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Trump Team Quickly Filling White House Roles; Trump Vows Mass Deportations Once He Takes Office; Iran Denies Role in Plot to Kill Trump Days Before Election; Special Counsel Asks to Pause Trump Election Interference Case; Candidates Emerge For Trump's Consequential A.G. Job; Biden Prepares To Hand Over Power To President-Elect Trump; Biden Prepares For Final Summits And International Trips; The World Reacts To Donald Trump's Election Win. Aired: 6-7p ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[18:00:51]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

It has been four days since Donald Trump's decisive victory to retake the White House and his transition is in full swing. The president- elect has named his White House chief-of-staff, Susie Wiles, who is also credited as the architect of his election victory.

For more on how the Trump White House is taking shape, CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now from West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago. Alayna, tell us more about the president-elect's search to quickly fill key roles. It seems like they are moving more quickly than they did in 2016.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: They are. They are moving very quickly and part of the reason is because one, of course his transition team had been working on many names, been preparing different candidates that they had begun vetting even before Election Day. I will note though, however, Donald Trump was not involved in that process then, he is very superstitious and did not want to get into selecting people before he had actually gone through the election and seen if he won.

But I will say this time around, and this is something interesting, Jessica, because I've heard this from essentially every person I know who is talking to Donald Trump in these meetings. They tell me that Donald Trump is far more confident and self-assured in himself this time around than he was back in 2016.

And that is because, partly they say, he has been through this before, unlike back then. he has now had government experience. when he first entered the White House after the 2016 election, he had never worked in DC, had any sort of political role.

This time though, he believes that he really wants to be the one making the decisions. The other part of that though they said is because he has won the popular vote. They argue that his team, that Donald Trump himself personally feels that he has a mandate to carry out, and that he should be able to feel more confident in some of the decisions he is making because the people, the majority of the people in this country had voted for him.

Now, I do want to walk you through some of the key positions that I know Donald Trump is prioritizing. When I've talked to them about this entire process, they said first on his list, his agenda list after winning the election was finding and filling his Cabinet, finding those people that he wanted to serve at the very top levels of government. The second wave of that they said would be top senior White House officials and then deputy secretaries.

So, I think we know some names are going to be announced, they said as early as today. It is already 6:00 PM on Saturday, so you know, unclear if any names are actually going to be announced tonight, but very soon. They are trying to go through this process very quickly.

I think the key roles to keep in mind here are the ones that Donald Trump himself believes are the most important. That's the attorney general, that is the CIA director, that is the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security, those are the roles that Donald Trump believes are going to be the most powerful and the important to him when he is sworn in come January.

Now, as for the Attorney General, the reason that is the number one priority for him is because one, he believes that he wants his attorney general to be loyal to him, someone he can trust, and someone that will carry out the legal goals that Donald Trump has. some of that could very well be prosecuting his political opponents, something he says that he believes he is justified in doing, but the other part of it is, he really believes that these Justice Department should no longer be independent, and that is breaking with traditional norms.

He believes that the Justice Department, which is already under the executive branch, should be another extension of the White House, and so that is going to be a very crucial role. Some of the top names that I know people around him and in front of him are throwing and trying to show to Donald Trump and put a list in front of him include the Missouri senator, Eric Schmitt, someone who is a top ally of Donald Trump's. He helped him prepare for the debates. He was at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

We also know the Missouri attorney -- there is a theme there -- the current Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, now, Marc Pauletta, he is someone who worked in the White House the first time that Trump was there. Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, a bunch of other names there floating around. John Ratcliffe is another one.

[18:05:07]

So, there are a lot of people under consideration and I would keep in mind just as we talked through these names that this is Donald Trump we are talking about. He is unpredictable. He can change his mind very quickly.

There are a lot of people right now clamoring for an audience with him, trying to get in his ear, so it is very unclear who he will ultimately pick, but these are the people I am told that consistently are being brought up inside those transition meetings at Mar-a-Lago on that island behind me -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting tonight. We appreciate it.

And some of President-elect Trump's allies and also private companies are already quietly working on plans for mass detention camps and deportation plans for undocumented immigrants. It is a promise, of course that he made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under my leadership we will use all necessary state, local, federal, and military resources to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now is the former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg.

John, thanks so much for being here with us.

