President-elect Donald Trump took a victory lap at a Mar-a-Lago gala last night, boasting of a GOP sweep of the federal government.

Trump said he has chosen North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be secretary of the Department of the Interior. The president-elect also previewed his expectations for vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who he has chosen to be the country’s top health official.

Trump has now named over 20 picks for his administration, including members of his personal criminal defense team: Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general and Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general. John Sauer, who won the presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court, was chosen as solicitor general.

Here’s what else happened at the gala:

The president-elect was introduced by “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone.

Trump praised the “common sense” of Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate, whom he has picked to be director of national intelligence.

Trump said his administration will focus on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying “it’s gotta stop.”

Vivek Ramaswamy said he and Elon Musk, named to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, would start “mass deportations” of bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

How people are reacting to Trump picking RFK Jr. :

Kennedy said he looks forward to working to rid public health agencies of “corporate capture” and “clean up corruption.”

Shares of prominent vaccine makers plunged after the news of Kennedy’s selection. Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna dipped as much as 6%, and Pfizer fell almost 2%. Novavax, which created a protein-based Covid-19 vaccine, fell almost 6%.

Trump’s picks are under the microscope:

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was involved in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017, California officials have confirmed.

Musk met with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations this week, The New York Times reported, citing two Iranian officials, who described the discussion as focused on how to defuse tensions between the two countries.

Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.

Republicans on the House Ethics Committee have canceled a meeting with Democrats that was expected to address a long-awaited report on Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, according to two sources. The committee had been probing allegations that the former congressman may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.”

Top Senate Republicans are withholding support for Gaetz as calls mount for the release of an ethics report into the former congressman.

Senate Republicans are wary of Trump’s push to use recess appointments to bypass the chamber’s involvement in confirmations and avoid Democratic opposition. Recess appointments are temporary hirings made while the Senate is out of session, allowing a president’s nominees to avoid confirmation hearings.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has discussed the future of Israeli settlements under a Donald Trump presidency with the top official in the Binyamin Region, which is responsible for an area of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Yisrael Gantz, Binyamin’s Regional Council Chief, told CNN on Friday the future of settlements was one of several topics discussed in the meeting with the prime minister, and declined to give details on any concrete plans.

Binyamin Region is an area in the West Bank home to 80,000 Israeli settlers north of Jerusalem, according to the municipality’s website.

Some background: Under international law, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the presence of settlers there, is considered illegal because the international community — through repeated United Nations Security Council resolutions — has declared the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, to be occupied territory. Israel disputes that characterization.

On Monday, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, ordered preparations for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Smotrich told the Israeli parliament that Trump’s victory in the US election “brings an important opportunity for the state of Israel.”

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s new foreign minister, said that the government had made no decision on the issue of annexation as yet, but noted it had been discussed during Trump’s first term as US president and added that “if it will be relevant it will be discussed again with our friends in Washington.”

Remember: During his first term, Trump took several steps in Israel’s favor. In 2017, he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, upending decades of US policy and international consensus. He also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 war and is also considered occupied under international law.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was involved in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017, local officials in California confirmed on Thursday night.

A spokesperson for the city government of Monterey, California, said its police department had investigated “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth, a Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran.

The alleged assault took place in the early morning hours of October 8, 2017 at the address of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa, and was reported four days later, according to the statement.

Hegseth was a speaker at a conference held by the California Federation of Republican Women at the hotel during the timeframe when the alleged assault took place, according to photos of the event posted on Facebook.

The city’s statement did not specifically identify Hegseth as an alleged assailant, but said he was involved in the investigation and that the victim’s name and age were confidential. The statement said that there were no weapons involved, but there were injuries — “contusions to right thigh” — without providing additional details. The city said that it would not release the full police report or comment further on the investigation, citing state public records law.

Describing Trump’s early selections for his administration as “high-caliber and extremely qualified,” Trump’s communications director defended Hegseth in a statement to CNN.

“Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations, and no charges were filed,” said Trump communications director Steven Cheung.

Members of Trump’s transition team, including incoming Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, discussed the allegation with Hegseth on Thursday, and he said the investigation was related to a consensual sexual encounter, Vanity Fair reported, citing two unnamed sources.

Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer representing Hegseth, told Vanity Fair that “this allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.” Parlatore could not immediately be reached for comment by CNN.

