Tag: cabinet
In Cultish Cabinet Meeting, Trump Lackeys Hawk 'Gulf Of America' Hats

In Cultish Cabinet Meeting, Trump Lackeys Hawk 'Gulf Of America' Hats

The members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet sat behind red MAGA-style hats emblazoned with the inaccurate terminology “Gulf of America” during a televised White House meeting held on Wednesday.

While the hats are not available on Trump’s official online store as of the time of writing, he has frequently used his presidency to promote MAGA-branded merchandise. It is just one of many ways that Trump has used his publicly funded office to enrich himself.

The administration has tried to push the rebrand of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for months and has successfully convinced digital map providers like Google and Apple to display it. But others have resisted, like the Associated Press, which continues to describe the body of water by its historically accurate and globally recognized name. In response, Trump has banned the AP from covering White House events and has been involved in legal wrangling as he attacks freedom of the press.

As if the whole “Gulf of America” hat thing wasn’t absurd enough, billionaire Elon Musk also attended, wearing two different MAGA-style hats on his head. The attention-hungry move follows reports that he will soon step back from his role in steering the unpopular Trump White House.

Elon Musk is wearing two Trump caps on top of each other

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 30, 2025 at 5:45 PM

Adding to the Cabinet meeting’s cult-like atmosphere, Trump opened the gathering by insisting they share a false reality. Lying, he claimed that it was not his fault that the nation's gross domestic product shrunk in the first quarter of 2025. Instead, he incorrectly blamed former President Joe Biden.

“That’s Biden. That’s not Trump,” Trump complained. “I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy, destroying our country.”

In reality, the economy is suffering because of Trump’s chaotic tariff moves. His policies have increased the costs of goods and caused global economic uncertainty. The shrinking economy has virtually nothing to do with the former president.

When Trump took office, the U.S. economy was booming following policies that Biden put in place to recover from the COVID-19-fueled downturn under Trump.

The strange hats and the promotion of a false reality with Trump’s Cabinet of billionaires show evidence of a cult of self-deception. Trump and his team may try to sell a false version of reality to the public, where the Gulf of Mexico is renamed and tariffs are working out—but public opinion polling shows it isn’t working.

Trump is unpopular and so are his ideas, and a red hat isn’t going to make that go away.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Rep. Elise Stefanik

As House GOP Margin Vanishes, Trump Pulls Stefanik Nomination

House Republican leadership is hanging on by a thread, struggling to maintain control as members either resign or accept positions in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. With their already slim majority dwindling, passing Trump’s top priorities is becoming increasingly challenging.

Right now, the GOP holds a razor-thin five-seat majority in the House—218 Republicans to 213 Democrats—with four vacancies, making every vote crucial. The situation has become so precarious that Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, has lost her nomination to Trump’s Cabinet.

CBS News reported Thursday that Stefanik’s nomination for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was pulled following pressure from her party to decline the role. With margins this tight, Republicans are hesitant to lose another seat, leading party leaders to withdraw her nomination altogether.

Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho shared the news with reporters on Wednesday.

But what he failed to mention is that Stefanik is the ultimate loser in this debacle. By having her stick around in Congress instead of taking the U.N. ambassadorship, she’s now been relegated to the sidelines—just another backbencher with no real influence. She gave up a potential leadership role and still hasn’t been assigned to any subcommittees.

For someone who spent years climbing the GOP ranks, this is a humiliating fall from grace. Instead of elevating her status on the world stage, Stefanik is now stuck in a Congress where she has no power, no platform, and—thanks to Republican infighting—no clear path forward.

Before the news broke, The Hill reported earlier this month that Stefanik’s confirmation could be postponed until at least April. House Speaker Mike Johnson was reportedly responsible for the delay—which his office has disputed—and believes that Stefanik is far more valuable in Congress than in Trump’s administration.

According to CBS News, Johnson was well aware of the internal conflict surrounding Stefanik’s nomination. Notably, unlike some of her former colleagues, she did not preemptively resign from Congress ahead of the Senate confirmation process.

In some cases, Republicans are even delaying special elections in strong Democratic districts, seemingly to avoid further weakening their majority.

For example, The Texas Tribune reported Wednesday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has yet to call a special election to replace the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who passed away more than three weeks ago.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called attention to Abbott’s delay on Tuesday.

