Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is taking a break from social media.
The 39-year-old made the announcement on X Wednesday, writing to his 52 million followers, “I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care.” He also shared his announcement on Instagram to his 159 million followers.
James didn’t elaborate on what prompted his hiatus, but the four-time NBA champion shared a post on X minutes before his departure that appears to offer insight into his decision. James shared a post from Rich Kleiman, the longtime agent and business partner of Kevin Durant, that criticized the negativity of sports media.
“With so much hate and negativity in the world today, it confuses me why some of National sports media still think that the best way to cover sports is through negative takes,” Kleiman wrote on Oct. 24. “We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same? It’s only click bait when you say it. When the platform is so big, you can make the change and allow us all an escape from real life negativity. I for one find it all a waste of breath. The Olympics and JJ and Bron’s show was the future of what this can and should all be
One day before his online departure, James chatted with the media following the Lakers’ 124-118 win over the Utah Jazz and noted that “everybody on the internet calls me a liar all the time.” He dropped the quote while speaking about his teammate Dalton Knecht’s 37-point performance, saying he’s known how good the rookie is since his collegiate days
“They say I lie about every (expletive) thing. So what am I now? I’ve been said it. I watched him, I watched Tennessee a lot,” James said. “I did not think he was going to fall to us. I thought it would be impossible. I have no idea how that happened but very grateful and very happy that he’s here. I knew exactly what we was getting when he fell to 17.”
The most predictable byproduct of tripling the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams was that whining would become a varsity sport on its own.
First up was the ACC’s commissioner, Jim Phillips, who said his league was “shocked and disappointed” that Miami dropped from No. 6 to No. 12 and almost certainly out of the playoff field after losing to Syracuse. (No mention of the fact that the Hurricanes blew a 21-point lead).
Then came Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who blasted the committee for ranking Boise State above both Arizona State and Iowa State, as his league will only get one team in the playoff field.
“The committee continues to show time and time again that they’re paying attention to logos versus résumés,” he said. (Never mind that the two Big 12 teams playing for an automatic bid have one top-25 win between them.)
And then here came the SEC. Danny White, the Tennessee athletics director who is presumably miffed that the Vols might have to go on the road in the first round, said on a local radio show that a computer ranking system should replace the committee (Even though this was already tried with the BCS and everyone hated it.)
Then Lane Kiffin, the Ole Miss coach whose team is almost certainly on the outside looking in at 9-3, had to spill his sour grapes all over the playoff party. “It’s a bad system,” he said. “Have any of those coaches (on the committee) been down here in the deep South, into these stadiums and played in these games that are on this? So how do they even know?” (One of the former coaches on the committee, Gary Pinkel, had just a little bit of SEC experience at Missouri, but why let facts get in the way of a good rant? And also, Lane, maybe just beat Kentucky next time.)
So here we are, just a couple of days away from having the first 12-team playoff field set to go, and it seems like nobody’s happy with the monster they’ve created. For a template on what to expect Sunday, just refer to the 24-hour period after every NCAA basketball tournament selection show when lots of people seem to have “Very Strong Feelings” about who the last couple of at-large teams in a 68-team field should be.
Except for last year, when Florida State got replaced by Alabama – due almost exclusively to the fact that the Seminoles’ starting quarterback was injured – we didn’t have much of this in the first decade of the four-team playoff. Things were generally clear-cut, and the No. 5 team usually didn’t have much of a gripe. Now that we’ve brought mediocrity into the picture, everyone in college sports seems to have an opinion about how unfair and bad the process is – unless, of course, it works to their benefit this time.
Given that context, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey deserves some credit – but also a healthy dose of cynicism – for how he answered a question on Thursday about the sudden angst over the format.
Whether it’s fair or not, Sankey is still miffed at his conference commissioner colleagues (some of whom no longer work in college sports) for stonewalling playoff expansion plans in 2021 after Texas and Oklahoma bolted to the SEC. So in his view, it seems, any problems with the system are the result of expansion plans slowing down, then speeding up again to get ready for 2024, as another round of conference expansion killed the Pac-12 and further consolidated power in the hands of the Big Ten and SEC.
