WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning continued to rail against General Motors' announced closures and layoffs, using them to again threaten tariffs on imported autos and auto parts.

In tweets Wednesday, Trump mentioned the so-called chicken tax – a 25 percent tariff placed on imported light-duty trucks in the U.S. initially created in response to other countries' taxes on imported chicken from the U.S. – as "The reason that the small truck business in the U.S. is such a go-to favorite."

"If we did that with cars coming in, many more cars would be built here," Trump tweeted.

Trump has been threatening for much of his presidency to tax imported autos and auto parts, saying it would save and create manufacturing jobs in the U.S. His administration is in the midst of a review of whether such a move could be made under national security grounds.

But many carmakers are dead-set against such a move, saying it would increase the costs of production and set in motion a trade war that could hurt their businesses. In September, other Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee criticized the proposal as well, citing estimates they could result in a $73-billion tax increase on consumers and put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.

More: Trump's plan to tax auto imports blasted by Senate Republicans

More: Trump threatens punishment for GM after plant closures, layoff news

More: Democrats say GM gets tax cuts while workers get shafted

Trump argued again Wednesday, however, that tariffs may be the incentive needed for GM to keep U.S. plants open in the wake of an announcement Monday that it would shed some 14,000 jobs nationwide and close assembly plants in Michigan, Maryland and Ohio.

If tariffs were put in place, he said, "G.M. would not be closing (those) plants. Get smart Congress. Also, the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the U.S. for decades."

He ended with a threat, noting that regardless of congressional action, "The President has great power on this issue — Because of the G.M. event, it is being studied now!"

As president, Trump could order tariffs to be increased under his present authority. But that authority — which was granted by Congress — could be challenged by votes in the U.S. House and Senate. Meanwhile, there have already been reports that Trump could look to add tariffs on autos as early as next week, following this weekend's G20 talks in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Trump has sharply criticized GM following Monday's announcement, first saying he was "not happy" and had spoken directly to CEO Mary Barra about it and then, on Tuesday, threatening to cut subsidies for the company — which appeared especially aimed at one it and other automakers rely on to sell electric vehicles.

It was far from clear that Trump could do much to stop that benefit as well without having Congress change the law, and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, said such a move would be "the exact opposite of what we should be doing right now. This is a time when we should be supporting the new jobs being created for our talented auto workers, not doubling down on policies that will hurt them.”

Tuesday afternoon, GM put out a statement saying, "We appreciate the actions this administration has taken on behalf of industry to improve the overall competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing" and said it remains "committed to maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the U.S."

It did not directly address the president's remarks, however. Barra said Monday the moves were being made to reposition the company at a time of downturn in auto sales overall.

Meanwhile, it's also worth noting that when it comes to popular smaller trucks, not all are made solely in the U.S. now. While Ford's F-150 is the most popular vehicle and GM actually has larger market share for trucks than anyone, the most popular midsize truck is the Toyota Tacoma, which is assembled in Texas and Mexico.

Competition is heating up in the segment and production will increase. GM and Ford build their midsize trucks in the United States, and Fiat Chrysler plans a Jeep truck to be built in Toledo.</s>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Latest on President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit (all times local):

President Donald Trump is meeting Argentine President Mauricio Macri as he kicks off two days of diplomacy at the G-20 meeting.

The leaders greeted each other warmly Friday as the annual meeting of leaders from rich and developing nations opened in Buenos Aires. Trump spoke about his longtime personal friendship with Macri and said they would discuss trade, military purchases and other issues.

Macri is hosting his counterparts as he struggles with a raft of domestic issues, including trying to halt economic turmoil that has caused the steep depreciation of the Argentine peso.

Trump and Macri enjoy a personal relationship dating back to their days as businessman.

Macri visited the White House soon after Trump took office in 2017.

President Donald Trump is blasting the investigation in which his former lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal he pursued for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Michael Cohen says he lied to be consistent with Trump's "political messaging." Trump says Cohen is lying now.

In a tweet Friday from Argentina, Trump recalled "happily living" his life as a developer before running for president after seeing the "Country going in the wrong direction."

Trump says "Against all odds" he decided to run for president and continue to run his business, which he calls "very legal & very cool." He says he "talked about it on the campaign trail."

