WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):
6:45 p.m.
President Barack Obama says he hopes tensions between President-elect Donald Trump and the intelligence community will be reduced once Trump’s team is put together.
Obama says in an interview with NBC Chicago that presidents “can’t make good decisions unless we have good intelligence” and it’s important that the president receives “non-politicized intelligence.”
He says he hopes once Trump receives his own briefings and sees how “professional and effective” the intelligence agencies are, some of those tensions will be reduced.
Trump has been dismissive of the nation’s intelligence agencies and cast doubt about their conclusion that Russia was behind the hacking efforts to influence the 2016 election.
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6:35 p.m.
Vice President Joe Biden says it’s “dangerous” for President-elect Donald Trump to publicly criticize the U.S. intelligence community.
Biden tells “PBS NewsHour” that it’s “absolutely mindless” for a president not to have confidence in or listen to the intelligence agencies. He says it would be legitimate to question intelligence, ask for more detail or disagree. But he says that’s different than Trump claiming he knows more than the intelligence agencies.
Biden says that’s like saying “I know more about physics than my professor.” He says that’s worrisome, but he assumes Trump’s behavior will change. He says Trump is surrounding himself with “very smart people” like retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
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5:30 p.m.
Vice President Joe Biden is telling President-elect Donald Trump to “grow up.”
Biden is dismissing Trump’s complaint on Twitter about how the Obama administration has handled the transition. He tells “PBS NewsHour” that it’s “time to be an adult.”
Biden says to Trump: “You’re president. You’ve got to do something. Show us what you have.”
The vice president says Trump as president will have to propose legislation that Congress and the public can then assess. He says it’ll be “much clearer what he’s for and against” once he’s in the position of governing.
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4:20 p.m.
Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump’s transition team are discussing whether they can make good on Trump’s promise of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without passing new legislation.
That’s according to three congressional and transition officials with knowledge of the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Under the evolving plan, the Trump administration would rely on existing legislation authorizing fencing and other technology along the Southern border. Congress would be asked to ensure that enough money is appropriated to take additional new steps - but would not pass a stand-alone bill authorizing a big new wall along the Southern border.
The approach could come as a surprise to some but could avoid a legislative fight Trump might lose.
- Erica Werner and Jill Colvin
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3:11 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump will appoint former Indiana Senator Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence.
The pick could be announced later this week, according to a person briefed Thursday on the decision. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Coats is a conservative who spent 16 years in the Senate. He announced his retirement last year and did not seek re-election.
Trump’s decision comes as he has been sharply critical of the nation’s intelligence agencies and has cast doubt about their conclusion that Russia was behind hacking to influence last year’s elections.
Trump on Friday will meet with directors of the FBI and CIA, as well as current DNI James Clapper to be briefed on their findings.
- Jonathan Lemire
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3:05 p.m.
Access to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump will be all about color.
Congressional planners released images Thursday of the nearly 250,000 free tickets being distributed for the inauguration. People with yellow, green or teal tickets will find themselves up front. Those with blue, orange or red will be farther back. People without tickets can assemble on the National Mall farther away from the Capitol.
The tickets will be distributed starting next week by members of Congress, who have been taking requests from constituents for months.
Those headed to the Jan. 20 event can expect tight security. Screening gates will open at 6 a.m., music will start around 9:30 a.m., and opening remarks will begin at 11:30 a.m.
That’s according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
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2:18 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump has trained his sights on Toyota in his latest effort to badger a company into building its products in the U.S. rather than Mexico.
Trump tweeted Thursday that the Japanese automaker plans to build a factory in Baja, Mexico, to build the compact Corolla. He warns the company to build in the U.S. or pay a big border tax.
The threat is similar to those targeted at Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. Trump has repeatedly threatened Ford with a border tax and this week called out GM for importing cars from Mexico.
Trump tweeted, “NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.”
Trump has the location of Toyota’s new Mexican plant wrong. The company announced in April it would build a $1 billion Corolla factory in the central part of the country.
