Michael Anton and Sebastian Gorka are in the running to be President-elect Donald Trump’s deputy national security adviser, according to three people familiar with the competition who were granted anonymity to speak candidly.

With either selection Trump would elevate a firebrand loyalist who served in the incoming commander-in-chief’s first administration to one of the White House’s top roles.

Trump has already selected Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida to serve as his national security adviser. Neither role requires Senate confirmation, but Anton and Gorka would both be controversial picks that are likely to stir anger in Washington. It would be a sign of the second Trump administration pushing a combative tone on foreign policy.

One of the people familiar with the transition said that Anton was the more likely of the two men to win the job.

Anton, who worked as a speechwriter for high-profile clients like Rupert Murdoch, Rudy Giuliani and Condoleezza Rice before joining the Trump administration in 2017 as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications, has pushed anti-Islamic views, criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and peddled conspiracy theories, penning an essay before the 2020 election suggesting that billionaire George Soros and the Democratic Party were planning a coup.

Gorka, an ally of Steve Bannon who was also named a deputy assistant to Trump in early 2017, has called violence a “fundamental” part of the Islamic faith and once worked as an advisor to Viktor Orban. He was criticized within the administration for showing up at random meetings and raising unrelated points, POLITICO has reported. Gorka’s academic credentials have raised eyebrows among scholars.

The Trump-Vance transition and Anton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gorka declined to comment but encouraged this reporter to “take a long jump off a short pier.”

The lawyer representing a woman former Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was a minor called on the House Ethics Committee to “immediately” release its report into his alleged conduct.

“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” attorney John Clune wrote Thursday on X. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”

Gaetz, a conservative firebrand whom President-elect Donald Trump tapped Wednesday to serve as attorney general — and who pushed the effort to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — resigned abruptly from the House Wednesday, days before the chamber’s ethics panel was reportedly set to release a report of its investigation.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations. A spokesperson for Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The former congressman was also the subject of a separate federal sex trafficking investigation by the Department of Justice — which he could soon lead — but was ultimately not prosecuted. That probe, started in 2020 during the Trump administration, was focused on whether Gaetz paid women for sex and traveled overseas to attend parties with teenagers under the age of 18.

In May, he was subpoenaed to sit for a deposition in a civil lawsuit brought against the woman with whom he allegedly had sex — who is represented by Clune — by a friend of Gaetz, ABC News reported.

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters Wednesday before Gaetz’s resignation that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House — and reiterated that position on Thursday.

But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said they hope to review the report ahead of Gaetz’s Senate confirmation. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded in a statement that the House Ethics Committee share its findings with the Senate Judiciary Community, saying “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”

And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told ABC News on Thursday he “absolutely” wants to see the report, adding: “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee generates.”

MAGA won big. Now MAHA is ready to take on Washington.

President-elect Donald Trump promised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a chance to implement his Make America Healthy Again vision and Kennedy is in the mix to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

That could turn the government’s role in public health upside down. Kennedy blames Americans’ poor health in part on a corrupt alliance among the food and drug industries and the regulators supposed to watch over them. He wants to replace the bureaucrats and overhaul the systems for overseeing pesticides, food additives and vaccines.

That could mean rules and product bans that threaten the profits of the food and pharma sectors GOP lawmakers have long deferred to — and who employ many of their constituents. MAHA expects them to put up a fight, but Trump during his campaign and the GOP lawmakers most willing to talk this week said they’re taking Kennedy’s asks seriously and are open to pursuing his policy goals through legislation or by confirming him to a top administration post.

“Bobby Kennedy can do more working with President Trump to advance America’s health than anybody really in history,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. “If President Trump wants him, I think he could [be confirmed to the Cabinet]. Why not?”

Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Rand Paul of Kentucky seconded Johnson’s point.

Tuberville said it was “great” Kennedy is involved and said he was open to confirming him to a top job. Paul called the longtime environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and scion of one of America’s most famous Democratic families “an important voice … for reassessing the crony capitalism that has big corporations, particularly Big Pharma, having an undue influence in regulation and approval of their drugs.”

Even Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, noted “several issues” where he and Kennedy, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination before dropping out to endorse Trump, would agree, including: “tobacco and organic agriculture.”

Wyden declined to say more about how he’d respond if Trump gave Kennedy an administration role.

