US elections Trump victory

Trump Sworn In With Flags at Half-Standing: "Nobody Wants to See It"

Flags will fly at half-staff across the US at Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29. Trump is not happy, writes the AP.

According to the US flag code, flags should be flown at half-staff for 30 days after the death of a sitting or former president. Joe Biden has decided that in Carter's case, that means half-staff until January 28. But the code is not mandatory, which means Trump can overturn the decision when he takes office. But not before then.

In a post on social media, the president-elect writes that Democrats are "completely satisfied" with the fact that flags will be flown at half-staff when he is sworn in.

"Nobody wants to see this. No American can be happy about this. We'll see how it goes," Trump writes.

Analysis: The Drama Shows How Difficult It Will Be for Trump

There was certainly some drama when Republican Mike Johnson was re-elected as US President on Friday, writes the Washington Post's Aaron Blake in an analysis. But in the end, it was all less tumultuous than some had expected.

Unusually, the presidential election was actually decided on the first try, even though it was by the smallest possible margin. Many within Johnson's own party are dissatisfied with his efforts in recent years. So he should not celebrate too much, writes Blake.

"He surely knows that this is not the end of the fighting."

Johnson could only afford to lose one Republican vote, and at first it looked bleak when three party members chose not to vote for him. A few "arm-twists" later, two of them switched sides - and gave Johnson the role of president, writes Rick Lowry in the National Review. But according to Lowry, there has never been any real reason to vote Johnson down.

“But this vote, and the budget fight at the end of the year, show how little will be easy in this Congress,” he writes.

Biden could put a stop to Trump’s “drill, baby” plan

“Drill, baby, drill” was one of Donald Trump’s most important campaign promises. But plans to extract more oil are expected to take a serious hit from Joe Biden just weeks before he hands over to Trump, writes The New York Times.

According to the newspaper’s sources, Biden is expected to announce a ban on new gas and oil drilling in a 625 million-acre area in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, among other places, as early as Monday.

Another dilemma for Trump is that Biden plans to lean on a federal law from 1953, the so-called Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which is not possible for presidents to repeal. Trump would therefore have to push the issue through Congress to get a change in the law.