“We don’t want to go through change every year,” he said. “We want to work to get things right. Now, I know that we’re in this new era and that’s going to cause a lot of questions. My perspective in having lost a year of preparation that we can’t recover means we’re going to have more of these adjustment conversations.”
He continued: “Should we be providing these lower-seeded conference champions that access point? That’s been discussed before. I think that starts to illustrate one of the new issues.”
In other words, while Sankey admitted that he’d like to see eight SEC teams in the field and believes his league has enough depth to deserve that consideration, his news conference Thursday didn’t make number of teams a front-burner issue. He isn’t going to blow his political capital – and he has a lot of it these days – going overboard to lobby for a mid-pack SEC team over somebody else to get that 12th spot.
What seems more likely when the commissioners gather again in the coming weeks to discuss the playoff format for 2026 and beyond is that the SEC is going to draw some red lines around seeding that probably puts their teams at a disadvantage, now that we’ve seen it play out in real time.
If you simply freeze the playoff field as the committee had it this week, the SEC would have three teams playing in the first round with two of them going on the road: Tennessee at Ohio State and Alabama at Notre Dame. Meanwhile, presumptive champion Texas gets a first-round bye as a No. 2 seed, where it would likely face Georgia for a third time this season in the quarterfinals.
And you can see pretty easily why that’s a problem.
The initial idea of the 12-team playoff was that the four first-round byes would go to the four highest-ranked conference champions. That makes sense in theory and keeps the conference championship games relevant until the very end. But in practice, it leads to a bracket that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
If things stay the same as they are now, the No. 5 seed, Penn State, would be lined up to play No. 4 Boise State in the quarterfinals. And the winner of Tennessee-Ohio State, both of whom are ranked above Boise, would have to face No. 1 Oregon.
I hesitate to say that’s not fair, because this is college football after all, and nothing in this sport has been fair for the last five decades or so. But it does seem wrong that you have an easier path to the semifinals as a No. 5 seed than a No. 1 seed, or that a No. 2 seed like Texas would have a far more difficult quarterfinal game than a No. 4 seed.
In any sport that uses a tournament format to decide championships, that’s not how it’s supposed to work. If Georgia has had a better regular season than Arizona State and is ranked higher by the committee, it should have a more favorable path to a championship. That’s a pretty easy concept to understand.
Sankey is correct that constantly making changes to the format, as the BCS did seemingly every year, is the wrong path for the CFP to go down. That only increases the anger and sows distrust in the process.
Having a human committee isn’t the problem here. In a sport like college football where you only play 12 games in a season (and some of them are complete mismatches), there’s not enough data to put into a computer formula and feel confident that you’re getting a good result. You need people to be part of the process.
The only real issue with the 12-team playoff as it stands is the seeding. Not Kiffin’s complaints or Yormark’s declarations. It’s simply rewarding teams with byes who do not deserve them.
The question is whether there will be enough agreement among the conference commissioners to fix it because – and here’s the cynical part – it’s almost certainly going to work to the SEC’s benefit most years while penalizing a league like the Big 12 that is fortunate to have a playoff spot at all given the poor quality of play in their conference this year.
Sankey brought up that he had been in favor of re-seeding after the first round, but other commissioners wouldn’t get on board with that. Another possible fix would be to just give the top two conference champions byes into the quarterfinals and then seed the rest of the field Nos. 3-12 as the committee ranks them (with automatic bids for the Big 12, ACC and the Group of Five).
“I think we’ll look at this and probably have another one of those types of conversations,” Sankey said. “I don’t want us to just react; I want us to be thoughtful in how we consider these issues.”
Will tweaking the playoff to emphasize true seeding benefit the SEC? Most years, probably so. But that would be preferable to the nonsensical mess of a bracket that the committee is going to unveil on Sunday.
The reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers are adding a two-time Cy Young Award winner in the biggest move so far this offseason.
Left-hander Blake Snell has reached an agreement with the Dodgers on a five-year, $182 million free agent contract, according to a person with direct knowledge of the agreement. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the deal has not yet been announced.
After not finding a long-term deal last winter, the free-agent left-hander went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts last season on a one-year, $32 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. After one of the greatest second halves in recent history — a 1.31 ERA over 13 starts, with 111 strikeouts in 75⅓ innings, including a no-hitter at Cincinnati — he opted out of the final year of that deal.
