How do you feel NOW, Mr Secretary?

I wonder how our Secretary of State feels about having USAID taken over by Trump through Musk Ox and his crew of thugs? Aw, did the President promise you that he wouldn't interfere with your Department? How quaint. Are you only now beginning to realize that the Senate was a much better perch for your career? Blinded by our own ambition, were we? But now, you see all too clearly, don't you.

But it's too late for that, Marco.

 

Ooh, says here Sec of State Rubio is now in charge of the smoking ruins of USAID. Well, it's a fig leaf I suppose but Musk says that the agency is to be shut down altogether! So, in charge of what? The yard sale for the furniture?

And why wasn't this announcement made BEFORE Musk's raid?

 

Maybe because that wasn't in the plan until Rubio squawked?

 

Secretary of State is a road to nowhere politically.

The last one to subsequently become president was James Buchanan. The last Cabinet member of any sort to become president was Herbert Hoover. And we know how each of their presidencies worked out.

 

How much can Rubio swallow before he throws up and gets out? I give him six months at most but the man lacks any sense of self worth.

 

President Trump is moving fast, however this is just the "dust" the supporters claim.
Many on the right say once he has his team in place - then the fur will fly.

Shutting down USAID, overhaul of many gov agencies etc., “DOGE team” of government efficiency enforcers is shutting down some payments to federal contractors.
“The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time,” Musk posted on X.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday that he’s been told that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has granted DOGE full access to Treasury’s payment systems.

“The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,”
New tariff orders against Canada, Mexico and China all contain clauses suspending a duty-free exemption for low-value shipments below $800 that is widely seen as a loophole that has allowed shipments of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the United States.
Overdoses of fentanyl, a powerful and addictive painkilling drug, killed nearly 75,000 Americans in 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency now estimates that it process more than 1 billion such shipments per year, and Census Bureau data shows that estimated low-value shipments were the eighth-largest U.S. import category from China at $4.7 billion in 2023, more than doubling since 2014.
Former President Joe Biden's administration in January issued last-minute proposed rules to curb the de minimis exemption globally

 

This will surely lower the price of eggs.

 

If Trump goes through with tariffs on Mexico, the price of avocados will go so high smugglers will be hiding them in fentanyl shipments.

 

USAID is the law. The executive branch is not authorized to break the law by trying to dismantle USAID. The executive branch is supposed to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed. That stuff about fraudulent payments is very likely just lies to try to justify their illegal actions. If there isn't real proof of this statement made public within the next couple days then we'll pretty much know it was a lie. Similar to the stupid lie that Trump keeps telling about $50 million dollars worth of condoms being sent to Hamas. Who are using the condoms to make bombs.

 

Chaos.

 

To be honest I didn't know who or what USAID is till last week.
I knew about some of its activity but not the identity etc.

 

Kennedy signed it into law in 1961. So it's been around for awhile. It's a relatively small piece of the US government. Only about $50 billion dollars. But if our pretend President, Elon Musk can close it down then they're $50 billion dollars closer to getting the big tax breaks for the richest people and corporations in the USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_International_Development

 

I mean, with none respect due, I always kind of wondered what good does Liddle Marco imagine coming for his career out of serving as the Secretary of State for Trump. Under no scenario can it possibly end up good.

 

Weird, because their activities were kind of important for Ukraine. No more.

 

Maybe Trump just enjoys messing with Rubio's pathetic little soul?

 

Rubio to State makes enough sense by conventional wisdom of normal politics… so incongruous coming from Trump, especially the norms-smashing Trump II.

 

Lerner, it is looking very likely to me that you were spreading Elon Musk lies about fraudulent payments on the treasury computer. We'll just keep monitoring this a few more days and if no announcement is made proving the fraudulent payment then we'll know for sure it was a lie. (Although I must admit that I believe it to be a lie now and will be extremely surprised if it turns out to be the truth.)

BTW, do you believe this apparent lie? If so how about the lie that the US government sent $50 million dollars worth of condoms to Hamas for their bomb building, do you also believe that lie?

 

Why do you bother, BH?

 

It amuses me.