The Apprentice Season 2 - The Second Presidency of Donald Trump

[LordMortis]

It was all right here in the business plan where he brings the cost of health care down by repealing Obamacare



(hard to believe pictures of that event are hard to come by)

Edit found one!!!

[Smoove_B]

I guess people aren't going to care when the FDIC is abolished?

In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, Trump advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether the president-elect could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.

Advisers have asked the nominees under consideration for the FDIC, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, if deposit insurance could then be absorbed into the Treasury Department, some of the people said.

Any proposal to eliminate the FDIC or any agency would require congressional action. While past presidents have reorganized and rebranded departments, Washington has never shut down a major cabinet-level agency and rarely closed other agencies like the FDIC that are not.

[LordMortis]

Wow. And that's not even two years after the VP Elect's puppeteer, who set up all the DOGE introductions, teamed up with other "founders" to intentionally tank, and profit from tanking, the regional bank system. Fuck these guys down throat.

[Holman]

I'm sure their motives are pure.

[Smoove_B]

Who needs all that government insurance bloat when Trump can just set up a strategic Bitcoin reserve!

[Smoove_B]

Up next - The USPS:

Donald Trump in recent weeks has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the US Postal Service (USPS) because of its financial losses, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.

Trump, who begins his second US presidency on 20 January, has discussed his desire to privatize the USPS with Howard Lutnick, his pick for commerce secretary, at his Mar-a-Lago home, the report said.

As the Post noted, the move could disrupt consumer shipping and business supply chains while pushing hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of government.

Note:

Trump’s specific plans for possibly overhauling the USPS and privatizing it were not immediately clear. But he feuded with the agency during his first presidency, seeking to compel it to turn over key functions – including labor relations, managing relationships with its largest clients, rate-setting and personnel matters – to the federal treasury department.

Meanwhile, before his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election cost him his first presidency, Trump argued that the USPS was incapable of facilitating mail-in voting because he was blocking the agency from accessing emergency funding. Ultimately, as the Post noted, the USPS delivered nearly 98% of voters’ ballots to election officials within three days despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The USPS is older than the US itself, having been founded in 1775. It became a financially self-sustaining agency in 1970 and is one of the most well-liked federal agencies, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center study cited by the Post.

In the fiscal year ending 30 September, the USPS lost $9.5bn after modernizing facilities and equipment did little to offset declines in mail volume as well as a parcel shipping business that was slower than anticipated, according to the Post’s reporting. The postal service’s annual financial report disclosed nearly $80bn in liabilities.

He's just talking though, I guess.

[Zarathud]

The Founding Father Benjamin Franklin intended a national postal service. It is only inefficient due to the incompetence of Congress to fund it properly as a service. Recent investments will make for a fire sale of capacity before there’s a chance to make any return. But pillaging government functions for financial profit and kickbacks is Trump’s way.

[LordMortis]

Funny how many people tried to warn us about this guy for how long. I've been listening to old CDs

Don Henley from the 80s

[Isgrimnur]

WTF Wray has said that he's going to resign in January. Completely mind-boggling. Somewhat lost in the (merited) controversy over Kash Patel being nominated for FBI Director is that FBI Directors are nominated for 10-year terms specifically to avoid politicization of the FBI, and Wray has three years left on his term. So firing Wray itself should be a scandal.

But here Wray is saving Trump the trouble of going through the scandal of officially firing him. PLUS it allows Trump to appoint an acting FBI director both pending Patel's confirmation and as a fallback if Patel doesn't get confirmed.

The story of 2024 is not just Trump getting elected, but of the vast majority of the institutionalists and very serious people bending over unnecessarily to accommodate him.

He's on 60 Minutes tonight to explain himself.

[Blackhawk]

If 'scandal' is the counter-argument with Trump, there is no counter-argument.

[LawBeefaroni]

The Founding Father Benjamin Franklin intended a national postal service. It is only inefficient due to the incompetence of Congress to fund it properly as a service. Recent investments will make for a fire sale of capacity before there’s a chance to make any return. But pillaging government functions for financial profit and kickbacks is Trump’s way.

It's because the USPS is required to fund it's government pensions through revenue, unlike every other federal agency. Overview. They need to either reduce pension obligations or fund it through appropriations like other agencies.

Or privatize it, I guess. Then service will absolutely tank and it's mission to support rural communities will disappear.

[Holman]

Funny how many people tried to warn us about this guy for how long. I've been listening to old CDs

In the 1950s, Woody Guthrie wrote a song blasting Trump's father as a racist. Fred Trump was that well known for it.

[pr0ner]

Lol at Trump, after letting Elon and Vivek (who has disappeared off Twitter by the way) create a faux agency to cut waste in government, saying he's going to create a new government agency (the External Revenue Service) to collect tariffs, duties, and other revenues that come from foreign sources.

