including cia director eric, attorney general and secretary of defense. the president-elect has named his white house chief of staff, susie wiles , seen as

many as the architect of his 2020 for win and for more on how the drug white house is taking shape, cnn's alayna is joining us from west palm beach. it is deja vu all over again in the sense that it is a saturday night and week get a post from the former president, no president-elect with key information on who will not be joining his administration. >> that's right. we are getting a little preview, jessica, of what we can expect once donald trump is sworn in on january. late friday, late saturday night posts. he did write tonight that he didn't announce new names for his administration but he did announce two people who will not be serving in the second administration. i will read what he wrote. i will not be inviting former ambassador nikki haley or former secretary of state mike pompeo to join the trump administration, which is in formation. i very much

enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously and would like to thank them for their service to our country. make america great again. behind the scenes, i'm sure you have some questions about why he is saying this. the reason i'm told this is coming up is because both pompeo's name as well as haley's name have been brought up in some of these closed-door conversations with trumps transition team taking place behind me on that island at mar-a-lago. many people that i have spoken to over the last several days said they believed mike pompeo did a great job serving as trumps secretary of state and that he deserved a seat at the table this time around. however, donald trump , his relationship with pompeo is not what it once was. what many people have described to me as, the relationship has soured. he did not come out and endorse trump early on, if not even later on , and that has been a sticking point. also, donald trump has questioned privately when his name has been brought up whether or not he actually

could trust pompeo and whether or not he was fully loyal to him. some of the jobs he was being floated for , pompeo's name was under consideration for was the secretary of defense. now that is clearly off the table, as for haley, donald trump had said he had appreciated her getting up on stage at the republican national convention in july , saying she supported him. she also offered in the 11th hour to go out and campaign with him, that never materialized, but discussions had been made about whether or not they would go out for a joint appearance before election day . really, when it came down to it, donald trump has been telling his allies , essentially, he had not gotten over all of the attacks that she had thrown at him throughout the republican primary. it was a very that her battle between her and trump. trump believes and harbors animosity toward her for hanging on and staying in that primary fight longer that he deemed appropriate. that's some

insight into maybe where some of this is coming from, as donald trump continues to remain locked in , locked down at mar-a-lago going through some of these different candidates that he will be selecting for top cabinet and other white house roles. >> alayna treinen, thank you so much for that reporting. and for more of the inner workings behind trumps a big decision, let's meet our panel , mark caputo national political reporter and meredith mcgraw, national legal correspondent . good have both of you hear. meredith, i want to start with you and this news we are getting. i was sent to alayna, we are back at it again. it's late on a saturday night to be making news like this and we are getting posts from the former president, no president-elect , on haley and pompeo not joining his administration. what does this say to you more broadly? we are getting this information and those are two people with whom he has personal beef, essentially.

>> we are getting a little deja vu here for those of us who covered the first trumpet white house with a saturday night social media post about personnel news. i think with mike pompeo , he had been discussed as somebody who could be potentially be secretary of defense and recently pompeo appeared at a rally for donald trump and while they are not as close as they were, there is a faction within the republican party that is not a big fan of pompeo, so i wasn't particularly surprised by that and nikki haley, i really had not heard her name come up in a lot of discussions for anything in the administration . with the announcement of susie wiles this week, i think it signaled that trump and his team are going to move weekly with making some of these personnel announcements. they had been compiling a lot of names and resumes for the weeks before trump won the election and i think some of these

announcements about big cabinet roles could be rolled out faster than they have been in the past. >> mark i want to get your take on this news as well just as someone else who covers trump very closely. >> everything you said is true. this is what we are probably going to see in the future, if he wants to say something, he's going to say something at the moment. just get ready for more. >> and so, mark who is he listening to right now? who is he talking to? >> is talking to his campaign advisers, howard who is his transition chair, elon musk. he is donald trump, he's talking to probably everybody, and if mar-a-lago were in season he would be talking to all the members who were at the buffet. >> meredith, in terms of experience when evaluating these people and trying to decide who is going to slot where, in terms of experience versus their loyalty, what is

