WATCH Trump’s Attorney General Nominee, Pam Bondi, Threaten to ‘Prosecute the Prosecutors’

During the first occupation of the White House by Donald Trump, he distinguished himself by having the highest turnover in his Cabinet and White House staff in history. Despite bragging that he would hire “only the best people,” he ended up hiring people that he later fired because they were, in his own words, “incompetent, stupid,” and/or “losers.”

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Fox News, Pam Bondi

Things are not getting off to much of a better start as Trump begins to put together the team for his next reign of error. Before a single confirmation hearing has been scheduled, Trump’s choice for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, has withdrawn his name from consideration due the flood of allegations of his criminal sexual misconduct and flagrant dishonesty. And the fate of Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is facing a growing barrage of similar allegations.

SEE THIS: One Down: The Demise of Matt Gaetz’ AG Aspirations Spells Trouble for Pete Hegseth at Defense

Within hours of the Gaetz nomination being scrapped, Trump announced his replacement for the post, former Florida state Attorney General Pam Bondi. The announcement was made, as usual, on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, which appears to also be his official platform for presidential press releases. The notice listed some of Bondi’s experience as a prosecutor, taking credit for Florida’s middling to poor record on drugs and crime. It also addressed a familiar theme in Trump’s repertoire of whining…

“The partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime.”

Let’s set aside the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever of the Justice Department being partisan. To the contrary, it has also prosecuted several prominent Democrats, including President Biden’s son, Hunter. But if fighting crime is actually what Trump wants from his Justice Department, they can start with his own record of 34 felony convictions and 54 still pending charges.

What Trump doesn’t bother to mention about Bondi is that she was on his defense team during his first impeachment trial for attempting to pressure the president of Ukraine into investigate Biden, withholding U.S. security aid, and obstruction of Congress. He also didn’t mention that she accepted an illegal donation from him, then dropped out of a lawsuit against his fraudulent Trump University.

MORE HERE: Donald Trump Caught Outright Lying About ‘Donation’ To Florida Attorney General

Furthermore, Trump’s assertion that Bondi wouldn’t be “weaponizing” the Department of Justice herself has no basis in reality. She actually made the opposite case last year in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that…

“When Republicans take back the White House – and we will be back in there – you know what’s gonna happen? The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated. Because the deep state, last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated. The house needs to be cleaned out because now we know who most of them are.”

That’s right. Bondi actually took the position that under her leadership, if confirmed, she would favor prosecuting the career attorneys at the DoJ who would be working for her. That’s gotta be unsettling from both a professional and a personal perspective for the staff at the Department.

Finally, Bondi would become another member of Trump’s Fox News Cabinet being cast by the former reality TV game show host. According to Media Matters, she has made 64 appearances on Fox News since January 2023. That’s about once every week and a half. Which is why Trump nominated Bondi to begin with. She holds the single most important qualification to Trump: He’s seen her face on TV.

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One Down: The Demise of Matt Gaetz’ AG Aspirations Spells Trouble for Pete Hegseth at Defense

The cartoonishly catastrophic Cabinet of Donald Trump is quickly devolving into an unprecedented political disaster area. As he has endeavored to cast his reality TV show administration, the glaring dearth of qualified, ethical nominees is impossible to ignore.

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Fox News, Pete Hegseth, Cleared

On Thursday morning Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration for the post after the flood of allegations of his criminal sexual misconduct and dishonesty became too abundant to pretend they were merely innocent misunderstandings. To the contrary, they were consistent with Trump’s utter deprivation of principles that is now following him back into the White House.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

The fact that Gaetz was so tainted that his nomination could not go forward is just the first sign of trouble for Trump’s nascent second term. His other nominees have problems that are even more disturbing. For instance, his pick for National Security Director, Tulsi Gabbard, is a Russian sympathizer. His choice for Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy, Jr, is a conspiracy crackpot with a dead worm in his brain. His chosen head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, is a a quack and a Snake Oil salesman. His Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, is a puppy killer.

However, perhaps the worst of Trump’s motley screw ups is Pete Hegseth, his proposed Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has zero experience managing any kind of large institution, much less the largest in the U.S. government. Nor does he have experience with senior Pentagon level command. What he has is a face that Trump has seen on television as a co-host on the Fox News morning program, Fox and Friends.

