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.

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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.

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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: 

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In the bigger picture, the U.S. Senate has been operating to control the military against the command of the President for multiple years.  The Intelligence Community is in general alignment with the core mission of weakening the Defense Department as part of the larger objective.

We have seen this approach in everything from the castration of General Petraeus to the advancement of wokeism.  The civilian leadership of the Defense Department, in combination with the influence of the U.S. Senate has led to a diminishment of mission priority. We have the outcomes through General Mattis, General H.R. McMaster, Lt Col Alexander Vindman, General James Kelly, all the way to Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley; famously culminating in Milley collaborating with Chinese military leadership to undermine his own Commander-In-Chief, Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump has turned his focus to the “war fighters,” the men and women who carry out the mission objective of the Defense Department. The nomination of Pete Hegseth represents the confrontation of a power struggle that has been decades in coming.

The self-serving Senators are trying to block Hegseth, while maintaining a position of pretending support for President Trump.  The DeceptiCon republicans in the Senate are in full circling mode, looking for a weakness to exploit.

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According to Hegseth he is firm on the mission priority.  President Trump is in full support and the schemes of the conniving Republican Senators, transparently visible in the efforts of Senator Jodi Ernst, who is circling the phalanx President Trump is creating – while simultaneously inserting herself into the DOGE mission.  Ernst is doing Mitch’s work, under the instructions from Thune and Mitch.  See Ernst with clear eyes.

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Senator Ron Johnson appears with a very excited Maria Bartiromo to discuss the possibility of Kash Patel taking the lead role in the FBI.

As Senator Johnson notes in the interview, bringing the truth forward to the American public is the greatest challenge. “The truth is a powerful weapon,” Johnson said. However, Johnson also notes “I’m not an optimist in this Maria, quite honestly, I wish I could say I was.”

Well said, Senator Johnson, well said. WATCH:

~ Also Related, READ THIS ~

More soon…

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Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Mike Rounds doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about Kash Patel in the role of FBI director.  In an interview this morning on ABC, the Republican senator from South Dakota said President Trump has the right to nominate Mr Patel, and the Senate will consider the “consent” from there.  WATCH:

Several people are wondering if current FBI Director Chris Wray will resign.  It’s a very unusual dynamic and the internal pressure will likely be on Director Wray to force President Trump to fire him, especially if the House and Senate are in session and there’s no possibility at the time for President Trump to appoint an “acting” replacement.

A lot can happen with President Trump announcing Kash Patel “will serve as” FBI Director, while a current FBI Director is still in place.  Without the ability to appoint an “acting” replacement, the Deputy FBI director would take Wray’s place even if Wray was fired.  Mike Rounds expresses full confidence in Chris Wray during this interview.

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To understand the outcome of the next four years (and beyond), it is important to begin with the same information.  One key not discussed anywhere else is outlined below.

Consider this a baseline for future context in the world of the USA and President Trump politics.

♦ Summarized it looks like this: In late summer 2023 not only myself, but several insightful analysts in the world of high finance, had come to the conclusion that Musk’s financial effort with the purchase of Twitter was unsustainable, unless something changed.

Something did change.

In early August of 2023, understanding the dynamic at stake, and also having a strategy for his own interests, Oracle’s Larry Ellison said, ‘he would not let Elon Musk fail with Twitter’.

Billionaire Larry Ellison, a Tesla Board member, already had invested money in place, but that wasn’t the motive on this move. In hindsight, Ellison was brilliant and intensely strategic.  It is important to understand what exactly ‘board members’ are recruited for, and the stability/security reasons for why they are recruited.

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In this episode of Joe Rogan, Marc Andreessen discusses some very important topics in the world of politics.

Marc Andreessen is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is co-creator of the world’s first widely used internet browser, Mosaic, cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and cohost of “The Ben & Marc Show” podcast.

Andreessen was also a life-long democrat, and the details of the subject matter he outlines is really quite remarkable. It’s a long discussion; however, if you do not have time use the chapter reference points. Andreessen talks rather fast, and the conversation is being widely discussed.

Chapters:

00:00:00 – Podcast Introduction
00:05:55 – Media Influence on Elections
00:14:22 – Celebrity Endorsements
00:20:00 – AI Sentience in 2025
00:34:53 – Cultural Change and AI
00:40:02 – Colonialism Sensitivity
00:48:20 – Cicero’s Warnings
00:58:00 – Political Predictions

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President Donald Trump has announced Scott Bessent as nominee for U.S. Treasury Secretary. The Secretary of Treasury implements tax policy, manages the nation’s debt, leads financial regulators, monitors and executes sanctions and conducts economic diplomacy. While the U.S. trade representative takes the lead on tariffs, the Treasury secretary typically plays a key role advising on that issue as well.

[SOURCE]

Bessent (62) is a hedge Fund manager, the founder of investment firm Key Square Capital Management.  Despite supporting President Trump early, he has faced criticism for working as the CIO at George Soros’s Soros Fund Management from 2011 to 2015. He lives in Charleston, S.C.

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It looks like Matt Gaetz is done with DC politics. [Video Below]

During an interview today, Mr Gaetz has big praise for Pam Bondi and says he will remain outside government trying to assist President Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda.

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Friday that he doesn’t plan to rejoin Congress after he withdrew his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general amid sexual misconduct allegations.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” Gaetz said in an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

“There are a number of fantastic Floridians who stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service. And I’m actually excited to see Northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation,” he added.

Gaetz, who was first elected to Florida’s state House when he was 28 years old, noted he has been in elected office for 14 years,

“I’m 42 now, and I’ve got other goals in life that I’m eager to pursue — my wife and my family — and so I’m going to be fighting for President Trump,” he said. “I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.”

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