your sense of how they are measuring that? >> i have been told that loyalty is a top criteria for donald trump this time around . he does want to have people in his cabinet who he feels good turn on him or work against him or doubt any of his decision-making, so i think is going to be surrounding himself with a lot of people who he feels like will be loyal and follow his agenda to the t . when you look at some of the names that have been brought up for some of these cabinet roles, whether it is secretary of state or it is secretary of the treasury or defense , all of the names have been people who have been longtime trump allies or personal friends . i would expect when he is making choices here on who he is going to be putting in his cabinet,

he will be thinking about who he is going to be getting along with, but also who is going to be following his agenda, especially in the critical first 100 days here of his administration , when it seems that they are going to be working pretty aggressively to take through a list of different policy items, especially with having control of congress, too. >> yeah, mark, we have had a number of trump allies over the last several hours on the show, and to a person they have made the case that this is going to be a more professionalized version, look at him appointing susie wiles as his chief of staff , and i'm curious, what do you make of that? this comment from her from our reporting, that she would take the job as long as the clown car was kept at bay from coming into the oval office. it's kind of that tacit admission that there are some really -- clown car type people that surround , that are surrounding the former president. what you make of all that?

>> that's true. i didn't hear susie wiles say that but i could see it being something that she would say. the reality is, trump world because he talks a lot to people, that includes toxic people some of them are friendly with trump and sometimes he can wind up appointing them . he did in his campaign at one point, sometimes he can wind up appointing them and is a ministration. that can be problematic. we could take from this right now that , susie wiles knows what she is doing. she is professional and organized, but if trump decides to ignore his own advice or break his word with her, he's going to do it. >> meredith, what is your take on that in terms of the --. it seems like there is a fork in the road were a lot of these allies are trying to push him to really take this moment and make the most of it, and yet, there is this group of others that , to mark's point, if they want to derail him, they could? >> i think it speaks to the

broader trump world that we have all known now for years . as mark was saying, donald trump likes to consult with the pretty wide variety of people, whether it is members in his club and friends or celebrities or people in congress or just the person who happens to be standing next to him at a rally . he will ask them questions or ask for their opinions. we saw that in the white house how the oval office was described as a kind of bus station where people were constantly coming in and out. i think with susie wiles, she is probably going to be much more organized but also clamping down on some of that, but that being said, as mark was saying, it is trump and he is going to be seeking out opinions from different people as he always has. >> you start to think about those people who have had a moment lately and who are reporting indicating he does want to reward because of

loyalty, rfk junior, elon musk market, i would imagine those people have a tremendous amount of power right now. >> they do. they have been in mar-a-lago last week. rfk was there having make america health again meeting. musk was there with his kid at it trump family portrait or photograph. it gives you an idea who is going around there and who is talking to home. there has been tension between the transition chair , howard let nick and rfk junior when he given in uber on cnn and stepped on rfk's reputation. he said he wouldn't get a cabinet post, could never possibly get confirmed . that annoyed rfk. we have seen these little personality battles brew and bubble up already. more could happen . i wouldn't rule it out. >> meredith, you look back to 2016 and then what ensued and

then that period when he got out of office in 2021, you write about this in your book, trump in exile. he has been up and down this roller coaster and now finds himself at the tallest mountain top he has been on so far. what do you think having observed all of that , has he taken any lessons? if so, what you think those are? >> i think one of the things that donald trump is going to remember as he is making some of these decisions is, who was with him during this period when he was at a political low point? susie wiles was somebody who came in and in early 2021 and stuck with him through 2021 through the midterms , went on to home his campaign and trump is somebody who he values that sort of loyalty and people who stuck with him. i think with the pompeo announcement tonight, you have to think about some of the past comments

