to determine a winner.

Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate known for defying his party, led by a thin margin over Republican Austin Theriault on Friday in a race that was still too early to call days after voting ended. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said late Thursday that neither candidate broke 50% of the total vote, and that means ranked ballots must be counted. The Associated Press has not called the race.

Ranked voting typically comes into play in races with more than two candidates on the ballot. Golden and Theriault were the only candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but writing in candidates was an option, and some voters used it.

Theriault said on Thursday that he was requesting a recount in the election, although the results were not tabulated yet at that time. A spokesperson for the Golden campaign said the recount is reasonable but the ranked counting is unnecessary.

“State Rep. Theriault has asserted his right to a recount by hand and Congressman Golden agrees to it. So let’s just do it, rather than incur the delays and expenses of a ranked-choice run-off,” the campaign said in a statement.

The Theriault campaign signaled Friday that it was supportive of the ranked count.

“There is a process in place and we look forward to the process unfolding according to the law,” campaign manager Shawn Roderick said.

In ranked choice voting, the second choices of voters who picked a losing candidate are redistributed to the higher finishers.

Election night television viewership drops sharply from 2020 and 2016

The idea of grabbing some popcorn and watching television to see who America has chosen for its next president was far less appealing this year than in the past.

The Nielsen company said that 42.3 million people watched election night returns between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump pour in Tuesday night. That’s down sharply from the 56.9 million who watched in 2020, when Trump competed against Joe Biden, and the 71.4 million who tuned in on election night 2016, Nielsen said.

Election night is often known as the Super Bowl for TV news, but this year even the NFL’s conference championship games were watched by more people.

▶ Read more about election night television viewership

Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff?

With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump ’s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counsel.

She’s been in political circles for years. But who is Wiles, the operative set to be the first woman to step into the powerful role of White House chief of staff?

▶ Read more about Trump’s new Chief of Staff Susie Wiles

An update from the AP Decision Desk on the races in Nevada and Arizona

Nevada: The late updates Thursday in Clark and Washoe counties in Nevada didn’t add many votes to the tally in the races for president and U.S. Senate. The deadline for mail ballots to arrive and be counted is Saturday. With tens of thousands of ballots potentially still left to count in the state’s two biggest counties, the races are too early to call.

Arizona: Another day of vote counting in Arizona added tens of thousands of votes to the tally on Thursday, but there remain hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count — including nearly half a million in Maricopa County. Officials there are still working their way through advance votes that arrived in October. The races for president and U.S. Senate remain too early to call.

GOP picks up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority

Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The GOP picked up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which became a stark battlefield of Democratic losses up and down the ticket. Democrats notched another win in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.

Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a sweep of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach for President-elect Donald Trump.