The man still doesn't know how tariffs work.

[hepcat]

Trumpie threw a fit because flags are lowered during this month to honor the passing of Jimmy Carter. Thankfully, his lapdog Johnson just announced they'll raise them for his inauguration so his ego is fed.

[Alefroth]

Lol at Trump, after letting Elon and Vivek (who has disappeared off Twitter by the way) create a faux agency to cut waste in government, saying he's going to create a new government agency (the External Revenue Service) to collect tariffs, duties, and other revenues that come from foreign sources.

The man still doesn't know how tariffs work.

And seems to be unaware of what CBP does.

[hepcat]

The man loves designing uniforms. So I suspect this is just his attempt to get epaulets back in style.

[Rumpy]

Lol at Trump, after letting Elon and Vivek (who has disappeared off Twitter by the way) create a faux agency to cut waste in government, saying he's going to create a new government agency (the External Revenue Service) to collect tariffs, duties, and other revenues that come from foreign sources.

The man still doesn't know how tariffs work.

Yeah, you don't collect tariffs or duties like you do taxes. Besides which, it makes them sound like Sherrifs of Nottingham.

[LordMortis]

Lol at Trump, after letting Elon and Vivek (who has disappeared off Twitter by the way) create a faux agency to cut waste in government, saying he's going to create a new government agency (the External Revenue Service) to collect tariffs, duties, and other revenues that come from foreign sources.

The man still doesn't know how tariffs work.

Yeah, you don't collect tariffs or duties like you do taxes. Besides which, it makes them sound like Sherrifs of Nottingham.

Or that TFG is Bluto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ahJPxfGp4

[pr0ner]

Lol, maybe DOGE is dead before it started, as Trump is trying to get Vivek to take JD Vance's Ohio Senate seat.

[El Guapo]

I'm sure Musk is willing to take on the sole job of punishing government agencies that don't give him money and business.

[Zarathud]

Perhaps the goal is to set Vivek up along the same path as JD Vance, literally. When Trump is no longer president, techbros will need a backup.

[LordMortis]

TFG did his job. The price of eggs at $4 a dozen is now accepted as a fact of life from my parents and that permanent increase is still a problem with democrats and government over reach by mandating cage free eggs when the bird flu is happening (which is somehow made worse by cage free chickens allowed to mingle with nature and not through disease spread through excessively cramped conditions). Funny how that works. The price of eggs was as much politics as I would listen to and they knew it. I guess that's the first step to recovering from the election.

/Still far from over it, though my tolerance is at least approaching some small percentage of 1 on a scale of many rather than absolute zero. Awaiting the 21st to see how I feel. This Congress is already letting me know it's not likely to be soon.

[Max Peck]

The purges will continue until morale improves.

Speaker Johnson removes chair of powerful House Intelligence Committee

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday removed the GOP chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee, who was a vocal supporter of assistance for Ukraine and held other views that put him at odds with President-elect Donald Trump.

Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, would no longer lead the committee, which oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies and holds tremendous influence over law enforcement and foreign policy. During Trump’s first term, the committee became a hotbed of partisanship as its powers were used to assist the then-president. Johnson last year also gave two Trump allies highly-sought spots on the panel.

Johnson said he made the decision to remove Turner because the “intelligence community and everything related to (the committee) needs a fresh start.”

I suspect that the new guy, whoever it turns out to be, will be more Putin-aligned than the outgoing chair.

[Isgrimnur]

Good luck getting that record crowd size inside the Capitol Rotunda:

President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office from inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday due to forecasts of intense cold weather.
...
The Rotunda is prepared as an alternative for each inauguration in the event of inclement weather. The swearing-in was last moved indoors in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan began his second term. Monday’s forecast calls for the lowest inauguration day temperatures since that day.

[Rumpy]

I guess that means a cold day in hell...

[El Guapo]

So with Trump's second inaugural address, will he:

(1) do "American carnage part 2" (everything is awful people are dying only I can fix it); OR
(2) do a pretend magnanimous "I am president for all Americans" bullshit, knowing that credulous media outlets will cover it as "wow Trump was surprisingly presidential"?

[Max Peck]

My bet is that Trump does #1 while the media reports it as #2.

[Skinypupy]

My bet is that Trump does #1 while the media reports it as #2.

[hepcat]

So with Trump's second inaugural address, will he:

(1) do "American carnage part 2" (everything is awful people are dying only I can fix it); OR
(2) do a pretend magnanimous "I am president for all Americans" bullshit, knowing that credulous media outlets will cover it as "wow Trump was surprisingly presidential"?

Any address he's involved in that doesn't result in him just whipping out a picture of himself and masturbating frantically to it is a win for America.

