In this position Tulsi Gabbard will be able to find out why she was put on the DHS “watch list” within the TSA.  Additionally, I note that all of the nominations and appointments have come from within the group of campaign surrogates and campaign officials.  Perhaps that filter disqualifies anyone else.

President Trump Announces his nomination of former Democrat Representative, former DNC Co-Chair, and former Bernie Sanders campaign spox, Tulsi Gabbard, to be Director of National Intelligence.

[Source]

I’m sorry folks, we are going to have to wait to understand the thinking behind this one.  I have absolutely no idea.  Mrs Gabbard has never led any organization of scale, nor held any position of intelligence review that I am aware of.

Other than being a campaign surrogate (via RFK Jr) and very close friend of Tucker Carlson, who I’m told is one of a small group organizing the cabinet appointments; together with Donald Trump Jr, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr. (currently living in Mar-a-Lago); I’m not sure what would be the plan for Tulsi Gabbard (maybe with guidance from Ric Grenell?).   Like everyone else, I’m puzzled.

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Newly elected Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), held a press conference today to answer questions and introduce his leadership team: Assistant Majority Leader, also called the Republican “whip” John Barrasso (R-WY), Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR), Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Republican Conference Vice Chair James Lankford (R-OK), National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC). WATCH:

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[Now we must focus on the very important chairmanships of the senate committees that John Thune will decide.]

In the first ballot the results were: Thune 23, Cornyn 15, Scott 13.

Scott was removed and the Senators went to the second ballot between Thune and Cornyn.

As expected, the Scott coalition split 50/50. Thune picked up 6 votes from Scott’s group.  Cornyn picked up 7 votes from Scott’s group.

Final Vote:  John Thune 29, John Cornyn 24.

It was always going to be this way.  Remember, the Senate is a silo -by design- isolated from influence of the American public.

If we want to change the dynamic, we must repeal the 17th amendment and return to the original constitutional construct: Senators appointed to represent the interests of each state, by State Legislature.

The Senate was designed to represent the interests of the State, not ‘the people’; that’s the job of the House of Representatives.

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If you look at the structure of the announcements, there does appear to be a strategy at play; yes, including the likelihood of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

Using the announcement of Steven C. Witkoff to be Special Envoy to the Middle East, I’ll try to put it together.

[SOURCE]

If President Trump pulls Marco Rubio out of the Senate, he opens up the position of Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  Rubio would love the opportunity to load his presidential aspiration resume with Secretary of State, for later use. However, this also opens the opportunity for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint an interim senator who would be more MAGA-minded, trustworthy and loyal (dare I say Gaetz).

With Rubio removed from the equation of the IC problem, the issue becomes mitigating (think neutering) the Secretary of State from undermining the Trump Doctrine; which, as you know, is the key Trump foreign policy approach using economic power combined with diplomacy.

President Trump has long expressed being sick and tired of U.S. mid-east policy, endless wars, endless spending etc.  President Trump in term-1 created the Abraham Accords to establish long-term peace and stability in the region, as a countermeasure to all the prior administrations stirring shit up there.  Essentially, the Abraham Accords create peace, get us out and allow policy to focus on more pressing foreign concerns, vis-a-vis China.

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Deadline for Swamp Draining, July 4th, 2026! It’s in the announcement.

President Trump has announced the creation of a new department. The Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE (tongue in cheek head nod to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency created by Musk).  Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be tasked with reducing the size and scope of government and completing the agenda by July 4th, 2026.

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President Trump announces via Truth Social, his intent to nominate former ODNI official John Ratcliffe to the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Former DNI Ratcliffe passed through the Senate Intel Committee nomination process in 2019 after being blocked by Mitch McConnell in 2018.  With a prior SSCI confirmation being successful, the path to confirming John Ratcliffe as CIA Director is essentially a foregone conclusion.

As CIA Director, John Ratcliffe will control the world’s second-most powerful intelligence agency. Ratcliffe has almost no attack vectors for the internal IC apparatus to use against him, that’s why I previously thought a role in the Trump-2 intel system would be good.

