Category: “Dead Skunk in The Middle of The Road”

Issues and events that stink to high heaven

Reagan FBI director urges caution against Gabbard, Patel

ABC News

Reagan FBI director urges caution against Gabbard, Patel

Luke Barr – December 28, 2024

The only man to lead both the FBI and the CIA urged caution to senators who might vote to confirm former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Kash Patel to lead the FBI, according to a letter sent to senators this week.

“I am deeply concerned about the potential nominations of Mr. Kash Patel to lead the FBI and the inclusion of Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as DNI in intelligence roles,” William Webster, who led the FBI during the Carter and Reagan administrations and the CIA after that, said in a letter to senators on Thursday.

PHOTO: In this Dec. 18, 2014, file photo, former FBI Director and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) under Ronald Reagan, Judge William Webster is interviewed for a documentary about directors of the CIA. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images, FILE)
PHOTO: In this Dec. 18, 2014, file photo, former FBI Director and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) under Ronald Reagan, Judge William Webster is interviewed for a documentary about directors of the CIA. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images, FILE)More

MORE: Why most of Trump’s Cabinet picks will get confirmed by the Senate

Webster wrote that Patel’s loyalty to Trump may cause problems.

“Statements such as ‘He’s my intel guy’ and his record of executing the president’s directives suggest a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law — a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice,” said Webster, who turns 101 in March.

PHOTO: Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for director of the FBI, speaks to reporters before a meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
PHOTO: Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the FBI, speaks to reporters before a meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2024. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)More

MORE: Chris Wray’s FBI departure won’t immediately clear path for Kash Patel: Experts

He said that during his tenure at the FBI, he was contacted by the president only twice — once by President Jimmy Carter, who asked him to investigate an issue, and once when President Ronald Reagan had a question about Nancy Reagan’s security.

Webster added that Gabbard’s “profound lack of intelligence experience and the daunting task of overseeing 18 disparate intelligence agencies further highlight the need for seasoned leadership.”

“History has shown us the dangers of compromising this independence. When leaders of these organizations become too closely aligned with political figures, public confidence erodes and our nation’s security is jeopardized,” he wrote. “Every president deserves appointees they trust, but the selection process must prioritize competence and independence to uphold the rule of law.”

The letter was first reported by Politico.

Webster did endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president in 2024 and Joe Biden for president in 2020.

The Trump transition team defended both Patel and Gabbard to Fox News.

“Kash Patel is loyal to the Constitution. He’s worked under Presidents Obama and Trump in key national security roles,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a Trump transition team spokesman.

PHOTO: President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, is shown at the Hart Senate Office Building, Dec. 18, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
PHOTO: President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, is shown at the Hart Senate Office Building, Dec. 18, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)More

MORE: Who is Tulsi Gabbard? Meet Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence

Alexa Henning, a Trump transition official, also defended Gabbard.

“Lt. Col. Gabbard is an active member of the Army and has served in the military for over two decades and in Congress. As someone who has consumed intelligence at the highest levels, including during wartime, she recognizes the importance of partnerships with allies to ensure close coordination to keep the American people safe,” she told Fox News.

Americans and their leaders are to blame for returning Trump to the White House

Nashville Tennessean – Opinion

Americans and their leaders are to blame for returning Trump to the White House

April Lieberman – December 26, 2024

From rural Tennessee to Democratic presidential politics, I’ve lived in both worlds − of “us and them.”

Here’s my take on why:

  1. my neighbors don’t trust Democrat
  2. a convicted felon is returning to the White House.

There’s plenty of blame to go around.