Trump tweets he "Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn't do the project. Witch Hunt!"

President Trump kicks off two days of diplomacy at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on Friday after his abrupt decision to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin overshadowed the proceedings before they even started.

Trump barreled into the two-day meeting by announcing via Twitter that he was canceling on Putin over Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels. His agenda Friday is expected to include meetings with world leaders, the signing of a revamped trade deal with Canada and Mexico, as well as a number of group activities for the gathering of rich and developing nations.

Coming into this G-20, Trump faces a series of diplomatic challenges — most notably whether he can strike an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) to ease trade tensions.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump frequently credits himself with accomplishing more for the military and veterans than any other president in recent memory. But he has yet to embark on what has long been a traditional presidential pilgrimage important to the military: a visit to troops deployed in a war zone.

As he departed Tuesday for Florida to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at his private club in Palm Beach, Trump said he'd soon correct the oversight.

"I'm going to a war zone," he said in response to a reporter's question about his support for the troops.

He did not say when he would be making the trip or where he planned to go. An official said a White House team recently returned from beginning to plan for such a visit.

The omission is one of a long list of norm-breaking moves that underscore the Republican president's increasingly fraught relationship with the military, which has celebrated Trump's investments in defense spending but cringed at what some see as efforts to politicize their service.

ALSO READ | US President Donald Trump​ is inspiring hate: Katherine Waterston

Just this week, Trump leveled criticism against the storied commander of the 2011 mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, retired Adm. William McRaven. "Wouldn't it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn't it have been nice?" Trump said.

The latest controversy followed a pattern of concerns raised by former senior military officers about Trump's grasp of the military's role, and it comes as White House aides and defense officials have raised alarm about what they view as the president's disinterest in briefings about troop deployments overseas.

Shortly after taking office, Trump appeared to try to deflect responsibility for the death of a service member, William "Ryan" Owens, in a failed operation in Yemen, saying planning for the mission began under his predecessor and was backed by senior military commanders.

"They explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected," he told "Fox & Friends" at the time. "And they lost Ryan."

Trump won the White House on a platform of ending U.S. military commitments abroad, but he's been bedeviled by many of the same challenges as his predecessors. More American troops are now deployed in conflict zones than when he took office.

Aides have suggested that Trump is wary of traveling to conflict zones where he doesn't fully support the mission. Trump begrudgingly backed a surge of troops in Afghanistan last year and boosted U.S. deployments in Iraq, Syria and Africa to counter the Islamic State and other extremist groups.

Trump said last week in a "Fox News Sunday" interview that he was "very much opposed to the war in Iraq. I think it was a tremendous mistake, should have never happened." Trump, in fact, offered lukewarm support for the invasion at the time but began offering public doubts about the mission after the conflict began in March 2003.

At home, some assert that Trump's decision to send thousands of active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border shortly before the Nov. 6 midterm elections was a political stunt. And Defense Department officials said they rejected requests by the Department of Homeland Security — and backed by the White House — for armed active-duty troops to bolster Border Patrol agents, saying it ran afoul of federal law.

Trump also drew criticism for his decision not to visit Arlington National Cemetery to mark Veterans Day, following his trip to Europe. He said later he "should have" visited the cemetery but was too busy with official business. His public schedule that day listed no events.

In the "Fox News Sunday" interview, Trump was asked why he hadn't visited the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in the two years he's served as commander in chief.

"Well, I think you will see that happen," he said. "There are things that are being planned."

He also touted his support for the men and women in uniform.

"I don't think anybody's been more with the military than I have, as a president," Trump said. "In terms of funding, in terms of all of the things I've been able to get them, including the vets, I don't think anybody's done more than me."

Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, four for education and one for a diagnosis of bone spurs — though he later told The New York Times he could not remember which foot was affected by the malady or how long it lasted.

Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he doesn't think visiting troops in a war zone is "overly necessary."

"I've been very busy with everything that's taking place here," he added.</s>The US Senate on Wednesday blocked an expedited vote on legislation intended to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s leading the Russia investigation, from being fired. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, along with two Democratic senators, tried to get a unanimous consent in the upper chamber of Congress to schedule the legislation for a vote, citing escalated attacks from President Donald Trump against the wide-ranging inquiry.

