Thanks to Washington correspondents Mark Stone and David Blevins for answering so many questions, and sorry if we didn’t answer yours.
We’ll have the full opening policy live on Monday on Sky News platforms.
This one refers to an earlier news conference held by Donald Trump at the start of this month.
The president-elect said he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” – a name he said has a “beautiful ring to it”.
Simply, “there is no formal foreign agreement related to the naming of the foreign maritime zone,” says correspondent David Blevins.
“You can play in front of your own audience, but whether others would pay attention to you is another question,” he adds.
U. S. correspondent Mark Stone says politicians are pragmatic and “will make them get along. “
The special relationship between the two nations is “deep” — his father is the U. K. ‘s ambassador to the United States, who will be Lord Mandelson — and he has “an amazing job,” Stone says.
“It’s a delicate relationship: politically, Trump and Starmer are aligned, but they have to get along. “
This is especially because Elon Musk “seems to hold a grudge against Starmer,” adds Stone.
Starmer has been very careful so far with his words about the president-elect, he says.
Correspondent David Blevins says Lord Mandelson has a knack for walking a political tightrope.
The politician “returned from the political desert” to secretary of Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement.
“He has actually achieved quite a lot in that kind of polarised environment and he will have to draw on that when he arrives in the US,” says Blevins.
Lord Mandelson has “experience and capacity” for this environmental thing, he says.
We will learn the extent to which we need to take his campaign promises at face value, says our correspondent David Blevins.
On the first day of his first term, he signed one executive order – but, this time, we may lose count of the number of orders he could make, he adds.
These could span new immigration laws and even pardoning some of those convicted for their part in the January 6 riots.
It could even postpone the ban on TikTok for 90 days, an interesting option given that the company’s CEO was invited to the inauguration, Blevins adds.
US correspondent Mark Stone recalls a conversation with a Trump advisor, who told him “watch this space” – he will have a “pile” of orders to sign on day one.
Executive orders can be overturned by Congress, but Stone points out his Republican Party has a majority there, so it may be unlikely for any to be reversed.
“Trump always said that he would solve the Ukraine conflict very quickly – the question is how do you do it?” US correspondent Mark Stone asks in response to this question.
The key is balancing the needs of the Ukrainian people with what Russia will realistically agree to, he says.
He cites JD Vance’s comments about using the current battlefield lines as ceasefire lines as the most likely Trumpian plan for peace.
Currently, Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, so existing war lines would be frozen and constitute a demilitarized zone.
In the short term, that would allow Trump to say he’d stopped the war.
“For Trump, what he’s worried about is the short term. ”
But it sends a message to Vladimir Putin.
“I would possibly be thinking about moving west long after Trump is gone,” he said.
Correspondent David Blevins says Joe Biden thinks that’s the case.
In his farewell address, the president didn’t spend much time reminiscing, but he warned against an oligarchy of wealth, strength and influence, Blevins says.
Biden spoke of social media giants giving up on fact checking and said there was “very real concern” about the threat to democracy.
U. S. correspondent Mark Stone adds that most of Biden’s speech was about the oligarchy rather than dictatorship.
Biden considered it “clearly unhealthy,” Stone says, for other people like Elon Musk — and 12 other billionaires — to serve in the Trump administration.
Musk perceived Biden as an “uncontrolled power broker,” Stone says.
It depends on what the user has to gain and lose, explains our correspondent David Blevins.
Elon Musk has been appointed to head a branch of government that, to some extent, has a say over his own business empire, and having the world’s richest man on his side may just be Donald Trump.
But familiarity can breed contempt, and Trump likes to be front and center, so unrest can arise if the president-elect feels he is being upstaged.
US correspondent Mark Stone says they’ve followed a normal path, from not getting along very well to now seeing Musk as co-chairman.
But it’s a symbiotic relationship at the moment, he adds, with Musk helping to bankroll some of Trump’s campaign.
If it collapses, it will be spectacular, he said.
US correspondent Mark Stone says that despite Donald Trump’s claims that he needs NATO countries to massively increase defence spending, he doesn’t think the new president expects anyone to achieve the crazy target of 5% of GDP. .
“Not even the United States spends that much,” he points out.
NATO asks its members to spend 2% of their GDP (at least) on defense.
“What you do is you make a superior offer” in the hope that countries will come to a middle ground, Stone says.
But we can look back to his previous term, when he insisted that other countries in the alliance pay their “fair share,” and some countries fell short of the 2% target.
“Donald Trump can be credited with making countries spend more on defense,” Stone said.
That said, the alliance has made a lot of efforts to “Trump-proof” itself, that is, when it comes to being able to sustainably finance Ukraine, even in the eventuality that the United States goes all out for kyiv.
“Is NATO threatened? Maybe,” he says, “but NATO pressure? Certainly. ”
Correspondent David Blevins says his first response is “never say never”.
Trump has become “emboldened” by victories in Congress as well as the presidency, he adds.
“We have this troublemaker surrounded by troublemakers. “
US correspondent Mark Stone explains that Trump said he would not rule out taking Greenland and the Panama Canal by force, while saying Canada deserves to become the 51st state of the United States.
Trump’s technique is to engage in a negotiation with anything “crazy and outlandish,” Stone says.
Though he thinks “he’s not going to do it”, ultimately.
“But I think we may see greater American influence in Greenland in the coming years. “
Our U. S. election blog The U. S. returns for Donald Trump’s inauguration, starting with a Q&A session with our U. S. correspondents in the U. S. He was sworn in before his swearing-in on Monday.
Watch it live and submit a query above, and you’ll also be able to follow text updates on the blog.