Second Trump Presidency (2025-)

[PointOfViewGun]

Now that the results of the U.S.A. elections are being finalized and Trump is declared to be the president-elect we already started to get some decision and personnel picks that will be tied to his presidency. Let's use this thread to discuss anything related to his presidency (but nothing related to the elections).

So far, some of his appointment declarations:

US election updates: Trump picks hardliner as ambassador to Israel in slew of job appointments
Analyzing Trump's cabinet picks so far. And, Biden's intimate view of the White House

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy - Department of Government Efficiency
Fox News host Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defense
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem - Department of Homeland Security
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - Secretary of Health and Human Services
Former congressman and Fox Business host Sean Duffy - Department of Transportation
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Linda McMahon - Secretary of Education
Wall Street financier Scott Bessent - US Treasury Department
Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer - US Labor Secretary
Head of Maga-backed think tank the America First Policy Institute Brooke Rollins - Secretary of Agriculture

John Ratcliffe - CIA director
William Joseph McGinley - White House counsel
Tom Homan - "Border Tsar"
Floridan congressman Mike Waltz - National security adviser

Congressman Matt Gaetz - Attorney general
Veteran prosecutor Pam Bondi - Attorney general

Elise Stefanik - Ambassador to the United Nations
Former Arkansas Mike Huckabee - Ambassador to Israel

[alhoon]

While Pete Hegseth is highly educated in good schools and a decorated soldier... as far as I was told, he was involved in some nasty crap in Guantanamo, trying to shield torturers.
Rat-cliffe is, from what I heard, a dangerous radical.
And Gaetz the radical sycophant has been tapped for something that I don't remember.

Let's wait for the other shoe to drop and MTG and the gun-nut lady (Boebert-or-something) to find important positions in the admin.

[PointOfViewGun]

Republicans baffled after Trump picks ‘reckless’ Gaetz for attorney general

Trump on Wednesday announced Gaetz as his pick to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer in the justice department, a role that directs the government’s legal positions on critical issues, including abortion, civil rights, and first amendment cases.

“I don’t think it’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, told NBC News. “We need to have a serious attorney general. And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious. This one was not on my bingo card.”

He was investigated by the justice department in a sex-trafficking case, though the department ultimately declined to bring charges. And was under investigation by the House ethics committee amid allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and other alleged ethical breaches.

Republican congressman Max Miller of Ohio told Axios that “Gaetz has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than being confirmed by the Senate”.

“Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude,” Bolton said in an interview with NBC News.

One anonymous House GOP member told Axios: “We wanted him out of the House … this isn’t what we were thinking.” Another remarked they were “stunned and disgusted”.

Not a great sign of things to come as a first move to nominate someone utterly incompetent for the job. He never worked as a prosecutor and only briefly worked as a lawyer. Gaetz, a year ago, called for abolishing of FBI, CDC and ATF. Unlikely to clear the Congress nomination process but never say never.

[NorseThing]

That is correct. Never say never.

The media should learn this as they pontificate of what will be. A point of view is not the same as hindsight.

CNN seems to be the worst at this currently, but all media does this. Trump announces and then the media reports an unnamed but 'valued' source. The the media declares questions of the announcement require voiding of the appointment.

This is all meaningless rhetoric.

Wait for the real consequences in senate testimony and even preliminary votes.

[Legio_Italica]

Trump is wise to appoint individuals with adversarial relationships to the bureaucracies they will be responsible for, whoever they end up being. Their lack of prior connections to their assignments will mean they are less inclined to work against the President’s agenda to promote their individual ambitions, something that hindered his first administration. The individual credentials of appointees don’t necessarily matter beyond that; these organizations basically run themselves and have become so entrenched as to govern the Executive Branch, rather than the other way around, which is the main problem.

After the successive crises of competence that were the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Libya, Syria, Russiagate, Twittergate, Ukraine, etc, the idea that the incoming Trump Administration is a threat to some wise and capable class of technocratic professionals is boring propaganda. The louder the liberal establishment and their media minions howl, the more effective we can expect Trump’s nominees to be. Selecting relatively young appointees also helps ensure Trump’s movement will survive as he is very near the end of his natural life.

[mishkin]

Trump is wise.

You cant be serious...

