Trump / Musk (other than DOGE) Omnibus Thread

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

Trump picks billionaire financier for deputy defense secretary​

The choice of Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus Capital Management comes as Pete Hegseth continues to face questions in the confirmation process for the top Pentagon post.

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www.washingtonpost.com

“… Feinberg is the co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and previously owned the private military contractor DynCorp, a company that was acquired by another defense firm, Amentum, in 2020.

…
During the first Trump administration, Feinberg led the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which provides the U.S. leader advice on intelligence assessments and estimates and counterintelligence matters. In his announcement Sunday night on Truth Social, Trump said Feinberg is “an extremely successful businessman” who will “help Make the Pentagon Great Again.”

Feinberg, who has been a reclusive Wall Street executive, is likely to be questioned about whether there is any conflict arising from his work in defense contracting matters and whether he is qualified to play such a major role in helping run the Pentagon.

The deputy defense secretary typically manages day-to-day operations of the massive bureaucracy with a combined workforce of more than 3 million service members and civilian employees.

The search for a capable No. 2 took on heightened significance as lawmakers weigh the pick of Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, to be defense secretary. …”

 

[BlooVooDoo]

Trump picks billionaire financier for deputy defense secretary​

The choice of Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus Capital Management comes as Pete Hegseth continues to face questions in the confirmation process for the top Pentagon post.

Loading…

www.washingtonpost.com

“… Feinberg is the co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and previously owned the private military contractor DynCorp, a company that was acquired by another defense firm, Amentum, in 2020.

…
During the first Trump administration, Feinberg led the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which provides the U.S. leader advice on intelligence assessments and estimates and counterintelligence matters. In his announcement Sunday night on Truth Social, Trump said Feinberg is “an extremely successful businessman” who will “help Make the Pentagon Great Again.”

Feinberg, who has been a reclusive Wall Street executive, is likely to be questioned about whether there is any conflict arising from his work in defense contracting matters and whether he is qualified to play such a major role in helping run the Pentagon.

The deputy defense secretary typically manages day-to-day operations of the massive bureaucracy with a combined workforce of more than 3 million service members and civilian employees.

The search for a capable No. 2 took on heightened significance as lawmakers weigh the pick of Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, to be defense secretary. …”

Not sure if there is a new angle here, but I think this selection was announced a couple weeks ago.

 

[nycfan]

Not sure if there is a new angle here, but I think this selection was announced a couple weeks ago.

Trump announced him yesterday, though I believe his nomination had previously been discussed in the media.

 

[lawtig02]

The weird thing is that Greenland does have some significant strategic value from a military perspective, especially if Russia loses its naval access through the Mediterranean with what's happening in Syria and Turkey. But there's no reason we need to own it. It shouldn't be hard to maintain good diplomatic and military relations with the freaking Danes. Unless you're a geopolitical moron, of course. And Trump can't help but add racism to the fire of idiocy by suggesting we should trade Puerto Rico for Greenland.

 

[nycfan]

“… His comments, delivered in public remarks and social-media posts on Sunday, come after he recently trolled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state and referring to Trudeau as a governor. During the recent presidential campaign, Trump said he would deploy the U.S. military to impose a naval embargo on Mexican cartels and order the Pentagon to use American special forces to take down cartel leaders.

… Taken together, the president-elect’s broadsides signal that he will pursue a confrontational foreign-policy agenda, leveraging unconventional threats and pointed demands in an attempt to gain advantage over allies and adversaries alike.

Trump is often prone to provocation, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he would try to follow through on his demands. But if he does, he is likely to face stiff resistance from world leaders, who would object to any effort to undermine their sovereignty.

… Trump’s comments about the Panama Canal drew an angry rebuke from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office in July after campaigning on a platform to curb U.S.-bound migration through the country’s pristine tropical rainforests with support from the U.S. government. He rejected Trump’s threats as an affront to Panama’s sovereignty.

“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama and will continue to be so,” Mulino responded in a video address Sunday afternoon. “The sovereignty and independence of our country aren’t negotiable.”

“We’ll see about that!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform later in the day. He added in another social-media post featuring an image of a waterway and an American flag, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

Short of an invasion, as the U.S. carried out in 1989 to overthrow then-dictator Manuel Noriega, the U.S. government has no ability to restore control of the canal, which the U.S. built more than a century ago. …”

——
Trump is weirdly setting his political capital on fire before he even gets inaugurated. The potential downfall of Justin Trudeau, where his groveling before Trump after the election and Trump threatening a tariff war with Canada was seen as a last straw for the weakened PM by a lot of his own party, is a pretty clear sign to other world leaders that standing up to Trump will be a better political strategy, at least in the short term.