Meanwhile, even as the Dodgers won the World Series, they needed rotation stability. Right-handers Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty are free agents, while several pitchers have health questions to answer in 2025, including lefty Clayton Kershaw.
Even still, the Dodgers have more than $1 billion tied up in pitchers they hope will be in their rotation next year. Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto agreed to a $325 million deal before the 2023 season, and Tyler Glasnow signed a $136.5 million extension after a trade from the Rays.
Including his deal, that’s $643.5 million committed before factoring whatever portion of Shohei Ohtani’s heavily-deferred 10-year, $700 million deal one might consider devoted to pitching, and not hitting.
Snell has a history of slow starts (and strong finishes), but last season’s was perhaps his most extreme. After missing all of spring training, he jumped right into the Giants’ rotation and only made three starts before spending a month on the injured list with a thigh injury.
But after he returned from a second stint on the injured list on July 9, he allowed just 11 earned runs in his final 14 starts — going 5-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 80⅓ innings as the Giants went 12-2 in those games. Included in that amazing run was his first career nohitte (and first career complete game) against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2.
That was more than enough for the Dodgers to pounce and snag arguably the top option off the market in a winter where Snell, lefty Max Fried and right-hander Corbin Burnes are far and away the best options available.
Snell, who turns 32 on Dec. 4, was a first-round pick out of high school by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011. He pitched for the Rays for five seasons, winning a career-high 21 games and the AL Cy Young award in 2018, before being traded to the San Diego Padres after the 2020 season.
He spent three years in San Diego, winning the 2023 NL Cy Young award, before becoming a free agent and signing with the Giants last offseason.
Over nine MLB seasons, Snell has an overall record of 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in 211 games.
His career mark of 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings ranks him No. 1 in baseball history for players with at least 1,000 innings pitched.
The NBA fined the Atlanta Hawks $100,000 for “violating the league’s Player Participation Policy in connection with Trae Young missing the team’s Emirates NBA Cup game on Nov. 12 against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden,” the league announced Tuesday.
Young was listed out for that Celtics game with right Achilles tendinitis. However, the league said, “following an investigation, including review by an independent physician, the NBA determined that the Hawks held Young out of a game that he could have played in under the medical standard in the Policy. The organization’s conduct violated the Policy, which is intended to promote participation in the NBA’s regular season.”
Part of the NBA’s participation policy states that “Teams must ensure that star players are available for national TV and In-Season Tournament games.”
It’s the only game Young has missed this season for the 7-11 Hawks, who defeated the Celtics 117-116 in that contest.
President Biden participated in the annual Christmas tree lighting on the Ellipse on Thursday evening, his last time taking part in the annual tradition before he departs the White House next year.
Mr. Biden returned to the White House early Thursday after spending the beginning of the week in Angola. Before he left, he ignited a firestorm when he issued a sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter, who had been convicted on federal drug and gun charges, and pleaded guilty to tax charges. When asked about the pardon earlier this week, the first lady, who attended every day of Hunter Biden’s Delaware trial, said “of course I support the pardon of my son.”
This year’s Christmas tree is a 35-foot Red Spruce from the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia. A collection of 58 smaller trees are adorned with student-designed ornaments from every state and territory.
The 102nd Tree Lighting Ceremony will be hosted by Mickey Guyton featuring performances by Adam Blackstone, Stephen Sanchez, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood. Viewers can watch the full ceremony on CBS on Dec. 20.
2024 White House holiday decorations
The tree lighting is the last part of the White House holiday transformation, with this year’s theme being “A Season of Peace and Light.”
First lady Jill Biden unveiled the holiday decor in the East Room on Monday, speaking to volunteers who made the winter wonderland come to life.
“As we celebrate our final holiday season here in the White House, we are guided by the values that we hold sacred: faith, family, and service to our country, kindness toward all of our neighbors, and the power of community,” she said.
It takes over 300 volunteers from across the country along with about 9,810 feet of ribbon, 28,125 ornaments and 2,200 paper doves to deck the halls of the White House.