“With the President tweeting on a regular basis, a daily basis, that the special counsel is conflicted, that he is leading so-called 12 angry Democrats and demeaning and ridiculing him in every way, to be so sanguine about the chances of him being fired is folly for us,” Flake said. Republican Senator Mike Lee objected to the request, saying the bill, known as the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, was unconstitutional.

Read also| At G20, Donald Trump to advance a global economic system based on fair economic competition, says White House

If such as bill were passed it would “fundamentally undermine the principle of separation of powers” and create a “de facto fourth branch of government”, Lee said. This was the second time the attempt to get a vote on the legislation failed.

The bill has already been approved at the committee level with bipartisan support, but has been kept off the floor by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, who has said there is no need to vote on it. He called it a “solution in search of a problem” on Tuesday. Under the Senate rules, senators can go to the floor to request a vote or passage of any bill or nomination. But any one senator can block their requests.

Flake pledged that they would come back to the Senate floor to try to set up the bill for a vote again. Trump continued his attacks against Mueller and his team on Wednesday by describing them as “angry Mueller gang of Dems” on Twitter, as new developments have put the probe under national spotlight.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been accused of repeatedly lying to investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges related to his work as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine — prior to his time with the Trump campaign.

Prosecutors alleged Manafort had violated a plea agreement that he signed in September with Mueller, according to a court filing released on Monday. The allegation has fueled speculation Manafort might be angling for a pardon. Trump has not ruled out the possibility of pardoning Manafort.

After the midterm election earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to step down and Trump named Matthew Whitaker, who once criticised the Mueller probe, as acting attorney general. Whitaker is now overseeing it in pace of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, another long-time target of Trump’s criticism.

The bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee would protect Mueller, or any other special counsel, in the event he is fired, by codifying Justice Department regulations that say only a senior department official could fire Mueller or another special counsel.

It would also give a special counsel an “expedited review” of their firing. If a court determines that it wasn’t for “good cause”, the special counsel would be reinstated. Mueller, who was appointed in May 2017, is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and the Russians while slamming the Russia probe as a “hoax” or “witch hunt” but has denied trying maneuvering to shut down the investigation.</s>Joy Behar celebrated her 20th anniversary as co-host of “The View” on Thursday, and she suggested that if that weren’t reason enough for President Donald Trump to resign (as a gift to her), his former lawyer Michael Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Cohen lied about the timing of the negotiations, originally saying all discussion of the project ended in January 2016, but in reality he admitted the talks continued “as late as approximately June 2016.”

MICHAEL COHEN PLEADS GUILTY TO LYING: The co-hosts react to the president's former personal attorney pleading guilty to lying to Congress in a new deal with special counsel Robert Mueller in Trump-Russia probe. https://t.co/NZE0ittEtL pic.twitter.com/n52aY0KkxZ — The View (@TheView) November 29, 2018

Sunny Hostin, another “View” co-host and a lawyer, was critical of Trump. “If these negotiations were going on while he was president,” she noted, “it’s precisely what the framers of our Constitution wrote in to protect the American people against.”

But Behar, a vehement critic of Trump, took an even more aggressive stance on the revelation.

“Today is a good day for Donald Trump to resign,” she said. “Twenty years for me, that would be my gift. Donald, do it for me.”

In response to Cohen’s guilty plea, Trump called his former attorney “weak” and said he’d only hired Cohen because the lawyer had once done him a favor. He did not specify what that favor was.</s>Michael Cohen walks out of federal court on Thursday in New York. Cohen admitted he lied to Congress about Donald Trump's real estate negotiations in Moscow.

 Image credit: Julie Jacobson

Updated at 11:49 a.m. ET

Donald Trump and his aides continued negotiations about a potential Trump Tower project in Moscow well into the 2016 presidential campaign, his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen acknowledged in a guilty plea in a New York federal court on Thursday.

Cohen admitted that he lied to Congress last year when he said that those discussions had ended in January 2016 and that his overtures to the Russian government went unrequited.

In fact, the talks continued through June, and Cohen did hear back from one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top aides, spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to court documents.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that Cohen is lying. But that even if Cohen weren’t lying, the president said, he hadn’t broken any law.