Despite Hegseth’s TV resume, he seems entirely unprepared for the media encounters he would face as a member of Trump’s Cabinet. During a brief Q&A on Thursday, Hegseth pitifully mishandled what ought to have been an easy question…

Reporter: Did you sexually assault a woman in Monterey, California?
Hegseth: I have…ah…As far as the media is concerned, it’s very simple. The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.

What is painfully obvious in Hegseth’s response is that he does not bother to deny that he committed the sexual assault. Wouldn’t that be the first thing that an innocent person would want to establish before commenting on anything else? But to Hegseth, it was just a matter of what “the media is concerned” with.

What’s more, Hegseth is lying about the matter having been “fully investigated” and his being “completely cleared.” In fact, more details about the assault came out the very same morning that Hegseth was saying this. And not being charged doesn’t mean that he isn’t guilty, There are many reasons that prosecutors decline to file charges, even when there is evidence of guilt. As reported by CNN

“A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she ‘remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,’ a police report obtained by CNN shows.” […and…] “Hegseth later entered into a settlement agreement with his accuser that included an undisclosed monetary payment and a confidentiality clause.”

Hegseth shares much in common with his mentor Trump. He is on his third marriage, after the first two ended due to his serial adultery. And he also emulated Trump’s fraudulent financial practices as head of a veterans organization that ripped off the vets it purported to help.

Given the nature of these legal and moral lapses by Hegseth, and their similarity to those by Gaetz, could an announcement that Hegseth’s name will be withdrawn from consideration as well be far from hitting the news wires? If not, there will only be more exposure of his degenerate behavior in the weeks to come. Not to mention his utter lack of relevant experience.

All of this should make for some interesting reality TV melodrama as Trump’s own lack of principles bleed over to every one of his nominees. Unfortunately for America, it doesn’t bode well for the administration of critical government services. The one bright spot is that Trump’s inability to get anything done also means that the manifestly harmful things he wants to do won’t get done either. It’s small comfort, but we have to appreciate whatever we can get.

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The Grifter-In-Chief: Will Donald Trump Divest From His Bribery Platform, Truth Social?

After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, there was a fierce debate over whether he would divest from his many business interests. The potential for unscrupulous persons and/or foreign agents to seek favor from Trump by exploiting those interests was undeniable, and many took advantage of the opportunity.

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Trump Baby on Cash Pile

Trump never did divest himself in his first term in office. Subsequently, it has been estimated that he made millions off of such nefarious dealings. He took in funds from hostile foreign governments with business pending before U.S. government agencies over which he had jurisdiction. Then he lied about doing so.

SEE THIS: Eric Trump Lies that Daddy Gave All Foreign Money Made at His Hotels to the Treasury

An investigation by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that Trump earned as much as $160 million dollars from foreign sources – predominantly the Middle East and China – during is first occupation of the White House…

“Throughout his time in office, President Trump, his family and his Republican allies repeatedly assured the public that his refusal to divest from his businesses wouldn’t lead to any conflicts of interest. Americans were promised that Trump would donate his salary, which he did, until maybe he didn’t — all while siphoning millions from taxpayers that more than offset his presidential pay. When it came to foreign conflicts of interest, Trump and his company pledged to pause foreign business. They did not.”

So what can we expect from Trump as he prepares to reoccupy the White House? Oddly, no one seems to be asking that question. Surely he is not planning to divest from any of the businesses that he didn’t divest from last time. But there is now a new entity that Trump didn’t have before, and that presents an even more troubling prospect for shady dealing.

Trump’s Truth Social, via its parent corporation, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. It is therefore available for any crooked scheme-ster to shovel shiploads of cash into, enriching the other shareholders, of which Trump is the biggest. And the funds can go directly into Trump’s bank account when he sells shares. Is this legal? Or ethical? Does he care?

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

The potential for bribery is not the only value that Truth Social has for Trump. It also serves as his public relations platform where he announces everything from his Cabinet nominees to his hatred for Taylor Swift. There is no precedent for a sitting president to own a media company that is his primary source of communicating with the public. And he already has Fox News, which he doesn’t own financially, but does own ideologically.