I dunno, setting aside my extensive policy differences with Trump, I genuinely don’t see the political upside in a lot of what he has been posting and saying about Greenland, Panama, Canada and other foreign relations. It is sort of like the failed 11th hour assault on the CR, where he belatedly demanded something he didn’t have the votes for and had to take an unforced “L” when he didn’t even have to be involved at all, all the while blatantly stating he wanted to pin raising the debt ceiling on Biden so people wouldn’t blame Trump.

Or like nominating Matt Gaetz for anything, much less AG.

Baffling political moves, TBH. Like if I thought he takes any advice from anyone, I would swear someone advising him is a mole trying to undermine his presidency as early as possible.

 

[sringwal]

And ... he's not a Christian (16 seconds in) ...

"I'm not a Christian"

Pretty sure he said “I’m a Christian,” but incoherently.

 

[lawtig02]

Trump is weirdly setting his political capital on fire before he even gets inaugurated. The potential downfall of Justin Trudeau, where his groveling before Trump after the election and Trump threatening a tariff war with Canada was seen as a last straw for the weakened PM by a lot of his own party, is a pretty clear sign to other world leaders that standing up to Trump will be a better political strategy, at least in the short term.

I dunno, setting aside my extensive policy differences with Trump, I genuinely don’t see the political upside in a lot of what he has been posting and saying about Greenland, Panama, Canada and other foreign relations. It is sort of like the failed 11th hour assault on the CR, where he belatedly demanded something he didn’t have the votes for and had to take an unforced “L” when he didn’t even have to be involved at all, all the while blatantly stating he wanted to pin raising the debt ceiling on Biden so people wouldn’t blame Trump.

Or like nominating Matt Gaetz for anything, much less AG.

Baffling political moves, TBH. Like if I thought he takes any advice from anyone, I would swear someone advising him is a mole trying to undermine his presidency as early as possible.

Occam's razor says this is just Trump doing what he promised he would do during his campaign, even if millions voted for him because they didn't think he'd actually do it. He promised to go against every norm. He promised to punish our international allies. He promised to blow up the system. He promised to fill his government with loyalists and chaos agents. He promised to reward his friends and persecute his enemies. All of this is just the chickens coming home to roost.

 

[finesse]

The pay as you go plan.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

Trump to Bring Back Mount McKinley

President-elect Donald Trump announced he will bring back Mount McKinley after the mountain was changed in favor of the native population. Said Trump: “We're going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley. He deserves

politicalwire.com

 

[lawtig02]

Trump to Bring Back Mount McKinley

President-elect Donald Trump announced he will bring back Mount McKinley after the mountain was changed in favor of the native population. Said Trump: “We're going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley. He deserves

politicalwire.com

This is definitely what all his economically anxious voters have been waiting for.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Trump to Bring Back Mount McKinley

President-elect Donald Trump announced he will bring back Mount McKinley after the mountain was changed in favor of the native population. Said Trump: “We're going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley. He deserves

politicalwire.com

I expect that we'll see a lot of this kind of culture war shit that plays to his base over the next four years. Probably a lot of mountains, geographic places, military bases, etc. that have gotten new (or, often, their original) names back over the past decade will have that reversed by Trump in the most public manner possible. For example, I would expect that Fort Liberty will almost certainly be returned to Fort Bragg (a Confederate and one of the worst generals on either side in the Civil War), while Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Great Smokies, which recently was given its Cherokee name of Kuwohi, will likely revert to being Clingman's Dome under Trump.

It will no doubt please his base to see white names being restored in place of Native American or other new names. When Trumpers talk about "wokeism" this is one of the main things they're talking about - how dare they take down statues of Confederate "heroes" or change the names from white folks to all these weird foreign names I don't understand! So reverting the names will be an easy culture war "win" for Trumpers while allowing them to crow that they are striking a death blow to woke culture and making liberals upset. They live for this stuff.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Occam's razor says this is just Trump doing what he promised he would do during his campaign, even if millions voted for him because they didn't think he'd actually do it. He promised to go against every norm. He promised to punish our international allies. He promised to blow up the system. He promised to fill his government with loyalists and chaos agents. He promised to reward his friends and persecute his enemies. All of this is just the chickens coming home to roost.