---------------------------------

The good thing about Trump winning is that we'll spend four years laughing to his and his colleagues' crazy and stupid ideas. I don't know if I should feel sorry for the Americans, really, they have voluntarily elected their master and it's not like we were seeing great progress in women's rights or in the fight against gun ownership, the prison system etc. You want to be a retrograde superpower free of "bad hombres" and transsexuals? Okay, we heard you. Do you want your leader to be a mysoginistic, intellectually limited, clown, convict megalomaniac? Build him a statue. In fact, I bet that before his term ends, one will have been erected, in gold and ivory, really classy.

[NorseThing]

https://www.becomingcloser.org/1Cori...of_wisdom.html

From the bible: Paul tells us that God’s wisdom was destined for our glory. It is by his wisdom that we are glorified; it is by his wisdom that we are changed into the saints of his kingdom.

Trump is a closer extraordinaire. In a way it is almost biblical. I do not agree quite a bit, but I may be simply lacking in some variant of wisdom that others possess.

But to mock him and his supporters is not a good sign of wisdom either. Of course sainthood in the world of Trump may not be the best way forward, but many are true believers.

[PointOfViewGun]

That is correct. Never say never.
The media should learn this as they pontificate of what will be. A point of view is not the same as hindsight.
CNN seems to be the worst at this currently, but all media does this. Trump announces and then the media reports an unnamed but 'valued' source. The the media declares questions of the announcement require voiding of the appointment.
This is all meaningless rhetoric.
Wait for the real consequences in senate testimony and even preliminary votes.

Are you saying Trump didn't really nominate Gaetz?

You cant be serious...

Trump supporters usually are. All standards and logic are suspended in support of Trump as such a support can not be partial. It has to be absolute otherwise it can not hold and they have to suspend all and every ounce of standards and logic to keep it hold.

[NorseThing]

I am saying wait for more substantive action by the senate. Rhetorical flourish is all that we are seeing now. Just as the Democrats were shouting the end of democracy if the fascist Trump were elected. Nominations are merely a beginning of every administration. All the nominations are real, but...

In the case of Gaetz, it is at least consistent with what Trump was saying during the election.

[PointOfViewGun]

I am saying wait for more substantive action by the senate. Rhetorical flourish is all that we are seeing now. Just as the Democrats were shouting the end of democracy if the fascist Trump were elected. Nominations are merely a beginning of every administration. All the nominations are real, but...

In the case of Gaetz, it is at least consistent with what Trump was saying during the election.

Trump himself literally announced the nomination of Gaetz and, Gaetz resigned from Congress to accept the nomination. This is not a situation where you can say that it's too early to talk about it. Trump wants him and that says a lot about him. Whether the Congress accepts him is an other issue that is more about how far the Republicans are willing to go.

[NorseThing]

fair enough!

[Legio_Italica]

fair enough!

The fact that the Defenders of Democracy suffered their biggest electoral defeat in decades and still bother to call anyone else delusional tells you everything you need to know about the preemptive meltdown over Trump’s nominees. Of course neocons like Bolton are going to join the chorus given they have been shut out so far, with the possible exception of Rubio for Secretary of State. There’s nothing in particular that makes Lil Marco more qualified for the post than the other nominees so far, yet the difference in coverage is night and day, for obvious reasons unrelated to competence or ethics. Nobody cares what random Republican senators think, and if any become a stumbling block to the President’s agenda, they’re only jeopardizing their own seats.

[Laser101]

The fact that the Defenders of Democracy suffered their biggest electoral defeat in decades and still bother to call anyone else delusional tells you everything you need to know about the preemptive meltdown over Trump’s nominees. Of course neocons like Bolton are going to join the chorus given they have been shut out so far, with the possible exception of Rubio for Secretary of State. There’s nothing in particular that makes Lil Marco more qualified for the post than the other nominees so far, yet the difference in coverage is night and day, for obvious reasons unrelated to competence or ethics. Nobody cares what random Republican senators think, and if any become a stumbling block to the President’s agenda, they’re only jeopardizing their own seats.

Congressmen and Senators aren't supposed to simply serve the President's agenda, even if they're from the same party. That's why they're elected independently.

[Muizer]

RFK Jr for health secretary

A lot of what Kennedy wants to do for public health is in conflict with Project 2025, which would basically deregulate the entire food industry.

[Legio_Italica]

Congressmen and Senators aren't supposed to simply serve the President's agenda, even if they're from the same party. That's why they're elected independently.