What’s more, Truth Social serves as a flea market for Trump’s various merchandise sales. He has hawked all sorts of trashy products, including sneakers, books, gold coins, and NFT collectible cards. And he is still pitching his merch, even after the election. The latest item that he’s peddling is a personalized guitar…

Trump’s scammy social media website is proving to be a valuable PR and marketing venue, even though it’s an epic disaster financially. It can’t attract or retain users or advertisers. It reports losing millions of dollars in every quarterly report. It’s principle executives are embroiled in financial and legal scandals. And it is unable to compete with the other social media platforms that are far bigger.

Nevertheless, Truth Social still has some significant value for Trump. Because it is able to serve as a depository for bribes from nefarious entities. And nobody in the regulatory, legal, or even political fields seem to care. See the following for more…

LOSER Trump’s Truth Social is Well on its Way to Becoming His Next Bankruptcy
TMTG reported its earning for the second quarter of 2024. And it was not a pretty sight. As reported by Investor’s Business Daily, “Trump Media reported net sales of $836,000, down 30% vs. a year earlier. Operating costs soared to $19.5 million vs. $4.9 million a year earlier.”

Trump’s Truth Social is Shedding Users Like a Miserable Childless Woman’s Mangy Cat
The Donald Trump-controlled Truth Social platform recorded its third straight month of declining traffic. Truth Social attracted 2,112,000 unique visitors, down 38% compared to June 2023 when the site generated 3,407,000 unique visitors. It was the platform’s second worst traffic performance since June 2022 when Truth Social had only 1,891,000 unique visitors.

Trump Crime Syndicate: Investors Arrested for Insider Trading in Failing Truth Social Scam
Trump’s associates in his truthless, anti-social media venture were arrested and charged with insider trading. Reports indicate that “the three individuals together made more than $22 million in illegal profits.”

Truth Social Disease: Ads on Trump’s Twitter Ripoff are Mostly Scams and Trump-Fluffing Merch
Advertisers are afraid of their ads being juxtaposed with hate speech and other noxious content. Consequently, the only advertisers who are willing to shell out are sketchy scammers, conspiracy theorists, and junk peddlers.

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Trump Picks Dr. Oz (Another Fox News Hack) to Lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The Cabinet of Donald Trump is shaping up to reflect his most notable range of experience, that of a former reality TV game show host, with a reputation that was wholly manufactured by network public relations agents. Heaven forbid that Trump would select someone with the actual skills and knowledge to do the job he is appointing them to.

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Donald Trump baby with Fox News logo

The single most common characteristic of the team Trump has put together thus far is their shared employment and/or association with Fox News. To date at least ten of Trump’s proposed agency heads have been either Fox News hosts or regular contributors. They include such ill-equipped talking heads as Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel, Tulsi Gabbard for director of National Intelligence, and many more.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

On Tuesday morning Trump added to that list of disrepute Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump is nominating to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In the announcement that Trump posted on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, he said that…

“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Well, Oz will be working with the RFK, Jr, the guy with the dead brain worm, who collects road kill, and says that no vaccine is safe. That’s comforting. What’s more, Oz has no background in health care administration or social services. What he has is a face that Trump has seen on his TV.

As for his medical background, during the COVID pandemic, Oz “promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020.” And “In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause.” And he has also said that he wants local political leaders to join with women and doctors in their personal decisions about abortion.

Suffice to say that this is another department within the Trump administration that would be run by an incompetent who lacks the basic skills to conduct its business. And his opinions are diametrically opposed to those of most of the American people. But fear not. Trump assured us in his announcement that he will carry out Trump’s mission to slash the budget for these healthcare programs that millions depend on, saying that…

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

The obsession by Trump and the Republican Party to cut Social Security and Medicare is totally understandable when you recognize that they have to do it in order to pay for the tax breaks that they plan to give to corporations and the wealthy. Someone has to pay, and it sure isn’t gonna be Trump or his billionaire buddies. And if the suffering it causes happens to impact the MAGA minions in rural America, well, it’s what they voted for. It’s just unfortunate that the rest of the country will have to suffer along with them.

