Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[najaB]

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" energy.

Indeed. The only difference is that she appears to be slightly less belligerent towards the Trump administration - in that she doesn't show off that she's got better dance moves than DJT.

 

[brad465]

Kristi Noem's got the chop:

Trump replaces Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem

Donald Trump replaces Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Republican senator Markwayne Mullin.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trump replaces Noem​

​

US President Donald Trump has announced he is replacing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Noem, who has led Trump's immigration drive, will be replaced with Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, Trump says.

"The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He added that Noem will now shift to a newly established position, the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, which Trump said was a "new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere"

 

[Gloster]

Kirsti Noem's got the chop:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cjd9y4k5583t[/URL

There is not a great deal about him on Wikipedia, but curiously he is a member of the Cherokee Nation; perhaps they are hoping that will soften the blow somehow. He appears to be a Trump loyalist (well, he would be, wouldn’t he), but there is nothing about his religion, although some of his beliefs suggest very reactionary Christianity. He also appears to be a martial arts enthusiast.

No real change there.

 

[Krokodil]

He added that Noem will now shift to a newly established position, the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, which Trump said was a "new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere"

God help us

 

[DelW]

The BBC report (linked above) includes this gem:

Noem is speaking now at conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

It's unclear if she knew about Trump's Truth Social post announcing her replacement before she took to the stage.

She's so far used the event to speak about her record on the border, the number of drug arrests she says the administration has made, and its efforts the lower murder rate.

Possibly Trump's personnel management skills on display there then.

Will the Shield of the Americas be as much of a scam as the Board of Peace?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Is the Shield of the Americas the glass dome in the Simpsons film?

 

[Cowley]

Kristi Noem's got the chop:

Trump replaces Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem

Donald Trump replaces Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Republican senator Markwayne Mullin.

www.bbc.co.uk

A good time to release this bit of news while the attention is elsewhere.

 

[GusB]

Is this "Shield of the Americas" in addition to, or instead of, his "Golden Dome"? Also, have the rest of the Americas been consulted?

Maybe they should just put Trump in a pen with some paper and crayons and let him get on with it while the grownups run the country.*

* Yes, yes, I know...

 

[nw1]

There is not a great deal about him on Wikipedia, but curiously he is a member of the Cherokee Nation; perhaps they are hoping that will soften the blow somehow. He appears to be a Trump loyalist (well, he would be, wouldn’t he), but there is nothing about his religion, although some of his beliefs suggest very reactionary Christianity. He also appears to be a martial arts enthusiast.

No real change there.

A fanatical anti-abortionist by the looks of it.

In the 60-minute debate, which was hosted and broadcast by News 9 and News on 6, both candidates took far-right positions on abortion when asked about the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on that subject. Both Shannon and Mullin favor a national ban on abortion, and neither candidate said exceptions should be made when the mother’s life is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest.

The candidates’ remarks came on the same evening that 59 percent of voters in neighboring Kansas rejected a constitutional change that would have allowed its Legislature to pass laws banning abortion altogether in that state.

Mullin, who has six children, praised recent abortion restrictions signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

“Absolutely I would,” Mullin said when asked if he would favor a national ban on abortion. “Someone is going to love that baby. You know, with the father of three adopted children, I can tell you there is no difference between those we chose to bring into the family and those that came natural. We love all six of them equally. My fight is to make sure we protect every single baby out there. I commend our Oklahoma state legislators for having such a strong law. I’m excited that we’re going to actually end killing babies in Oklahoma. But babies in California and babies in Massachusetts are just as important.”

Mullin also said he opposes any exceptions to an abortion ban, even if the life of the mother is at risk. He appeared to imply his own wife would opt against getting an abortion even if her life were in immediate danger.

“When it comes to the death of the mother or the child, I can tell you without question where my wife would be on this,” Mullin said. “There’s no way my wife would sit and say that my life is more important than my child. Just like I would lay my life down for my child in a heartbeat, my wife would do the same.”

Source: https://nondoc.com/2022/08/03/mullin-shannon-senate-debate-runoff/ (independent Oklahoma-based online publication).

 

[Cdd89]

Interesting that Noem got axed for among other things her incompetent suspension of TSA Pre and GlobalEntry, but GlobalEntry remains suspended (a personal annoyance!).

I wonder how long videos of her will still be played at security checkpoints at every airport. I've been finding that slightly dystopian as well.

