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President-elect Donald Trump's Election Day victory has Republican strategists issuing chilling advice to their clients about how to win upcoming elections, according to a new report.

Conservative campaign experts told NOTUS Friday that Trump's over-performance, in comparison to almost every other Republican candidate, has them re-thinking how to reach out to voters.

“Trump embodies a middle finger to the cultural establishment,” Giancarlo Sopo, a Republican strategist, told NOTUS. “You can’t authentically replicate the Trump persona. ... But what you can do is take a look at parts of his policies that do appeal to people and embrace them.”

Multiple strategists told NOTUS they'll be telling candidates to be more like Trump.

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Brad Todd, who advised Dave McCormick's successful Pennsylvania senatorial campaign, praised Trump's attacks on transgender people — and urged other Republicans to do so boldly.

“When you see the number 80/20, you have to believe it,” Todd said. “And the Trump campaign was willing to go to the 80/20 issue that wasn’t in the normal matrix of issues, and that’s a lesson.”

Alex Stroman, a Republican strategist, reportedly called Trump a "super candidate."

The National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a pre-election memo praising Trump's popularity as the top reason its members felt confident they would retain a congressional majority, according to the report.

"Trump is poised to further re-create the party in his own image," NOTUS reported, "driven by his popularity with voters beyond even the Republican base."

Republicans now have set themselves the goal of appealing to the Trump voters who did not choose to show support for other members of his party, strategists told NOTUS.

"Winning over voters who turned out for Trump but ignored other GOP candidates, should be a goal for the party in future elections, said GOP strategists," the report stated. "They could help the party win a multitude of swing states and battleground districts."

President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has chosen billionaire North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry and vocal proponent of oil drilling, to serve as head of the Interior Department in the incoming administration, a critical post tasked with overseeing hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and water.

Burgum, a friend of oil billionaire Harold Hamm, served as a kind of middleman between Trump's presidential campaign and the fossil fuel industry during the 2024 race. The Washington Post reported that Burgum's selection as interior secretary will "give Hamm expansive influence over policy related to drilling on public lands, at a time his company stands to benefit from the rule changes Trump envisions."

Burgum and Hamm have already worked to shape Trump's energy policy during the presidential transition, with Reutersreporting Thursday that the pair is leading the push for a repeal of electric vehicle tax credits—a key component of the Biden administration's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.

During a fundraiser over the summer, Burgum said Trump could "on day one" move to unleash "liquid fuels," accusing the Biden administration of waging war on "American energy."

"Whether it's baseload electricity, whether it's oil, whether it's gas, whether it's ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels," Burgum declared.

"We're ready to fight Burgum and Trump's extreme agenda every step of the way."

Trump campaigned on a pledge to "drill, baby, drill" in the face of a fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is wreaking deadly havoc in the United States and around the world. While the Biden administration has presided over record oil and gas production and approved many new drilling permits to the dismay of climate advocates, Trump has made clear that he intends to take a sledgehammer to any guardrails constraining the fossil fuel industry.

In Burgum, Trump will have an enthusiastic champion of oil and gas drilling in a Cabinet that is shaping up to be a boon for the fossil fuel industry. Burgum helped organize the dinner at which Trump urged the oil and gas industry to raise $1 billion for his campaign in exchange for tax breaks and large-scale deregulation.

"We're going do things with energy and with land—Interior—that is going to be incredible," Trump said late Thursday.

Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that "Burgum is an oligarch completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans who cherish our natural heritage and don't want our parks, wildlife refuges, and other special places carved up and destroyed."

"We're ready to fight Burgum and Trump's extreme agenda every step of the way," Suckling added.

In his current capacity as North Dakota governor, Burgum is pushing a 2,000-mile carbon pipeline project set to be built by Summit Carbon Solutions with the stated goal of capturing planet-warming CO2 and storing it underground. Climate advocates have long derided carbon capture and storage—a method boosted by the fossil fuel industry—as a dangerous scam that can actually result in more emissions.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that "the blowback in North Dakota to the Summit project has been intense with Burgum caught in the crossfire."

"There are fears a pipeline rupture would unleash a lethal cloud of CO2," the outlet noted. "Landowners worry their property values will plummet if the pipeline passes under their land."

The North Dakota Public Service Commission is planning to meet Friday to vote on the project.

During an appearance on MSNBC on Friday morning, former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) pointed out that Rep. Matt Gaetz's extreme unpopularity within his own party combined with a reported bombshell finding by the House Ethics Committee has likely killed his chances of being Donald Trump's attorney general.

Speaking with host Ana Cabrera, Dent — who previously served as chair of the House Ethics Committee — claimed that, based on what he has heard from Republican Party senators who hold Gaetz's fate in their hands, he has little chance of being approved.

The former GOP lawmaker told the MSNBC host he also thinks the charges against Gaetz are serious enough that a criminal referral could be made to the same DOJ Trump wants Gaetz to helm.

ALSO READ: A second reign of terror: Inside Trump’s blueprint for home raids

"It appears to me this investigation was completed prior to Gaetz's resignation and so, at this point, I do think that Republicans — look, to say that Matt Gaetz is disliked by his House Republican colleagues would be a wild understatement. There is no love for this man among Republicans — and so the fact that Senators [John] Cornyn (R-TX) and [Dick] Durbin (D-IL) who, as part of the official record would like to see this report, I think is pretty compelling."

"By the way, this report is probably very damning It may recommend sanctions of some sort, may recommend censure or expulsion although that is moot at this point," he continued, referring to Gaetz's resignation from Congress after his nomination as AG.