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Morning Joe’s Craven Capitulation to Trump is Just Cause for MSNBC to Consider Pulling the Plug

Whenever an emerging totalitarian regime starts to reveal its intentions, there are weak citizens and organizations that seek to get in front of the tyrannical train and declare their allegiance to the dawning dictatorship before it actually assumes power.

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Donald Trump, Woman, Fear

That display of spinelessness was evident when the Washington Post and other media enterprises withheld their endorsements of Kamala Harris prior to the election. It’s especially disturbing when comedy news satire programs are more credible journalists than mainstream media…

SEE THIS: The Media Still Doesn’t Get the Danger that We – and They – Are In, But the Daily Show Does

With the election behind us, it took less than two weeks for a usually reliable news network to fall under the spell of the demagogic cult leader, Donald Trump. On Monday morning the hosts of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, opened their program with a report on their recent visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home/hotel. It was not exactly a story of courage or journalistic integrity (video below). Mika began…

“Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people from political leaders to regular citizens deeply dismayed by several of president-elect Trump’s Cabinet selections, and they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself. On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that.”

Joe said that he talked to Trump about a lot of issues, including those with which they disagreed. “What we did agree on,” Mika said, “was to restart communications” [and that] “He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.” And if she believes that Trump has any genuine interest in finding common ground she is terminally naïve. She continued…

“We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump’s actions and words in the coarsening of public debate, but for nearly 80 million Americans. election denialism, public trials, January 6th, were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.”

First of all, Trump had less than 77 million votes, and only about two million more than Harris. It was one of the closest elections in modern times, and not in any way a mandate for Trump, or reason for Democrats to cave in. Furthermore, merely because Trump came out slightly ahead is no reason to forget the atrocities he was responsible for, including the violent January 5th insurrection, and his dozens of felony charges and convictions.

Joe suggested that “this is a president who is not seeking reelection, so maybe, just maybe now could be time for both parties to get to work.” Which is patently absurd. Trump is not thinking about reelection as a factor in pursuing his authoritarian power grab. In fact, he may not be thinking about ever having to stand for election again at all, while still staying in power.

Mika added that “Hyperbole and personal attacks will not work. My hair on fire doesn’t work. We have all seen that. What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail. That is a failed path.” Of course, she’s wrong. Trump succeeded with his threats and fear mongering and therefore, will see no reason to abandon those tactics now. Continuing…

“We know that this will be a consequential presidency. The question is whether it will be constructive. It will take a new approach from all sides, from both parties, and a leader who can bring them together. And only time will tell if Donald Trump can be that leader.”

Wrong again. Trump has no intention of bringing anyone together. He has said so explicitly, reiterating his threats against his critics, political opponents, and the media.

Joe closed by saying that he is “not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump.” But that’s precisely what he is doing. How else can he justify cozying up to someone he once compared to Hitler? A comment that drew a response from Trump’s spokesperson threatening that “their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when president Trump returns to the White House.”

This would be a good time for MSNBC to reconsider whether having Joe and Mika on for three hours every weekday is really a good idea while Trump and his regime are dismantling democracy. And it will be interesting to see how their network colleagues (Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Jen Psaki, Alex Wagner, Nicole Wallace, etc., respond. Katie Phang has already made her feelings clear…

https://x.com/KatiePhang/status/1858520409710182606

UPDATE: CNN is reporting that “According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.” [and that] “the incoming Trump administration could use its wide-ranging powers to punish people deemed enemies.”

So in other words, the cowards capitulated.


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So-Called ‘Christian’ Mike Johnson Does the ‘Weave’ When Asked if Morality Matters to the GOP

As Donald Trump unveils the principle personnel of his upcoming administration, it is becoming clearer every day just how bereft of principles, knowledge, and experience will be available in some of the most critical positions in the United States government.

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Donald Trump, Congress, Mike Johnson

Unfortunately, it isn’t just a problem of ignorance and incompetence, but one of downright malice by nominees who have expressed ideas and intentions that are contrary to American policies and values.