Ratcliffe was/is the lead transition team member on all things related to Intelligence.  Prior rumor put him in the NatSec Advisor role, but CIA Director is a good fit.  John Ratcliffe is very stable, vanilla, no drama and can be expected to deliver on the priorities of the Trump administration.  He will work very well with the White House.

The concern would be Ratcliffe’s ability to remove the corrupt players within the darkest part of the darkest IC system.

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President Trump has confirmed his intention to use Florida Rep (Daytona) Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor.

[Source]

Mike Waltz serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).

In the role of Nat Sec Advisor, Waltz would presumably represent the power of the president toward every element of the National Security apparatus and Intelligence Community.

The Nat Sec Advisor is a very powerful position, if used correctly.  The absolute power of the President toward the intelligence community in the executive branch is carried by the Nat Sec Advisor (NSA).  The NSA has the ability to reach into every silo and control every element of every decision therein.

The NSA organizes the finding memos which authorize all covert intelligence operations globally and domestically.  The NSA can shut down bad things in the IC, cancel black-op operations, and essentially hold omnipotent power within the executive branch over every aspect of the 17 intelligence agencies who operate therein.  The NSA can also determine what is, and what is not, a national security matter.

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If the basic story unfolding in Mar-a-Lago is to be believed, RFK JR, Elon Musk and a small group of technocrats and billionaires have become the ‘kitchen cabinet’ advisors putting the Trump administration together.  Rumors swirl that Melania Trump, Devin Nunes and Dan Scavino have checked out of the ridiculous “non-clown-car” hot mess until the dust settles.

Adding evidence to this possibility, the media are starting to report on some rather, well, shall we say, curious picks from the Mar-a-Lago transition group.

Everyone else, except you guys, will miss what each of the New York Post “leaked” names have in common.  They are all in direct alignment with the retention of the Intelligence Community as it exists.  For the IC, this is the team that lets them hunker down until ’28.

♦ Rubio at State:

Rubio would be the IC pick because, well, he is Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and a direct installment due to his efforts to support the prior Trump targeting; which included the big assist to then Vice-Chair Mark Warner.   The IC has super thick black files on Rubio, they’d love to have him at State.  This rumor seems ridiculous.

Actually, this rumor seems like a leak trap.

♦ Waltz as National Security Advisor.

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Announcing via Truth Social, President Trump has outlined his selection for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in term-2.

President Trump announced his intent to nominate former New York Congressman, Lee Zeldin, to the position.

[Source]

Lee Zeldin is an attorney, and his announced nomination caught the DC proletariat off-guard.  The announcement is an unusually prominent location in the line-up presentation given the generally obscure nature of the agency.   Deregulation appears to be a significant agenda item in the T-2 administration.

Washington DC – […] The selection of Zeldin, a vocal Trump ally in Congress during his first term, was a surprise after Andrew Wheeler, who served as the second EPA chief during Trump’s first term, was widely thought to be the frontrunner for the post.

At EPA, Zeldin will carry out Trump’s energy and environmental agenda, which includes pulling back Biden-era rules on climate and air pollution and potentially rescinding millions of dollars in funding for clean energy under the Inflation Reduction Act. And the administration is expected to take a more aggressive stance in challenging California’s autonomy in enforcing environmental standards that are more stringent than those set by the federal government — many of which picked up as models for more than a dozen other blue states.

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Recess appointments have been a general source of contention for those of us in the deep weeds who did not like Republican Leader Mitch McConnell keeping the upper chamber for four straight years 2018 through 2020, when the Republicans eventually lost their majority.

Now that the Senate has flipped back into Republican control, President Trump is proactively looking to confront the “recess appointment” issue withing the current Republican leadership contest. [Truth Social]

A recess appointment is an appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official to fill a vacant position while the United States Senate is in recess.

Recess appointments are authorized by Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which states: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

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