Trump transition live updates: Trump announces pick for energy secretary

President-elect Donald Trump announced Brendan Carr as his pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Sunday evening.

Carr wrote a chapter for the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, where he detailed how he intended to run the agency.

In his statement announcing the choice, and offering his congratulations, Trump touted Carr's background as the FCC’s general counsel before becoming senior Republican on the FCC.

"I first nominated Commissioner Carr to the FCC in 2017, and he has been confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate three times. His current term runs through 2029 and, because of his great work, I will now be designating him as permanent Chairman," Trump wrote.

The statement continued, "Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy. He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Vivek Ramaswamy, recently announced by President-elect Donald Trump as one of the leaders of the new Department of Government Efficiency, said on Fox News on Sunday that he anticipates the advisory body to cause "mass reductions" and that some governmental agencies may be “deleted outright.”

"We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force, in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are over billing the federal government," Ramaswamy said.

He did not indicate which agencies specifically would potentially be reduced or "deleted," although he at one point referenced the Department of Education.

"I mean, President Trump's talked extensively about areas like the Department of Education. Obviously, those kinds of agencies shouldn't even exist and should be returned to the states," he said.

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday maintained that he had not discussed the House Ethics Committee’s report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz with Trump.

Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if Trump encouraged him to change his position and “squash” the committee’s report on the president-elect’s attorney general pick, Johnson replied, “No, he did not.”

“The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the Ethics report, not once. And I have been with him quite a bit this week between Washington and Mar-a-Lago and last night in Madison Square Garden.”

Johnson said the speaker of the House is not involved with the Ethics Committee – “ can't be, shouldn't be, because the speaker can't put a thumb on the scale or have anything to do with that.”

The speaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he had no idea of what was in the report.

“I didn't even know about it, Jake, until the middle of this week, when it was announced in the press,” he said.

But Johnson said the report shouldn’t be released because Gaetz had resigned from the House.

“There’s a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain that the House Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction does not extend to non-members of Congress,” he said. “I think that would be a Pandora’s Box.”

-ABC News' Fritz Farrow

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani held a press conference Sunday following their trilateral defense ministers meeting in Darwin, Australia.

The three leaders were asked about how they think President-elect Donald Trump's administration will affect the war in Ukraine, defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth's qualifications to lead the Department of Defense and the North Korean troops deployed to fight alongside the Russian military in Ukraine.

Marles said he looks "forward to building a relationship" with Hegseth, calling the defense secretary position a "huge global role," and said the Fox News host has "an enormous challenge ahead of him."

"Everything that I've heard about Pete Hegseth since his name became public, is in terms of in the context of becoming the secretary of defense, has been positive, and I approached the prospect of getting to know Pete Hegseth and working with him with enormous optimism," Marles said.

Austin said, "it's the prerogative the president elect to nominate whoever he deems appropriate to serve on his cabinet," and that the Pentagon is "focused on a smooth and an effective transition."

-ABC News' Nathan Luna