Among those nominees are an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz) for Attorney General, a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr) for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth) for Secretary of Defense, and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard) for Director of National Intelligence. What they all share is an unwavering devotion to Trump, whose own values are wanting and/or warped.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Refusal to Sign the Required Ethics Agreement is His Virtual Promise to Violate It

America’s founders designed a system of government that anticipated some of the potential pitfalls that we face now. However, that system of checks and balances doesn’t work if the equal branches of government are run by lily-livered supplicants to an aspiring totalitarian. Which is precisely the situation we find ourselves in today as revealed in an interview of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson by Jake Tapper of CNN…

Tapper: You’re a man of faith. You’re a man of God. You’re a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?
Johnson: Sure. It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership. This is what I’ll say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people have believed, and what they’ve delivered with the mandate in this election, is a demand that we shake up the status quo. […] Any president has the right to name their own cabinet to nominate persons that they think the people that will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that.

First of all, Tapper was exceedingly generous in his description of Johnson’s alleged piety. There has been little of that demonstrated in his public life, outside of vacant rhetoric.

More to the point, Johnson conspicuously avoided any coherent response to Tapper’s question. After a perfunctory concession that morality matters, he “weaved” (as Trump might describe it) into a lengthy, but unrelated, discourse on “shak[ing] up the status quo.” He further claimed that Trump had an electoral mandate that is a figment of his – and Trump’s – imagination. He won by one of the smallest margins in history, and failed to get a majority of votes.

Johnson’s justification for supporting the morality deprived candidates nominated by Trump is that “Any president has the right to name their own cabinet.” That’s true. But it is the Senate’s right to confirm those that the president names, or to decline to do so. And there has never been better justification to refuse confirmation than with the cretins Trump has named.

Will Johnson take a principled stand on these nominees? Don’t hold your breath. To the contrary, he has already stated his intention to object to the release of a report by the House Ethics Committee detailing their investigation of Gaetz for sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And he made his announcement of that objection after visiting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago where he likely got his marching orders from Dear Leader.

That’s about all that can be expected by Johnson as Speaker of the House, as well as by Sen. John Thune as GOP leader of the Senate. Hopefully there will be a few Republicans with the minimum measure of morality to join with Democrats and block Trump’s worst nominees. But that may be a thin lifeline to cling to. Time will tell.

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Trump’s Cabinet Picks Make it Hard to Tell the Difference Between Russian State TV and Fox News

Forty years ago in 1984, with some measure of prescient irony, a song called “Nobody Told Me (There’d Be Days Like These)” by John Lennon was posthumously released that included the lyric “Strange days indeed.” Which is an apt description of current times considering how, less than two weeks ago, America was thrown into turmoil when a twice-impeached, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and aspiring dictator, was elected president of the United States. And that’s just the short list. Here’s a more comprehensive enumeration of Donald Trump’s noxiousness

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Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

In the intervening days, Trump has revealed a motley crew of candidates to populate his Cabinet that includes an accused sex trafficker (Matt Gaetz), a health conspiracy crackpot (Robert Kennedy Jr), a TV host who has defended war criminals (Pete Hegseth), and a suspected Kremlin sympathizer (Tulsi Gabbard). What they all have in common is a blatant absence of any requisite skills or experience to do the jobs they’ve been tapped for, and a cult-like reverence for their Dear Leader Trump. Also, close ties to Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Making this White House of Ill Repute even worse is that they have been sanctioned by the spin proctors of Vladimir Putin’s empire. Russian state TV has fully embraced Trump’s choices as noted in this report from Moscow by CNN…

Anchor Erin Burnett: Tonight celebrations on Russian state television after Trump picked Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard for highly sensitive national security roles.
Correspondent Fred Pleitgen: Kremlin controlled TV praising some of president-elect Trump’s cabinet picks, calling designated attorney general Matt Gaetz ‘a Trump loyalist,’ and also speaking favorably about Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard for repeatedly parroting Kremlin talking points on the war in Ukraine.

“‘She, from day one, clarified the reason for the special operation in Ukraine,’ the Russian anchor said, criticizing the actions of the Biden administration. Gabbard’s words in 2022, right after Russia launched it’s invasion of Ukraine, caused even panelists on Russian state TV to cynically ask whether she’s a Kremlin agent.