 

[martin butler]

Interesting that Noem got axed for among other things her incompetent suspension of TSA Pre and GlobalEntry, but GlobalEntry remains suspended (a personal annoyance!).

I wonder how long videos of her will still be played at security checkpoints at every airport. I've been finding that slightly dystopian as well.

Just another distraction, something particularly damaging must be about to drop

It will be interesting who she takes down with her, when there's another president, and administration, and the long hand of justice reaches out, and grabs her.

 

[nw1]

I wonder how long videos of her will still be played at security checkpoints at every airport. I've been finding that slightly dystopian as well.

I wasn't aware of that but, looking it up, I presume this is the one blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. Sounds like the kind of thing a dictatorship would do.

 

[Bantamzen]

Is this "Shield of the Americas" in addition to, or instead of, his "Golden Dome"? Also, have the rest of the Americas been consulted?

Maybe they should just put Trump in a pen with some paper and crayons and let him get on with it while the grownups run the country.*

* Yes, yes, I know...

No, no, no!! If you left Trump alone with some Crayolas, before you could say "who would use it?" he'd be on here with his plans to connect Colne to Skipton....

Seriously though, shipping him back to Mar A Largo to just cheat his mates a golf wouldn't be the worst idea. I'm seriously starting to get the impression that he doesn't have much of a clue what's happening around him, and just reacts to the moment. The whole Iran war, not a war, regime change, not regime change, short term operation, in it for the long run, flip-flopping demonstrates to me that he doesn't have both hands on the wheel, and is being pulled left and right by those around him. This is a far more dangerous situation than if he were just a power crazed maniac (which to be fair he is), because there are many maniacs all pulling at the wheel whilst the bus accelerates towards a brick wall.

 

[Cdd89]

I wasn't aware of that but, looking it up, I presume this is the one blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. Sounds like the kind of thing a dictatorship would do.

I don't think that's what it was about, as it's been going for ages. Maybe they switched the video to that.

(I'm almost proud to admit that I have no idea as to its contents, I tune it out along with all the other nonsense at those checkpoints!)

 

[jon0844]

Interesting that Noem got axed for among other things her incompetent suspension of TSA Pre and GlobalEntry, but GlobalEntry remains suspended (a personal annoyance!).

I wonder how long videos of her will still be played at security checkpoints at every airport. I've been finding that slightly dystopian as well.

Isn't there also some shenanigans going on with money (around $140-200m?) spent on an ad campaign, awarded to someone who set up a business just a couple of weeks ago and worked with her? It's suspected the fee was massively overvalued so there's probably a great deal of money laundering and fraud going on.

Mind you, Trump would probably respect that given that's from his personal playbook.

 

[DarloRich]

When the wheel turns, and it will, all of these Trump loyalists will be ratting each other out for plea bargains.

 

[najaB]

Isn't there also some shenanigans going on with money (around $140-200m?) spent on an ad campaign, awarded to someone who set up a business just a couple of weeks ago and worked with her? It's suspected the fee was massively overvalued so there's probably a great deal of money laundering and fraud going on.

That's putting it mildly. The (potentially) fraudulent spending in the DHS has been out of this world. Going by memory, thanks to the 'Big Beautiful Bill' the DHS budget is now larger than the military expenditure of entire countries like Greece and Denmark. And last time I checked DHS wasn't buying fighter jets or frigates.

 

[jon0844]

When the wheel turns, and it will, all of these Trump loyalists will be ratting each other out for plea bargains.

Yeah, they won't want jail time so will throw each other under the bus to save themselves.

Meanwhile we're getting a taste of what Reform would want to do here (they love everything Trump does and want to copy most of it, from DOGE to ICE, to axing regulations and protections and lowering tax on the rich - and now it seems Reform are even saying we should be helping militarily in the Middle East) and we're seeing in record time just how quickly it went bad.

If people still support Reform after watching what happens in real-time, God help us.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Mar 2026 ==

That's putting it mildly. The (potentially) fraudulent spending in the DHS has been out of this world. Going by memory, thanks to the 'Big Beautiful Bill' the DHS budget is now larger than the military expenditure of countries like Greece and Denmark. And last time I checked DHS wasn't buying fighter jets or frigates.

It's a good little scam really. And the true 'patriots' won't complain because they enjoy watching brown people being pulled from stores they were working in, while Noem and others talk about deporting all the gang leaders and other criminals...

 

[Cowley]

When the wheel turns, and it will, all of these Trump loyalists will be ratting each other out for plea bargains.