It might just be that Kennedy’s critics are holding back, expecting Trump won’t go there. But holding back they are.

Lobbyists for food and pharmaceutical interests have declined to publicly criticize Kennedy or openly push for the incoming administration to change course, even as they say they are reaching out to the Trump transition team and lawmakers for reassurance.

And many GOP lawmakers — including some who represent farm country, like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — declined to comment as they were returning to Washington after a break for the election. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told POLITICO Thursday it was premature to say if she’d vote to confirm Kennedy given he hasn’t been nominated to a post yet.

Public health and medical experts have sounded the alarm on Kennedy’s ideas, particularly his claim that vaccines cause autism, as dangerous.

Kennedy declined to comment on the MAHA movement’s involvement in the incoming administration or criticisms from industry groups and health experts.

MAHA devotees aren’t declaring victory, predicting a fight with lobbyists for pharma and food companies and their allies on Capitol Hill.

Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC and former national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, will brief health policy staffers on Capitol Hill next week, following a similar briefing in September from Kennedy ally Calley Means, a former food-industry lobbyist who has become a prominent voice in the debate about Trump’s health policy platform.

“Established Republicans are going to have to be the most brave for this to be successful,” Hutt said.

For now, MAHA’s acolytes are waiting to see whether Trump is brave enough to follow through on his promise to Kennedy.

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest is seemingly sticking to his decision to not release his panel’s report about Matt Gaetz after the Floridian’s abrupt resignation Wednesday.

“What happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality,” Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters Thursday morning as he left the House floor. “I’ve given my statement yesterday and there’s nothing new that has changed from then until now.”

When asked if he’s allowed to release the Ethics report if Gaetz isn’t in the House: “I’ve got no further comment.”

Guest told reporters Wednesday, ahead of Gaetz’s announced resignation, that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House.

“Once the investigation is complete, the Ethics Committee will meet as a committee. We will then return our findings. If Matt Gaetz is still a member of Congress, then that will occur. If Matt has resigned, then this ethics investigation, like many others in the past, will end again,” Guest said.

Gaetz resigned from the House just hours after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him as attorney general in his new administration. On Thursday, the House clerk read Gaetz’s resignation letter on the floor, which included the Floridian noting would not return for the 119th Congress, despite some Hill speculation.

While Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Gaetz had resigned so abruptly because he wanted to give leadership time to fill the seat if he becomes attorney general, some of his GOP colleagues believe Gaetz’s decision was actually tied to an Ethics Committee report investigating several allegations, including that Gaetz engaged in sex with a minor. The report was expected to come out in a matter of days, according to two Republican lawmakers, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the multiple probes into those accusations.

Despite Guest indicating the report likely won’t be formally released, it could still leak — Gaetz has made numerous enemies in the House, and senators have expressed doubts he could get confirmed. The report would likely become a huge point of contention in any hearings.

To that point, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has already demanded that his panel see a copy of the report before Gaetz faces confirmation hearings. Of course, he won’t control the committee next year, when those hearings could occur.

“I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Durbin, who is expected to be the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee next year, said in a statement.

He added: “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States.”

And it’s not just Democrats. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who lost his bid for GOP leader Wednesday, told reporters he wants to see “everything” when asked if he would like to review the Ethics report before voting to confirm Gaetz.

Anthony Adragna contributed to this report.

House Republicans have salvaged an agreement on their internal rules, according to six people familiar with the discussions, after it appeared to be on shaky ground for hours earlier on Thursday.

If the agreement — struck by opposing factions within the GOP’s narrow majority Wednesday afternoon — had unraveled, it would have been a significant blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, who blessed the deal. The agreement had been a truce of sorts on conservatives’ and leadership allies’ most contentious battle lines, like hard-liner moves to block party-favored legislation on the House floor.

Under the deal, which was first reported by POLITICO on Wednesday, centrists agreed to drop their proposed rule changes that would have established punishments for members who defied leaders and the will of the conference. In exchange, conservatives agreed to raise the threshold for triggering a vote on ousting the speaker to nine members, up from the current one member.

But a last-minute hiccup emerged early Thursday when Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) indicated he had not agreed to drop his amendments, which would have penalized members who voted against a GOP-supported speaker on the floor or against bringing GOP bills to the floor. Forcing a vote on either proposal could have unraveled the larger deal.