That’s a case they can make to the Republican constituents who elected them. In reality, the noise and speculation about any one person comes down to politics more than perceived qualifications or lack thereof. Someone like Gaetz simply lacks the institutional support of someone like Rubio, even though their respective career paths look identical. We’ll see how determined any naysayers are when it comes time to go on the record in front of their voters. I don’t doubt the Republicans are prepared to waste their limited window of Congressional majority on petty infighting and grandstanding, but here’s hoping they won’t

RFK Jr for health secretary

I’m normally averse to political merch but thought about a MAHA shirt. Hoping he gets free rein to go to war with Big Pharma and Food Inc. without becoming another family statistic.

[Laser101]

That’s a case they can make to the Republican constituents who elected them. In reality, the noise and speculation about any one person comes down to politics more than perceived qualifications or lack thereof. Someone like Gaetz simply lacks the institutional support of someone like Rubio, even though their respective career paths look identical. We’ll see how determined any naysayers are when it comes time to go on the record in front of their voters. I don’t doubt the Republicans are prepared to waste their limited window of Congressional majority on petty infighting and grandstanding, but here’s hoping they won’t

It's not just a question of 'institutional support'. Trump's picks include a guy who was just in front of an ethics investigation for Attorney General, a Fox News host for SecDef, and a Russian stooge for Director of National Intelligence. If the Senate Republicans are prepared to confirm this clown squad, then they deserve to get creamed come midterms.

Still, presumably they will have to face confirmation hearings. That should be amusing.

I’m normally averse to political merch but thought about a MAHA shirt. Hoping he gets free rein to go to war with Big Pharma and Food Inc. without becoming another family statistic.

Quite frankly, that's not my problem since I'm not American. If America wants an antivax fool in charge of public health, then that's on them. They can enjoy their measles and polio outbreaks.

[skh1]

The story so far…

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Legio_Italica]

It's not just a question of 'institutional support'. Trump's picks include a guy who was just in front of an ethics investigation for Attorney General,

Obama’s AG was held in contempt of Congress (a recommendation for criminal prosecution) for covering up an ATF scheme to traffic guns to Mexican cartels, weapons later used in the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Biden’s AG was also held in contempt for covering up the President’s misuse of classified information (you may recall Democrats accused Trump of treason for the same thing). If recent history is any guide, questionable ethics is a qualification.

a Fox News host for SecDef,

Pete Hegseth is an Army officer and decorated combat veteran with an advanced degree in public policy from Harvard. SecDef is a civilian position anyway, to the extent nominees have to get a waiver if they haven’t been out of the military long enough.

and a Russian stooge for Director of National Intelligence.

Calling Tulsi a Russian anything tells me more about the media you consume than anything else. It’s an empty smear.

If the Senate Republicans are prepared to confirm this clown squad, then they deserve to get creamed come midterms.

They’re more likely to get creamed if they don’t. It is a question of institutional support because that’s the main thing these candidates all lack.

They can enjoy their measles and polio outbreaks.

Kennedy denied being anti-vax and distinguished his views as safety conscious skepticism. Big Pharma wouldn’t need special legal indemnity for their shots if their products were harmless, and the government wouldn’t be paying people up to 50,000 dollars cash plus medical expenses as compensation for related injuries. Just last year, alleged victims sued the Biden Admin for shielding vax makers from lawsuits. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but maybe a health secretary who hates the drug companies is exactly what we need.

[Laser101]

Calling Tulsi a Russian anything tells me more about the media you consume than anything else. It’s an empty smear.

Considering the stupid things she's said, it's hardly empty. Either she's a stooge or her geopolitical acumen is non-existent.

They’re more likely to get creamed if they don’t. It is a question of institutional support because that’s the main thing these candidates all lack.

That depends on what swing voters think. It's a bit of a moot point; as a rule midterms invariably go against the incumbent anyway.

Regarding Hegseth, one thing he's getting heat for is that he's said he doesn't want the military putting women in combat roles. That's politically awkward to say the least, but I'm not necessarily sure he's entirely wrong about that in principle.

[NorseThing]

Actually Tulsi should have your respect with years as a Democratic congresswoman, running a respectable try at the presidency, brae to change parties and endorse Trump. Of course I even respect VP Harris on some issues (not many, but some). No one at that level in any country is a clown or boob. That is usually if not always a simple smear tactic. a lazy way to avoid substantial debate.