“There would be nothing wrong if I did do it,” he said.

Trump said his pledge not to conclude new deals only applied after he had been elected and inaugurated. He was perfectly within his rights to continue to run his businesses even as he pursued the presidency, he said.

Trump said he ultimately decided not to pursue a real estate project in Russia, but it isn’t clear precisely how discussions ended over the notional Trump Tower in Moscow.

What the new information means

The new timeline established by Cohen’s plea means that the talks with Russians and the Russian government were ongoing when Trump became the GOP front-runner and not long before he formally became the party’s nominee.

People described in the court papers, including Cohen, even discussed when to schedule potential trips to Russia as part of their negotiations as they planned for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

The GOP adopted a platform at that convention that softened the party’s official view on support for Ukraine, which Russia had invaded in 2014. It isn’t clear whether there’s any link among Russians, American political figures and that change in the platform, although such a connection has long been a subject of speculation.

Cohen’s acknowledgement on Thursday also means that the negotiations with Russians were taking place the same month as the much-discussed meeting in New York City at which the president’s top campaign aides hosted a Russian delegation that had offered dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. have admitted that campaign leaders went into the meeting expecting material that would be useful against the Democratic presidential nominee but said that this is common practice in politics and that nothing came from it.

According to accounts from people in the meeting that were given to Congress and from elsewhere, the Russians provided a tip about people who they said were improperly funneling money to the Democratic National Committee.

Trump Jr. has said he did not take any action based on that tip.

The question about what Trump knew specifically about that meeting and generally about Russia’s wave of active measures against the U.S. is at the heart of the investigation being run by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller is trying to determine whether anyone on Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russians who interfered with the election using cyberattacks, the dumping of stolen data, agitation on social media and other techniques.

Trump has denied publicly that he had any knowledge at the time and said as much in written answers recently given to Mueller’s office, according to reports on Wednesday.

Trump’s opponents faulted what they called the deepening air of criminality around the president’s sometime-associates, several of whom have pleaded guilty in the Russia case or associated investigations.

“This is yet another example of the President’s closest allies lying about their contacts with Russia. With each indictment and each guilty plea, we learn more about the president’s connections to Russia in the midst of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.

Warner’s committee was one of the two to which Cohen gave statements that his guilty plea now admits were lies. Warner and other Democrats say the prospect of increasing pressure from Mueller’s office means the Senate must pass legislation that would protect him from being pressured or fired by the president.

“Special counsel Mueller’s investigation must continue — free from political interference by the president — until the truth is out, and Congress should pass legislation immediately to make sure that happens,” Warner said.

The other committee to which Cohen has now admitted lying was the House intelligence panel; its incoming chairman, California Rep. Adam Schiff, said on Thursday that the plea shows how important it will be to launch new investigations in 2019.

“These false statements regarding the continued pursuit of a Moscow-Trump Tower deal during much of the presidential campaign only underscore the importance of a thorough investigation into any financial entanglement between Trump and Russia,” he said.</s>WASHINGTON — The slow-motion suspense of Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia sped up suddenly Thursday as Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, admitted to a New York judge he lied to congressional investigators last year about discussions surrounding an aborted plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

The surprise pivot, which the president promptly shrugged off as a last-ditch bid for a reduced sentence on Cohen’s unrelated convictions for tax evasion and bank fraud, came just days after Trump submitted written answers to questions from special counsel Robert Mueller.

In a statement in court, Cohen described how his role as a lawyer and fixer for Trump bridged the former chief executive’s transformation from Manhattan real-estate mogul to presidential candidate in 2016, and how he followed his boss’s script of “repeated disavowals” of ties to Russia.

And he described telling two congressional intelligence committees that the discussions about Trump possibly building one of his trademark skyscrapers in Moscow had come to a halt by January 2016, when the presidential campaign was ramping up in advance of the Iowa caucuses.

“That description was false, I knew at the time, in that I had asserted that all efforts concerning the project had ceased in January of 2016 when, in fact, they had continued through June of 2016,” Cohen said.

He also admitted he had “extensive communications” with Trump — referred to throughout the statement as “Individual One” — about the project, rather than the “limited” ones he told Congress about, and that the pair did in fact discuss the issue of travelling to Russia, contrary to what he told the committees.