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER DIRECTOR OF ICE: Yes. Glad to be here.

DEAN: Listen, we have heard -- we heard the clip there from the former president, his words, we have heard from his allies like Sen. Marco Rubio, who says that perhaps the beginning of this would look like a focused operation focused on undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or have a criminal record that they would look to deport.

What do you think this mass deportation operation could potentially look like?

SANDWEG: Well, it is really difficult to say because there has not been a lot of specifics offered during the campaign. We hear this talk about building mass detention camps, and certainly that will be essential to the president's plan, but the bottom line is, he is going to need a couple of things. One is a real surge in ICE agents, a surge in repatriation flights.

The number of deportations is really a resource game. The more resources you put into it, the more deportations you get. But you are talking a cost that's really excessive, billions and billions of dollars.

And to put that in perspective, in about 2019, the last, but one of the largest years of Trump's deportation numbers, ICE deported about 267,000 undocumented immigrants. The cost there was about $6 billion, so you can see that tens of billions it would take to do a million people in a year. DEAN: Yes, and I am curious what the resources -- I know you just outlined some numbers, but what the current detention space looks like, what the current ICE workforce looks like, and would there need to be, it would seem, a dramatic increase in those areas.

SANDWEG: Yes, so ICE currently has about 41,000 detention heads. The secret though is not a secret, but the reality is that the majority of those are not actually federal facilities. ICE relies heavily on contractors and also on state and local jails, so sheriff's offices. They pay for bed space.

So if you want to ramp up to be part of this mass deportation plan, even finding the places where you can house the migrants is going to be a challenge and that is why you are hearing about these private detention contractors starting to scout out locations and start the plans for constructing these massive facilities.

But look, all of this raises another issue, which is that even if the president was to get the money tomorrow to implement this mass deportation effort, it is still going to be an incredible challenge to just deploy the resources.

So, you need to hire the agents, train the agents. You need to find places and buy the real estate for the detention centers, construct the facilities. All of that takes a tremendous amount of time and the president only has a four-year window in which he has promised 11 million deportations.

DEAN: And so just knowing all of that, do you think 11 million deportation is possible with all of the kind of challenges you just laid out?

SANDWEG: No, look, I don't think it is possible. There are tremendous headwinds that he would face in doing this and I think the biggest one of course, would be due process.

The Supreme Court has long held that before most migrants who are in this country can be deported, they are entitled to a full and fair hearing before an immigration judge and during that hearing, to get offer defenses, including sometimes that they are a United States citizen.

Those court processes move slowly and more importantly, they are incredibly backlogged because of the situation at the border, so that is why you're hearing the president talk about this Alien Enemies Act. He is looking at ways to strip migrants of those due process rights.

But look, even if the figures that out, there is one other question and that is this, the undocumented population in this country are largely not criminals. There are 11 million people that have been here at least 15 years on average or at least 50 percent of them have been here 15 years, and 4.6 million of them are mixed status families, that is an undocumented mom or undocumented father with a US citizen child or a mother with a US citizen husband.

And so when you start talking about 11 million or even a million a year, what you're really talking about is the deporting that population and I guess, it remains to be seen how much of a public appetite there is for ICE to be ripping in there and ripping those families apart and making those families face these really difficult choices of whether they are going to say goodbye to their loved one or the entire family is going to leave the country.

[18:10:09]

DEAN: And then there is the question of how -- it cannot just be at the federal level, right? You are going to need buy-in. How would that work with local and state agencies it would seem?

SANDWEG: Yes. The primary issue there is going to be in the state and local jails. Now, one thing again, and one of the things that is a little bit frustrating to me when we hear this talk about we are going to focus on criminals is that ICE is already excruciatingly focused on criminals. They have a heightened focus on that population.

So there is not a person in this country who is booked into a state or local or federal jail or prison that ICE is not aware of and if they are removable, so if they are either someone who is on a visa and committed a crime that allows them to be deported or someone who is just undocumented, ICE is going take action against those individuals. They're very, very good at it.

So there is not like this sizable population when Senator Rubio says, well, we are going to focus on criminals first. They already are focused on criminals, but that is the one area where state and locals can frustrate ICE's efforts because they can block access to their jails.