Biden himself is among those to blame among Democrats
  • President Joe Biden: for selfishly pursuing the presidency despite cognitive decline, his sundowning obvious back in the 2019 primary debates.
  • Biden supporters and allies: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and his family for letting him. White House staff, the Democratic National Committee, and party leaders, for enabling this epic disservice to the country. His Cabinet, profiles in cowardice, for not invoking the 25th Amendment and removing him.
  • Attorney General Merrick Garland: for delaying appointing a special counsel, allowing now President-elect Donald Trump to run out the clock. Rep. Jim Clyburn, for delivering Biden South Carolina in the 2020 primaries. Former President Barack Obama, for strong-arming Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, out of the race, placing loyalty over country, then again by preemptively supporting Biden’s reelection bid, deterring primary challengers.
  • The Clintons: 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and coastal elites, for underestimating Trump in 2015-2016 and neglecting the Blue Wall. Former President Bill Clinton and ‘90s NAFTA Dems for decimating small towns across America, including mine. All of them (not named Bernie Sanders), for decades of ignoring rural and blue-collar voters while taking Black and Latino Americans for granted, instead pushing agendas far left of the American electorate.
  • Miscellaneous: Whichever idiot coined “Bidenomics,” an infuriating attempt to gaslight America.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris: for not distancing herself from Biden or showing us she felt our pain. Her campaign, for inaccessibility and insularity (shades of Hillary Clinton), ignoring those devastating anti-trans ads, and fundamentally misreading what mattered most to voters: It’s still the economy, stupid.

Opinion: Kamala Harris is the best Democrats can do? Looks like they don’t want to beat Trump

MAGA voters and justice system are responsible for returning Trump to the White House
  • MAGA: For placing a racist/rapist/convicted felon over our Constitution.
  • Other Republicans: Most of them, for striking Faustian bargains in normalizing Trump, sacrificing their integrity for power, none more craven than Sen. Lindsey Graham’s betrayal of “Amigo” John McCain on his deathbed to worship at the orange altar. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, for not saving us this national nightmare by ordering his minions to remove the Insurrectionist-in-Chief, forever barring him from federal office − Howard Baker he is not.
  • Right-wing Supreme Court justices: For not checking the presidency, instead placing Trump above the law, dismantling our rights and democracy itself.
  • Judge Juan Merchan: For delaying sentencing on 34 felony convictions until after the election, instead of letting Trump campaign from a New York City jail cell.

Opinion: Tennessee Democrats should build upon the movement Gloria Johnson created

Media, dictators, billionaires and Congress bear responsibility too

Opinion: Nashville’s star is fading. The Big Sort is creating a rural and red revolution.

April Lieberman
April Lieberman

April Lieberman is a former appellate attorney with family experience in presidential politics, a Yale Law School graduate who studied philosophy at Vanderbilt, and Democratic politics in the backwoods of West Tennessee.

Elon Musk wants to ‘delete’ many Americans’ financial lifeline

The Hill – Opinion

Elon Musk wants to ‘delete’ many Americans’ financial lifeline

Sharon McGowan, opinion contributor – December 24, 2024

Nearly every exit poll conducted on Election Day found that, more than any other issues, voters’ concerns about the economy helped to return Donald Trump to the White House and put Republicans back in charge of both houses of Congress. Americans who felt the sting of inflation and who had trouble making ends meet, as companies steadily increased prices for essential goods like groceries and clothing, voted in the hopes that a new administration and new Congress would bring relief for their families.

So it is especially surprising that one of the first federal agencies to come under scrutiny from the incoming administration is one that has returned billions of dollars to many of the same consumers who were counting on leaders in Washington to look out for their wallets.

On Nov. 27, Elon Musk — who, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tasked by President-Elect Trump with running a new Department of Government Efficiency — posted on his platform X that he wants to “Delete CFPB,” referring to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency, Musk said, was part of a problem of “too many duplicative regulatory agencies” in Washington. But there are no other agencies in the federal government returning money to Americans’ bank accounts in the way the CFPB does.

Since its founding, the agency has returned more than $19 billion in cash to people who have been scammed by financial institutions, including predatory payday lenders and even some of the largest banks in the country. It has done so under Republican and Democratic presidents, including major actions against Wells Fargo and Equifax during President Trump’s first term in office, which, combined, returned $425 million to consumers. (Those actions both began under the Obama administration, but Trump’s CFPB directors oversaw the execution of those fines.)