“I made these misstatements to be consistent with Individual One’s political messaging and out of loyalty to Individual One.”

Trump, unsolicited, tore a strip off his former lawyer, accusing him of seeking to mitigate the damage from an earlier unrelated guilty plea on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and violating campaign finance laws.

“He was convicted of various things unrelated to us, he was given a fairly long jail sentence, and he’s a weak person,” Trump said before embarking on a trip to Argentina for Friday’s G20 meetings.

“Unlike other people that you watch, he’s a weak person and what he’s trying to do is get a reduced sentence. He’s lying about a project that everybody knew about.”

Trump went on to sound all but certain that once in Argentina, he would sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk about the Russian navy’s brazen confrontation with Ukraine on the Sea of Azov, only to abruptly reverse course minutes later after getting on board Air Force One.

“I think it’s a very good time to have the meeting,” he said on the ground. “I’m getting a full report on the plane as to what happened … and that will determine what I’m going to be doing.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the final decision was made in consultation with national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Kremlin said it had not been formally notified of the decision, which came hours after Moscow said the meeting was on track.

Cohen’s admission comes just one week after Trump and his lawyers provided written answers to questions posed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is at the helm of a sweeping investigation of the Trump campaign’s links to Russia and that country’s role, if any, in swaying the 2016 presidential election.

It also follows Monday’s decision by Mueller to call off his team’s co-operation agreement with Paul Manafort, who has also pleaded guilty to a number of financial charges, upon learning that Trump’s former campaign chief had lied about “a variety of subject matters” after agreeing to work with the special counsel.

All of it suggests Mueller is close to showing his cards, said Capri Cafaro, executive in residence at American University’s School of Public Affairs.

“Something is going on,” said Cafaro, a former Democratic minority leader in the Ohio state senate.

“We’re seeing a lot of developments come out in succession … obviously, progress seems to be being made, because we’re seeing actions being taken in the public sphere, like with Manafort and now with Cohen.”

Thursday’s hearing reinforces the narrative — first borne of Cohen’s admission earlier this year that he made hush-money payments during the campaign on Trump’s behalf — that the president’s former lawyer has become one of his biggest legal liabilities.

“We had a position to possibly do a deal to build a building of some kind in Moscow. I decided not to do it … I was focused on running for president,” Trump said. “There would be nothing wrong if I did do it. I was running my business while I was campaigning.”

Mueller’s final report could come sooner rather than later if the special counsel is at all concerned about being accused of having a political agenda, said Cafaro — releasing it in the midst of a newly sworn-in Democratic majority in the House of Representatives could provide the White House with easy talking points.

“It may be likely that Mueller provides this information prior to the end of this year in order to circumvent any potential optics that it may be political,” she said.

“Maybe Mueller will try to release this prior to the new Congress being sworn in just simply to make sure people don’t think he’s somehow placing any political calculus and co-ordinating the fact that the House is coming in.”

Cohen is to be sentenced Dec. 12.

— With files from The Associated Press</s>Ivanka Trump news: Ivanka wore a chic grey and black outfit for her journey to the G20 summit

Ivanka Trump , 37, held hands with her husband Jared Kushner, 37, as the couple made their way to a waiting plane with Donald Trump and Melania Trump yesterday. The foursome were headed to Argentina for the G20 summit, which starts today. Ivanka looked stylish in a grey and black outfit for the journey. Mum-of-three Ivanka donned a light grey wool wrao coat, which she belted tightly at the waist.

Ivanka Trump looks angelic in white as she joins Apple CEO Tim Cook

Ivanka Trump news: Donald Trump is joined by his daughter & Jared Kushner at G20 summit

A pearl and turquoise brooch could be seen on the collar of the coat, adding a pop of colour.

Ivanka donned a pair of black suede knee high boots with the coat, meaning every inch of skin was covered.

Her favourite Chanel Executive Tote, £2660, swung by her side as she walked.

As she was boarding a plane, Ivanka kept her makeup simple, opting for nude lipstick and light eye makeup.

She wore her hair poker straight over her shoulders, with a high side parting.</s>The business entity that manages US President Donald Trump’s companies and real estate ventures was planning on gifting Russia President Vladimir Putin a penthouse suite worth tens of millions of dollars at a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow if the plan could come through.

