Trump is named Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ and will ring New York Stock Exchange opening bell: Live

The president-elect is on more ingratiating form than he was in the final weeks of the election campaign, offering praise to Melania and to cabinet nominee Lee Zeldin, among others, even offering a kind word to a gentleman from ABC News.

He moves on to reflecting, suddenly, on the “powerful” and “devastating” threat posed by nuclear weapons before pivoting, equally abruptly, to congratulating Emmanuel Macron on the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The president-elect also joked about possibly holding the record for Time magazine covers, saying he enjoyed most of them but considers the new issue his favorite.

He said his first term was a success “despite a lot of turmoil that was not necessary” and suggested he has since tamed the media.

He further teased Scott Bessant, his nominee as treasury secretary.

The president-elect, flanked by his wife Melania, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, Vice President-elect JD Vance, RFK Jr and Doug Burgum and others, just delivered some brief remarks at the exchange on his Time win and the economy, pledging a return to American prosperity and concluding with a sad but probably fictional story about an elderly lady forced to return an apple to the refigerator in a grocery store because she could not afford it, promising this would never happen again in America under his leadership.

You can watch a livefeed of the president-elect’s adventures at the exchange below.

Here’s the president-elect a little while ago arriving on Wall Street and signing the exchange’s guest book.

Let the ring-kissing commence.

Trump will impose a tariff of less than 10 percent on UK imports next year or none at all, which will have an insignificant effect on the UK economy, according to a strong majority of economists polled by Reuters.

Those expectations stand in contrast to widespread fears that the European Union, which Britain officially left in 2020, will be harder-hit, according to a similar poll last month.

Part of the reason economists are more optimistic about the country is that while one-fifth of total UK trade is with the United States only a third of Britain’s exports are goods – where the proposed tariffs will be focused.

While Trump is focused on correcting US trade deficits with other countries, differing methodologies of their respective statistics agencies mean Britain and the US both report goods trade surpluses with the other.

However, the European Union remains the UK’s biggest trading partner and London has a delicate challenge in both mending frayed relations with Brussels and remaining open to deals with a new government in Washington.

“Without the broader complexities of the EU trading bloc, the UK will be somewhat more flexible in reaching a negotiated settlement with President Trump. It also helps that trade in goods with the US is roughly balanced, meaning the tariffs may end up being lower,” noted James Rossiter at TD Securities.

More than 80 percent of economists, 19 of 23, expect the US to put a tariff of less than 10 percent or zero on UK imports despite talk of a blanket 10-20 percent tariff on all countries and higher tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.

Four said zero. Only four forecast a 10-20 percent tariff.

A similar proportion of economists, 20 of 25, said the tariff will have an insignificant impact on the British economy, good news for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government which has pledged to boost growth.

Four said significant, while one said no impact.

The retiring Senate leader is warning that Trump’s turn towards “America First”-style isolationism is dangerous for the country and the world and recalls the dark days before the Second World War.

“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two,” the Kentucky Republican told The Financial Times in an interview this week.

“Even the slogan is the same: ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”

The senator noted that “the cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war” and called on Republicans to return to a more internationalist version of American leadership, like that of Ronald Reagan during the Cold War.

“To most American voters, I think the simple answer is, ‘Let’s stay out of it,’” McConnell said.

“That was the argument made in the ’30s and that just won’t work. Thanks to Reagan, we know what does work — not just saying peace through strength, but demonstrating it.”

Here’s the confirmation of the president-elect’s latest accolade.

And here’s the magazine’s editor Sam Jacobs to explain their thinking.

Here’s a full report from Kelly Rissman.

In a statement posted to Instagram a day before his successor Christopher Wray announced he’d be stepping down, Comey wrote: “I realize there is a great deal of anxiety in the Bureau now — produced by the rhetoric of those who have reason to fear honest investigators.

“But please know you will be ok in the long run.”

The former bureau director’s tenure at the department abruptly ended in 2017 when then-president Donald Trump fired him and Wray appears to be jumping before he is pushed in favor of Kash Patel.

Here’s more on Comey from Michelle Del Rey.