The White House expects to welcome over 100,000 visitors during the holiday season. The first lady on Tuesday welcomed families of National Guard members to be the first to view the decorations. Upon arrival, visitors will see a Christmas tree dedicated to Gold Star families with six stacked stars representing all six branches of the military. Down the East Colonnade guests will be surrounded by bells “symbolizing the peaceful sounds of the holiday season.” In the East Room, a reflective canopy twinkles next to the chandeliers like snowfall as two large Christmas trees guard the main door.
The first known Christmas tree inside the White House was in 1889 during the Benjamin Harrison administration, according to the White House. It was a much smaller affair with only a Christmas tree in the Second Floor Oval Room decorated with candles by President Harrison’s grandchildren.
The annual gingerbread White House manages to combine 25 sheets of gingerbread dough, 10 sheets of sugar cookie dough, 65 pounds of pastillage, 45 pounds of chocolate, 50 pounds of royal icing, and 10 pounds of gum paste into the form of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Volunteers who bring the decorations to life
Alisa Cooper de Uribe, a first-grade bilingual teacher at the New Mexico International School in Albuquerque and the 2021 New Mexico Teacher of the Year, was one of the volunteers who assembled the thousands of doves. She traveled to Washington, D.C., with her family to be part of the White House decorations team.
“It’s a sisterhood, a brotherhood. It was a very collegial atmosphere,” Cooper de Uribe told CBS News. “And that was one of the things that I was really impressed by was how so many people who were gathered together without any knowledge of each other before, how well these people work together.”
The holiday volunteers are teachers, military families, nurses, and small business owners from across the country who all apply before being selected for decor duty. Bright and early the day after Thanksgiving, the volunteers arrived at the White House to begin full days of glitter and garland before the first lady unveiled all their work. The Office of the First Lady sent out special invitations to State Teachers of the Year winners like de Uribe to join the holiday volunteer tradition. Some volunteers formed text chains and Facebook groups, intending to keep in touch long after the ornaments are taken down.
Centerpiece of the holiday decor
The centerpiece of the holiday decor inside the Blue Room is a 18 ½ foot Fraser Fir that traveled from the Cartner Family of Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm in North Carolina. The tree was one of the survivors as thousands of others were devastated when Hurricane Helene hit the Blue Ridge Mountains. The owners named it “Tremendous” as a tribute to the resilience of North Carolina communities affected by Hurricane Helene.
In the state dining room, there are ornaments on the Christmas tree that feature self-portraits of students, including four of de Uribe’s first graders.
“It was an opportunity for the students to see themselves reflected in the White House and in this season, and that it’s their place, and it’s their opportunity to have their individual and unique selves and their culture shine out through their portraits,” de Uribe said.
The best way to understand the kicking woes of Baltimore’s Justin Tucker is to ask another kicker what the hell is going on. So I did. In fact, I asked one of the best to ever do it.
Lawrence Tynes kicked game-winning field goals in two NFC title games to send the Giants to the Super Bowl. Tynes, who played for three NFL teams between 2001 and 2013, was one of the most clutch kickers of his generation. He won two Super Bowls.
What Tynes says matters and what he thinks has happened to Tucker is extremely interesting.
“From the couch, looking on,” Tynes told USA TODAY Sports, “he has a mechanical flaw that was causing him to pull all his kicks. Does not look like he was able to fix what was causing that and continues to miss left in-game.
“I say in-game because I am sure he was able to fix it in practice. Games are different.
Bill Belichick said something similar on the “Let’s Go!” podcast.
“Obviously there’s something that’s a little bit off from a technique standpoint,” Belichick explained, “but I don’t see that there’s like a lack of talent. I think there’s something mechanically that he’s not doing consistently. If you have the key to unlock that problem, then probably everything could be great.
“But clearly this extends back even to last year a little bit, too, because there was some accuracy issues last year in the ‘23 season as well as the current season. So I think Coach (John) Harbaugh is doing the right thing. I would stick with Justin Tucker. This guy was the most accurate kicker in the history of football. He gets great height on the ball. He’s been super consistent. He’s obviously having a little bit of a rough patch right here, but it doesn’t look to me like his talent level has declined. There’s something mechanically that just isn’t quite right all the time. I think they just gotta work hard and try to find that.”
