Trump’s Oligarchs

Elon Musk, DOGE, net worth $315.7b
Linda McMahon, Education, $3.2b
Howard Lutnick, Commerce, $2b
Doug Burgum, Interior, $1.1b
Scott Bessent , Treasury, $1b
Vivek Ramaswamy, DOGE, $960m
Kelly Loeffler, Agriculture, $800m
Chris Wright, Energy, $171m

This feels like the Boris Yeltsin era, when Russia’s oligarchs took advantage of an aging & somewhat incapacitated leader to privatize the state for their own interests.

Share
Avatar photo

Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

52 thoughts on “Trump’s Oligarchs”

  2. craig, good to get that info out.

    hope you can come up with another list someday of how much money and in-kind donations (aka pay-to-play bribes or humiliations) each has had to fork over.

  3. David Horsey’ latest op-ed Gaetz stumbles on the low bar, but other Trump incompetents will sail through | The Seattle Times

    The extremely low bar for approving Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees seems to have been set: a nominee convincingly accused of sex trafficking will not be confirmed as attorney general, at least as long as the nominee is a creepy guy with few friends among his fellow Republicans in Congress.
    The next test will come with Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, a man who has never run any organization remotely as massive as the Pentagon, never commanded a unit larger than a platoon and whose only qualification seems to be that the incoming president saw his show on Fox. Oh, and Hegseth also faces serious accusations of sexual assault.
    Even if they like him better than they liked Matt Gaetz, who withdrew his name for consideration as AG on Thursday, will Senate Republicans be brave enough to do the right thing and reject Hegseth, too? Maybe. There just might be a small number of GOP senators who believe a competent person should be in charge of the nation’s military and, if they are not running for re-election anytime soon, they might be willing to stand up to Trump.
    But it is hard to imagine them saying no to any of Trump’s other curious and unqualified cabinet picks — in particular his new choice to head the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, Florida’s ex-attorney general who is better known as a Fox News host and a promoter of Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
    Bondi is a joke and will be an embarrassment as AG, but she has not sexually assaulted anyone, so she has met the Republicans’ low, low bar.

  4. a real brouhaha last night with a tyson TKO

    Bill and his guests continue their conversation after the show.

  6. A logical thinking and smart person would install virulent anti-puttie people as cabinet and others, just to keep the KGB agent away.  Puttie has no qualms about having people fall out of windows or play with radioactive things.  He got sfb in office and if he tires of him then the U.S. order of succession takes place.  We all know the Veep is second, the Speaker third and the president of the Senate fourth.  It is the rest of the list that makes up stupid’s group of grifters.  Vance is another loser. Johnson is a loser, and so on.   If there were Cheney’s in the top of the list puttie would rather just keep to himself.

  7. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-lists/politics-politics-lists-worst-people-trump-orbit-second-term-1235158719-1235158719/

    “THE 12 WORST PEOPLE IN TRUMP’S ORBIT”

    “Musk also spent at least $119 million on a pro-Trump Super PAC, effectively taking over the Trump campaign’s canvassing operation while running countless ads promoting Trump, attacking Kamala Harris, and repeatedly demonizing migrants…”

    *While everyone in the cabinet has big money (and will soon have more), money is without morality, and some who hold less of it seem far worse. As Dr. Evil as Elon seems, Russell Vought and Stephen Miller seem to be the most steeped in their hatred of democracy and humankind, in general.

    “Vought, who calls himself a Christian nationalist, was previously director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump. He has long been plotting out plans for a radically right-wing second Trump administration obsessed with imposing its will; co-authored Project 2025, the notorious agenda project led by the Heritage Foundation; and was policy director for the Republican National Convention’s official platform committee. Vought, who wrote in 2022 that Americans “are living in a post-Constitutional time,” was the subject of a hidden video sting this summer, and some of his recent think-tank speeches were leaked as well. Some notable items: Vought said he was spending 80 percent of his time on plans “to take control of these bureaucracies,” and he specifically wants to put government workers “in trauma.” He wants to defund the Environmental Protection Agency. Vought says he is helping plan out “how the deportation would work,” and thinks mass deportations could “save the country.”

  9. interesting theory in this article.