“Congressman Sylvester Turner sadly passed away on Wednesday, March 5. Why hasn’t the Texas Governor called a special election to fill this vacant seat?” Jeffries wrote on X.

With the current vacancies, Republicans can only afford to lose two votes while still maintaining their majority on the House floor. And considering their growing internal divisions, their power may be even more tenuous than it seems.

Republicans appear to be counting on two Florida special elections to bolster their numbers. The April 1 races will determine who replaces former GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz—the latter of whom is currently serving as Trump’s national security adviser (and making a mess of it).

While both seats lean Republican, Democratic challengers are putting up a strong fight. In the contest to replace Waltz, Democrat Josh Weil has already raised an impressive $10 million compared to his opponent’s $1 million.

The fact that Republicans withdrew Stefanik’s nomination signals desperation and reflects a party in full-blown panic mode. It shows that they’re terrified they can’t advance Trump’s agenda in Congress without resorting to questionable tactics, and it suggests an even deeper fear: another Democratic upset.

On Tuesday, Democrats flipped a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in a deeply red district that had previously never elected a Democrat, and that Trump carried by 15 points in the 2024 election.

If Florida’s special elections come down to the wire, as some Republicans apprehend, the GOP might start worrying about Stefanik’s district next.

While the Florida seats are expected to stay red, Stefanik’s seat isn’t guaranteed for the GOP. Sure, she won reelection by 24 points in November, but Democrats have held the district before, with Bill Owens in the seat from 2009 to 2015. If next week’s special elections are close, Republicans will need to worry that her district could be the next to flip.

And Democrats sense the opportunity. Before news of Stefanik’s nomination withdrawal, they had planned to target her seat—just as they are in Florida. Seemingly scared of what might happen if increasingly dissatisfied voters have a say, Republicans clearly didn’t want to risk it.

The irony is almost too rich. Republicans, once so confident about their grip on power, are now scrambling to rig the game just to keep their fragile majority intact.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Top Trump Staffer Warns Nominees To Refrain From Social Media Posting

Top Trump Staffer Warns Nominees To Refrain From Social Media Posting

Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s pick for chief of staff, issued a memo last Sunday to Trump’s Cabinet nominees ordering them to stop making social media posts without approval ahead of the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.

“All intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,”the memo said, according to the New York Post.

Wiles also noted, “I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself.”

The missive comes after the spectacular flame out of former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general and the ongoing controversies of several other nominees, including Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, and Tulsi Gabbard.

Gaetz’s nomination was withdrawn after the resurfacing of sordid allegations of illicit drug use and sexual behavior, including sending money to multiple women via PayPal and Venmo. Gaetz’s activity on social media was a key part of the controversy, as the House Ethics Committee's report notes.

“From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use,” the report states.

Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, has been accused of financial mismanagement, sexual assault, and public drunkenness. In response to reporting on these allegations, Hegseth has taken to social media to complain about “anti-Christian bigotry” in the media, the “lying press”, and the “Left Wing hack groupProPublica.

Anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has also made strange social media posts. He recently posted a meme on X characterizing the medical industry as “financially dependent on you being sick,” as well as a video of himself with CGI-generated electric eyes and a link to his merchandise site.

An anonymous source with the Trump transition team claimed that the order to stop social media posts is not related to the recent online infighting between Trump megadonor Elon Musk and anti-immigration MAGA supporters. But the timing of the edict, coming directly from Trump’s right-hand woman, is extremely convenient.

Musk recently went on a posting frenzy, calling MAGA fans “upside-down and backwards” in their understanding of immigration issues, while telling one person to “take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face.”

The controversy generated international headlines, and Trump was dragged into commenting on the discussion—a less-than-ideal situation as he prepares for his inauguration.

Trump of all people telling others to be more mindful about social media posts is an ironic development. Trump made a name for himself as a political figure largely due to constantly posting inflammatory messages online. Most notoriously, he called on his supporters to protest the results of the 2020 election after losing to President Joe Biden.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” he wrote.

In the aftermath of his post, more than a thousand were arrested (including Trump), several related deaths occurred, and Trump was impeached for a second time.