that some of these people made that i'm sure trump and his team are watching out for and pompeo was somebody who said that trump should have taken the classified documents. so, you have to look back on this era and some of the people in the republican circles who may have had criticisms of him. some of them have come back around but the same time donald trump and his team also have in mind those who stuck with him. >> mark, the other differences , he did win the popular vote this time and again that seems to be something that as alayna was reporting, giving him the feeling and his team that they have a mandate here. >> you would think he had a mandate anyway. remember what he did with the popular vote in 2016 he said he did and he was cheated when he left in 2020. he said, he actually won and that he was cheated. he always thinks he has a mandate, but in this case, he's kind of right. he not only one the popular vote and all the swing states ,

he also changed the coalition of a voter who supports republicans. he got a higher share of hispanic voters and it looks like a higher share of black male voters. he is feeling good about himself. however, we have seen in the past with other presidents, they feel they have a mandate and get in office and all of a sudden reality hits them and who knows what happens at that point. i would like to add one thing by the way that meredith said about susie wiles being loyal. she not only stuck with him through this, she stuck with him during that classified documents investigation where she was hauled in front of the u.s. attorney's office and in front of the fbi and was questioned and she said by trump. she stuck with them. that matters. >> thanks to both you and remember you can check out my this new book that is out now. trump in exile . thanks to both of you, have a great saturday night. iran is dining any involvement in a plot to kill donald trump after the justice

department announced federal charges against three people. they plotted to the now president-elect before the election. elon musk's big bet on trump. been hundred $20 million to get him elected, so what could be the return on his investment . some democratic for supreme court justice sonia sotomayor to retire before trump return to the white house. we'll talk more about that in the cnn newsroom.

in the selection billionaire tech entrepreneur elon musk but on donald trump donating more than $118 million to help him retake the white house. jason carroll looks at how that support could pay off in big ways for musk and his companies. >> a star is born, elon. matures for the president-elect and the richest man in the world who helped get him there. elon musk. >> i'm not just maga i'm dark maga. stomach he spent $119 million to help get trump elected and the return on that investment is already paying off. tesla shares have soared 29% since the election. musk steak has gained more than 30 billion investors betting that trump the win could burst -- boost the company because of his closeness with musk. there was a time not long ago when tesla wasn't looking so great with reports of sagging profits. when you look ahead,

there are definitely opportunities for him to make money. max is a senior reporter a bloomberg this week who covers musk. >> spacex, it is a major defense contractor. its most important customer is the u.s. government and trump on the campaign trail talked about handing elon musk new contracts. >> what a great guy, and he would rather be making rocket ships because he would really rather do that. >> spacex is a privately held company so it is hard to put a number on how much musk stands to gain. the same can be said of his other rightly held businesses such as the brain implant company neural link . >> is a special diet a super genius, we have to protect our geniuses. we don't have that many of them. >> must could receive a position in the trump administration running what he has called a department of government efficiency . >> take over, elon. >> where he could roll back dormant regulations and cut what he determines is wasteful spending.

>> how much do you think we can rip out of this wasted tax $.5 trillion harris biden budget ? >> i think we can do at least 2 trillion . >> yeah. >> your money is being wasted and the department agency is going to fix that. >> musk is gloating in the wake of trumps victory, political romance brewing . pictured with trump on election night, his family and with caitlyn jenner . musk posted this image showing him carrying a sink into the oval office saying, let that sink in. a throwback to when musk about twitter and posted this video of him caring i think into the headquarters. with promises to shake things up on the social media platform. though it should be noted musk and his co-investors about twitter for 44 billion , one recent accounting has it valued at less than 10 billion. >> jason carroll, thank you.