The city’s statement does not indicate what became of the investigation. Hegseth has not been charged in any criminal case or named as a defendant in any civil lawsuit filed in Monterey County since 2017, a spokesperson for the county court told CNN.

Each of Donald Trump’s most provocative Cabinet picks has been a calculated punch in the mouth to experts, elites and bureaucrats in Washington’s government agencies.

But his decision to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, “go wild” on health and medicines as health and human services secretary is his most shocking attempt yet at an anti-establishment tear-down.

The president-elect’s previous selections for director of national intelligence, attorney general and defense secretary could change the country and the world in the long term. Their effect, however, would be distant for most Americans.

If Kennedy gets an opportunity to promote his past claims that vaccines are not safe and effective or to act on his desire to fire 600 people at the National Institutes of Health, which oversees many facets of health research, including vaccines, he could have a more immediate impact on the lives of millions of Americans.

Kennedy has some views that top physicians welcome, including his calls for processed foods to be removed from school lunches and his warnings that the food industry is marketing products that increase chronic disease. But Trump’s decision to put RFK Jr. in charge of the health of 350 million Americans, despite his stances on vaccines that contradict the science-based research of most scientists and medical experts, is likely to ignite a new debate about the potential real-world implications of the second Trump term.

Kennedy’s ascendency and apparently long political leash goes far beyond a Trumpian retribution quest. It could impact the medicines Americans use, the treatments and drug therapies that are approved, the inoculations used to protect the country’s school kids from diseases like measles and the food that everyone eats.

Donald Trump has been announcing his choices for key roles in his incoming administration as he prepares to return to the White House.

On Thursday, he added to his growing list of controversial picks:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was chosen to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was picked for secretary of the Department of the Interior.

Jay Clayton, was selected to run the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Trump is turning to his personal criminal defense team to fill out top roles at the Justice Department. He said Todd Blanche was his pick for deputy attorney general and Emil Bove, another member of his criminal defense team, would serve as principal associate deputy attorney general. John Sauer, who won the presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court, was chosen for the role of solicitor general.

Trump wants former Rep. Doug Collins to run the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Here’s who else Trump has chosen:

President Joe Biden will use his time in Peru and Brazil this week for reflection and looking ahead. No longer viewed on the world stage as the American president who defeated Donald Trump — and his “America First” ideology — for good, Biden will find himself amid leaders who are already moving on.

Many of his counterparts have pivoted to cultivating — or in many cases recultivating — relationships with Trump, angling for meetings in Palm Beach while they are in the hemisphere.

The two leaders’ summits carry an inevitable awkwardness given the short time Biden has left in office and the sea change that awaits when he leaves. Leaders are talking amongst themselves about how to insulate their economies and respond to the threats Trump has already put forth, but Biden administration officials have been largely excluded from those conversations.

Aside from the summits’ hosts, Biden will meet only one other leader one-on-one: President Xi Jinping of China. He will hold trilateral talks with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, the latter of whom said this week he was dusting off his golf clubs in preparation for a potential round with Trump.

Biden’s entourage will represent slimmed-down staffing from prior foreign trips, with a relatively light schedule and low stakes — and the desire of many to begin searching for new jobs.

Biden, who met with Trump for two hours Wednesday at the White House, isn’t likely to be able to offer a great deal of reassurance to allies who wonder what’s in store for the next four years. It’s also not clear whether foreign leaders will be all that interested in his perspective.

Senior administration officials are bracing for the incoming Trump administration to scrap the immigration policies put in place under President Joe Biden — many of which can be undone with the stroke of a pen, leaving many immigrants in limbo.

Multiple administration officials who spoke to CNN said there are few, if any, ways to protect the policies implemented by Biden that, for example, provided temporary protections to certain migrants in the United States.

It’s a reflection of the state of immigration policy, which for the last several years has been made through the executive and as a result, vulnerable to change depending on who’s in office.

In the aftermath of the election, immigration advocates have been scrambling to determine what, if anything, Biden and his administration might be able to do before Donald Trump comes back to the White House — and potentially follows through on his long-stated promise of mass deportations and curbing migration.

One advocate who works closely with the Biden White House floated ideas like expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) eligibility for people coming from places like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Ecuador; making a fresh push on DACA renewals and to get resolution for individuals with pending cases; and corralling local elected leaders to raise money for legal services.

But internally, administration officials are skeptical that expanding or designating new TPS would pass muster. There is also expected to be a robust push for action across the private sector.