But despite the fact that there is going to be a lot of concerns about how ICE or how this immigration system is going to operate, big cities like Los Angeles and Chicago and New York let's say who might try to implement barriers to ICE taking action in their communities really are powerless to do so. They cannot stop ICE from operating in their streets or in their cities, but they can restrict access to places like their jails, which ICE does rely on for their enforcement efforts.

DEAN: And how -- I hear you when you're saying if someone has committed a crime and they are being held in prison or in jail that ICE is aware of them, that there is a record of these people. How many would you say, or is it possible to know, criminals that are undocumented that are not in a jail? I guess, I am just asking because they make it sound like there are a lot of them out there and I wonder what you know about those numbers.

SANDWEG: Look, all data shows that, you know, crime rates in undocumented communities are lower than the general population. So migrants tend to commit crimes at a lower frequency than does the regular population.

That said, and don't get me wrong, there are some bad actors out there in our communities, right, there are transnational gang members, there are individuals who committed violent crimes who we deported who snuck back in the country unlawfully.

I would love to see ICE shift its focus to go after that population and take a surgical approach to finding them, the individuals who are at large wreaking havoc in the communities, apprehending them and getting them out of the country.

The problem though is this, when you talk about mass deportation and you start putting out these big numbers, you cannot accomplish that with a surgical approach to the criminal population. It takes a lot more time to arrest these at-large criminals.

These transnational gang members know how to hide. They are hiding and masking their identity. They are not sitting on public registrars or getting drivers' licenses or ways in which it is easy for us to find them.

So, what I mean is, it takes a lot more time for ICE agents to find them, and when they do find them, it takes a lot more resources to make one arrest. Very quickly though, you might get one arrest, but it is a very high quality. You might get a very bad guy off the street, but you spend a lot of ICE's resources to get him.

Unfortunately though, when you set these quotas and big goals of mass deportation, it is just a lot easier to get the low-hanging fruit of the system, which is those mixed status families or people maybe who are ordered deported 10 years ago, but ICE gave a stay for humanitarian reasons.

DEAN: Well, yes, thank you for that context and analysis. We appreciate it, John Sandweg. Thank you so much.

SANDWEG: Thank you.

DEAN: A Federal Emergency Management Agency worker has been fired after telling a disaster relief team to skip homes with signs supporting Donald Trump for president while the team was in Florida last month after Hurricane Milton.

A FEMA administrator called those actions reprehensible and a clear violation of FEMA's core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation. The agency says it believes it was an isolated incident, they're not naming the person.

The House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has invited the head of FEMA, Deanne Criswell to testify at a hearing on November 19th to discuss that incident.

Still to come, Iran is denying involvement in a plot to kill Donald Trump after the Justice Department announced federal charges against three people it says planned to kill the now president-elect before the election.

Plus, what happens now to the special counsel's prosecution of Trump for election interference As House Republicans put Jack Smith on notice.

And later, as President Biden gets set to meet Trump this week, what he is doing to secure his legacy before he hands over power.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: New tonight, Iran is denying involvement in a newly disclosed plot to kill Donald Trump. Iran's Foreign Ministry describes the allegations of the Justice Department as "completely baseless."

On Friday, the DOJ announced charges against three people and alleges one man was tasked by Tehran with assassinating Trump and he is still believed to be at large in Iran.

Joining us now, former CIA official, Bob Baer.

Bob, good to see you. Thanks so much for being here with us.

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Of course.

DEAN: The DOJ says the plan was for the suspect to kill Trump before the election or after when Tehran assumed he would be defeated. How much of a threat is there around the former president now president- elect?

[18:20:01]

BAER: I think the threat is significant. Let's look at the history. There is archeology here and going back to '79, the Iranian regime approved by the Supreme Leader has been assassinating people, terrorist attacks and I investigated the assassination of the prime minister in Lebanon and the evidence was clear it was Iranian backed. So I don't believe the Iranians.

Now the question is, what are their capabilities here in the United States? There are Hezbollah sleeper cells which answer to Iran, which a lot of people are afraid could be activated.

You know, whether they are capable of taking a major attack, I don't know, I wouldn't have that intelligence, but there are cells here, and if the Iranians got serious about it and ordered these cells to act, they would probably try to kill the president.

