Trump news live: Morning Joe hosts respond to fury around secret Mar-a-Lago trip

Morning Joe host Joe Scarbrough dismissed intense backlash from viewers and colleagues in the media over his secret visit to Mar-a-Lago to meet Donald Trump last week.

The MSNBC anchor said the criticism was proof of a ‘massive disconnect’ between ‘social media and the real world’.

The journalists were accused of bending the knee to the president-elect by admitting on Monday that they had visited him to ‘restart communications’ in a feud that has lasted years.

Many pointed to Scarborough and co-host and wife Mike Brzezinski comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler and calling him a fascist.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said it was a ploy to turn around poor ratings.

Scarborough opened his show on Tuesday by thanking those who had sent him messages of support amid the furious response.

Brzezinski said: 'Take it day by day, people'.

Donald Trump has nominated former Congressman and Fox Business host Sean Duffy to be his Transportation Secretary.

The president-elect announced late Monday he had picked Duffy, a father of nine who appeared on MTV series the 'Real World' in the 1990s, to take the spot currently occupied by Pete Butttigieg.

Duffy is married to fellow Fox News personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, who he met on the reality series 'Road Rules: All Stars' in 1998.

After leaving his reality TV career behind, Duffy then turned to politics and public service.

In 2010, he was elected to Congress to represent Wisconsin's seventh congressional district.

He served in the role until 2019 when he announced his retirement from Congress.

Matt Gaetz allegedly took two women to see the musical version of Pretty Woman on Broadway after paying them to fly to New York City for sex and drug-filled romps.

Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general allegedly partied, used drugs and paid women for sex repeatedly between 2017 and 2019 while serving in the House of Representatives.

Joel Leppard, a Florida-based attorney for the two women also says they met up with Gaetz at least once to watch him appear on Fox News' Outnumbered in New York in January 2019.

The three then went to see the musical Pretty Woman, an adaptation of the classic 1990 film starring Julia Roberts, is about a businessman who hires a free-spirited prostitute.

'They were asked to go and have sex with Rep. Gaetz, and then they could go out and see a show that they wanted to see that night. So essentially, take care of things, and then later on, they could have their fun,' the lawyer added.

A trans war has broken out on Capitol Hill after a Republican lawmaker proposed a measure that would block the first transgender member of Congress from using biological women's restrooms in the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. Nancy Mace is pushing for the new rule ahead of the arrival of Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride, who will take office in January as the first openly-trans lawmaker in the United States.

McBride blasted Republicans after the proposal, claiming they were using it as a 'distraction' tactic.

'This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,' McBride said in a statement.

'We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.'

Mace, a staunch conservative, stood by her measure.

'Playing make believe dress up doesn't mean you should be allowed in women's private spaces,' she wrote on X.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did eat the McDonald's meal that he was pictured with on Trump Force One over the weekend, Donald Trump Jr. has confirmed.

Kennedy, who is Donald Trump's pick for health secretary, has promised to 'make America healthy again' and has long rallied against processed foods.

He has publicly criticized the President-elect's love of fast food, including McDonald's, describing the food he eats as 'poison' and 'really bad'.

But when Trump, Don Jr. and Tesla CEO Elon Musk indulged in a 3am McDonald's run after the Ultimate Fighting Championship in New York on Saturday night, RFK Jr. also partook in the meal.

'We got back on the plane...Bobby did have, have some McDonald's. We definitely had some fun with that one,' the President-elect's eldest son told the Charlie Kirk podcast on Monday, adding that Kennedy 'definitely looks like he got his hand caught in the cookie jar with that one'.

Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley ridiculed MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Monday after they revealed they met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

The famous TV couple said they met with Trump Friday to 'restart communications' after they spent eight years berating him as a racist, sexist, misogynistic, fascist.

'Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him,' Brzezinski said.

But Haley was not convinced.

'Let’s be clear, Joe and Mika didn’t suddenly see the light, they saw their ratings,' she wrote on X. 'They realized they needed Trump for their survival.'

Trump's landslide victory cratered ratings for MSNBC, as their prime-time viewership has fallen  53 percent from October.

As a presidential candidate challenging Trump, Haley was celebrated by the show hosts on Morning Joe, but was often criticized for not doing more to publicly condemn Trump on the campaign trail.

'That says a lot Nikki,' Brzezinski bemoaned after Haley refused to comment on a prior defamation and sexual assault case against E. Jean Carroll in New York.

The mayor of Boston has promised to defy president-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts in 'every possible way'.

Mayor Michelle Wu has said that the city will continue to protect immigrants under the threat of deportation.

'Elections have consequences, and the federal government is responsible for a certain set of actions, and cities - no individual city - can reverse or override some parts of that,' Wu said on WCVB.

She cited Boston's status as a sanctuary city under the Trust Act passed in 2014.

This act limits cooperation with some federal immigration laws and prohibits Boston police, and other city departments, from cooperating with ICE. The Trust Act does allow for cooperation in criminal matters.

As Trump's mass deportation threats loom, towns across Massachusetts have reaffirmed that commitments to remaining sanctuary cities.

'We want immigrants to know that it is safe for everyone to be able to feel comfortable reaching out for emergency services, to report a crime, to ask for help, and generally, to be part of our community,' Wu said.

Trump's election campaign was heavily based on mass deportation and the removal of illegal immigrants, and he is expected to act on these promises as soon as he is in office in January.

Ukraine has carried out its first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles just days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light despite fears it could escalate the conflict beyond control.

A fiery explosion at an ammunition depot in Karachev around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia's Bryansk region lit up the night sky early this morning on what is the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine.

Eyewitnesses along with Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers first reported the attack, with anonymous Ukrainian military officials later telling RBC Ukraine the strike was conducted with the US-manufactured ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System).

Kyiv is yet to officially confirm the ATACMS strike, but Russia's Defence Ministry claimed they shot down five missiles. A sixth missile was damaged but ultimately landed on the military facility, it said.

The reports emerged within minutes of the Kremlin threatening a 'nuclear response' should Ukraine hit targets on Russian soil with Western-supplied long-range munitions.

'The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against it with the use of conventional weapons,' Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Russia this morning.