I guess he could start dishing out preemptive pardons, but we don’t know how this is going to end because it’s entirely possible that he doesn’t do a full term anyway.

His narcissism will prevent him from wanting someone successful to come along after him though and those around him will probably end up fighting like rats in a sack.

 

[martin butler]

No, no, no!! If you left Trump alone with some Crayolas, before you could say "who would use it?" he'd be on here with his plans to connect Colne to Skipton....

Seriously though, shipping him back to Mar A Largo to just cheat his mates a golf wouldn't be the worst idea. I'm seriously starting to get the impression that he doesn't have much of a clue what's happening around him, and just reacts to the moment. The whole Iran war, not a war, regime change, not regime change, short term operation, in it for the long run, flip-flopping demonstrates to me that he doesn't have both hands on the wheel, and is being pulled left and right by those around him. This is a far more dangerous situation than if he were just a power crazed maniac (which to be fair he is), because there are many maniacs all pulling at the wheel whilst the bus accelerates towards a brick wall.

Frankly, I don't think he has any hands on the wheel, and the maniacs, are just pulling at the wheel until it does hit a big wall, and takes out everyone on the Trump bus,

You can be there is massive corruption, and money laundering going on, Trump knows the best crooks, or should I say, they know him, a few flattering words, and they have the power, the contacts, and its all legit, until it stops being legit, when the gravy train, does not just hits the buffers, but derails and bursts into flames,

 

[edwin_m]

And last time I checked DHS wasn't buying fighter jets or frigates.

Give them time, give them time.

 

[JamesT]

That's putting it mildly. The (potentially) fraudulent spending in the DHS has been out of this world. Going by memory, thanks to the 'Big Beautiful Bill' the DHS budget is now larger than the military expenditure of entire countries like Greece and Denmark. And last time I checked DHS wasn't buying fighter jets or frigates.

The US Coast Guard is part of DHS, so they certainly are buying frigates.

 

[najaB]

The US Coast Guard is part of DHS, so they certainly are buying frigates.

I get your point, but while they are buying ships, they're not frigates. As far as I know Coast Guard cutters don't have missile launch tubes nor are they armed with torpedoes.

 

[JamesT]

I get your point, but while they are buying ships, they're not frigates. As far as I know Coast Guard cutters don't have missile launch tubes nor are they armed with torpedoes.

They're the size of frigates, and the current Legend-class cutters are likely to be the basis of the next generation of US Navy frigates, by adding those weapon systems you mention.

 

[najaB]

They're the size of frigates, and the current Legend-class cutters are likely to be the basis of the next generation of US Navy frigates, by adding those weapon systems you mention.

Assuming that the Navy doesn't screw things up again.

But that still goes to the point I was making. Those weapons systems are a significant proportion of the cost of a navy ship, so the fact that DHS is outspending whole countries' armed forces, while acquiring significantly less, suggests that some portion of the money... (looks for appropriate euphemism for corruption)... is not being appropriated in a manner consistent with the principle of maximising value for expenditure of US taxpayer money.

 

[edwin_m]

There are reasons why public procurement projects go wrong that aren't related to corruption. For example I haven't seen any allegations of corruption at HS2*.

*If you want to dispute this then please do so in a different thread! I don't want to take this one off track!

 

[najaB]

There are reasons why public procurement projects go wrong that aren't related to corruption. For example I haven't seen any allegations of corruption at HS2*.

Oh, without a doubt. There's the oft-quoted "Don't ascribe to malice that which is sufficiently explained by incompetence."

But this is the Trump administration we're talking about, so there's no reason that both can't be true!

 

[edwin_m]

Oh, without a doubt. There's the oft-quoted "Don't ascribe to malice that which is sufficiently explained by incompetence."

But this is the Trump administration we're talking about, so there's no reason that both can't be true!

As I understand it the US Navy has a long and honourable history of overspending and underdelivering, going back well before Trump.

 

[Krokodil]

Oh, without a doubt. There's the oft-quoted "Don't ascribe to malice that which is sufficiently explained by incompetence."

But this is the Trump administration we're talking about, so there's no reason that both can't be true!

Indeed, the adage could work backwards with him. Bankrupting three casinos could be pretty extreme incompetence. Or is it more likely that it was an embezzlement scam?

 

[najaB]

As I understand it the US Navy has a long and honourable history of overspending and underdelivering, going back well before Trump.

Indeed, that applies pretty much across the DoD - $800 hammers come to mind.

But DHS (mis)spending is in a class of its own.