Key events

Our latest episode of Politics Weekly America dropped in the last couple of hours. With Donald Trump president-elect, a 6-3 conservative majority in the US supreme court, and a majority secured in the Senate, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Washington Post reporter Marianna Sotomayor about what happens if Democrats are not victorious in the lower chamber …

You can listen to it here: Can the Democrats salvage the House of Representatives? – podcast

China is bracing itself for four years of volatile relations with its biggest trading partner and geopolitical rival, as the dust settles on the news that Donald Trump will once again be in the White House.

On Thursday China’s president, Xi Jinping, congratulated Trump on his victory and said that the two countries must “get along with each other in the new era”, according to a Chinese government readout.

“A stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship is in the common interest of both countries and is in line with the expectations of the international community,” Xi said.

The Guardian’s Amy Hawkins and Helen Davidson report:

Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US president-elect Donald Trump, will not return to the White House, the Financial Times reported on Friday, but Kushner could advise on Middle East policy, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious election campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role.

Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early on Wednesday morning.

Wiles’s hire is Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration, as he must quickly build the team that will help run the federal government.

Meanwhile the Republicans are edging closer to a House majority, after picking up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania.

Democrats won another seat in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in that state, and three US House seats in Nevada will remain under Democratic control after a sweeping win Thursday for the incumbents, but Republicans need just seven more seats to reach a majority of 218.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Speaking to NBC News, Donald Trump made clear that the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants that he campaigned on will be a top priority of his administration. “We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to – at the same time, we want people to come into our country,” Trump said, adding that, “I’m not somebody that says, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in”

• The former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta predicted Trump will give Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly opening the way for all-out war between Israel and Iran

• Joe Biden, in a speech from the White House, said he will “ensure a peaceful and orderly transition” to Donald Trump, while calling on the country to “bring down the temperature”

• Biden is to focus on government funding and hurricane relief in his final weeks as president. With the clock ticking toward the end of his presidency, Joe Biden will focus on keeping the government funded and open, pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), rush assistance to communities battered by hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as confirm judicial nominees

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election, and said he was willing to talk to him. “I would like to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said in Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea

• Several key races remain to be called, including the presidential outcomes in swing states Arizona and Nevada (where Trump is tipped to win), Senate races in those two states plus Pennsylvania and, perhaps most importantly, control of the House

• Based on analyses of election results so far, it appears that Trump won by driving out the Republican base and making gains among certain groups that typically back Democrats. But split-ticket voters stepped up for Democratic senators and a governor in swing states, reducing their losses in what was otherwise a rough election

• The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates further, saying progress has been made against the wave of inflation that struck the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency, which was likely a major factor in voters choosing Donald Trump as the next president

• Trump’s sentencing in his business fraud trial scheduled for later this month? Probably not happening, Politico reports

• Gavin Newsom, the California governor and potential presidential candidate some day, called the legislature into a special session to prepare to fight Trump

• Democrats aired grievances over Harris’s election loss, with many pointing the finger at Biden and his aborted attempt at a second term

• Americans are stockpiling abortion pills as Trump’s victory seems set to put foes of the procedure into positions of power

• Harris was unable to settle on an effective message against Trump, and was hobbled from the start by Biden’s low approval ratings, a New York Times postmortem of her campaign finds