    Elon Musk considers buying MSNBC as ratings continue to fall

    […]
    There are many ways to explain how Elon Musk does what he does. But there is only one way to explain why he does what he does? That is Moby Dick.
    Of late, I keep seeing Ahab — the eponymous villain of the Herman Melville novel — in Elon Musk. A man with an ego so large that he would “strike the sun if it insulted” him, Ahab had a mission in his life. The mission was to hunt Moby Dick, the great white whale that he once fought and which chewed his leg. “The whale dismasted me,” Ahab tells his crew. “(It was Moby Dick) that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye! And I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.”
    Elon Musk looks like a man chasing his own white whale. Real life is more complicated and nuanced than fiction, but novels like Moby Dick are mirrors in which our world gets reflected. For Elon Musk, it seems his white whale is what he calls woke-ism. He has suffered losses to it and so deeply he feels his loss that he has vowed to destroy it.
    Not enough people know about Xavier, who has now legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson. Wilson, one of the eldest children of Musk, was biologically his son. A few years ago, however, Wilson transitioned, opting to be identified as a trans-woman and changing her name. Musk, in his conversations, again and again, has talked about this episode in his life. He says that the episode changed him. Much of his rhetoric, which in uncanny ways has a tendency to drive his actions, seems to be a response to what he calls the death of his son.
    Musk earlier appeared on Daily Wire, a talk show hosted by Jordan Peterson. “I lost my son, they call it dead naming for a reason, so my son, Xavier is dead. Killed by the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that,” he says.
    For Musk, “the woke mind virus” is a manifestation of the rot that he sees in the contemporary world. In his mind, the entire civilisation is sick. The way governments work — with tremendous regulatory oversight — is a problem for him. The programmes around diversity, immigration, subsidies, affirmative actions, freedom of speech or the lack of it…all of it is a problem. The falling birth rates across the world are catastrophic, according to him.
    In Moby Dick, the narrator — Ishmael of Call Me Ishmael fame — tries to understand Ahab. He reaches a conclusion and puts the white whale at the centre of Ahab’s world. “The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them,” he tells readers. Everything Ahab does is tinged by his hate for the whale, his whole worldview filters through his desire to push a stake in the heart of Moby Dick. For him, the whale stands as a symbol of everything that is wrong with the world, somewhat like how Elon Musk now has a worldview painted entirely by his disgust for “woke mind virus.”
    And just like Ahab, Musk has created a coterie of his fellow travellers who believe in his vision. “For the present, the hunt is as much theirs as it is Ahab’s,” says Ishmael, talking of the crew of the whaling ship. “In their intense tribal wildness and levity, they circumambulate Ahab as if he were a god.” He might have been talking of MAGA bros and the anti-woke crowd that Musk has gathered around him.
    Certain books are timeless — and Moby Dick, often considered the Great American Novel, is part of the list — because they carry the kernels of universal truths, which are accurate for all times and for all people. In a way, we all have a white whale that we chase and hope to conquer. It might be small, it might be big, but we strive to tame this whale. The key, however, is not to keel over, not to be driven to a destructive madness. There is a thin line that separates the maniacal effort, which lets people change the world, from the rank madness, the kind that inflicts Ahab or Shakespeare’s King Lear.
    In the case of Elon Musk, the jury is still out. Is he an adventurer and a visionary who is going to reshape the world and save us all from the myriad dooms that he sees on the horizon, or is he doomed to be driven to madness by his quest? We don’t know yet. But the story of Ahab is a tale of caution, as much as it is about an adventure. Even Ahab realises it, albeit late. By the end, he is consumed by his disgust for the whale. “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale, to the last I grapple with thee, from hell’s heart I stab at thee, for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee,” he shouts as he jumps from the ship with a stake. It is a fitting end to Ahab. But it doesn’t change the world even a bit.

  11. but what’s behind his obsession with the letter “X”?   he named his son Xavier, his latest business ventures Space X and X.   even his awkward jump is an X.  no wonder his more recent goal is to x-out the government and perhaps the planet once he’s off to Mars.

    Image result for Elon Musk Jumping

    about now, Sturge would be muttering about ancient villains and posting punnies and parts of poems like
    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
    Nothing beside remains.

  15. Patd: “another list someday of how much money and in-kind donations”

    I’ll do that when final FEC reports come in. A lot of the billionaire money came in late, so not yet in the ridiculously slow reporting system.

  16. The Kakistocracy is really, really rich. Ability to make money does not require any ability in a field other than getting money.  

     

  18. Will crypto replace USD?  Will some of us go off grid/back to bartering for things?   When they have all of the USD converted to crypto, will they make it implode and grab every last bit of actual cash?   Will they tank the entire world economy with government layoffs and tariffs?   Once the public education system is dead, women will be homeschooling their kids, and they will lose financial autonomy in addition to the loss of bodily autonomy.  What fresh hell is this? 

  24. btw folks I reached out to Bink and Sturg, but no response

     
    thanks, Craig. I hope they hearken. We miss them both. 

  25. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-transition-news-11-23-24/index.html
    “Trump made a flurry of picks for key roles in his administration Friday night.”
     
     
    If you’re just catching up, here’s what to know:

    Trump named Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, as his pick to lead the Treasury Department.
    Trump chose Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be the secretary of labor.
    Trump selected Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Vought was one of the key authors of Project 2025, the controversial conservative policy blueprint, and was Trump’s budget director during his first administration.
    Trump named Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    Trump announced Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his surgeon general.
    Trump chose Alex Wong as his principal deputy national security adviser and Sebastian Gorkaas his senior director for counterterrorism.
    Trump chose Dr. Marty Makary to be the commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
    Trump named Scott Turner, a former NFL player, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, known colloquially as HUD.
    Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the role of agriculture secretary, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN. This has not been formally announced.