The money recovered is made available to those who have been impacted by the institutions’ wrongdoing through the CFPB’s victims’ relief fund. To date, more than 200 million Americans have been eligible for payments from the fund. The agency has also cancelled many consumers’ debts altogether and reduced loan principles for many others.

In fact, just days after Musk posted his message on X, the CFPB announced that it was mailing refund checks to more than 4 million people who were scammed by so-called credit repair companies, including Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com, which illegally collected fees from consumers seeking relief for the effects of economic woes weighing down them and their families. The companies will pay $2.7 billion in consumer redress and civil penalties; $1.8 billion of that will go directly to those who lost money as a result of the scam.

It’s no wonder the agency enjoys broad, bipartisan support, with more than eight in 10 Americans supporting the CFPB’s various enforcement actions. In red and blue states, Americans seem to support returning money to those who have been cheated.

The agency’s impact is felt in other ways, too. In Oklahoma, CFPB collected evidence that helped retired Lt. Col. Susan Parisi in her fight against loan company GreenSky — which scammed her into a high-interest loan she never agreed to. The CFPB found that GreenSky was using “deceptive” and “fraudulent” tactics and ordered the company to return $9 million to consumers. My organization is representing Lt. Col. Parisi in her class action on behalf of others who were scammed by GreenSky.

So why is an agency that has been so effective, and returned so much money to so many people, being targeted for “deletion?” Because, in the course of holding wrongdoers accountable, it has crossed paths with some of the most powerful people in the country.

Musk’s post on X, for example, seems to have been prompted by complaints from Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist whose companies have been sanctioned (and, in the case of LendUp Loans, shuttered) because of CFPB investigations and actions. Andreessen accused the agency of “terrorizing financial institutions,” and was clearly infuriated when the CFPB found that LendUp had misled customers about high-interest loans and overcharged U.S. service personnel.

President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress should not let Andreessen’s views overshadow the overwhelming opinion among Americans that the agency is doing important work that makes a real difference to those who turn to financial institutions and lenders for help during tough financial times. By one count, even under the first Trump administration’s CFPB directors — who tended to enforce far fewer fines against companies than Biden and Obama appointees — the agency brought more than $1 billion in redress back to consumers’ wallets. That’s direct relief, and money in wallets, for millions of Americans. “Deleting” the agency would almost certainly ensure that no such future relief ever reaches consumers again.

Fortunately, neither Musk nor the incoming administration can completely eliminate the CFPB, whose funding comes from the Federal Reserve in a model, upheld by the U.S.  Supreme Court, that is meant to protect it from political meddling. Republicans and Democrats alike should ensure that firewall remains in place, and the CFPB remains on the job, if they’re serious about providing real, meaningful economic relief to Americans.

Sharon McGowan is the chief executive officer of legal advocacy organization Public Justice.

Elon Musk’s Drug Use Becoming a Problem for Government Security Clearance

Futurism

Elon Musk’s Drug Use Becoming a Problem for Government Security Clearance

Victor Tangermann – December 17, 2024

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may not receive top security clearances — even though roughly 400 staffers at his rocket company already have those permissions.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, SpaceX lawyers advised executives not to attempt to secure higher security clearances for the mercurial CEO, since that would force him to disclose information about his frequent contacts with foreign nationals, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, as well as his much-rumored drug use.

Musk currently holds a “top secret” security clearance, giving him access to “some national security secrets,” but not the full clearance required by staff who work on classified programs, sources told the WSJ.

Even his current security clearance took years to obtain after famously smoking weed with Joe Rogan in 2018. SpaceX lawyers are also reportedly considering his ketamine use, a hotly debated subject in the media.

Worse yet, by seeking an even higher security clearance, Musk may risk losing his current “top secret” clearance, the lawyers worry.

But now that he’s been put in charge of a so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by president-elect Donald Trump, these concerns may soon be a moot point. Now that Musk has secured himself prominent placement among the incoming administration’s ranks, the richest man in the world may soon have a much easier time accessing highly classified information.