DEAN: In September, US intelligence agencies warned of these threats against Trump's life, that they say were made by Iran and he responded saying if Tehran was involved in the harming of a US presidential candidate or former president, that Iran's largest cities and the country itself should be "blown to smithereens."

What do you think the Iranians are now kind of -- what is their positioning now that he is the president-elect and he is headed back to power?

BAER: Well, I think the Iranians are worried about a joint Israeli attack, either on leadership or nuclear facilities. If we go into Iran and the Israelis go in, too, it needs a ground element to take out all of the nuclear facilities and that would mean US Special Forces, JSOC.

I have no idea whether that is in the works, but that is what it would take and I think the Iranians are not looking at Trump as an existential problem and that they could face a very big war and we could do a lot of damage to that country, but on the other hand, a major invasion, attacking it in any big way is crazy.

DEAN: Well, because it is interesting to kind of see the alignment of you know, look, the Iranians really threatening Donald Trump personally, and then also just the broader threat to America and then of course, the threat to Israel, our ally.

BAER: Well, they are a threat. I am not anti-Iranian in any stance, I understand the mentality of the regime and it is always a tit-for-tat.

If Iran gets rocketed, Iran will rocket Tel Aviv, and the same way if we get involved directly in a war, they will hit back any way they can, whether it is terrorism or attacking our forces in the Gulf or even more dangerous, our forces in Iraq.

DEAN: Yes, and to your point, I think that there are a lot of world leaders concerned as Israel continues to fight its war and now whatever potential changes may be coming down the pike from the American side.

This conflict could spill over to the point you're making, into a wider regional war.

BAER: It really worries me. You know, Iran is a major power. It has a lot of proxies and can do a lot of damage in the Gulf, including taking Gulf oil completely, which would affect the entire world. They have a lot of options to strike back.

At the end of the day, they are not going to win a war, but they could do a lot of damage.

DEAN: All right, and so what are you watching for now as we prepare for the Trump transition, what are some of the key things you're watching for in terms of how this plays out internationally?

BAER: The Secretary of Defense who he appoints, the CIA director, the National Security adviser -- are they going to be Iran hawks? And will we start seeing preparations for a larger strike on Iran? And of course, it is going to depend on what the Iranians do in Lebanon, but there is some -- there is a guerrilla war going on in Lebanon. It is at no end right now, and the Lebanese are not going to get rid of Hezbollah, so this is an open-ended conflict which could also spill over.

DEAN: All right, well, we will look to see what comes next. Bob Baer, thank you for that context. We really appreciate it.

Coming up, House Republicans are telling the Special Counsel Jack Smith to preserve his records. What this means for the man who led two federal prosecutions of Trump? You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:48] DEAN: Special Counsel Jack Smith is now publicly indicating he is getting ready to wind down the January 6 criminal case against Donald Trump. In new court filings, Smith says he is assessing how to move forward as the president-elect prepares to return to the White House.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE SENIOR REPORTER: It is the beginning of the end of the federal criminal case against Donald Trump related to the 2020 election. That is because the Special Counsel's Office that has been prosecuting that case in court in Washington, DC, they went to the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan on Friday at noon and said we want to wipe away all of the deadlines and stop the work that is being done on this case.

It had been headed toward a trial and there were lots of questions about whether Donald Trump could have some level of immunity for what he is accused of doing after the 2020 vote in his allegedly obstructing Congress trying to overturn the result of that election which he had lost.

But the Justice Department now saying they have got to figure out what their policy is going to be now that Trump is the president-elect and is going to be inaugurated in January of 2025. They say it is unprecedented circumstances. They want to move forward consistent with the Justice Department policy, and the Special Counsel's Office, Jack Smith, the prosecutor that has been pursuing Trump in court in these cases has indicted him twice, he is going to provide an update on exactly how this case will be put on hold or wound down with Trump coming back into the presidency over the executive branch, over the Justice Department, how exactly that is going to work, we get the update in the beginning of December.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[18:30:40]

DEAN: Katelyn, thank you.

We're going to discuss now with CNN Legal Analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney, Elie Honig.

Elie, good to see you.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Jess.

DEAN: Hi.

HONIG: Always happy to join you.