  26. https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/sebastian-gorka-a-deeper-look-at-controversial-allegations/

    tRUMPsky’s pick for Sr. Director of Counterterrorism:
     
     
    “…over the course of his career maintained ties to, and voiced opinions supportive of, antisemitic Hungarian  extremist groups and political parties. He has written opinion pieces for news outlets widely known for their antisemitic views. Gorka and his supporters have denied all allegations tying him to these groups. Instead, they have sought to discredit media reports that have exposed Gorka’s statements and actions, and to cast doubt on statements from present-day members of radical groups confirming Gorka’s affiliations.“
     

    Didn’t Ivanker convert? Wouldn’t that mean the grandchildren are Jewish? His cabinet picks have some disturbing affiliations and views.

  28. Ah-ha! The pick for Surgeon General was the medical correspondent on Fox Noise.  Orange Adolf  is still picking folks he’s seen on TV. 

  32. gorgka was the first magat to block me on twit.  He did not even wait until I was warmed up, just after a few easy insults.  He was also one of the early ones tossed out of sfb cult.

  33. The crypt and other subterranean places are likely the only sources of opposition voices now that we have oligarchy, corporate capitulation and anti-wokeism as the new thought currencies. I will have to dig deeper to find the Steve Schmidts and such, and I won’t like everything they say or going to the undergrounds that are dark and scary. But listening only to Bill Maher and whatever Joe-and-Mika turns into will send me into even darker places. 
    The problem with knowing history is you know history. 

  34. FRIDAY NIGHT MASS-A-HIRE — In a flurry of Truth Social posts last night, President-elect DONALD TRUMP made a furious pre-holiday-week dent in his list of Cabinet and key sub-Cabinet nominations — naming nine picks in the span of about 70 minutes and ruining happy hour for all the reporters who suddenly had to freshen their pre-writes.
    Whether by design or by compulsion, the volume and timing of the announcements had the immediate effect of diffusing the scrutiny that might have been trained on any individual nominee. But together they cemented a picture of Trump’s governing echelon as a menagerie of Fox News personalities, ultra-wealthy GOP patrons and MAGA true-believers, with a few genuine surprises sprinkled in. Call it the team of randos.

    https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/11/23/trump-fills-out-his-team-of-randos-00191387?

     

  36. I find all Crypto to just pie in the sky.  While all monetary systems are only as valuable as faith in the issuer allows, they are also all backed by something… Gold, silver, crops, real estate or pieces of corporate production.  Crypto is all thin air and depends on a mutual delusion that these rainbows are pretty and you should buy them and sell all the colors for a profit.  

  38. It’s like when my mom would say she was never going to tolerate “XYZ” under her roof. 
    Before you knew it, “XYZ” was under her roof and she wasn’t even charging it rent. 

  39. Some Republicans balk at a Fox News weekend host running our military…

    I misread that as “ruining” our military. 

  40. And, for something different – Did YOU know?  Lassie is a beloved American television series that aired from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973

  43. I did not realize Lassie was on television until then nineteen seventies.
     
    Bringing the world to current times, including the remote possibility of election interference with “artificial intelligence” (it is never artificial nor intelligent), this morning I decided my curiosity required an answer to something people who watch old movies like Absent Minded Professor and current offerings such as Young Sheldon. 
     
    Is there a connection between Disney using Medford and Young Sheldon using Medford?
     
    Not having access to my collection of Absent Minded Professor DVDs and too lazy to look up my answer on the intertubes I relied on Microsoft whatever it is fast answer response.  I asked the above query (I consider the word question a human thing). 
     
    The answer reminded me that I have an aging brain with some physical brain damage.  There is no correspondence (technical for ain’t anything there).  However!  For aging brain I scored close.  Disney used Medfield in California for the town and college. Mythical so as to avoid copyright issues.  Sheldon uses Medford.
     
    The google query did not help and the MS Edge query was less useful.  So, is it is useful to use one of the better queries tools?  Yes and No.  So far only fifty percent of the time has a special query resulted in a useful answer.  The rest of the time absolutely no.

  44. Blue Bronc, my little six-year old face was pressed to the tv every Sunday evening. 

    (But I didn’t realize it was still on when I left for college.)

  45. My brain must be damaged too because I still can’t figure out the memes, not on my Mac Pro either. 

  47. Crypto is like Chuck E. Cheese tokens…which are good nowhere when the mouse closes its doors. 

  48. In my ongoing quest for crispy chicken skin this trick worked great: Dutch oven 1/4 filled with water (for the weight) on top of butterflied chicken w/ breast side down in a teaspoon of oil at medium heat for 15 minutes before finishing in oven at 450 for 20 min.

Comments are closed.