But one House Republican downplayed the drama on Thursday, saying the “deal is intact,” “everything is good” and there are “no obstacles left.” Five people familiar with the discussions also told POLITICO late Thursday morning that the deal was still alive.

As part of the last-minute wrangling, Huizenga agreed to drop his amendments, according to the GOP lawmaker and two people familiar with discussions, which was viewed as the last obstacle to locking in the rules agreement.

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday demanded the House Ethics Committee share its pending report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice.

“I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Durbin, who is expected to be the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee next year, said in a statement.

He added; “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States.”

Once a member resigns from Congress — as Gaetz did on Wednesday — the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction over pending investigations. This means the report likely won’t be formally released, though it could leak.

Gaetz’s nomination to the role stunned Congress on Wednesday, as many Republicans cast doubts on his ability to be confirmed by the Senate. Republicans are expected to hold a narrow 53-47 effective majority next Congress as they try to confirm Trump’s Cabinet picks.

Senate Republicans are skeptical of Donald Trump’s aggressive new tariff plans — especially lawmakers from states with large agriculture industries that could bear the brunt of likely foreign retaliation.

“Tariffs have a place, but there is also the other side, which is: what about the repercussions of [countries] putting tariffs in a retaliatory method on some of our items as well?” added Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “There is a place for tariffs, but I want to look at them case-by-case.”

Those sentiments were echoed by a number of Midwestern Republican senators this week as they returned from the election recess. And they hint at what’s likely to be a major source of tension within the party during the next Trump administration — over just how far the president should go in imposing tariffs, and whether he should work through Congress to do so.

Trump has proposed imposing up to a 20 percent tariff on all goods entering the U.S. and a 60 percent tariff on all imports from China. He also has much of the legal authority required to make good on his plans. But countries targeted by Trump’s broad tariffs, such as China and Mexico, are also the biggest buyers of U.S. farm goods and will likely strike back by cutting off business with U.S. farmers.

“I’m not for just arbitrary, across-the-board tariffs, but I think they’re a very, very useful tool in getting countries’ attention to play fair,” said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, who’s poised to become the chair next year.

South Dakota, the home state of Senate Republicans’ next leader, John Thune, relies on agriculture as its top economic driver, much of it led by exports of corn, soybeans and wheat.

Thune, a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Finance Committee, which is in charge of trade matters, has defended those interests during his four terms in the Senate. He’s also recently expressed reservations about tariffs, including an event with POLITICO at the Republican National Convention in July.

“I’m not a big fan of tariffs, and I made that clear during the last Trump administration for the reason you just mentioned, because the retaliatory action taken by countries with whom we need to do business and who are big markets for American agriculture,” Thune said, adding that an across-the-board tariff will require “some serious conversations.”

But given Trump’s resounding margins in the election, and the mandate he now claims, the politics are dicier for pro-trade Republicans. For now, many lawmakers are proceeding with caution.

“There’s pros and cons on tariffs. Obviously … a lot of people don’t really understand [that] tariffs sometimes are paid by the person that is importing, not the one that is exporting into your country,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) — acknowledging a reality that Trump continues to deny. “So we got to be careful about that.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said she had “no interest” in taking a role in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“I had no interest in being in his Cabinet, he knew that,” Haley said during an episode of her radio show, “SiriusXM’s Nikki Haley Live,” on Wednesday. She said Steve Witkoff, whom Trump has since announced he’ll name Middle East special envoy in his administration, came to Haley’s home in South Carolina and “wanted a truce” between Haley and Trump and asked if there was anything she wanted.

“There was no truce needed. Trump had my support. There was no issues on my end,” Haley said. When asked what she wanted, she told Witkoff, “There’s nothing I want,” Haley said on the show.

Trump and Haley have had a fraught relationship since she challenged him in the Republican primaries. The week before Election Day, Haley said she was “on standby” to campaign for Trump, though she ultimately never stumped for him.

And last week, Trump said on Truth Social that he would not be “inviting” his former U.N. ambassador to a role in his second administration.

“I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with [Haley and Mike Pompeo] previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country,” Trump said.

Haley also detailed conversations with Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick about Trump’s Cabinet, where she said Trump should “surround himself with people that are going to tell him the truth.”