DEAN: Oh, thanks for being here. We just had Katelyn lay all of that out for us, but I want to get kind of your take on these different cases. Let's start with that federal - the federal case for Trump. The judge has agreed to pause these upcoming deadlines per the Special Counsel's request. What do you see happening now?

HONIG: Well, Jack Smith has accepted correctly that his cases will soon be over. I want to make this clear because I've heard a lot of people ask me and I've seen people asking on social media, why is Jack Smith giving in? Why doesn't he fight till the end and make Donald Trump fire him?

The answer is Jack Smith has no choice here. This is not a question of whether he's going to get fired or not. Surely he would get fired. Donald Trump has said he would.

But the bigger issue here for Jack Smith is DOJ has a policy that's been on the books since 1973 for over 50 years that says we cannot and will not prosecute, try or imprison this sitting president. If it sounds familiar, it's the same policy that sort of stifled Robert Mueller and kept Robert Mueller from saying whether he believed Donald Trump should be charged during his first term in office.

So that has been the policy of DOJ for over 50 years. Jack Smith understands he's bound by it. And so what he's trying to do now is wind out in an orderly fashion. The only thing really left for Jack Smith to do is issue a final special counsel report. Again, like we saw Robert Mueller do, I think Jack Smith will try to do that between now and January 20th.

DEAN: And then we have these other cases, of course, in Georgia - that's a state case - and also in New York. How do you see those playing out?

HONIG: Same ultimate result, Jessica, I think they will be put on hold or really ended when Donald Trump takes office. It's a little different calculation because now we're talking about a state prosecution. But the same logic that drives the federal policy applies even more to a state. We cannot have county level district attorneys as Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis are. It doesn't matter what county or what party.

Imagine if county level DAs could try and imprison the commander in chief, the head of the federal executive branch. It just does not work under our constitutional system. So it's only a question of when. But those cases are headed towards the exits as well.

DEAN: Yes. And all of this - okay, so that's happening. And we also know from Alayna Treene's reporting how seriously the president- elect/former president is taking his pick for attorney general, that he considers that to be maybe the most important decision that he's going to make. And, you know, in the last three hours here, we've been interviewing Trump allies who've tried to make the case or have made the case that all of these people in contention are serious people, that they are real lawyers, that this is - that there is not going to be some weaponization of the DOJ to go after his political adversaries. What are you watching for as Trump looks to select his attorney general? HONIG: Well, I agree, first of all, that this is the most important of the cabinet picks to me. Over our history, you expect it is normal for a president to choose an attorney general who shares his ideology, who shares his worldview. Barack Obama picked Eric Holder; Joe Biden picked Merrick Garland; Donald Trump the first time picked Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr.

To me, the litmus test is, is this person who gets chosen for attorney general an institutionalist? Is this someone who will put the values of the Justice Department first over whatever the personal or political needs of the president is or on the other hand, is this person a loyalist? Is this person going to put Donald Trump's personal political needs first and those of the department second?

That's the way we're going to tell whether we're headed down a sort of traditional road here or a much more problematic one.

DEAN: Mm-hmm. And then lastly, before I let you go, one kind of associated topic, but not exactly a little different, Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was in court this week and a judge is threatening to hold him in contempt if he does not turn over his assets to those two election workers he defamed back in 2016.

They've been accusing him of resisting, even hiding assets. How serious is this for Giuliani?

HONIG: Well, it's only going to end poorly for Rudy Giuliani. He's managed to kick the can down the road up till now, but he's running out of road.

[18:35:01]

I mean, let's remember, he's also under indictment. He - on state level charges in Georgia and he's also had his law license stripped.

Now this is a civil case. So he owes Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss about $148 million. Obviously he'll never be able to pay that, but now they're trying to seize his assets through the courts as they're entitled to do. And the judge here is clearly fed up and beyond with Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy's already been kicked out of bankruptcy court because he was playing games with his assets. So it's only a matter of time before those assets get seized and turned over to the rightful plaintiffs. Rudy keeps trying to fight, but he's out of rope here. He just can't fight this any longer. And eventually his property is going to get turned over to the plaintiffs who are rightly entitled to it.

DEAN: And Elie, is there anything a president Trump can do for him?