That plan ultimately didn’t come to fruition, but this latest revelation, according to reporting from BuzzFeed News, adds a new wrinkle in the Trump/Russia saga, and brings into question whether similar dealings were proposed or followed through upon in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Four sources, including one person who originated the plan, confirmed that the Trump Organization had planned to give Putin a penthouse in the proposed tower worth around $50 million. Two law enforcement officials also confirmed that Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time, had spoken about the deal directly to an aide to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary.

Some details about the deal aren’t known at this point. For instance, it’s unknown whether Trump was aware about the proposal to gift Putin with the penthouse, although according to testimony given today at Cohen’s plea hearing, the lawyer regularly briefed Trump and his family members about aspects of the negotiations.

Also unclear is when this part of the negotiation was proposed, if it came at early parts of the talks or later on toward the end when things fizzled out.

That last part may be on the minds of investigators and many Americans who are paying close attention to the Russia inquiry. As reporting from MarketWatch pointed out, negotiations between Russia and the Trump Organization lasted well into Trump’s run for president.

Previously, the president, Cohen, and people close to Trump had insisted that those negotiations had ended in January, just before the Iowa caucuses and the official start of the presidential campaign. Cohen’s statement earlier on Thursday, however, indicated that the negotiations lasted into June of 2016 — around the same time Trump earned the Republican Party’s nomination, and just a month before a controversial meeting happened at Trump Tower in New York, between a Russian lawyer with close ties to the Kremlin and Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort.

After Cohen’s plea statement on Thursday, Trump denied any wrongdoing, and responded by suggesting that Cohen was a liar. “He’s a weak person and what he’s trying to do is get a reduced sentence,” Trump said, per reporting from ABC News.</s>With the election of six new Republicans this month and a runoff victory Tuesday for staunch Trump ally Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, the U.S. Senate will now be more pro-Trump than ever.

In 2016, many Republicans had hoped to win despite Trump, rather than because of him. In 2018, it was Trump’s endorsement and repeated rallies in their states that helped propel GOP candidates to victory.

Now lawmakers owe him and will be eager to champion the president's agenda. Depending on the outcome of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, they might even provide a bulwark protecting Trump from impeachment.

“These are the individuals who embraced the Trump agenda, ran with Trump and had unwavering support,” Trump’s former campaign manager and current adviser Corey Lewandowski told USA TODAY. “That is going to translate when they get to Washington to help Trump be successful.”
• North Dakota senator-elect Kevin Cramer, who had been his state's sole congressman, was personally recruited by Trump to run for Senate and served as the Trump's energy adviser during the presidential transition.
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who will be the first woman senator from Tennessee, was a top surrogate during Trump’s campaign.
• Incoming Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the state’s current governor, was one of the first prominent Republican politicians in the nation to back Trump's candidacy in 2016 and has known him for decades.
• Indiana businessman Mike Braun and Missouri’s Josh Hawley, the state’s attorney general, unabashedly praised the president on the trail.
• Hyde-Smith, who beat Democrat Mike Espy in a runoff election, strongly supported Trump in the Senate since being appointed this year to fill an open seat. The president defended her after she made "public hanging" remarks many considered racially insensitive.

They were all rewarded during the campaign with frequent visits from the president, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump family members.

"He made my candidacy better just by being connected," Cramer told USA TODAY during an interview on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, meets with incoming GOP senators for the 116th Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14, 2018. From left are, Sen.-elect Mike Braun, R-Ind., Sen.-elect Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Sen.-elect Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen-elect Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen.-elect Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

The GOP also has a wider 53-47 margin after the midterms, thanks to Republicans flipping four Democratic seats while holding onto two open seats. Democrats picked up two GOP seats, giving Republicans an overall two-seat gain.

The incoming group may end up being Trump’s final protection against impeachment. The House flipped to Democratic control earlier this month, picking up nearly 40 GOP seats. Democrats are expected to open investigations into the president and his administration as soon as they take over committee gavels. That could lead to impeachment proceedings, though Democratic leadership denies it’s their goal.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who is now vice chairwoman of a pro-Trump super PAC, said it's “hugely important” to have allies to provide “strong support” for the president in impeachment proceedings and say "listen, the country doesn’t need this."