“But I did not ask anything for me, and I have made it clear to everyone that I was not interested in the administration,” Haley said on the show.

“Do I take it personally? No. That’s who he is,” Haley said. “He can be shallow at times, and I think he’s showed that. But I don’t have to be shallow. At the end of the day, I’m very comfortable with where I am and I’m comfortable with what happened.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Thursday that the Senate won’t allow the man who took away his speaker’s gavel to become attorney general.

McCarthy has long feuded with now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to nominate him to lead the Department of Justice. It was Gaetz who initiated and led the historic efforts to oust McCarthy from the speakership last year, dragging into the open bitter feelings that have not softened in the months since.

“I think the choices are very good, except one. Gaetz won’t get confirmed, everybody knows that,” McCarthy told Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin on “The Asia Trade” on Thursday morning, referring to Trump’s Cabinet and administration nominations.

When Amin pressed him on why Trump chose Gaetz, McCarthy said “it’s a good deflection from others” but stopped himself from going into detail. “You’d have to ask the president, but Gaetz couldn’t win in a Republican conference, so it doesn’t matter,” he said.

Even amid a bevy of controversial picks to join Trump’s Cabinet, Gaetz’s selection to be attorney general has sparked particular concern at the agency he’s been named to lead. The Florida Republican was also the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into multiple allegations, including that he had sex with a minor, which he has denied. GOP colleagues of Gaetz suggested that his immediate resignation from Congress may have been an effort to head off the official release of the Ethics Committee’s report, which they expected in the coming days.

But besides Gaetz, McCarthy praised Trump’s other picks, especially Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of State. The former speaker said the president-elect had learned from his previous experience in the White House and will “hit the ground running” this time.

McCarthy also praised Trump for tapping Elon Musk to help lead a new department to spearhead efforts to shrink the federal government, calling Musk a “Thomas Edison.”

“Elon was texting me this morning. Think about having the brain of Elon Musk to sacrifice his time away from his businesses to help every single American make government more efficient, more accountable, and actually deliver the job that we are supposed to do,” McCarthy told Bloomberg.

House Republicans tapped their leadership team for the next Congress on Wednesday and formally notched their majority when the Associated Press called Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s (R-Ariz.) reelection. But the size of that razor-thin majority remains in flux — even before factoring in the departures of three GOP members nominated for roles in the Trump administration.

Here’s the latest on where things stand.

California’s 45th: Several more favorable batches of ballots for Democrats have put Derek Tran within 349 votes of overtaking Rep. Michelle Steel (R) for this hotly contested seat. This one looks poised to go down to the wire, but things have been lining up well for Tran in recent days to possibly flip this seat.

Alaska at-large: GOP challenger Nick Begich leads incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola (D) by more than 9,300 votes in this contest, though he is still below the majority threshold needed to avoid triggering the state’s ranked-choice voting procedures. That process wouldn’t take place until Nov. 20, so we may wait a while before a final call in the Last Frontier.

California’s 13th: An estimated one-quarter of ballots are left to be counted more than a week after Election Day in this district, but incumbent Rep. John Duarte (R) continues to hold his own against Democrat Adam Gray in what had been eyed as a prime pickup shot for Democrats. Duarte’s lead stands at more than 3,700 votes — and ballot drops have not broken against him so far.

California’s 21st and 9th: Incumbent Democratic Reps. Jim Costa and Josh Harder continue to grow their leads in their reelection bids. Costa now leads by more than three percentage points — some 5,100 plus votes — while Harder’s advantage is more than three and a half percentage points — or nearly 6,900 votes.

Iowa’s 1st: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) leads by more than 700 votes in this razor thin contest but her opponent, Democrat Christina Bohannan, said she’d seek a recount on Thursday morning. “We have full trust in this process and will accept the results regardless of the outcome,” her campaign manager, Jindalae Suh, said in a statement.

AP calls on Wednesday: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif); Rep.-elect Dave Min (D-Calif.); Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.)

Pennsylvania Senate: The contest between Sen. Bob Casey (D) and Sen.-elect David McCormick (R) is headed to an automatic statewide recount due to the tight margin. McCormick leads by more than 26,000 votes statewide, though, so Casey faces long odds to reverse the lead. Counties must begin their recounts by Nov. 20 and complete them by Nov. 26, according to Pennsylvania Secretary of State.