HONIG: Not at all. Donald Trump cannot issue a pardon in a state case. As I mentioned before, Rudy Giuliani is not facing federal charges. He's only facing state charges criminally at this point and the president has no ability to get involved in a civil case, in a lawsuit, in a bankruptcy and anything like this. So I think Rudy's on his own here. DEAN: Yes, this is the end of the road, it sounds like for him when it comes to this.

All right. Elie Honig, as always, thanks so much.

HONIG: Thank you, Jess.

DEAN: Still to come, Republicans want control of the Senate, but the House remains up for grabs. We're going to bring you the latest on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:00]

DEAN: Tonight, the race for the White House is over, but the battle to control Congress remains underway. We know Republicans have secured the Senate. The House, though, is still up for grabs. Democrats right now with 204 seats, Republicans with 213, remember, the magic number to reach a majority is 218. Republicans now just five seats away from totally unified government. But Democrats still have a chance with the majority of the races remaining in California.

In the Senate, Republicans will have at least a 52-seat majority, with vote counting still underway in two swing state races. In Arizona, Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake are neck and neck, with more than 80 percent of the votes counted there. And in battleground Pennsylvania, Republican Dave McCormick holding a slim lead, but Democratic incumbent Bob Casey has not yet conceded, with roughly 100,000 votes still being counted.

This week, President Biden is set to host President-elect Donald Trump for an Oval Office meeting at the White House. The Biden administration now working to shore up the President's legacy in these final 72 days. CNN White House Correspondent Arlette Saenz is joining us now.

And, Arlette, what are we expecting to see this week and also specifically with this meeting?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, President Biden is trying to restore this tradition by hosting President-elect Trump at the White House. They will be meeting on Wednesday morning in the Oval Office. And it comes after Biden had extended this invitation to Trump in a phone call they had this past week.

One thing that Biden said he stressed in that call when he congratulated Trump for his victory, he said that he's committed to an orderly and peaceful transfer of power. And that's what makes these meetings that are happening this week so interesting, because that is something that former president or then-president Trump, did not afford to Biden back in 2020 when he had won the race.

Trump really put up a lot of roadblocks in the transition process and also never conceded this race to Biden, never hosted him at the White House. So Biden is essentially trying to go back to a sense of normalcy and tradition as he's trying to show that he's committed to this transition process. Now, back in 2016, then-President Barack Obama had welcomed Trump to the Oval Office as well.

We also know that the White House had extended an invitation to Melania Trump to come visit as well. It's unclear if and when a meeting between First Lady Jill Biden and Melania Trump could happen. But this is all part of the Biden team's efforts to try to show that they are committed to the transition. That is what a lot of the focus will be in the months to come for the president.

I'll also note a little bit later this week, the day after Biden meets with Trump, Biden will actually be departing for a pair of summits in South America. First, he will be stopping at the APEC summit in Peru, followed by the G20 summit in Brazil. And what's interesting about this is that he'll be meeting face-to-face with many of the world leaders who are grappling with the looming Trump presidency as they're trying to figure out how they will be working with Trump.

So it'll be interesting to see how President Biden's conversations, perhaps, with Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday might inform any of those upcoming meetings with the world leaders as well.

DEAN: Yes, for sure. And as President Biden prepares to hand over power, I'm curious if there are any steps that the White House is taking to try to protect things that they've done to ensure that Trump doesn't reverse them.

SAENZ: Well, administration officials are well aware that Trump has already laid out ways that he would like to target Biden-era initiatives. And so they know that not everything that they've done will be Trump-proof, but they are trying to take some steps to strengthen and shore up some of those initiatives that are key to Biden's legacy. One area where they're really focused on is trying to get the remaining aid and military assistance directly into Ukraine's hands at a time when there's question about what future U.S. support for the country will look like.

They're also trying to implement some of those key pieces of legislation from the infrastructure bill to the chips manufacturing bill and also the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes a lot of climate initiatives.

[18:45:08]

Climate, of course, is an area where Trump and his team have said that they want to claw back or make some changes to the way that the Biden administration had handled it. We also could see additional environmental rules and regulations down the road. And then Biden is trying to put his final mark and stamp on the federal judiciary as they're hoping to maybe potentially confirm a slate of judges before he leaves office.

What's unclear, even though some Democrats really want to see that happen, it's unclear what kind of cooperation they will have from Republicans. So the Biden administration is really trying to shore up the areas that they can to try to make sure that Biden's key priorities can even endure beyond his presidency. But, of course, Trump has made it very clear that he wants to make a lot of changes with the way that Biden has handled things in the government.