Guilfoyle traveled the country with her boyfriend, the president's son Donald Trump Jr., in the final weeks campaigning for Republicans, including Cramer, Braun and Scott.

Divided government also means there likely will be showdowns over legislation on immigration, government funding and protections for special counsel Robert Mueller.

Already, Congress is at an impasse over government spending because of Trump’s demand for increased border wall funding. Some of Trump’s judicial nominations have been blocked over unrelated demands to bring up a bill that would protect Mueller. If those fights spill over into the next Congress, new senators will have a say in how to proceed.

Some of the group have echoed the president’s characterization of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as a “witch hunt.” Cramer said he doesn't think the president should fire Mueller, but said the investigation has failed to restore confidence in the justice system. This summer, Hawley said the president’s assertion he could pardon himself was “an open question.” And he said he understood why Trump was frustrated with the probe, according to The Kansas City Star.

The wider GOP margin, stacked with Trump allies, could also widen the leeway for tough votes and help usher through the president’s picks for the court and administration.

Republican Senator elect from Utah Mitt Romney (L) walks with Republican Senator elect from Missouri Josh Hawley (R) following the Republican leadership elections in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Nov. 14, 2018.

But there is one new Republican senator who worries some Trump allies with his independence.

“I think that Mitt Romney is going to be a thorn in the president’s side,” Lewandowski said. The former Massachusetts governor ran unsuccessfully for president in 2012 was critical of Trump during the 2016 election, calling him “a phony” and “a fraud.”

Romney and Trump eventually patched things up and he was briefly considered as Trump’s secretary of State. Trump endorsed Romney for his Utah Senate run, but Romney has kept the president at arm’s length.

Democrats worry that replacing some of the most moderate senators in the chamber with Trump allies will make it harder to make deals. “Voters and Americans thought that there was gridlock in the Senate and in Congress before. I think that is only going to get worse,” said Tara McGowan, the head of ACRONYM, a progressive digital startup.

More: Meet the Democrats who could lead the investigations into President Donald Trump

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Others say these new members will act like Republicans, not Trump clones.

”A lot of Republican senators in the senate had come to a pretty stable conclusion that they were going to ignore (Trump) on the legislative side, but they were going to defend him,” said Matt Glassman, senior fellow at the Georgetown University Government Affairs Institute.

But defending Trump may have limits, even for some of his strongest supporters. When the president attacked two cable news hosts and said one had been bleeding from a facelift, Blackburn said the tweets were “were a step too far.”

Scott, who won by a tiny margin in Florida after a recount, ran a Spanish-language ad during the campaign that said he didn’t always agree with the president. Trump has insulted Hispanics with his immigration stance and by calling those who cross the border illegally "animals" and "rapists." Scott also said he disagreed with the president's assessment that Democrats had bolstered the Puerto Rican death toll for political reasons.

Chris Harline, a spokesman for Scott, said he has "shown that he’s willing to break with the president.”

Cramer left open the possibility of himself breaking with the president on issues that require compromise with Democrats, such as immigration. But he added he thinks the president has offered up a fair solution.

"My comfort will be determined by what I believe to be in the best interest of North Dakota and the country," Cramer said. "He's popular out there, but so am I." Cramer said he likes to remind Trump his margin of victory was higher than the president's in 2016.

Cramer pointed out newly elected members could have opportunities for compromise. As if on cue, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch, a progressive Democrat, interrupted the conversation to congratulate Cramer on his Senate win. "I love him," Cramer said as Welch walked away.

Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor but no fan of Trump, said, “Just because you act like a Republican does not mean you’re Trumpian. It just so happens that Trump is acting like a Republican when it comes to the Trump agenda."

The president should have an easier time directing his party, now that two of his most vocal GOP critics are on their way out. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who didn't run for re-election, will be replaced by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. Outgoing Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker's spot went to Blackburn.

“I hope that senators will show independence. That’s usually why you have six-year terms. And this institution has a lot of oversight responsibilities with the administration, obviously,” Flake told USA TODAY. “I’m sure some of them will.”
Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump and The Trump Organization, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's Russian business contacts.