[Rumpy]

I can imagine neither option given how he's treating California, with him and his cronies stating they don't deserve help with the wildfires due to who they voted for. That is abhorrent behavior. Natural disasters and relief aid shouldn't be politicized in this manner.

[Alefroth]

Good luck getting that record crowd size inside the Capitol Rotunda:

President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office from inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday due to forecasts of intense cold weather.
...
The Rotunda is prepared as an alternative for each inauguration in the event of inclement weather. The swearing-in was last moved indoors in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan began his second term. Monday’s forecast calls for the lowest inauguration day temperatures since that day.

Liberals manipulating the weather again.

[Max Peck]

I can imagine neither option given how he's treating California, with him and his cronies stating they don't deserve help with the wildfires due to who they voted for. That is abhorrent behavior. Natural disasters and relief aid shouldn't be politicized in this manner.

He did the same during his first term. Remember his "raking the forest" nonsense? There's no down side for Trump in being so petty and vindictive like this. People vote for him because he acts like this, not in spite of it.

[Rumpy]

That's for sure. And even more recently those affected by Hurricane Irene.

[Holman]

So with Trump's second inaugural address, will he:

(1) do "American carnage part 2" (everything is awful people are dying only I can fix it); OR
(2) do a pretend magnanimous "I am president for all Americans" bullshit, knowing that credulous media outlets will cover it as "wow Trump was surprisingly presidential"?

I think it'll be #1. He and his loyalists want to start some radical movies right away, and he'll want to justify/celebrate it every time he's in front of a microphone. He needs to blame enemies in order to start punishing them.

[$iljanus]

So with Trump's second inaugural address, will he:

(1) do "American carnage part 2" (everything is awful people are dying only I can fix it); OR
(2) do a pretend magnanimous "I am president for all Americans" bullshit, knowing that credulous media outlets will cover it as "wow Trump was surprisingly presidential"?

A demagogue like Trump will just combine both. "I'm the president for all Americans...and all Americans want peace, security, and prosperity. And that's why I'll secure the borders, bring order to the lawless cities, raise tariffs so foreign countries will stop freeloading off America. I will fix it and all Americans will benefit from a strong thriving America"

He really can just come up with a ridiculous all encompassing word salad that his supporters can masturbate to.

[Smoove_B]

This is total normal:

President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.

...

Friday night, while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" for the industry in Washington, the president-elect launched his own meme-linked cryptocurrency. His website bills it as "the only official Trump meme."While a number of Trump-branded meme coins popped up in recent months, none had his official endorsement until now.

By the numbers: According to CoinGecko price data, $TRUMP rose more than 600% overnight and was trading just over $32 as of 11 a.m. ET Saturday.

That gives the coin a fully diluted market capitalization just north of $32 billion. The meme website says 80% of the supply is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC. ("Fight fight fight" is what Trump said after being shot at a rally in July.)

They are subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, which means they cannot dump all of their holdings at once.

[hepcat]

Trump and the Hawk Tuah Girl should use the same lawyer.

Coffeezilla, renowned for exposing scams within the meme coin sector, also expressed his disapproval of Trump’s latest coin. “Dropping TRUMP memecoin 2 days before becoming president is nasty work,” Coffeezilla said. “New SEC/DOJ guarantees no prosecution. 80% of tokens vest to insiders DURING the presidency. Most ppl losing money will be MAGA who aren’t crypto native. *Should* be a crime but crime is legal now ig?”

[LawBeefaroni]

This is total normal:

President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.

...

Friday night, while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" for the industry in Washington, the president-elect launched his own meme-linked cryptocurrency. His website bills it as "the only official Trump meme."While a number of Trump-branded meme coins popped up in recent months, none had his official endorsement until now.

By the numbers: According to CoinGecko price data, $TRUMP rose more than 600% overnight and was trading just over $32 as of 11 a.m. ET Saturday.

That gives the coin a fully diluted market capitalization just north of $32 billion. The meme website says 80% of the supply is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC. ("Fight fight fight" is what Trump said after being shot at a rally in July.)

They are subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, which means they cannot dump all of their holdings at once.

It's probably worth noting that when headlines say $TRUMP shitcoin is worth $32B or now $72B, it's misleading. Insiders hold 80% of the $TRUMP shitcoin and they didn't pay for it. So it's a presumptive market cap based on what the remaining 20% were bought for. If anyone tries to cash out at current levels, it will tank the price.

I'm sure they're working on a way to fix that, maybe make the Federal Reserve buy it or something, but they don't really have 80% of $72B or whatever the current market cap is.

[Smoove_B]

Oh yeah, for sure. It's certain someone is going to make money and I have no doubts there's all kind of shenanigans going on - enabled by the mechanics of bitcoins.

[Max Peck]

So who, exactly, enforces the rule that says that Emperor Trump can't unload as much of his meme coin as he wishes, whenever he wishes? Given that laws don't apply to him and all that.