DEAN: Yes. All right, Arlette Saenz in Washington for us, thank you so much for that.

Coming up, what world leaders are saying about a second Trump term and how they're preparing. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:41]

DEAN: Days after Americans chose Donald Trump as their next president, world leaders are now contemplating what a second Trump presidency will mean for them. CNN correspondents across the globe are taking us inside those reactions, and we're going to start with Melissa Bell in Amsterdam with how European leaders are preparing.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, the fallout of the American election has really been dominating headlines and conversations here on the European continent, not least amongst the continent's leaders. They've been meeting in Budapest to try and figure out how best to respond.

Many of the questions and the conversations are about whether Europe can be galvanized by a future Trump presidency or whether, indeed, it will continue to be further splintered on things like the economy, whether Trump tariffs will lead to European greater integration, better protection for itself, as it tries to weather the likely trade wars that could fall out or, on the contrary, whether the continent will be further split by individual trade deals that might be struck by individual countries.

On security, the question of whether or not Europe will be able to come together to achieve more strategic independence from the United States or, indeed, whether the next Trump presidency could encourage far-right parties here in Europe to sow more division than there was even before, Jessica.

DEAN: Melissa, thank you.

Our Stefano Pozzebon is in Bogota, Colombia. He has the view from Latin America.

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: Jessica, it's a mixed picture when it comes to how Latin America is preparing for a second Trump presidency. Far-right leaders such as El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, and Argentina's president, Javier Milei, were among the very first ones to congratulate him. And now CNN has learned that Milei intends to travel to Mar-a-Lago as early as next week for an investors' conference, but really hoping to meet personally with Trump, who has so far spoken on the phone with Bukele and with the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Countries where the left is in power, such as Colombia and Mexico, are preparing for a more delicate relationship with the White House, particularly concerning migration. Trump's pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants could wreak havoc for many countries in this region who rely on remittances from the United States to boost up their economies. And surprisingly, one person who extended an olive branch to Donald Trump is Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, who has said he wants to open a new relationship with Washington.

Trump was the president when the U.S. Department of Justice charged Maduro with drug trafficking, but at least from Caracas, there is the declared desire to turn the page. Jessica?

DEAN: Thank you so much.

Let's go to Taiwan now, where CNN's Will Ripley has more on the uncertainty this brings to leaders there.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, leaders here in Taiwan realize that there is a lot at stake with the incoming President Donald Trump, and so they're already trying to do what they can to cozy up to him as Taipei faces the growing threat, analysts say, of a Chinese attack.

The government here is appealing directly to Trump, Taiwan's top diplomat, quietly delivering a letter during a private lunch with Trump's former national security advisor, Robert O'Brien. Trump's return to the presidency could really shift U.S. defense policy on Taiwan, and the former president's past remarks suggest that Taiwan may need to pay for U.S. protection.

Now, as he's about to become president again, they're very keenly aware here in the Taiwanese capital that Trump's transactional approach does raise doubt about U.S. support in a crisis, so they're trying to get in his good graces. Jessica?

DEAN: Will, thank you.

One of the most crucial areas of U.S. foreign policy right now is, of course, the Middle East. Our Matthew Chance is in Jerusalem with a look at how Trump's win is resonating in that region.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOGBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, history's greatest comeback. That's how the Israeli prime minister described Donald Trump's win. His first presidency is remembered here for a series of policies favorable to Israel, like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

From a second Trump term, Israelis are expecting full-throated support for military action in Gaza, in Lebanon and, of course, in Iran. President-elect Trump says he wants peace in the Middle East, but across much of the region, there's trepidation at what his presidency will bring.

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In Iran, firmer U.S. support for Israel is likely to be a major concern. And meanwhile, amidst the rubble of Gaza, where more than a hundred hostages are still being held, some Palestinians have expressed hope that Trump will help bring the conflict to a close, while many others doubt the next U.S. president will do much to make their lives any better. Jessica, back to you.

DEAN: And breaking news, what president-elect Donald Trump is saying about the possibility of putting Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo in his cabinet. We're going to take you live to Mar-a-Lago. That's next.

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