Appearing on Meet the Press for an interview which was taped last Friday and aired Sunday morning, President-elect Donald Trump outlines his goals and objectives for the second administration term.  Here is the FULL and EXTENDED interview.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: President-elect Donald Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.

(more…)

This is a critically important segment of the President Trump interview with NBC.  Within this segment President Trump is asked whether he would direct, encourage or seek to have Attorney General Pam Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel target the previous administration officials.

President Trump says there would be no instruction from him to appoint a special counsel or special investigator(s) for the conduct of Joe Biden or previous administration officials.  However, President Trump also takes the opportunity to note the targeting and weaponization the former Biden administration directed toward him.

SEGMENT TRANSCRIPT – KRISTEN WELKER: Ok. Let’s talk about some of your picks to fill out your administration. You named Kash Patel to be the next FBI director.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

KRISTEN WELKER: He has a list in his book of 60 people that he calls members of the so-called “deep state.” It includes Democrats like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. It includes former members of your cabinet, from Bill Barr to Christopher Wray. You campaigned on destroying the deep state. Do you want Kash Patel to launch investigations into people on that list?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No. I mean, he’s going to do what he thinks is right. And I will —

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, do you think that’s right?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: — and I will —

KRISTEN WELKER: Do you think that’s right, sir?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or a corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it, but —

KRISTEN WELKER: Are you going to direct him to do it?

(more…)

This is stunning, yet in a way not unexpected all things considered.

We previously outlined how Make Romania Great Again candidate Călin Georgescu came out of nowhere and won the first round in the presidential election. {GO DEEP}

The U.S. and EU heads went bananas at the surprise upset.

Georgescu is a nationalist, and his ideological outlook is the exact opposite of what the EU/U.S want to see. As a consequence, appeals were made to Brussels to intervene and simultaneously inside Romania the election results were reviewed by the court.

Last Monday the Romanian courts validated the first-round results, affirming their legitimacy.  However, on Friday with information provided by CIA and various intelligence services, just two days before the second round of voting, the same court annulled the election results, threw out the votes, and now say another election must take place.

The EU intelligence services apparently said social media platforms like TikTok were to blame for Georgescu’s surge in popularity.  His voters violated customs and norms of regular media that are used to control political outcomes in Romania, and therefore the election result cannot be allowed to stand.  The people in Romania are stunned at the intervention, and no political party agrees with it.

ROMANIA – […] The Constitutional Court in its published decision cited the illegal use of digital technologies including artificial intelligence, as well as the use of “undeclared sources of funding.” It said one candidate received “preferential treatment on social media platforms, which resulted in the distortion of voters’ expressed will.”

Georgescu slammed the verdict as putting “democracy is under attack.”

(more…)

According to Reuters, “Syrian rebels announced they gained full control over the key city of Homs early on Sunday after only a day of fighting, leaving President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread as insurgents marched on the capital, Damascus.”

Responding to the situation on the ground, President Elect Donald Trump says we should stay out of it.

[Source]

Meanwhile a joint statement was released from officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia after an emergency meeting in Doha.

(more…)

Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi is being guided through the Senate confirmation process by a lawyer named Chad Mizelle who was previously the 2017-2018 general counsel to Rod Rosenstein in Main Justice.  Within the former position at DOJ Chad Mizelle was the guy who wrote the set of scope memos that authorized the Mueller investigation…. However, I am assured by those watching, it’s no big deal.

I’m reminded of a conversation with Eric Dublier Esq, when he said, essentially, “when analyzing motives of DC lawyers, remind yourself they do the thing they are paid to do.”  The compass heading on a DC lawyer points directly to his/her bank account.  Read this entire outline to truly understand just how accurate Dublier was.

WASHINGTON DC – As Pam Bondi prepares for confirmation as attorney general, she is working with a top lawyer from President-elect Donald Trump’s first term: Chad Mizelle, formerly acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security.

[…] Mizelle has been in meetings with Bondi in Florida as she prepares to lead the Justice Department, according to a person with knowledge of the preparations. At the beginning of Trump’s first term, he was counsel to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

[…] Mizelle is general counsel for Affinity Partners, the investment firm helmed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. And like Bondi, he has Florida roots: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, his wife, is a Trump-appointed federal judge in Tampa. (read more)

After Mizelle left Main Justice, he eventually landed as acting General Counsel for DHS helping to organize the legal framework to deal with illegal immigration. It’s likely Mizelle is assisting Pam Bondi in preparations for questions about deportation proceedings that will be handled by Tom Homan.