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11:55 a.m.
Just over two weeks from taking office, President-elect Donald Trump gave a videotaped deposition stemming from a lawsuit he filed after a celebrity chef backed out of plans to open at a restaurant at one of his hotels.
Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten says the deposition lasted about an hour and was “routine.”
It’s rare for a president or president-elect to be deposed. It happened most recently to Bill Clinton in 1998 during the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.
Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Ulysses Grant are the only other sitting presidents to face a deposition.
Trump sued Jose Andres after the chef cancelled plans to open a Spanish-themed restaurant at a new Washington hotel after Trump’s inflammatory comments about Mexicans during the campaign.
This story has been changed to correct Trump lawyer’s name to Alan, not Allen.
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11:35 a.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan is declining to criticize Donald Trump for seeming to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the U.S. intelligence community.
Appearing on Wisconsin radio station WTAQ, Ryan reiterated his own criticism of Assange, saying “no one should be deluded about who this guy is.”
But he went on to say that Trump is “rightfully concerned” that people are using the Russia hacking incident to “call into question the legitimacy of his victory.”
Ryan said that Russia did hack the U.S. and should be penalized but that it didn’t impact the election outcome.
Ryan also repeated Trump’s claim that the intelligence community had delayed briefing him on Russia hacking, something intelligence officials have denied.
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10:20 a.m.
Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer - labeled “head clown” by Donald Trump - is responding by saying “this is not a time for calling names.”
Schumer was asked Thursday about Trump’s attacks, which come as the GOP begins its effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Schumer replied that “instead of calling names, the president-elect should roll up his sleeves and show us a replacement plan” for Obamacare that would cover the 20 million Americans who gained coverage under the law.
Schumer’s comments came after Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday that “Democrats, lead (sic) by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they…do the typical political thing and BLAME.”
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9:58 a.m.
President-elect Donald Trump is considering plans to restructure and slim down a top intelligence agency, according to a person familiar with his plans.
Trump still is expected to name a Director of National Intelligence, but he’s looking at ways to reorganize the department. Former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats is being considered for the DNI post but is also being looked at for an ambassadorship. That’s according to the person familiar with Trump’s plans.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has also been considered.
Trump’s plans were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The person familiar with the plans was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and confirm the details on condition of anonymity.
-By Julie Pace
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8:43 a.m.
Donald Trump says he’s just quoting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (ah-SAHNJ’) and is not an ally.
The president-elect tweeted Thursday that, “I simply state what he states.”
Trump has faced criticism for appearing to embrace Assange, whose organization has been under criminal investigation for its role in classified information leaks. Trump, meanwhile, has been dismissive of the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia is to blame for hacking that roiled the 2016 presidential election.
American intelligence agencies have said Russia not only meddled in the presidential election, but did so to help Trump win. The president-elect has been openly dismissive of that conclusion and this week quoted Assange on Twitter.
Assange has denied that WikiLeaks got its hacked emails from Russian intelligence.
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7:45 a.m.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sihk) plans to attend the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Kasich had boycotted the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and declined to endorse or vote for the New York billionaire after dropping his own presidential bid.
But Kasich has said he’s praying for Trump, and he offered a message of unity when addressing Ohio’s Electoral College members as they unanimously supported Trump last month.
A day before the Jan. 20 oath-taking, Kasich is set to talk about Medicaid expansion with Senate Republicans trying to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
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7:39 a.m.
Donald Trump is urging Republicans and Democrats to “get together” to design a replacement for President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The president-elect says in a series of Thursday morning tweets that minority Democrats are doing “the typical political thing and (casting) BLAME.” He adds: “It is time for Republicans and Democrats to get together and come up with a health care plan that really works - much less expensive & FAR BETTER!”
The tweets contradict Trump’s advice to Republicans a day earlier, in which he wrote that “Dems are to blame for the mess” and warned the GOP to stay focused on blaming Obama’s party.
Democrats point out that Republicans are not close to proposing a replacement for the law. Twenty million Americans have gained coverage under the law.
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