Trump seems poised to announce Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. Apparently they have been "talking." The appointment would make Bessent the second openly gay Treasury Secretary. Bessent is an investment manager. He founded Key Square Group, which received received a $2 billion anchor investment from George Soros. He's been on both side of the political spectrum, hosting a fundraiser for Al Gore in 2000, donating $1M to Trump's 2016 campaign, then hosting a fundraiser for Trump this past February, raising $7m for his campaign. Grabbed from elsewhere: He thinks Trump should take a 3-pronged approach to a fiscally successful presidency: 1: "It would be 3% real economic growth, and how do you get that? Through deregulation, more U.S. energy production, slaying inflation and forward guidance on competence for people to make investments so that the private sector can take over from this bloated government spending." 2: "Make public his desire to get the deficit down to 3% [of U.S. gross domestic product] by the end of his term. He didn't get us to the 6% or 7% [of GDP] deficit. They averaged 4 under him, so get that down to 3." 3: "3 million more oil barrels flowing a day from U.S. energy production," adding that there would be a substantial decrease in the price of oil which he said is "one of the No. 1 drivers of inflation expectations." Concerns about him are: -He was a partner at the Soros Fund Management for decades and head of the London office. -He's a member of the council on foreign relations and he's on the board of trustees at Rockefeller University.
I am still worried about taking people from the Republican majority in the House. The Senate doesn't worry me as much, since the replacement there would be made by the governor, and most of the governors are Republican, although not necessarily pro-Trump. The House replacement is done by special election, and the Democrats could have a big majority in the House until those elections were held, often 60 to 90 days after the vacancies. I hope it is needless worry.
Trump has nominated South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as his next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She was on the short-list to be his running mate but got taken off after controversy arose regarding her book, where she admitted to shooting her dog because it had gone on a chicken-killing rampage.
I saw this one on X and finally watched it, didn't know who Kash was at all, heard the name, stuck in my head from somewhere. I think this is another brilliant man to have in the mix, another who hits it out of the park!! Wtg, President Trump and your friends/advisors so far!!
That's how we had to do it back in the day!! People raised in the cities don't know what it's like to live in the country, raising animals, living off the land. I think he did get the best running mate for sure though, just not thrilled with "why" she was removed. I for one don't want a woman ruling over men, ever. It's no wonder to me that men have decided not to have "anything" to do with women. I've always thought I was too outspoken, but these nuts that are shaving their heads and vowing never to speak to a man again, or cutting off their husbands?? I say what a blessing for our men! There are much better women out that.
Trump is talking about dismantling the Department of Education, but I don't know if he can accomplish that. I hope he does, and I am confident that our educational system will be improved by its absence.
Despite a stupid thing she wrote (or allowed a ghostwriter to write) in her book, I like Kristi Noem. I don't know that Homeland Security is the best place for her, but she may have skills and talents that I am unfamiliar with. Much of the border stuff will be transferred to our new Border Czar, it seems, although I really wish we'd quit calling people "czars." Maybe we could start calling them "dons," as in mafia dons. We could have a border don, an efficiency don, and a health don.
The Czar title was left in place to ridicule Kamala Harris. The title is used for putting people in powerful places and bypassing Senate confirmation, e.g., Drug Czar, Border Czar, and perhaps Budget Czar if Musk is put into that position. They don't have budgets or personnel, but often dictate to those who do have those things. Unconstitutional in all likelihood but it has been used for a while anyway as an Executive power, similar to the National Security Advisor.
Trump names Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. I can find no evidence of this on the web, just a Fox News screenshot on another forum: The time hack on the screenshot is 7:15PM tonight. Hegseth has a Wiki page. -He's 44 years old. -He's been active in conservative and Republican politics since his days as an undergraduate at Princeton University. -In 2016, he emerged as a strong supporter and ally of Donald Trump's presidential candidacy, and served as an occasional advisor to Trump throughout Trump's presidency. -He graduated Princeton in 2003,worked as an equity capital markets analyst and joined the U.A. Army National Guard as a commissioned reserve infantry officer. -His unit was called to Guantanamo Bay that year, he later volunteered to serve in Iraq. -He returned to active duty in Afghanistan in 2012. -Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014. This is an interesting choice. The guy is young, relatively unknown and is not career military.
Trump advisor Alina Habba is front-runner to be next White House Press Secretary, Mediaite reports. She is is an American lawyer and managing partner of Habba, Madaio & Associates. She met Trump in 2019 when she joined The Trump International Golf Club. In September 2021, he hired her as part of his legal team, replacing several well-established lawyers who had worked for Trump for many years but had withdrawn their services. Trump is really bringing in new blood. Habba is 40 years old. His Secretary of Defense is 44 years old. Both are political outsiders.
Trump Names John Ratcliffe as CIA Director Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence during the first Trump term. He was previously a Republican congressman from Texas and an anti-terrorism and national security chief for Eastern Texas.
Trump Names Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead New Government Efficiency Department I guess we've found out where these 2 will land. The proposed Department of Government Efficiency will offer advice on improving efficiency, reducing waste, and shrink the size of government by July 2026. Trump: “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement.” “Either we get government efficient or America goes bankrupt. That’s what it comes down to. Wish I were wrong, but it’s true,” Musk wrote on X, responding to the news. In another post, he added: “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency. Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! “We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining.”
Kash Patel's name has resurfaced. Rumor is that Sec of Defense was given to Hegseth, and Ratcliffe was given his second choice position as Dir CIA because Trump wants Patel in as Dir FBI. Patel is the author of Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.