President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has nominated Dr Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator.

“America is facing a healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again” Trump said in a statement.

Trump added: “He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Oz ran an unsuccessful campaign for senator in Pennsylvania in 2022.

President-elect Donald Trump is urging Republican senators to stop the confirmation of judges before he takes office in January.

“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door” Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line – No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!”.

This comes as Senate Democrats held a late-night vote on Monday to confirm Joe Biden’s nominees to the federal judiciary.

Donald Trump has officially chosen Howard Lutnick, the president-elect’s transition co-chair, to serve as commerce secretary for his second administration.

Lutnick, who has been a longtime friend of Trump, is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.

In a post on Truth Social, the former president wrote that he was “thrilled” to announce Lutnick as his commerce secretary. He stated that Lutnick will “lead our Tariff and Trade agenda” and will also have direct responsibility for the office of the US trade representative.

In his role as co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team, Trump said that Lutnick “created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen”.

The statement also describes Lutnick as having been a “dynamic force on Wall Street for more than 30 years”.

Joanna Walters

The House Democrats’ press conference wrapped up a little earlier with the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, trying to instill confidence that they can provide effective resistance to Republican extremism.

“House Democrats are going to protect our institutions, our values and the norms that have made America the greatest country in the history of the world and the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” he said, as he signed off at the end of the event.

Moments before, congressman Ted Lieu, re-elected today as vice chair of the House Democratic caucus, warned the public not to pay attention to Donald Trump’s campaign trail attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, a rightwing thinktank blueprint for the incoming administration.

“You are watching Project 2025 being implemented,” Lieu said, vowing that Democrats are “going to continue telling the truth” about Trump policy and plans.

And congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado said it would be unconstitutional for the incoming Trump administration to set about “deleting agencies” as it tries to shrink the federal government.

Hello, US politics live blog readers, it’s another action-packed news day and we are in the midst of it all so stick with us for all the developments as they happen.

Here’s where things stand:

• New York prosecutors in Donald Trump’s criminal case said moments ago that they oppose dismissing the president-elect’s election hush-money case as his sentencing looms – but they expressed some openness to delaying the conclusion of the case until after his impending second term. In the latest court filing today, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Trump’s forthcoming presidency is not grounds for dropping a case that has already been tried, adding that “consideration must be given” to potentially freezing the case until after Trump is out of office.

• The prosecutors said in a letter today that they plan on fighting Trump’s push for the dismissal of the criminal case, following his presidential election win over Kamala Harris. They said the Manhattan court should set a timeline for Trump’s expected motion to dismiss, which they “intend to oppose”. The scheduled 26 November sentencing appears poised for adjournment.

• Nearly 100 House Democrats have signed a letter urging the House ethics committee to release its report into Matt Gaetz. “The United States Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on presidential nominees, and it is critical that senators have all the information necessary to consider Mr Gaetz’s nomination,” the letter reads.

• Howard Lutnick will be Donald Trump’s pick for commerce secretary for his second administration, according to a report. Lutnick is the president-elect’s transition co-chair and is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, the New York investment bank, and a longtime friend of Trump.

• An unidentified hacker has reportedly accessed a file shared among lawyers representing clients who have provided damaging testimony regarding Matt Gaetz, the New York Times is reporting, citing a person with knowledge of the activity. Apparently, the computer file consisted of 24 exhibits, including testimony by a woman in which she says she had sex with Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.

• Trump will join his new BFF, billionaire Elon Musk, for a planned rocket launch by the entrepreneur’s SpaceX company at the aerospace base in south-east Texas later today. Weather conditions permitting, this will be the sixth test flight into space for SpaceX’s Starship rocket. The test launch is planned for 5pm ET, with a half-hour window for launch.

• Trump is “calling senators” to pressure them to confirm Matt Gaetz as his attorney general for the incoming administration, according to a report. This is occurring as the US House ethics committee is expected to discuss next steps in its investigation into Gaetz, the now former Florida congressman, tomorrow.

• Sean Duffy has been nominated to be Trump’s transportation secretary in his next administration. The former congressman is co-host of The Bottom Line show on Fox Business. Duffy served in Congress from 2011 until 2019. Before being elected to national public office, he was district attorney for Ashland county, Wisconsin, from 2002 to 2008 and previously had a reality TV show role.

Prosecutors oppose dismissing Trump hush-money case, open to delay

Joanna Walters

New York prosecutors said moments ago that they oppose dismissing president-elect Donald Trump’s hush-money case as his sentencing looms – but they expressed some openness to delaying it until after his impending second term.

In the latest court filing today, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Trump’s forthcoming presidency is not grounds for dropping a case that has already been tried, AP reports.

But prosectors added: “Given the need to balance competing constitutional interests, consideration must be given” to potentially freezing the case until after Trump is out of office.

Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn actor who said they’d had sex. Trump denies the allegations.

Judge Juan Merchan had given prosecutors until today to share their thoughts on how to proceed with the case, which had been scheduled for sentencing on 26 November.

Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal hush-money case said in a letter on Tuesday that they plan on fighting the president-elect’s push for its dismissal following his win over Kamala Harris.

They said the court should set a timeline for Trump’s expected motion to dismiss, which they “intend to oppose”. Prosecutors also believe that other proceedings should be put on hold until the dismissal issue is decided.

Trump’s scheduled 26 November sentencing in his Manhattan criminal hush-money case appears poised for adjournment, given prosecutors’ request and a court calendar entry on Tuesday.

Nearly 100 House Democrats have signed a letter urging the House ethics committee to release its report into Matt Gaetz.

“The United States Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on presidential nominees, and it is critical that senators have all the information necessary to consider Mr Gaetz’s nomination” the letter reads.

The letter was addressed to the Representative Michael Guest, the chair of the House ethics committee, as well as Representative Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the committee.

“Withholding the findings of your investigation may jeopardize the Senate’s ability to provide fully informed, constitutionally required advice and consent regarding this nomination. Representative Gaetz’s abrupt resignation from Congress should not circumvent the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities,” the letter adds.