President-elect Donald Trump visits Congress in Washington, and lawmakers react to Trump's proposal at expanding U.S. borders.

Trump meets with Republicans on Capitol Hill as GOP struggles to agree on legislative strategy

President-elect Donald Trump arrived on Capitol Hill late Wednesday to meet privately with Republican senators as House and Senate GOP leaders are straining to come up with a strategy for tackling his legislative priorities as the party takes power in Washington.

Trump said it “feels great” to be back inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time since he left office four years ago, after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters. With his wife, Melania, he is also paying tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter lying in state in the Rotunda with a stream of visitors ahead of funeral services Thursday.

With Trump taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, Republicans have no time to waste.

“We're looking at the one bill versus two bills, and whatever it is, it doesn't matter," Trump said about the conflicting strategies, as he made his way through the halls. "We’re going to get the result.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who greeted Trump at the Capitol, has said he sees himself operating as the GOP quarterback with Trump as their coach calling plays. But Republicans are quickly finding themselves in a dilemma: What happens when the coach changes his mind?

Trump has given Republicans on Capitol Hill mixed signals, flip-flopping over what is the best approach, one “big beautiful bill” or two. At stake are tax cuts, border security, money to deport immigrants and efforts to boost oil and gas energy production — priorities for Republicans coming to the White House, House and Senate.

Leaders react to Trump's call for Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal to become part of U.S.

Reactions have been strong to President-elect Donald Trump’s statements that Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal should all be part of the United States.

Hours after a sprawling news conference on Tuesday where Trump said he would not rule out the use of military force to claim Greenland from Denmark and the Panama Canal from Panama, and that U.S. economic support for Canada was only justified if it was a state, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on X, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”

Responding to Trump’s claim that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian cars, lumber or dairy and should abandon its partnership with the country to build ice-breaking ships, Trudeau wrote Tuesday, “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated a stance from his first term in office — that Greenland is critical for U.S. national security and that Denmark should sell the territory to the United States or expect to be tariffed “at a very high level.”

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 in response to the Trump news conference, where the president-elect said his son Donald Trump Jr., was in the country to help further his plan. “There is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either.” 

Meanwhile Tuesday, Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez said at a news conference: “The sovereignty of our canal is nonnegotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest. Let it be clear: The canal belongs to the Panamanians, and it will continue to be that way.”

Trump asks Supreme Court to block sentencing in his hush money case in New York

President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday's sentencing in his hush money case in New York.

Trump's lawyers turned to the nation's highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

The justices asked for a response from prosecutors by Thursday morning.

Trump's team sought an immediate stay of the scheduled sentencing, saying it would wrongly restrict him as he prepares to take office. While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump's lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects.

The sentencing should be delayed as he appeals the conviction to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government," they argued.

The emergency motion is from lawyers John Sauer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general, who represents the government before the high court, and Todd Blanche, in line to be the second-ranking official at the Justice Department.

They also pointed to the Supreme Court ruling giving Trump and other presidents broad immunity from prosecutions over their actions in office, saying it supports their argument that his New York conviction should be overturned.