US election: Donald Trump 'border czar' returns as Elon Musk weighs in on Senate majority leader appointments

Businessman Elon Musk, a Donald Trump ally, has endorsed Republican Senator Rick Scott for US Senate majority leader as Trump announced he is bringing back his former director of immigration enforcement.

Trump says Tom Homan, his former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration.

“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” he wrote on his Truth Social site.

Homan was widely expected to rejoin Trump’s second administration in a border-related role.

Trump said he had “no doubt” Homan “will do a fantastic, and long-awaited-for, job.”

In an interview with Fox News, Mr Homan sent a blunt message to Democratic lawmakers, warning those who might stand in the way of the President-elect’s promise to enforce mass deportations to “get the hell out of our way”.

Some Democrats in “sanctuary cities” have promised to fight Mr Trump’s proposed deportation push even as the Republican threatens to take action against them.

Mr Homan had one thing for the governors who “say they’re going to stand in the way and make it hard for us”.

“We’re going to do the job.”

Elon Musk weighs in on Senate leader picks

Meanwhile, Republican candidates are vying for the role of Senate majority leader after winning control of the chamber.

Republicans are expected to hold at least 52 seats in the 100-member Senate after capturing three previously held by Democrats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana in the November 5 election.

Current Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has led his party in the chamber since 2007, is not seeking election to the post.

“Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!” Musk, a tech billionaire who has emerged as a major backer of Trump in recent months, wrote in a social media post on Sunday.

Trump has not yet endorsed anyone in the race for majority leader.

Musk is the world’s wealthiest person. Scott, who represents Florida in the Senate, is a former healthcare executive and the wealthiest sitting senator.

In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Scott said the Senate needs to implement real change.

“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing,” Scott said. “That’s what Donald Trump got elected to do, to be the change.”

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said anyone seeking to be Senate majority leader must agree not to stand in the way of temporary presidential appointments being made when the Senate is not in session.

During Senate sessions, senators exercising their constitutional power hold hearings and confirmation votes for presidential appointees such as cabinet and heads of massive government agencies including the Defence Department and Department of Health and Human Services.

Scott responded on social media platform X that he agreed with Trump’s demand, which would enable the incoming president to quickly fill posts, even if only temporarily.

Two other Republican senators vying to lead the body — John Thune and John Cornyn - later posted their support for Trump’s push to quickly fill appointments.

Trump campaigned on promises, among other things, to deport immigrants who are in the United States illegally, cut taxes, impose tariffs on international trading partners and loosen fiscal policy.

Senate Republican leadership elections are scheduled for Wednesday local time, shortly after the chamber returns to work following a recess for the election.

The outcome of two Senate races — in Pennsylvania and Arizona — has not yet been called by Edison Research.

Control of the US House of Representatives has not yet been decided. Republicans already have won 214 seats, according to Edison, just shy of the 218 needed to retain their current majority.

If Republicans lead both chambers, it would mean that most of Trump’s agenda would have a much greater likelihood of winning congressional approval than if Democrats controlled one of them.

Partial results show Republicans have a narrow lead in nine of the remaining uncalled House races and Democrats in seven, according to a New York Times analysis, although many thousands of votes remain to be counted.

With AP