And if that weren’t enough, another Russian media analyst, Julia Davis, reported that “Russian state TV propagandists and government officials expressed their delight with Trump’s selections, saying that ‘All of them are totally wonderful!‘”

The similarity of these glowing appraisals of Trump’s Cabinet comrades with those by Fox News anchors and contributors is unmistakable. They are all equally impressed by his ability to recruit unflinchingly faithful flunkies who are utterly devoid of qualifications. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, and others, have greeted Trump’s nominees with the very same drooling adoration. And despite their obvious character deficiencies, the Fox crew is all in on their appointments, even as Trump maneuvers to avoid actual background checks and confirmation hearings.

SEE ALSO: Dictator on Day One! Trump Nixes FBI Background Checks for his Unqualified, Anti-American Cabinet

This isn’t just a coincidence that Fox News and the Kremlin have such well aligned and positive views of Trump and his sub-par team. It is an unambiguous indication of where Trump’s loyalties lie. He has a long history of praising Putin and defending his crimes against humanity. While at the same time Trump has disparaged the U.S. as corrupt, filthy, failing, and a third world nation that is a garbage can for the rest of the planet. What’s more, Trump incessantly insults American leaders as liars and criminals who are bent on destroying the country.

The American people must not dismiss the coordinated messages that Trump and Putin are delivering. We must be vigilant and committed to resisting their assaults on our republic and to preserving democracy. The next four years are going to be challenging. And part of that challenge is to remain aware of the threats posed by anti-American propagandists both foreign and domestic.

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Dictator on Day One! Trump Nixes FBI Background Checks for his Unqualified, Anti-American Cabinet

In the heat of the 2024 presidential election season, Donald Trump sat for one of his many tongue bathing “interviews” with Sean Hannity on Fox News. On one particular occasion, Hannity sought to handhold Trump through a controversy wherein he had been accused of aspiring to be a dictator. But true to form, Trump was oblivious to the answers that Hannity tried to pass to him in his questions.

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Donald Trump

Despite Hannity’s repeated attempts, Trump insisted on expressing his abhorrent authoritarian aspirations. He stubbornly affirmed his deep desire to be a “dictator on day one.” And the limitation of his tyrannical reign to a single day provides little comfort to those who know that dictators never relinquish power voluntarily once they assume it.

SEE THIS: Trump Cloddishly Dodges Hannity’s Softball Questions About Whether He Would Be a Dictator

Validating Trump’s totalitarian tendencies, it is now being reported that he intends to bypass the routine FBI background checks that are conducted on prospective presidential Cabinet candidates. According to CNN

“President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is?bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.

“Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.

“The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.”

There are reasons that the FBI has been tasked with these background checks for decades. The positions that Cabinet heads hold grant them access to sensitive national security information. If they are compromised in any way it could make them vessels for foreign agents to acquire classified data, or even make them vulnerable to blackmail attempts. And that’s presuming that they aren’t purposefully acting on behalf of enemy regimes.

So why would Trump want to forego background checks on his nominees? Does he know something about them that we don’t? Are his own motives suspect? Even if they are not themselves foreign assets, do they have connections that would be concerning? Could they be unwitting dupes?

These are all questions that take on extraordinary significance when Trump himself has been so chummy with foreign despots like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Viktor Orbán, and Kim Jong Un. Will those questions be asked? Will Trump be able to delay the process until he is able to install his own nominee for FBI director (possibly Trump flunky, Kash Patel)?

Many of Trump’s nominees to date have glaring issues that would raise red flags in any probe for security clearances. His attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz, has been credibly accused of sex trafficking of a minor and illicit drug use. His Health and Human Services nominee, Robert Kennedy Jr, is a serial adulterer with a dead worm in his brain who holds crackpot conspiracy theories regarding medicine and vaccines. His nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has advocated bombing Iran and North Korea and argued in support of war criminals. His nominee for director of national security, Tulsi Gabbard, has ties with Putin and Russia.

What they all have in common is a worshipful cult attachment, and unwavering loyalty, to Trump, and no experience whatsoever in the jobs that he is proposing they fill. If it were Trump’s mission to undermine the stability of the United States, he couldn’t have picked a better team. So naturally, he wouldn’t want any of his co-conspirators to be subject to scrutiny.

Trump has been angling to give his nominees “recess appointments” so that they can bypass the Senate hearings as well. Hopefully Republicans in the Senate will grow a spine and insist that these nominees be required to submit to both background checks and Senate hearings. But resting our hopes on the strength of GOP spines is not exactly reassuring.