one issue trump will face when he returns is the crisis in ukraine and trump has previously said he would bring an end to the war within one day . but he has not gone into any detail about how he would do that. jill dougherty is joining us now. jill, thank you for being here with us. russian president vladimir putin says he is ready to resume contact with the u.s. and engage in discussions with trump knowing that , or do you see all of that going? >> well, that's a good question. i think ukraine is really critical at this point. if you look at trump politically, he wants a big win. he has set down the marker that you talked about 24 hours he will have it solved. this is a big deal for him and i think it is something that he wants to solve, but the problem is you have ukraine and russia and the way it appears , although we don't know any of the

details. some of them are actually divided about how to do it. but the details seem to be , ukraine gives up territory that russia now holds and promises never to join nato for about 20 years, and these are things that would be great for putin , but they would be very bad for zelensky , politically and every other way. so, we will have to see because zelensky is in a difficult situation. the war is not going well. russia is making gains and zelensky relies upon the united states to a great degree for weapons and financial aid. so, at this point, the indications up to this point have been that trump is not a fan of ukraine , particularly he wants the war simply over. the big question would be, the terms on which they end it. >> sources tell cnn that we

just had this previous reporting about elon musk and his role , that he did join a call between trump and volodymyr zelensky on wednesday. of course elon musk has starlink, the satellites and notice putin and he has power and skin in the game, as it were, when it comes to all of this. what you make of his presence on the call? >> it appears, everybody is saying, even the ukrainians say, it went well. i think that zelensky might have been a little bit nervous because if you remember at the beginning of the full-scale invasion back in 2022, actually starlink was used and musk provided starlink and it is used for communication by the ukrainian military, so it is very important. it went on for a while and then he pulled it, musk pulled it because he wanted to be paid and

eventually ended up getting paid by the pentagon. but, i think that worries zelensky and can he count on musk? will musk support ukraine in this ? i don't think there are any guarantees , and the lack of clarity is probably very nerve-racking at this point for the ukrainians. >> if you can just underscore for everyone, give the context of what more broadly this means for eastern europe? what could be the fallout if it goes this way ? what you are describing could happen? >> it really is critical , not only for europe. food prices around the world were affected by this war , but talking about europe, you would certainly, if putin is perceived as winning , and you define winning, but winning this war, it would be perceived that he can do pretty much what he wants or he would be emboldened to do what he

wants to do , and there are a lot of countries --. i got back from one country, georgia, the republic of georgia, they are very worried. they used to be part of the soviet union. could there be more pressure from moscow? even smaller countries like moldova , the concern now is among the europeans that have trump pulls back some help and essentially hands the ukrainian problem to the europeans , that this will be very difficult for the europeans to do on their own. so, right now we have got unbelievable things , which is a war, in the middle of europe, which never happened except in world war ii. it is a grave challenge to everybody in that region. >> all right, joe, thank you so much for that context. we have more news in a

moment.

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the israeli military is claiming it has dealt a severe blow to hamas in recent weeks saying thousand hamas militants have been killed in 1000 more wounded by the idf in northern gaza. gaza's health ministry says more than 43,000 palestinians had been killed since the war began last october. cnn cannot verify those numbers and the health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and hamas militants. a recent u.n. report estimates women and children account for some 70% of death in gaza. matthew chance has more on this. >> the head of the israeli military says about 1000 hamas

militants have been killed in northern gaza in the past three weeks. another thousand were captured in the refugee camp area of northern gaza on friday. the chief of the general staff of the idf described those figures as quote, a significant achievement for israel and a severe blow for hamas the israeli military circled more than a month ago and launched a new ground operation forcing residents to flee amid heavy fighting and said the operation was necessary because it has seen signs of hamas rebuilding in the area. despite heavy bombardment and to previous ground operations. meanwhile the un's children agency unicef says at least 64 attacks have taken place against schools in the gaza strip in the last month almost two a day. an estimated 128 people

were killed in the strikes according to the unicef report, many of them children. israel's military says civilians including those in schools are often used by hamas as human shields . the united nations is also issuing a new detailed report on casualties in gaza in the first six months of the conflict. they say close to 70% were women and children. u.n. human rights chief said the report showed that civilian casualties were a direct consequence of the failure to comply with fundamental principles of international humanitarian laws . the israeli military has it to comment on the report. matthew chance, cnn jerusalem. >> thank you for that. thousands taking to the streets of flood ravaged valencia protesting devastating flooding. demanding the resignation of the regents president. last week angry