(more…)

Apparently, with evidence the assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO successfully left the New York metropolitan area, the manhunt is expanding nationwide; in comes the FBI.

Will enhanced facial recognition soon become the celebrated tool that tracks him?

New York – […] Police have learned that the suspect took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City following the shooting, according to police.

The bus the suspect is believed to have boarded out of the city made six or seven stops, and investigators have followed leads in multiple states, the sources said.

[…] The FBI is now assisting in a nationwide manhunt for the suspect, according to law enforcement sources, and the unidentified man remains at large in the wake of Wednesday’s attack, which was described by police as “brazen, targeted” and “premeditated.”

Police still do not have a name of the suspect, the sources said. (read more)

Top Men!

(more…)

President Trump arrives to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in advance of the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral.

French media are now openly reporting on a sideline meeting between President Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  The meeting with Zelenskyy was predictable given the nature of how Macron had structured the events.

President Trump’s arrival video:

.

President Trump and Emmanuel Macron delivered short remarks to the assembled press pool.  Video Below:

(more…)

There it is. The background for the first meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy is buried in the story of Emmanual Macron holding two bilateral meetings before the Notre Dame reopening ceremony.  [Now, where’s Tucker?]

If you carefully read this Politico Story you can see how President Trump and President Zelenskyy would be in the same place at the same time, courtesy of French President Emmanuel Macron.  This explains Trump’s willingness to go to the Notre Dame ceremony and simultaneously reconciles the absence of Joe Biden.

It’s a simple application of geopolitical Occam’s Razor. There’s no other background that reconciles all the variables. Trump is going to speak with Zelenskyy. All of it makes sense.

POLITICO – PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will hold separate bilateral meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame cathedral on Saturday, the French presidency announced.

This will be Trump’s first visit abroad since his victory in the Nov. 5 election. Macron is among those leaders currently in power to have known the soon-to-be 47th president during his first term in office — a position he will look to leverage in order to assert himself as a key European partner to the U.S.

(more…)

I have been waiting for someone to outline what the Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is all about.  Unfortunately, perhaps due to the history of the matter, it appears few understand. So, with that in mind, and accepting the operators of DOGE may not have a fulsome comprehension of the dynamic, here is what it means.

The last Federal Budget that passed through “regular order” was for Fiscal Year 2008, signed by President George W Bush in September of 2007.  Every budget since has been outside regular order; a series of continuing resolutions, omnibus spending packages and short-term funding mechanisms.  {CITATION}

That is correct.  In the past 17 years, all federal spending has been ‘short-term’ or ‘stop-gap’ spending measures, generally known as “Continuing Resolutions,” where the govt (House and Senate) continue to perpetually resolve to fund the government.  The CRs as they are known, punt the spending debate by accepting a baseline of prior spending and tweaking around the edges.

The key takeaway to begin thinking about DOGE is to understand that REGULAR ORDER has not been used since Fiscal Year 2008.

Title III of the Congressional Budget Act outlines a legal timeline that each President and Congress must follow {SEE HERE}.  Prior to 2007, Continuing Resolutions were only used to resolve short term arguments about spending priorities.

♦ BACKGROUND – The President is required by law to submit his budget by the first Monday in February.  Yes, even when an election takes place and a President doesn’t assume office until January 20th, the first Monday in February is still the legal requirement for the new White House budget proposal.

The Presidents’ budget is then submitted to The House of Representatives, where two weeks later the Congressional Budget Office, reviews the budget and issues an opinion as to the cost of the budget.   No later than six weeks after the President submits his budget all House committees send the House Appropriations Committee their spending proposals [April 15].

Through May and June, each budgetary appropriations bill from the House is sent to the Senate.  The Senate receives the House appropriations bills, then reviews through the Senate Appropriations Committee (Thune just picked Susan Collins as Chair).  The Senate proposes their spending priorities based on the House bill because the House has constitutional authority to originate all spending [June 15].  The House and Senate budgets are “reconciled” using parliamentary procedures [June 30] and then sent to the President for signature.

The fiscal year begins October 1st.

That’s the regular order process.

(more…)

First Lady Melania Trump appears on Fox and Friends morning show to discuss her outlook on returning to the White House.

Melania Trump notes this time is very different as they know what to expect this time and the baseline for knowing who, what, when and how is entirely different than the first term.  WATCH: 

.

(more…)