This leaves any hopes of preserving our democracy to Democrats, who are in the minority in both houses of Congress, and the media, who have been grossly deficient in their duty to inform. Which means that the only remaining path to salvation rests with the people. Are we up to it? We better be!

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Trump’s Election Triggers Big Selloff of His Truth Social Stock – By Company Executives

Among the egomaniacal delusions of Donald Trump is his insistence that whatever he touches turns to gold, and that positive news about anything is only due to his divine intervention. Conversely, he wants people to believe that any catastrophe (Ukraine, Gaza, Hurricanes) would never have happened if he were in charge. It’s a symptom of the malignant narcissism that he has been suffering from for decades.

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Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump countered the fact that the stock market was booming by claiming that it was only because investors were anticipating his return to the White House. Never mind that the market hit record highs throughout the four years of President Biden’s administration. Also, unemployment hit record lows, the GDP soared, inflation was cut in half, and numerous other indicators showed gains that Trump could not have had any effect on. He was even called out about this by his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News…

SEE THIS: Fox News Host Neil Cavuto Interrupts Trump’s Lying to Note ‘He’s Not Entitled to His Own Facts’

However, it would be difficult now for Trump to explain how the perception of his magnificence is turning the putrid pile of manure known as Truth Social into a bouquet of fragrant roses. Since election day on November 5, the stock of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the corporate parent of Truth Social, has declined about 40%, from an intraday high of $45.00 to it’s current value of about $27.00.

So does Trump now believe that, since the world revolves around him, his election is responsible for the selloff and investors nervousness about its continued viability? Not likely. He is protected by a perverse psychological defense mechanism that is triggered whenever he is exposed to bad news about himself. This makes him immune from harm because all he can perceive is his own greatness.

However, others with actual money on the line obviously feel differently. And those others happen to be principle executives of TMTG who are cashing out before the stock descends to its actual value of next to nothing. CNBC is reporting that…

“The chief financial officer of Trump Media and two other corporate insiders sold more than $16 million worth of company stock in the week following the presidential election, according to new disclosures.

“Most of the stock was sold by CFO Phillip Juhan, who in August adopted a trading plan that revealed his intention to sell 400,000 DJT shares by December 2025.

“Trump Media director Eric Swider and Scott Glabe, the company’s general counsel, each sold fewer shares of the company, whose majority owner Donald Trump was elected president on Nov. 5. […]

“Juhan, who is also Trump Media’s treasurer, sold 320,000 shares on Friday at a price of $30.65 per share, or a total of $9.8 million worth of stock according to a Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“On Monday, Juhan sold another 64,000 shares at $32.97 per share, another $2.11 million worth, the same filing said.”

The CNBC report also noted that TMTG “report[ed] revenue of slightly more than just $1 million in the third quarter of this year,” with “losses of $19.2 million for the quarter.” So the rush to bail out is a smart move by the company’s insiders and other investors. Trump himself, however, insists that he is not selling. We’ll see.

For a some background on the financial and legal disaster that is Truth Social, see the following…

Trump’s Truth Social Scam Crashes as He Brags that It’s Booming Because He’s Winning (He’s Not)
TMTG makes a relative pittance and is losing millions. Were it to be valued according to its earnings it would be a penny stock. Its current value is entirely the result of the rubes who invest because they are indoctrinated members of the Trump cult.

Trump Media is Purging Those Too Weak to Keep Up the Crumbling Truth Social Scam (ProPublica)
An investigation of TMTG by ProPublica has just uncovered yet another example of the company’s corruption. The report found that “people with knowledge of the company” have confirmed that several top executives of the company appear to have been ousted following an internal investigation by a lawyer that the company hired to examine allegations of “mismanagement” and “misuse” of funds by it’s CEO, and Trump flunky, Devin Nunes.

LOSER Trump’s Truth Social is Well on its Way to Becoming His Next Bankruptcy
TMTG reported its earning for the second quarter of 2024. And it was not a pretty sight. As reported by Investor’s Business Daily, “Trump Media reported net sales of $836,000, down 30% vs. a year earlier. Operating costs soared to $19.5 million vs. $4.9 million a year earlier.”