Without permissions for “sensitive compartmented information,” which several hundred SpaceX employees have, Musk is reportedly unable to access certain information about his company’s spy satellite program, called Starshield. According to the WSJ, he isn’t even allowed to enter most facilities where related work is being done.

Earlier this year, the WSJ reported that Musk had a long history of using psychoactive drugs, including LSD and psychedelic mushrooms. His lawyer, however, later disputed the report, arguing that he had “never failed” a drug test at SpaceX.

Whether Musk will have to fill out a full questionnaire and disclose his drug use, as well as his extensive communications with foreign nationals, remains to be seen. With the ear of the president of the United States, Musk could soon have unfettered access to highly classified information without having to jump through additional hoops.

Besides, now that they’re in charge of DOGE, both he and pharma exec Vivek Ramaswamy will likely have to sift through some highly classified data anyway — as they’ve already promised to slash the Pentagon’s spending in the coming years.

Donald Trump Probably Isn’t a Russian Agent. But He Wouldn’t Be Behaving Much Differently If He Were.

Slate

Donald Trump Probably Isn’t a Russian Agent. But He Wouldn’t Be Behaving Much Differently If He Were.

Fred Kaplan – December 11, 2024

Donald Trump probably isn’t a Russian agent, but he wouldn’t be behaving much differently right now if he were.

Among the main goals of the Kremlin’s foreign policy are to sow chaos and distrust within Western democracies and to disrupt the alliances that join those countries together, especially the links between the United States and Europe. The idea is that a weaker West makes for a stronger Russia—a connection all the more important as the measures of Russia’s strength on its own (economic, political, and military) are diminishing.

Many have noted Trump’s open antipathy toward alliances and his aversion to any foreign commitments that don’t yield immediate transactional gains.

His actions since he won the election—especially his nominees for high-level positions—reveal his affinity for chaos, his keen desire to sow distrust within the American political system. His aim here is not to strengthen Russia (and other authoritarian countries), though that may be among its consequences. The aim—as he and some of his more ideological cronies have proclaimed for a long time now—is to destroy the “deep state,” to concentrate power in the White House, and to weaken or punish (perhaps even incarcerate) those who try to obstruct his ambitions.

Trump is not stupid. He must know that many of his nominees to be Cabinet secretaries, agency directors, and ambassadors have no apparent qualifications to run vast bureaucracies, parse complex problems, or engage in delicate diplomacy. That’s not the point. He wants them to empty out the bureaucracies or run them into the ground. He wants them to twist the agencies into empty shells or blunt instruments of his vendettas. He wants to insult the diplomatic corps and to show foreign leaders how slight he regards their status.

Some of his nominees are meant to carry out his most perniciously personal and political campaigns. He named Pete Hegseth, a man who has never run an organization of any impressive size, to helm the Defense Department—with its $840 billion budget, 3 million employees, and wide-ranging global responsibilities—because Hegseth’s commentaries on Fox News (where he anchored a weekend show) indicate he’d happily carry out Trump’s intention to fire senior officers who don’t express utter loyalty to Trump.

He named Kash Patel to head the FBI because Patel is not just willing but sweating-ready to go after Trump’s personal and political enemies, including within the FBI itself. Patel has drawn up an enemies list already. (Trump tried to make Matt Gaetz attorney general for the same reason, but Gaetz proved too blatant a henchman for even Trump’s loyalists in the Senate to swallow—as, by the way, some of his other nominees may prove to be too.)

He named Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence because he wants to blow up the intelligence agencies, many of which he sees as teeming with enemies to himself and the country (which he views as a mere extension of himself, as in l’état, c’est moi).

He named Dr. Mehmet Oz, a heart surgeon turned TV doctor with financial interests galore to run Medicare and Medicaid, because he wants to gut Medicare and Medicaid.* He named Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, to run the Department of Homeland Security—a hodgepodge of 22 once independent departments and agencies with a combined budget of $108 billion (more than 16 times that of South Dakota’s state budget)—because he wants to gut homeland security.

The list could go on.

