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.

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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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Understandable selection.  President Trump has announced the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.

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Remember, under the Trump Doctrine, the use of the military takes a backseat to the deployment of economic weapons to achieve national security objectives.  From this fundamental outlook, the Secretary of Defense needs to maintain a strong military, but only for use as a last resort when called upon.

If triggered for reasons of extreme national security, the Defense Department under Commander in Chief Donald Trump is expected to deliver much faster, harsher and a more directed forceful response.  This was on display in Syria, 2017, when ISIS was destroyed in weeks; and then followed up with the first ever dropping of a ‘MOAB’, the Mother of All Bombs.

With this intent in mind, Pete Hegseth needs to harden the warriors and prepare them only in the event that all other approaches by President Trump have not led to the optimal outcome.  This approach scares the crap out of militaristic nations who were stuck in the old ‘red line’ paradigm.

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A key position.  President Trump has announced his selection of William Joseph McGinley to serve as White House Counsel for the second term.

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The White House Counsel (WHC) is a critical component to the Office of the Presidency.

In term-1 the WHC was the primary hurdle to much of the corrupt information the public wanted President Trump to address.  It was White House Counsel who warned President Trump that any unilateral action taken by him would be construed by the silos within the IC, FBI and DOJ to be interference with their investigations.  President Trump deferred to that counsel.

The WHC doesn’t represent the President, the WHC represents the Office of the Presidency. It is the WHC primary function to protect the power of the President within the Executive Branch.  This generally leads to many misinterpretations of risk, and the President is often hamstrung by overly cautious counsel in the position.

Thankfully, a recent Supreme Court decision over “presidential immunity” affirmed the absolute and plenary power of the person who is President, as the authority of all actions that take place within the executive branch during their officials acts as President.  As SCOTUS affirmed there is no power greater than President Trump.  The President is the executive branch in everything, and the President has no boss.

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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.

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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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“This was no small thing, to restore a republic after it had fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may have been that our task was impossible. Yet, if we did not try then how would we know it could not be done? And if we did not try, it most certainly would not be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, would have been lost.”

“But I tell you this: We did not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we made with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from this day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh (adapted)

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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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.

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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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