Trump’s Truth Social is Shedding Users Like a Miserable Childless Woman’s Mangy Cat
The Donald Trump-controlled Truth Social platform recorded its third straight month of declining traffic. Truth Social attracted 2,112,000 unique visitors, down 38% compared to June 2023 when the site generated 3,407,000 unique visitors. It was the platform’s second worst traffic performance since June 2022 when Truth Social had only 1,891,000 unique visitors.

Trump Crime Syndicate: Investors Arrested for Insider Trading in Failing Truth Social Scam
Trump’s associates in his truthless, anti-social media venture were arrested and charged with insider trading. Reports indicate that “the three individuals together made more than $22 million in illegal profits.”

Truth Social Disease: Ads on Trump’s Twitter Ripoff are Mostly Scams and Trump-Fluffing Merch
Advertisers are afraid of their ads being juxtaposed with hate speech and other noxious content. Consequently, the only advertisers who are willing to shell out are sketchy scammers, conspiracy theorists, and junk peddlers.

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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Fox News Asks Biden’s Press Sec if He Apologized to Trump for Saying He’s a Threat to Democracy

The unfortunate outcome of the presidential election last week is already sending spine-chilling reverberations across the political landscape as the ghastly consequences of another Donald Trump occupation of the White House become impossible to ignore.

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Fox News, Joe Biden, Fake News

The shape of Trump’s Cabinet has become deplorably clear in the past few days. His nominees so far reflect his inherent corruption, ignorance, aspirations of autocracy, and the shallowness of a former reality TV game show host. Most of his picks are closely associated with his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

Trump has not yet named his choice to be his press secretary. But rest assured that it will be a brazenly dishonest purveyor of self-serving falsehoods. In the meantime, we should appreciate the press secretary currently serving President Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre.

At Wednesday’s daily White House press briefing, the noxious odor of Fox News wafted into the room as a reporter from their business network, Edward Lawrence, was called upon to ask a question. True to form, it was a preposterous question that had nothing to do with any matter of concern to the American people. Instead, he sought to manufacture a melodrama out of the morning meeting that Biden had with Trump…

Lawrence: We saw a unified front related to a transition in the Oval Office meeting. But a lot was said on the campaign trail like ‘Trump is a dangerous threat to our country and our democracy. Was there an apology today?
Jean-Pierre: I’m sorry? Apology from whom? I’ve answered this a couple of times with respect to democracy in the past week. The President is always going to feel obligated to be honest with the American people. What he says still stands. And it’s not just him. You heard this from former [Trump] staffers.

Biden had nothing to apologize for. He told the truth about Trump. And as Jean-Pierre went on to note, is was Trump’s own close associates who were the ones that raised the question of his threat to democracy. It was his White House Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, his Defense Secretary, Gen. James Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and others who said that Trump was a fascist who praised Hitler. Trump himself made statements that were overtly threatening to democracy, such as branding his critics as “the enemy within.”

Lawrence’s question also neglected to mention that Trump used the very same language aimed at Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who he said, without a shred of evidence, were threats to democracy. But Lawrence didn’t bother to ask whether Trump apologized. Unrattled by Lawrence’s purposeful provocation, Jean-Pierre gave a calm and coherent response…

Jean-Pierre: What we also want to be very clear about is listening to the will of the American people. There was an election. It is important to respect our institution. It is important to respect the free and fair election. And that’s what this President is doing.

America needs to prepare itself for what’s to come in the White House Press Briefing room. Axios is reporting that Trump is expected to shake it up.”

“Trump’s first administration tried to ban outlets it saw as unfavorable from off-camera press briefings. That included the New York Times, Politico, CNN and BBC.” […]

“Any efforts to expand access to daily press briefings to pro-Trump outlets, such as Steve Bannon’s War Room, would need to come at the expense of existing outlets.”

So get ready for briefings that feature folks like Bannon, Alex Jones, and Laura Loomer. The “mainstream” media reporters from the New York Times and CBS and NPR will all be banished as “fake news.” And Trump’s press secretary is likely to be someone like his former attorney Alina Habba or his daughter Tiffany. Which means the rest of the media had better grow a spine and be prepared to protect the very notion of a free press.

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