Trump has said—and may genuinely believe—that he can run the country, the economy, the military, social services, and all the rest, just fine all by himself. (Axios once assembled a list of topics that Trump has said he knows “more about than anybody.” It included money, infrastructure, the economy, trade, ISIS, energy, taxes—just about every topic involving government.)

Many of Trump’s voters think it’s great that he plans to blow up the system. That’s a big reason why many of them voted for him. No doubt, much of the system could use reforms or outright overhaul. But the people Trump wants to put in charge have no idea how to improve the system, nor are they expected to. Many citizens may come to feel buyer’s remorse when they realize just how closely their own lives and interests are intertwined with the functioning of government—something that is often taken for granted, until it doesn’t function. By that time, it may be too late.

And while the direct connection may not be clear, people might also come to take note of new dangers to national security. Foreign governments may no longer share highly sensitive information with an intelligence director who parrots Kremlin propaganda; allies who no longer regard the U.S. as a reliable protector may go their own way or make deals with adversaries; and adversaries may take America’s passivity as a green light to go bold. The Western-led “rules-based order,” which is already in grim shape, will turn to tatters.

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Hey, MAGA voters: You’ve been had. Trump’s plans for the economy may ruin you.

USA Today – Opinion

Hey, MAGA voters: You’ve been had. Trump’s plans for the economy may ruin you.

Rex Huppke – December 10, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump cares deeply about the forgotten men and women of the MAGA movement, the regular folks who believe wealthy elites have made America decidedly NOT GREAT.

So I’m sure those forgotten men and women are thrilled to know Trump has stocked his upcoming administration with enough billionaires and multimillionaires to, as The Guardian put it recently, “form a soccer team.”

That’s right. Axios reported last week that, including Trump himself, the administration-to-be is already staffed with 14 billionaires. The list includes Linda McMahon as Education secretary, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as government efficiency overseers, Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary and billionaire hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary.

I’m sure these down-to-earth billionaires care deeply about the forgotten men and women who put Trump in office. Surely they are in no way “elite,” aside from perhaps owning an island, or maybe occasionally hunting poor people for sport on said island.

Trump is surrounding himself with non-elite billionaires who care

Forbes reported in 2021 that President Joe Biden’s Cabinet had a net worth of about $188 million.

The Guardian puts the net worth of Trump’s gang thus far at more than $300 billion. If you believe in math, it’s a staggering sum, about 2,000 times the wealth of those in the Biden administration.

Elon Musk, holding his son, and Vivek Ramaswamy, in blue tie, visit Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress on Dec. 5, 2024.
Elon Musk, holding his son, and Vivek Ramaswamy, in blue tie, visit Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress on Dec. 5, 2024.

So, you know … regular folks, the kind who undoubtedly can relate to the day-to-day needs of Americans. The sort who regularly go to grocery stores, which they refer to as “commoner slop-distribution centers.” The kind who would never want to harvest the blood of young people in a narcissistic quest for eternal life.

Musk, Ramaswamy may come after VA health care, but it’s fine

There’s no way billionaire businessmen like Musk and Ramaswamy would do anything that helps the rich at the expense of hardworking Americans. They wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal that they will be “taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress.”

And yes, that could include things like the Department of Veterans Affairs medical services, billions of dollars in funding for education and housing, and the Head Start program.

But I’m 100% sure we can trust these billionaires because they’re with Trump, and Trump is clearly anti-elite. As the conservative Heritage Foundation trumpeted after the election: “With Trump’s Win, ‘Ordinary’ Americans Declared Independence from the Elites.”

And Fox Business host Stuart Varney said after Trump won: “The elites have been living in a bubble. Trump just burst it.”

Huzzah! Take that, elites! Now please stand back while regular-guy-billionaire Donald Trump installs a phalanx of other billionaires who will, in a totally non-elite way, lower their own taxes while taking away government services that many forgotten men and women rely on for little things like continuing to live.

Opinion: It’s the bitcoin boom, baby! I’m bailing on Beanie Babies and investing bigly!