residents booed the king and queen of spain during exit during their tour of the flood affected areas. valenti was hit hardest by the catastrophic flooding which came amid spain's rainiest october on record and became the country's deadliest natural disaster in decades, more than 220 people were killed, authorities sang at least 78 remain missing. up next, donald trump reshaped the supreme court during his first term in office and this time he could shift the nation's highest court even further to the right. we will talk more about it next.

some new images just coming into cnn. take a look at photos of vice president kamala harris playing games with her grand nieces. these are some of the first teachers we have seen of her since she conceded the 2024 presidential race . the photos were shared on instagram by her niece . the caption read, back to where it all began. my eternal gratitude to everyone who showed up we love her so much. donald trump's election victory could give him another chance to ship the supreme court and further stack its conservative majority. he appointed three conservative justices during his first term and with three more justices approaching retirement age, the incoming administration could reform the high court for decades to come. joining us now corresponded nina . nice to see you. thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> as someone who is so very

familiar with the inter-workings of this court and has covered this court for years, walk us through this moment in time and what could unfold over the next few years. >> weil, justice clarence thomas is 76 , justice sam alito is 74. they are two of the most conservative members of the court and at least arguably, they could retire , and my guess is there will be a great deal of pressure on them to retire. i suspect , at least --. i suspect they won't, but you never know. they have time to think about it. i mean the republicans majority in the senate will ensure that however donald trump would pick him if there is a vacancy, would get through quickly as we have seen. mitch mcconnell, when he was majority leader , he made

sure that the opening created by the death of justice scalia was not failed for almost 10 months, and then when justice ginsburg died , he made sure that vacancy was filled within days a nomination was made and then within weeks it was filled. it depends a great deal who is in charge of the senate. the senate will be in republican hands for the next two years and if you look at the -- if you look at who is up, the likelihood is that the republicans will continue control of the senate, at least that is the way it looks

tentatively for now for a great deal can change. >> what you make of this big dream a mayor retiring and replacing her with a much younger justice in this limited amount of time they have yet before trump takes over? >> never say never, but i wouldn't bet the farm on it. i wouldn't bet a $10 bill on it. >> fair enough. >> i actually spent a fair amount of time before the election trying to figure out what would happen if either side, when, whether it was harris or trump , and i spent a lot of time talking to conservatives who our friends of justice thomas and they don't think that he is going anywhere. they think that he would view that as being driven out of office by his critics and that he is not at all likely to do that. people who know justice alito think it unlikely that he will retire either. this is his life. he spent his life as a public

servant. the question is, what do you do afterwards? he is a man who is defined by his work. if i were betting, i would bet there are no vacancies. what you see vacancies occur that nobody expected, justices get sick, whatever. >> for sure. our colleague joan has some new reporting about justice amy coney barrett and how the left may see her as their best hope during this incoming administration. she writes, liberals on and off the bench see her as someone who may provide equilibrium remaking the law in america , possibly able with her legalistic way to secure ideological majority for moderation. what do you think sets her apart ? do you agree with that assessment? >> i agree with it partially. but only partially. she is a very conservative justice. nothing is going to detract from that. in this past term,

she has , and even before that, she has given significant indications that she doesn't want to rip up the tarmac and run wild. you saw it even in the trump immunity case. she signed onto the opinion that the chief justice wrote, but disagreed with part of it . again, she disagrees about the interpretation of when the court throughout a statute under which some of the january 6th defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison, she disagreed that statute should have been thrown out. so, i think that she will bring some moderation and the chief justice to some extent is the same way. but you need five , and that means you have to get cavanaugh on board too, or another justice in addition to the three liberals. this is a