Yep. For the past eight years all we've heard from Republicans is "trust us, Trump won't actually be as bad as y'all fear or do all of the shit he's saying, it's just for show." His first term was still pretty damn bad, but I think starting January 20 we're pretty quickly going to find out once and for all whether Trump and his minions are actually going to carry through (or at least try to) with all of these promises and claims, or whether it really is just for show. I suspect and fear it's going to mostly be the former, but we'll see soon enough.

 

[Bobfripp]

Pretty sure he said “I’m a Christian,” but incoherently.

That seems to be the case.

 

[nycfan]

FLASHBACK ... Flashback ... flashback

 

[nycfan]

 

[BlooVooDoo]

The weird thing is that Greenland does have some significant strategic value from a military perspective, especially if Russia loses its naval access through the Mediterranean with what's happening in Syria and Turkey. But there's no reason we need to own it. It shouldn't be hard to maintain good diplomatic and military relations with the freaking Danes. Unless you're a geopolitical moron, of course. And Trump can't help but add racism to the fire of idiocy by suggesting we should trade Puerto Rico for Greenland.

I’d like to see Denmark offer to sell it to the US if, and only if, Ukraine gets all their land back from Russia.

 

[BlooVooDoo]

“… His comments, delivered in public remarks and social-media posts on Sunday, come after he recently trolled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state and referring to Trudeau as a governor. During the recent presidential campaign, Trump said he would deploy the U.S. military to impose a naval embargo on Mexican cartels and order the Pentagon to use American special forces to take down cartel leaders.

… Taken together, the president-elect’s broadsides signal that he will pursue a confrontational foreign-policy agenda, leveraging unconventional threats and pointed demands in an attempt to gain advantage over allies and adversaries alike.

Trump is often prone to provocation, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he would try to follow through on his demands. But if he does, he is likely to face stiff resistance from world leaders, who would object to any effort to undermine their sovereignty.

… Trump’s comments about the Panama Canal drew an angry rebuke from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office in July after campaigning on a platform to curb U.S.-bound migration through the country’s pristine tropical rainforests with support from the U.S. government. He rejected Trump’s threats as an affront to Panama’s sovereignty.

“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama and will continue to be so,” Mulino responded in a video address Sunday afternoon. “The sovereignty and independence of our country aren’t negotiable.”

“We’ll see about that!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform later in the day. He added in another social-media post featuring an image of a waterway and an American flag, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

Short of an invasion, as the U.S. carried out in 1989 to overthrow then-dictator Manuel Noriega, the U.S. government has no ability to restore control of the canal, which the U.S. built more than a century ago. …”

——
Trump is weirdly setting his political capital on fire before he even gets inaugurated. The potential downfall of Justin Trudeau, where his groveling before Trump after the election and Trump threatening a tariff war with Canada was seen as a last straw for the weakened PM by a lot of his own party, is a pretty clear sign to other world leaders that standing up to Trump will be a better political strategy, at least in the short term.

I dunno, setting aside my extensive policy differences with Trump, I genuinely don’t see the political upside in a lot of what he has been posting and saying about Greenland, Panama, Canada and other foreign relations. It is sort of like the failed 11th hour assault on the CR, where he belatedly demanded something he didn’t have the votes for and had to take an unforced “L” when he didn’t even have to be involved at all, all the while blatantly stating he wanted to pin raising the debt ceiling on Biden so people wouldn’t blame Trump.

Or like nominating Matt Gaetz for anything, much less AG.

Baffling political moves, TBH. Like if I thought he takes any advice from anyone, I would swear someone advising him is a mole trying to undermine his presidency as early as possible.

He’s simply obsessed with size. He sees Greenland on a map (Mercator projection, most likely) and thinks it’s freaking huge. He wants Canada and Greenland to be part of the US so we can be physically bigger. I think Putin said something to him about how enormous Russia is and it made Trump feel inferior.

 

[JCTarheel82]

He’s simply obsessed with size. He sees Greenland on a map (Mercator projection, most likely) and thinks it’s freaking huge. He wants Canada and Greenland to be part of the US so we can be physically bigger. I think Putin said something to him about how enormous Russia is and it made Trump feel inferior.

But seriously, I think these actions are the result of Trump's pathological insecurity. He needs to humiliate others to build himself up and his ignorant base incorrectly views these acts of insecurity as displays of dominance, which they adore. I can definitely see the desire for more physical land falling under the umbrella of insecurity.