Trump can’t guarantee tariffs won’t lead to higher prices. Cool!

Consider this: Trump has repeatedly talked about how much he likes tariffs and how, as soon as he takes office, he’s going to tariff the daylights out of other countries like China and Mexico.

Economists ‒ probably elites ‒ say the cost of tariffs will get passed along to American consumers. They say that because it’s exactly what will happen. But Trump, the everyman, has long denied that reality, convincing the forgotten men and women of the middle class he’s an economic wizard and this will all work out great for them.

Fruit could be impacted by Trump’s proposed tariffs, particularly avocados, melons and citrus fruits.
Fruit could be impacted by Trump’s proposed tariffs, particularly avocados, melons and citrus fruits.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Trump was asked if he can “guarantee American families won’t pay more” under his tariff plan.

Trump, the billionaire, said: “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”

Put your future in the hands of Trump’s caring billionaires

You see? Trump cares about American families to not guarantee anything.

So don’t worry, forgotten men and women. Be confident that Trump and Musk and Ramaswamy and McMahon and Lutnick and all the other totally trustworthy and altruistic non-elite billionaires know what’s good for you.

Because you’re about to get it, regardless.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

trump, musk and the billionaires can’t wait to begin dismantling American Democracy and our Constitution: Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his

Associated Press

trump, musk and the billionaires can’t wait to begin dismantling American Democracy and our Constitution: Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his

Thomas Beaumont, Juliet Linderman, Martha Mendoza – December 9, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP)
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP)
Elon Musk, carrying his son X Æ A-Xii, leaves after a meeting with members of congress to discuss President-elect Donald Trump's planned Department of Government Efficiency on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Elon Musk, carrying his son X Æ A-Xii, leaves after a meeting with members of congress to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A week after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries.”

The following week, the billionaire responded to a report that he might fund challengers to GOP House members who don’t support Trump’s nominees. “How else? There is no other way,” Musk wrote on X, which he rebranded after purchasing Twitter and moving to boost conservative voices, including his own.

And during his recent visit to Capitol Hill, Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy delivered a warning to Republicans who don’t go along with their plans to slash spending as part of Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency.

“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Trump’s second term comes with the specter of the world’s richest man serving as his political enforcer. Within Trump’s team, there is a feeling that Musk not only supports Trump’s agenda and Cabinet appointments, but is intent on seeing them through to the point of pressuring Republicans who may be less devout.

One Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal political dynamics, noted Musk had come to enjoy his role on the campaign and that he clearly had the resources to stay involved.

The adviser and others noted that Musk’s role is still taking shape. And Musk, once a supporter of President Barack Obama before moving to the right in recent years, is famously mercurial.

“I think he was really important for this election. Purchasing Twitter, truly making it a free speech platform, I think, was integral to this election, to the win that Donald Trump had,” said departing Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law. “But I don’t know that ultimately he wants to be in politics. I think he considers himself to be someone on the outside.”

During the presidential campaign, Musk contributed roughly $200 million to America PAC, a super PAC aimed at reaching Trump voters online and in person in the seven most competitive states, which Trump swept. He also invested $20 million in a group called RBG PAC, which ran ads arguing Trump would not sign a national abortion ban even as the former president nominated three of the justices who overturned a federally guaranteed right to the procedure.

Musk’s donation to RBG PAC — a name that invokes the initials of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of abortion rights — wasn’t revealed until post-election campaign filings were made public Thursday.

Musk has said he hopes to keep America PAC funded and operating. Beyond that, he has used his X megaphone to suggest he is at least open to challenging less exuberant Trump supporters in Congress.

Another key Trump campaign ally has been more aggressive online. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, whose group Turning Point Action also worked to turn out voters for Trump, named Republican senators he wants to target.

“This is not a joke, everybody. The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched,” Kirk said on his podcast, singling out Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Jim Risch of Idaho, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Thom Tillis of North Carolina as potential targets. All four Republican senators’ seats are up in 2026.

