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Trump Picks Fox News Host to Lead DoD - The Wednesday AM Quickie 11/13/24

By Jacob Silverman —

I still have RFK on my list as first Trump crony to be kicked to the curb. At least let it be before he gets any real power. -Jacob

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THE BIG BAD NEWS

Trump Picks Fox News Host to Lead the Department of Defense

President-elect Donald Trump said that he plans to nominate Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth is an Army National Guard veteran who deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Gitmo. These days, he's a Fox News weekend host who periodically rants about woke Army officers or veterans claiming more than their fare share of benefits. He seems to do the typical right-wing influencer hustle, selling AK-47 bullets on his YouTube channel. He says that he hasn't washed his hands in 10 years and that germs aren't real.

Hegseth may be one of the least qualified people to ever lead the Department of Defense, which employs than 3.4 million people, including contractors, and is one of the most complex bureaucracies in the world. (It's also responsible for a lot of death and mayhem.) Pentagon watchers worry that Hegseth's anti-woke shtick will be part of Trump's promised effort to purge the military of "disloyal" generals and civil servants.

Hegseth is known for defending war criminals like Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who was turned in by his own teammates before being charged and convicted of murder. Trump pardoned Eddie Gallagher, and it's this bloodthirsty warrior type that Hegseth upholds as an example to follow.

If you don't buy ammo from Fox News hosts while chugging Black Rifle Coffee, you'd be forgiven for not knowing who Pete Hegseth was before just now. “Who the fuck is this guy?” one anonymous lobbyist said to Politico.

He's a Trump loyalist who the boss thinks looks good on TV. That's why he's there.

Elon Musk Gets His "Department of Government Efficiency"

Compulsive poster Elon Musk and annoying debate kid Vivek Ramaswamy will be allowed to run a Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE (yes, the crypto thing, sorry). It's unlikely that Trump will attempt to create a new cabinet-level government department. The two men – one the richest in the world, the other rich enough – will probably play the role of consultants here to lay off as many people as possible. Both Musk and Ramaswamy have spent months publicly fantasizing about throwing millions of government workers out of their jobs.

Christian Zionist Huckabee Will Be Ambassador to Israel

President-elect Trump has chosen former Arkansas Gov. and mediocre bass player Mike Huckabee to be the US ambassador to Israel. An ordained Southern Baptist pastor who visits Israel annually, Huckabee is a fervent Zionist who supports a "one-state solution" of permanent Israeli occupation and annexation. He has denied that there's any such thing as the occupied West Bank – just the lands of Judea and Samaria, which he believes were given to Israel's Jews by God. He's also said that "there's really no such thing as a Palestinian."

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Biden Admin Lets Fake Israel Aid Deadline Pass A month ago, the Biden administration sent the Israeli government a letter urging them to allow more aid into Gaza, where people are starving, or else the US would be forced to reconsider arms transfers. Despite Israel being in violation of US laws around military assistance (genocide will do that), the Biden administration now claims the aid situation has improved. Aid organizations say the humanitarian situation for Palestinians is the worst it's ever been. via AP News and Foreign Policy.
  • Oil and Gas Are A "Gift From God," Azerbaijan's Prez Tells Climate Conference Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev the COP29 climate conference, which he is hosting, that fossil fuels were a gift and accused "Western fake news media" of "slander and blackmail" against his country. Aliyev is a kleptocrat whose family rules gas-rich Azerbaijan as a veritable mafia state. via BBC News.
  • Trump Picks Former DNI To Lead CIA John Ratcliffe, a former Congressman who was Director of National Intelligence in Trump's first administration, will be nominated to head the CIA. Ratcliffe is considered a Trump loyalist and China hawk, which are the relevant qualifications for almost any Trump-world job. "Blindly loyal to Trump, not America," former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi wrote on X. via NYT and WaPo.
  • Judge Puts Off Decision On Trump's Hush Money Conviction The two sides in Trump's hush money case will have another week to talk about how to move forward, if at all. Despite being found guilty of 34 felony counts, it's now unlikely Trump will be sentenced, and all of the other legal proceedings against him seem to be in jeopardy. via CNN.

SOME NUMBER

90 percent

That's how much education funding comes from the states, rather than the federal government. Even so, Trump has promised to close the Department of Education, the smallest of all the cabinet agencies, and one whose purpose is mostly to administer grant and loan programs, including for kids living in poverty or with a disability, and to address civil-rights issues in education.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

11/13: It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, to discuss what to expect in terms of immigration policy from a 2nd Trump term. Then, he speaks with Daniel Hunter, activist & co-author of the book What if Trump Wins?: An Interactive Pick-Your-Path Adventure.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

TRUMP GOES FULL NEOCON WAR HAWK

Donald Trump seems to be gearing up for more war, not less.

Trump Border Czar: "I Don't Care What People Think About Me"

Tom Homan is very excited to cause a lot of misery.

PARTING WORDS

“If you’re the general counsel of Apple and [chief executive] Tim Cook turns to you and says, ‘Can we host TikTok on our app stores,’ you’re in a very awkward position if the answer is ‘Trump said we could’ in a random tweet. How much do you trust Trump? If he changes his mind, are they retroactively liable? Do they really want to be in that position?”

-- Former Department of Justice official Alan Rozenshtein talking to WaPo about Trump's intention to overturn Biden's TikTok ban. Once a TikTok critic, Trump saw the light thanks to TikTok investor and GOP mega-donor Jeff Yass. It's now believed that Trump will try to reverse the ban or perhaps not enforce the law, leading to some uncertainty for tech companies.

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