6-3 conservative court, so getting one justice who peels off isn't enough. >> right. quickly before i let you go, i think there are a lot of americans that are deeply concerned about what come after roe versus wade was overturned, what might possibly be up for being overturned within the courts if it gets kicked up to the supreme court, i'm taking about marriage as an example. what do you think about the potential for that? >> >> i think that potential for very much allowing limits on trends treatments for minors, that is definitely in danger. i personally just don't think the court will go so far as to reverse itself on gay marriage . it could , but i think it

would be such a jolt to the system because suddenly states would not be recognizing marriages from other states, and that is an insane idea at this point in this road that we have been down on in lgbtq rights. i don't imagine that, but the whole regulatory state is about to change , courtesy of court that has done this, and there is a great deal more of things that are very important to people. >> nina, as always, thank you very much. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> we will be right back.

donald trump won the presidency thanks in large part to the latino vote. we visited phoenix to tell that story. >> in 2016 , this happened at a donald trump rally in arizona . >> look at that sign, latinos support trump. i love you. i love you. >> next thing betty rivas knew, she was on stage with the future president. >> i love her. i have fallen in love with her. >> eight years later, she remains fully enamored with the president-elect. >> -- >> she felt a connection with trump on that stage when they looked into each other's eyes. betty and her husband on the

sammy's mexican grill near tucson. in this temple to trump , they serve tacos and enchiladas and the popular maga burger. >> if somebody came up to you and said you are a latino immigrant, how can you support donald trump ? >> the man loves this country. >> he says trump speaks about the things he talks about, faith, family and economy. >> i know he is not perfect and not the pope. we believe in teaching our kids about god. our christian values and family values. the democratic party is in raising all the woke left-leaning ideas that doesn't go with our values. >> there will be a lot of people have a hard time hearing you say you like trouble because the family values. >> i don't go by his lifestyle. i don't go by what he has done. >> do you think it is the democrats pushing latinos to trump or is it trump bringing in latinos? >> i think more democrats are pushing latinos to trump.

>> [ speaking in a global language ] >> tony areas and alfonso are the host of her radio show called -- which loosely translates to young geezers. the radio network errors in five states . they take dozens of calls a day on a radio station founded by the iconic labor organizer cesar chavez. they have sensed trump winning over latinos in the last few years. >> [ speaking in a global language ] >> democrats do not impress people. donald trump spoke well and stole their hearts. >> [ speaking in a global language ]. >> another caller said i fought with my oldest son and told me trump is better than, kamala. i cannot accept that. >> are you seeing that it is a generational divide? >> i see a lot of young people voting for trump because they are thinking about the economy. >> we need to do a better job of engaging our community.

>> raquel is a former democratic legislator in arizona. she recently ran for congress and spent months knocking on doors trying to turn out latino voters . >> what they are hearing from trump is that there is going to be a better economy under his administration. >> the night after donald trump won re-election, jorge rivas told us about their past to becoming u.s. citizens. he was born in el salvador, granted asylum at age 17. betty immigrated from mexico and nasty things many migrants are lying and trying to take advantage of the asylum process. they want immigration prices -- crisis fixed. >> they let in hundreds of thousands of people who have criminal records and deporting them creates mass deportation , i am all for it. >> what if rounded up and all of that are people who work on a farm . they are doing the jobs americans don't want to do. is that were you? >> it wouldn't be fair. they need to make sure they don't throw away, don't kick out don't deport people that are family oriented. >> the question that persists

is why donald trump's history of offensive comments hasn't fully turned off latino voters . some pointed out to us that younger latino voters in particular don't know much about trump and simply see him as a celebrity businessman. others pointed out that many latino immigrants come from countries with truly dangerous and evil political leaders and they view trump as much more harmless. cnn phoenix. >> thank you. thank you for joining me tonight. i'm jessica. cnn newsroom with pamela brown starts after a short break . have a great night, everyone.

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