For now, Musk has been enjoying the glow of his latest conquest, joining Trump for high-level meetings and galas at the soon-to-be president’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. The incoming administration is seeded with Musk allies, including venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks serving as the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” and Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Musk’s SpaceX, named to lead NASA.

Musk could help reinforce Trump’s agenda immediately, some GOP strategists said, by using America PAC to pressure key Republicans. Likewise, Musk could begin targeting moderate Democrats in pivotal states and districts this spring, urging them to break with their party on key issues, Republican strategist Chris Pack said.

“Instead of using his influence to twist GOP arms when you have majorities in both houses, he could start going after Democrats who vote against Trump’s agenda in states where the election was a referendum for Trump,” said Pack, former communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Otherwise, if you pressure Republicans with a primary, you can end up with a Republican who can’t win, and then a Democrat in that seat.”

___

Linderman reported from Baltimore and Mendoza from Santa Cruz, California. Associated Press congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

Well, Well, Well: Trump Gives up the Game on Project 2025

The New Republic

Well, Well, Well: Trump Gives up the Game on Project 2025

Edith Olmsted – November 22, 2024

Donald Trump is taking yet another page out of the authoritarian playbook Project 2025—and it’s the one with a list of MAGA loyalists for hire.

After trying desperately, often unconvincingly, to distance his campaign from Project 2025’s unpopular, extremist policies, Trump’s transition team has been using the right-wing playbook’s staffing database to make appointments within the new administration, a source familiar told NBC News.

“There’s a lot of positions to fill and we continue to send names over, including ones from the database as they are conservative, qualified and vetted,” the source, who had worked on Project 2025, told NBC News. “Hard to find 4,000 solid people, so we are happy to help.”

Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025, once described his plans to make a “conservative Linkedin” containing information on thousands of potential hires for the Trump administration. He envisioned it as a personnel machine for rooting out the “deep state” and replacing federal employees with devoted MAGA loyalists.

Dans hoped his system would allow Trump to make big changes fast. “If a person can’t get in and fire people right away, what good is political management?” Dans said in December.

Earlier this week, Trump nominated Russ Vought, a Christian nationalist with ties to Project 2025, to lead the Office of Management and Budget. He also nominated Brendan Carr, who wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the Federal Communications Commission, to head that government agency.

Last week, Trump nominated John Ratcliffe, another Project 2025 author, to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Vladimir Putin Is “Gleeful” Over This Trump Cabinet Nomination

The New Republic – Opinion

Vladimir Putin Is “Gleeful” Over This Trump Cabinet Nomination

Edith Olmsted – November 22, 2024

Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to be the next director of national intelligence may not be making you happy, but it’s certainly making someone happy: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Russia, the response to the former Hawaii representative’s nomination has been “gleeful,” The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian newspaper, fawned over Gabbard in an article last week, noting that “the CIA and FBI are trembling.” The article also noted that Ukrainians considered Gabbard to be “an agent of the Russian state.”

Trump’s decision to nominate Gabbard, of all people, signals his distinct willingness to cozy up to Putin.

“Nominating Gabbard for director of national intelligence is the way to Putin’s heart, and it tells the world that America under Trump will be the Kremlin’s ally rather than an adversary,” authoritarian scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat told the Times.

Gabbard has defended Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, claiming that the U.S. had provoked Russian aggression and that Ukraine housed U.S.-funded biolabs that were developing secret bioweapons—a piece of foreign state propaganda that earned her the reputation as a Russian asset.

Virginia Representative Abigail Spanberger sounded the alarm about Gabbard on MSNBC, noting that, if confirmed, Gabbard would be responsible for putting together the president’s daily briefings, and would likely include Russian propaganda.

Former CIA Director John Brennan also voiced his concerns about Gabbard on MSNBC Tuesday. “[Gabbard] has done things and said things over the years that really [have] caused great concern about where her sympathies and sentiments lie, but also she has no experience and background in the intelligence profession,” he said.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy told MSNBC that Gabbard had been known to “toe the line of brutal despotic regimes.”

