After years of underfunding, the nation’s aging infrastructure is about to get a massive investment in new and rebuilt highways, bridges, airports and other public projects, according to the president-elect.
Funding may be the easy part. With the U.S. job market approaching full employment, finding enough skilled workers to take on new projects could be much harder.
Construction companies are already scrambling to fill open positions. Some 221,000 construction jobs were open in September, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is more than four times the number at the start of 2012.
Some two thirds of construction contractors report having a hard time finding skilled workers, according to a survey earlier this year by the Associated General Contractors, a trade group. The shortages were most pronounced in the South and Midwest, where three-quarters reported having a hard time filling skilled job openings.
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State and federal agencies are in the process of replacing the Governor Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge (usually referred to as the Tappan Zee Bridge) over New York’s Hudson River.
The Trump Organization will be placed into a blind trust to prevent a conflict of interest when Donald Trump becomes president, Trump’s attorney said. But legal experts say the plan is functionally, and perhaps legally, impractical.
In an interview Thursday with CNN, Trump attorney Michael Cohen said the president-elect is no longer interested in running his privately held multibillion-dollar Trump Organization or trying to leverage his presidency to grow his fortune or holdings.
Instead, his ownership of the company will be placed in a blind trust, and that his three oldest children will run it.
“We’re going to do it, legally,” Cohen said. “It’s going to be placed into a blind trust. The children — Don, Ivanka, Eric, they’re really intelligent. They’re really qualified. … He’s very comfortable with them at the helm and the people who will surround them.”
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Cheriss May | NurPhoto | Getty Images
In the grand lobby of Trump international Hotel, (l-r), Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, U.S. Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Ivanka Trump, cut the ribbon for their latest property, Trump International Hotel – Old Post Office, in Washington, DC on October 26, 2016.
Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has removed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as leader of his transition team, handing the reins over to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, a former U.S. lawmaker with deep Washington ties, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The Times, citing several sources close to the transition team, said Trump told advisers he wanted to use Pence’s contacts to move the transition process along. NBC News also reported the handover, which came one week after two former Christie associates were found guilty in the New Jersey “Bridgegate” scandal.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Vigils and protests against Donald Trump spread from coast to coast early Thursday as crowds burned effigies of the president-elect, blocked highways and warned of wider backlash — underscoring the difficult task Trump faces in uniting a fractured country.
Despite Hillary Clinton and President Obama urging their backers to accept Trump’s victory and support his transition into power, thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets decrying his crude comments about women and attacks on immigrants.
Protests were reported in cities across the nation, from major metropolitan centers like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, to smaller cities, such as Richmond and Portland, Ore. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.
Even cities in red states, such as Atlanta, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., saw demonstrations.
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Demonstrators around the country hit the streets on Nov. 9 to protest the election of President-elect Donald Trump. Protests were reported in major cities including New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. (Victoria Walker, Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
President Barack Obama met with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss transitioning power to the Republican, who spent years attempting to delegitimize Obama’s presidency.
The two men met in the Oval Office, and reporters were ushered into the room afterward to hear brief statements from the duo.
Obama said he was “encouraged” by the meeting with Trump and the president-elect’s interest in working with his team.
“I believe that it is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences, to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges that we face,” he said.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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There are still more votes to be counted, but it looks almost certain that despite losing the presidency, Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote.
And likely by a million or more votes — a much larger margin than Al Gore enjoyed in 2000, when he too was denied by the Electoral College even though he had more votes.
Put more starkly: It appears Americans chose Clinton, but got Trump.
Trump’s popular vote loss likely won’t constrain his effective power as president, especially with unified GOP control of Congress — just as it didn’t seem to hem in George W. Bush.
At nearly 3:00 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday morning, Republican president-elect Donald Trump took the stage to give his victory speech after pulling off one of the most stunning presidential upsets in modern U.S. history.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, a highly divisive first-time candidate who waged a scorched-earth battle for the presidency, shocked the world by narrowly beating his far more experienced Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The victory, sealed with a concession phone call from Clinton early Wednesday, amounts to one of the most stunning upsets in political history.
“I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton,” he told supporters at New York’s Hilton hotel. “She congratulated us, it’s about us, on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard fought campaign.”
“Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude,” he continued. “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division … It’s time for us to come together as one united people.”
Trump’s margin of his victory in rural and suburban counties overwhelmed Clinton’s advantages among more educated, diverse and urban supporters, carrying him to a narrow win. But after relying on intense support from largely white, non-college educated voters to carry him to the White House, President-Elect Trump will now face the difficult task of leading a deeply divided and increasingly diverse United States.
In a forceful rebuke of the American political establishment, Donald J. Trump on Tuesday was elected the 45th president of the United States, NBC News projects. His improbable win followed one of the most wildly unpredictable and bitter campaigns in the nation’s history.
Trump, the billionaire real estate developer and reality TV star, defeated former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton in a stunning upset, running the table in battleground states across the country — from Florida and North Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania.
He declared victory Tuesday night before a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters, pledging to help unite the country after his rancorous battle with Clinton.
“I say it is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump said at the Midtown Hilton in New York City. He said he congratulated Clinton on a “very, very hard-fought campaign.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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James' World 2 