"So this is going to be damning and there might be a referral to the Justice Department for all we know."

Asked what the future holds for Gaetz's AG nomination, he offered, "I happen to think this nomination will be withdrawn at some point, it's clear. In your leadup to this segment, you were playing Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND). If Gaetz doesn't have Kevin Cramer, I can assure you, he doesn't have a lot of other members. So many of them dislike Matt Gaetz. We can't forget that."

"I can see many members voting against him," he added. "I think this thing is dead in the water. I'm just shocked, this is a gobsmackingly bad nomination. In Trump world, we're used to all kinds of shocks and surprises, but this is really beyond the pale."

Watch below or at the link

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The selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services became a flashpoint between two Republican guests on CNN Thursday night, provoking one to reveal his true feelings about the pick still sending shockwaves through Capitol Hill.

The moment came on CNN’s “NewsNight” after Georgia's former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a longtime Republican, ran through his rationale on why he believes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has no business becoming the country’s next HHS secretary.

“There's really no good reason why Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr., should be the HHS secretary,” Duncan said. “An advisor, a confidant, somebody who talks to the president and advises, but there's no managerial experience in his resume. There’s nothing that says he is qualified to do this job, this job that is in charge of the health of all of us.”

Duncan added that the Trump loyalist and staunch anti-vaxxer's views around food sources and vaccines “should be given in advisory roles.”

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That’s when longtime Republican Party consultant Scott Jennings jumped in and defiantly asked: “Why?”

“What were the qualifications of the previous ones? What were the management qualifications?” Jennings, a CNN regular, asked Duncan. Jennings then listed previous HHS secretaries and their prior positions.

“RFK Jr. is a nut!” Duncan replied.

While it roused some laughter on the CNN set, Duncan’s blunt assessment didn’t sit well with Jennings.

“Ok, so that's different than what you just said, you just said he doesn't possess the requisite managerial experience, but then we get to the real issue here, which is you want to insult the man, which is your right to do because you opposed him in the election,” Jennings said.

Jennings concluded the exchange by saying that he doesn't know if RFK Jr. can pass a Senate confirmation but the "vaccine stuff" will be "the flashpoint" of the confirmation hearing.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

A vocal proponent of President-elect Donald Trump sparred with a former CNN anchor on Thursday night as he vehemently pushed back on her assertion that America is poorer and less safe than it was under the Trump administration.

Madison Gesiotto, a frequent guest on CNN's "NewsNight" and former national spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, was asked by host Abby Philip if the MAGA leader is taking a page from adviser Steve Bannon's playbook — and "flooding the zone" with proactive Cabinet picks.

Gesiotto echoed similar statements from other Republicans in the days since the election that America voted to put Trump in charge. But as she insisted that America "is not richer" than it was in 2019 and isn't safer, fellow panelist John Avlon butted in.

"We are," he pushed back. "We are."

"No," she insisted. "No, we're not.

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"Let's have a fact-based debate," Avlon forcefully responded, raising his voice. "We're literally — crime is lower than it was when Trump was in office."

But Gesiotto doubled down and demanded he look at the statistics where authorities have stripped numbers out.

"Like manipulating the statistics," she said, as he visibly scoffed at her statement. "We've talked about it many times."

She insisted that places such as New York City are less safe than they were in 2019 — and said if he believes otherwise, "You're out of your mind."

Avlon replied that while he's in favor of quality-of-life policing and can "talk about broken windows theory all night long" — he reiterated that they need to have a "fact-based debate" on her assertions.

"And you just admitted that you're not," he shot back.

As Gesiotto repeated that people are poorer and less safe, Avlon again replied, "No."

The FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics are the two main sources of government crime statistics. Crime rates have fallen sharply over the last three decades, though that decline hasn’t always been steady, according to Pew Research Center.

"There have been notable increases in certain kinds of crime in some years, including recently," the organization wrote in April.

"In 2020, for example, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record – and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary data for 2023, however, suggests that the murder rate fell substantially last year," the report added.

Watch the tense exchange below or at this link.

Within hours of being tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be the country’s next attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) began working with his colleagues on Capitol Hill to revamp his image and secure the position, according to a new report.

And that could be a tough hill for Gaetz to climb. The MAGA loyalist, seen as the orchestrator of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) ouster, has “earned a reputation in Congress as an acid-tongued, anti-establishment knife fighter who didn’t come to Washington to make friends,” according to the Bulwark.

“But now Gaetz wants to become the next attorney general of the United States. And he is doing something he rarely has since breaking out on the national scene: trying to make nice with fellow lawmakers, mainly the U.S. senators — the ultimate bastion of the political establishment—who are tasked with confirming him to the post,” the report said.

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Chief among his goals: convincing lawmakers “that he has the temperament” to lead the Justice Department and persuade them to not believe sexual misconduct allegations against him involving a minor, which Gaetz has denied for years.

“In private conversations with senators, Gaetz has been reiterating his denials and, sources say, he’s getting an assist from Vice President-elect JD Vance. The Ohio senator, who remains a member of the chamber until the new Congress is sworn in, has been lobbying skeptical senators," according to the report.

But some senators didn’t seem too sure just yet. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told the publication he wants to see “everything” involving the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into Gaetz.

“We have a constitutional role to play of providing advice and consent,” Cornyn told the Bulwark. “That’s our role. The president’s role is to make the nomination. But we need to have a complete vetting of the nominees. Not only so we know that the nominee is qualified, but also to protect the president. I’m sure it’s not in his best interest to have any surprises.”