Russia isn’t the only authoritarian state Gabbard’s defended: She’s also backed Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

Nikki Haley criticizes Trump cabinet picks Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr

The Guardian

Nikki Haley criticizes Trump cabinet picks Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr

Martin Pengelly in Washington – November 21, 2024

<span>Nikki Haley called Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘liberal Democrat’.</span><span>Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA</span>
Nikki Haley called Robert F Kennedy Jr a ‘liberal Democrat’.Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and Republican presidential hopeful, criticized two of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, calling his choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” and Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped for health secretary, a “liberal Democrat” with no background in relevant policy.

“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China,” Haley said of Gabbard on her SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday. “No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back.

“This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer,” Haley continued, adding that the director of national intelligence “has to analyze real threats” to US security.

Related: Who is Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence?

Gabbard, 43, is a former progressive congresswoman who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but who has since become a Republican.

Kennedy, 70 and a scion of a famous political family turned vaccine conspiracy theorist, ran for the Democratic nomination this year before switching to run as an independent and then dropping out to back Trump.

Haley said: “He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25% of our federal budget and has no background in healthcare. Some of you may think RFK is cool, some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and what’s in our vaccines, but we don’t know, when he is given reins to an agency, what decisions he’s going to make behind the scenes.”

Haley was governor of South Carolina before becoming UN ambassador in Trump’s first administration, resigning in 2018. This year, she ran second to Trump in the Republican presidential primary – a race in which she called her opponent “unhinged”, “diminished”, “confused” and not “mentally fit”, and said voting him into office would be “like suicide for our country”.

Still, after Trump won the Republican nomination, Haley endorsed him. No job offer has been forthcoming.

Trump has moved quickly to make cabinet picks. The selections of Gabbard and Kennedy have prompted uproar similar to that stoked by his choice of the far-right congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general and the Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense.

Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines, calls for deflouridization of drinking water and other conspiracy theory-laced positions have prompted widespread alarm.

Gabbard’s foreign policy positions have long generated controversy. In 2022, she endorsed a Russian claim that its invasion of Ukraine was justified by the existence of US-funded laboratories on Ukrainian soil, supposedly creating bioweapons for use against Russia. Such labs actually work to stop the creation of bioweapons. Gabbard has said she was calling for such labs to be protected. But other supportive comments about Russia have attracted huge controversy.

On Wednesday, Haley said: “After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard literally blamed Nato, our western alliance that’s responsible for countering Russia. She blamed Nato for the attack on Ukraine, and the Russians and the Chinese echoed her talking points and her interviews on Russian and Chinese television.”

Gabbard has also attracted criticism regarding meetings with Bashar al-Assad, the autocratic Syrian president accused of war crimes against his own people. Gabbard has said: “I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering.” She has also accused the US of supporting terrorists in Syria.

While still a Democrat, Gabbard supported the Iran nuclear deal, which the US left during Trump’s first term, and said the US should avoid a trade war with China, a central Trump aim.

Trump’s pick of Gabbard has generated widespread criticism, not least in light of a long-running spat with leading Democrats including Hillary Clinton over whether the former congresswoman might be seen as a “Russian asset”.

Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer now a Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, said: “This is a matter of national security. Someone who has aligned herself with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad and trafficked in Russian-backed conspiracy theories is an unsuitable and potentially dangerous selection.”

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said: “You really want her to have all the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when she has so clearly been in Putin’s pocket?”

Related: Police report details sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth

Anti-Trump rightwingers also spoke out. John Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser in his first term, said: “The idea that somehow she would be put in charge of this critical function should be giving our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing a lot of relief.”

Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman, published a column with a blunt headline: “I Served With Tulsi Gabbard and Yikes.”

Even the Murdoch-owned New York Post, a pro-Trump paper, said the president-elect should ditch Gabbard (and Gaetz), its editorial board calling her “dreadful” and a “distracting chaos agent”.

In contrast, Russian media has spoken glowingly of Gabbard, one paper noting that Ukrainians consider her “an agent of the Russian state” and saying: “The CIA and the FBI are trembling.”