But, hey, Trump’s Cabinet nominees won’t be posting on social media for a little while.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Oligarch Trump Crams His Cabinet Full Of Self-Serving Billionaires

Oligarch Trump Crams His Cabinet Full Of Self-Serving Billionaires

Donald Trump, supposed champion of the working class, is stocking his Cabinet with billionaires.

That’s a contrast with his first go-round, when he proposed only one billionaire Cabinet pick: Betsy DeVos, as secretary of education, who funneled public funds into private schools.

At the same time, Trump’s billionaire favoritism isn’t much of a surprise, since his campaign was largely funded by the billionaire class. Billionaires, on the whole, quickly forgave Trump after his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. After all, he promised to further lower their meager tax burden while reminding them of the $1 trillion increase in their wealth during his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s a breakdown of the monied people who will likely soon be in charge of our government.

Linda McMahon: Secretary of Education

A former professional wrestling magnate and billionaire, McMahon is Trump’s pick to run the Department of Education—something she has even less of a background in than DeVos did. However, considering that Trump and other Republicans have called for the dismantling of the department, putting the former WWE CEO in charge does follow a perverse kind of logic.

McMahon served in the first Trump administration’s Cabinet as small business administrator before joining the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.

Howard Lutnick: Commerce Secretary

A cryptocurrency enthusiast and investment banking billionaire, Lutnick is also a backer of Trump’s potentially disastrous tariff plans. He will oversee a department that includes the Census Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Patent and Trademark Office, among others. All of those agencies have been earmarked for destruction, slashing, or privatization by the authors of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for a second Trump administration.

Lutnick, a transition co-chair for Trump, claimed he would not “take a list from [Project 2025],” and Trump spent weeks pretending he had never heard of the wildly unpopular and fascistic plan during his campaign. But now, after the election, things have changed.

Scott Bessent: Treasury Secretary

A billionaire hedge fund manager who openly pushes for austerity measures to reduce the deficit, Bessent was tapped to lead the Treasury Department. That’s likely because he supports Trump’s ill-advised tariff plans, even if those plans are incongruous with his supposed goal of reducing the deficit.

Steven Witkoff: Middle East Envoy

Witkoff made his billions as a New York real estate developer and has ties to oil interests in the region he will likely become a liaison to. Can you say “conflict of interest”?

Jared Isaacman: NASA administrator

Isaacman, a billionaire via a payment process firm he founded, is an advocate for privatizing space programs. He’s never worked for the government, much less NASA, which Trump tapped him to head up. But hey, he did pay an undisclosed amount of money to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to go to space twice, so that makes him an expert, right?

Warren Stephens: Ambassador to United Kingdom

Trump tapped Stephens, an investment banker and Republican megadonor (what a coincidence!), to be the next ambassador to the U.K. According to The Guardian, “Stephens held a 40% stake in a payday loan company, Integrity Advance, that the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against in 2015 for allegedly employing predatory lending practices.” Sweet!

Charles Kushner: Ambassador to France

Charles Kushner (family net worth of over $7 billion) is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump pardoned the elder Kushner, a tax fraud felon, and now gives the slumlord an ambassadorship—nothing corrupt to see here!

Elon Musk: Co-Chair of Department of Government Efficiency

What is there to say about the world’s richest mid-life crisis? Musk poured billions into buying Twitter, turned it into X, and made it a right-wing propaganda cesspool in service of Trump’s campaign. His wealth shielded him from meaningful consequences related to his unethical (and possibly illegal) voter-registration lotteries.

Along with tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will head the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which will not officially be part of the government but is instead a planned advisory commission. (In other words, this is not a Cabinet position.)

Vivek Ramaswamy: Co-Chair of Department of Government Efficiency

Ramaswamy made his money by tricking big investors into believing in his burgeoning drug company Roivant Sciences and its miracle Alzheimer’s drug, intepirdine, which he bought at a bargain price from another company after the drug failed four trials. He then sold people on believing the risky reward would be worth it—but it wasn’t. Ramaswamy was able to secure big buyouts, becoming uber-rich while failing, and was free to pretend he was a special kind of businessman.

Ramaswamy does have one special talent that Trump cherishes: He’s a salesman.

Many of Trump’s rich-as-hell picks have embraced austerity policies that have already failed western democracies. Their disdain for government projects to help the non-rich is likely to lead to more boom for billionaires and more bust for the American people.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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