Tucker has missed five kicks in the last three games. For Tucker, this is like an ordinary kicker missing 50. Tucker is The Avengers of kickers. (Not sure if he’s Thor or Iron Man or Captain Marvel or the guy with the arrows, but you get it.)
Overall, what’s happening to him now is one of the wildest stories not just in the NFL, but in all of sports.
But enough of Belichick. Back to Tynes. And for the record, as a kicking nerd, I could listen to Tynes for days. He’s utterly fascinating.
“Inevitably, you can overcompensate for a left miss, and miss right, which he did Sunday,” Tynes continued.
Tucker missed an extra point and two field goals during Baltimore’s 24-19 loss to Philadelphia.
“To summarize,” he said, “he is struggling mentally, that’s the bottom line.”
How does Tucker fix this? No one knows. If they did, it would have already been fixed.
What’s clear is that the Ravens have a difficult choice. Harbaugh can stick with Tucker and hope he works out his issues. If he does, the team would continue on, and make a deep playoff run.
Or, Harbaugh can stick with Tucker, and if the kicker doesn’t work out his issues, he could miss a kick that costs the team a playoff game.
These are not easy choices.
As he often does, Tynes perfectly summarized everything.
“He is the best kicker of all time who has never even had a mini-slump in his career,” Tynes said. “This is his first one and if we’re being honest, he is not handling it well. Would hate to be the Ravens right now because yes, you believe he can fix it, but what if he doesn’t and you lose a playoff game because of him?”
Mike Tyson is being sued in a London court for nearly 1.5 million euros ($1.59 million) for allegedly breaking a deal to promote a gambling company in order to fight social media influencer-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul.
Medier, a Cyprus-registered company that promotes online casino and betting company Rabona, is suing the former heavyweight champion and his company Tyrannic for allegedly reneging on the deal, which was agreed in January.
The lawsuit, filed at London’s High Court in October, says Tyson terminated the deal in March – the same day his fight with Paul was announced – because Medier breached their agreement.
Medier’s lawyers, however, argue its actions did not constitute a breach of the deal and that Tyson’s breach of contract has caused Medier losses of around 1.46 million euros.
“The true reason for Mr Tyson and Tyrannic’s hasty and unlawful termination was because Mr Tyson had agreed a deal, sponsored by Netflix, to fight the influencer Jake Paul,” the company’s lawyer said in documents made public on Friday.
Tyson and Tyrannic have yet to file a defence to the lawsuit and Tyson was not immediately available to comment.
Paul, 27, beat the 58-year-old Tyson by unanimous decision in Texas last month, in a fight streamed live on Netflix that failed to live up to its enormous hype.
Before Victor Wembanyama played a minute in the NBA last season, he was the preordained Rookie of the Year. Then, he proved it on the court. There wasn’t much debate last season about whom would win the award.
That’s not the case in 2024-25. The Rookie of the Year race is wide open, and that was predictable in June at the draft when the No. 1 pick wasn’t obvious. This season’s Rookie of the Year might not be a lottery pick and that would mark just the third time since 1985 that the Rookie of the Year was not a top-10 pick – Mark Jackson won the award in 1988 as the No. 18 pick and Malcolm Brogdon won it in 2017 as the 36th pick.
Early contenders this season, such as Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain (16th pick), Los Angeles Lakers forward Dalton Knecht (17th pick) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaylen Wells (39th pick), were not lottery picks.
USA TODAY’s NBA rookie power rankings:
NBA rookie rankings
(stats through Thursday, Dec. 5 games):
1. Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain
McCain leads all rookies at 16.5 points per game and is doing so with decent efficiency at 46.8% from the field and 38.3% on 3-pointers. The Sixers have needed his production, too, with various injuries to Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey. The No. 16 overall pick in the first round of the June draft, McCain also averages 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists and has two 30-point games, including 34 against Cleveland.
2. Los Angeles Lakers forward Dalton Knecht
There is value in taking a 23-year-old in the first round of the draft, and Knecht and the Lakers have found a mutually beneficial relationship. Knecht gets quality playing time, including nine starts, with a legitimate playoff contender. He averages 11.1 points and is proving himself a strong 3-point shooter, making 40.3% of his attempts from that distance (and 47.1% from the field). He scored a game-high 37 points (also the highest for a rookie this season) against Utah, making 9-of-12 3s.
3. Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaylen Wells
Wells played two years of Division II basketball at Sonoma State and one season at Washington State, and the Grizzlies selected him in the second round with the 39th overall pick. He has worked his way into the rotation at 24.9 minutes per game and is averaging 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists and shooting 45.7% from the field and 38.8% on 3s. He’s a necessary part of a 15-8 start for the Grizzlies, who are tied for second place in the West.
4. San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle
Though he has played mostly at the two-guard spot, Castle has also provided essential ball handling and play making ability to the roster. Castle has not been shy about slashing to the hoop and finishing. Yet, when defenses collapse, he has found Wembanyama and others. Castle trails only Bub Carrington (4.1) of the Wizards in assists per game (3.8) among rookies. He has started his last 15 games and is averaging 11.5 points over that span.
5. Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher
Risacher, 19, has become a far more consistent scorer over the last two weeks, thanks to a steadier 3-point shot. Through his first 14 games, Risacher hit just 22.4% of his 3s. Over his past nine games, he has made them at a 40% clip. Risacher is getting more comfortable on the defensive end, too. He ranks third, second and sixth among rookies in points (11.7), steals (0.9) and blocks (0.7) per game. He scored a season-best 33 points against New York on Nov. 6.
6. Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey
Edey is another valuable rookie contributor to the Grizzlies, and like Knecht, a player who spent at least four years playing college basketball. Per 36 minutes, Edey, who is sidelined with a sprained left ankle, averages 20.0 points, 12.4 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 1.5 steals and 1.4 assists and shoots 60% from the field, and though it’s limited attempts, he has made 60% on 3-pointers. With Edey on the court, the Grizzlies outscore opponents by 3.4 points.
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named venture capitalist and former PayPal Chief Operating Officer David Sacks as a top White House advisor on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency issues.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said that Sacks will guide policy and “focus on making America the clear global leader” on two topics that have rocketed to the forefront of policy discussions around technology and the global economy. Sacks will also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, a group that makes science, technology, and other innovation policy recommendations to the White House.
“He will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship. He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.,” Trump added in the social media post announcing the appointment of his so-called “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.”
Sacks was once a vocal Trump critic, saying on an episode of his “All-In” podcast that the former and future president was “clearly” responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “I think he’s disqualified himself from being a candidate at a national level again,” he said at the time.
However, Sacks’ views have since changed, hosting a fundraiser for Trump at his San Francisco home in June with tickets being sold for $50,000 per person, according to NBC News.
He wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, at the time that President Joe Biden had “veered badly of course” on the economy, foreign policy, the border, and lawfare, and that Trump would lead Americans back.
Sacks is a member of an exclusive group of former PayPal founders and employees that includes Elon Musk. The 52-year-old entrepreneur who was born in South Africa also founded and worked as CEO of Yammer, an enterprise social networking service, which Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion in 2012. He also founded Craft Ventures, a venture capitalist firm, in 2017.
“David has the knowledge, business experience, intelligence, and pragmatism to MAKE AMERICA GREAT in these two critical technologies,” Trump said.
Sacks’ hiring came a day after Trump nominated Paul Atkins, a former federal regulator and cryptocurrency industry ally, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump said Friday that preparing to enter the White House for the second time looks a lot different from the first go-around. Now, she and her husband know what to expect.
“You know what you need to establish, you know what kind of people you need to hire for your office,” she said on “Fox & Friends” in a rare television appearance, where she showed off holiday ornaments she’s selling and her memoir as Christmas approaches.
She said the pace has been fast, as Donald Trump works to build his administration: “It’s incredible and we are very, very busy.” She’s packing up so “we can start on Day 1.”
She said her husband’s attitude after his 2024 win was not the same as when he won in 2016. “The country and the people really supported him,” she said. I think the energy is different. People around him are different.”
The incoming first lady also praised her 18-year-old son Barron, crediting him with helping his father find new ways to reach the audience that elected him president. Trump has four other children.
“He is a grown young man, I’m very proud of him about his knowledge, even about politics and giving advice to his father,” she said. “He brought in so many young people. He knows his generation.”
She described working on her memoirs as a process that was “very personal and could be sometimes very joyful, but also traumatic and hard.”
