kenneth moten is following the white house transition and joins us live from the nation's capitol. >> reporter: donald trump is finding his veterans affair and agricultural secretary. he is trying to separate himself from the foundation and it is proving to be difficult. donald trump celebrates his last christmas before becoming president. a standing ovation from the president-elect who is busy trying tole fill out his cabinet weeks before inauguration day, he is stepping on the current president's toes making he is not happy about the white house's decision to not pass the itz settlement. >> after january 20th he will be the conduct of american policy. until then, president obama is. >> reporter: trump plans to shut down the family foundation to avoid giving the appearance of any conreflect in his role as president. the attorney general said not so fast he is being investigated over concerns how he collected and gave out money. he maybe putting out potential fires before taking office, but his popularity is lower than his predecessor. le trump is at 42%. >> donald trump has made grea

abc news reporter kenneth moten has the late now from washington. >> reporter: this week it's back to work for donald trump and his transition. after a christmas church service standing ovation, the president-elect is still celebrating hot days in south florida. not even sworn in yet, and he's already weighing in on foreign policy. both trump and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu upset over the white house's decision to allow a u.n. resolution condemning israel's expansion of settlements. >> i look forward to working with those friends and with the new administration when he takes office next month. >> reporter: the obama administration pushed back against trump on cnn. >> after january 20th he'll be responsible for the conduct of american policy. july january 20th president obama is. that's how it works. one president at a time. >> reporter: but a pm prump will walk into the office at a popularity low. trump's at 42% as he continues to deal with his business interests and his family foundation which he promised to dissolve. new york's attorney general says that won't happen r

abc 7 news reporter kenneth moten has details from washington. >> reporter: the president versus the president in waiting. >> very good man. >> thank you. >> reporter: who could have beaten whom if the president could have run for a third term and in a podcast president obama told his former white house adviser david action rolled he's confident in his vision. >> i think i could have mobilized a majority of the people to rally behind it. >> reporter: donald trump fired back on twitter. president obama says he thinks he would have won against me. he should say that but i say no way. later adding the world was gloomy before i won and there was no hope. >> my guess is we're looking ahead to what's going to happen on january 21st. i think barack obama is going to be very assertive and aggressive in taking on donald trump. >> reporter: trump's twitter outrage shifted to the united nationss after the passage of a u.n. resolution call the expansion of israeli settlements illegal. trump tweeted the u.n. has such great potential but right now it's a club for people to get together, talk and h

. >> as nbc news reporter kenneth moten explains, that decision stands against a recommendation by his own foreign minister. >> reporter: the clock is ticking for 35 russian diplomats. intelligence operatives told to get out of the u.s. by sunday. >> they have to pack and leave within hours. >> the obama administration taking forceful action against russia for its pay alleged role in the hack of democratic party leaders. the u.s. foreign minister expected his president return the favor and kick out american diplomats, but putin said no, choose to retaliate for now after president obama also slapped sanctions against russian intelligence agencies and shut down russian compounds in new york and maryland where we've already spotted moving trucks. >> i don't think it's a new cold war, paul. i think this is more like a cold war 2.0 going on for several years. >> reporter: it appears putin is ready to hit the resit button with a president trump accusing president obama of trying to undermine the next administration. trump who is still dougt the finings of u.s. intelligence that russia was tr

kenneth moten, abc news, washington. >>> facebook users in bangkok were falsely alerted to an explosion in the thai city after the social network activated its safety check. it allows users in danger zones to mark them as sav but this time the alert was triggered when a protester threw firecrackers. facebook says it relied on a trusted third party to confirm the incident, but alert labeling misled many online as people shared false news of the blast. facebook has recently faced criticism for allowing fake news to proliferate on its site. >>> security has heightened at shopping malls across the country still on alert following a second night of mayhem and disturbances in at least nine states. police now confirm social media helped fuel the pan nick some of the incidents. here's abc 7 news reporter elizabeth hur in new york. >> more chaos and confusion at shopping malls. just a day after more than a dozen disturbances were reported in malls across the country. >> at first i thought it wasn't really real because we've israel alarms go off and stuff. >> reporter: police in wisconsin had to

abc's kenneth moten with the latest. >> reporter: donald trump legally cutting ties with his billion dollar company. the president-elect made the announcement on twitter that he will leave his great business in total to his children in order to fully focus on running the company. the business separation to avoid conflicts of interest comes as secretary of commerce, fellow billionaire, will burg ross. treasury secretary steve mnuchen. >> we'll have the most significant middle income cut since reagan. we'll incorporate the child care program. this will be a tremendous boom to the economy. >> reporter: mnuchen praised trump's deal with carrier to keep 1,000 factory jobs in indiana, vp elect mike pence's home state. >> the p president-elect said they want to keep jobs here. can't remember the last time a president did that. >> reporter: trump is expected to release the details of the deal indianapolis on thursday. first leg of his thank you tour which ends later today in cincinnati, ohio. trump is still trying to decide on a secretary of state. trump's white house chief of staff reince p