Donald Trump Cabinet – To Date – 21 To Need Senate Confirmation

President-Elect Donald Trump continues to move forward through the holiday season to select people for his Cabinet.

The following is a list of Trump nominees that must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Rex W. Tillerson – Secretary of State
Ryan Zinke – Secretary of Interior
Rick Perry – Secretary of Energy
Andrew F. Puzder – Sercetary of Labor
Linda McMahon – Secretary of Small Business
Scott Pruitt – Secretary of the E.P.A.
John F. Kelly – Secretary of Homeland Security
James N. Mattis – Secretary of Defense
Steven Mnuchin – Secretary of the Treasury
Elaine L. Chao – Secretary of Transportation
Tom Price – Secretary of Health
Wilbur Ross – Secretary of Commerce
Betsy DeVos – Secretary of Education
Nikki R. Haley – Secretary of the United Nations
Ben Carson – Secretary of Housing
Mike Pompeo – Secretary of the C.I.A.
Jeff Sessions – U.S. Attorney General

Yet to be confirmed are appointments for the following departments…

Secretary of National Intelligence
Secretary of Agriculture
Veterans Secretary
U.S. Trade Representative

The 21 positions above ALL need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Not all of these people will have an easy time at getting confirmed in the U.S. Senate.

The following people DO NOT need Senate confirmation and have been appointed.

Kellyanne Conway – Counselor to Donald Trump
Peter Navarro – Trade Czar
Carl Icahn – Regulatory Czar
Sean Spicer – Press Secretary
Donald F. McGahn II – White House Counsel
Michael T. Flynn – National Security Advisor
Reince Priebus – hief of Staff
Stephen K. Bannon – Chief Strategist

Counselor

Appointed

A close adviser who will help set the president’s agenda and formulate his message.

Kellyanne Conway Mr. Trump’s choice is his former campaign manager, confidante and spokeswoman. Ms. Conway also has a pollster background and therefore may rely on this skill set to keep tabs on public sentiment.

Director of Trade and Industrial Policy

Appointed

A new position that will oversee trade and industrial policy in the White House and direct an internal council that will run alongside the National Security Council, the National Economic Council and the Domestic Policy Council.

Peter Navarro Mr. Trump’s choice is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who holds a doctorate from Harvard and is the only credentialed economist in Mr. Trump’s inner circle. Mr. Navarro has been a staunch critic of current Chinese economic policies.

Special Adviser on Regulatory Reform

Appointed

This new position will oversee the president’s promised effort to unwind as many regulations on business as he can.

Carl Icahn Mr. Trump has appointed Mr. Icahn, a billionaire investor and famed “corporate raider” who buys large stakes in companies and then forces policy changes to benefit shareholders. Mr. Icahn, who was an economic adviser during the campaign, is a longtime friend of Mr. Trump.

Press Secretary and Special Assistant to the President

Appointed

The press secretary is the face of the White House and representative for the president, framing messaging, responding to stories of the day and briefing the press.

Sean Spicer Mr. Trump chose the longtime spokesman for the Republican National Committee and top aide to Reince Priebus, who is the incoming chief of staff and pressed for his selection. While Mr. Spicer will be the face of the communications team, he will work with Jason Miller, director of communications, and Hope Hicks, director of strategic communications.

Secretary of State

Requires Senate confirmation

Whether Mr. Trump picks an ideologue or a seasoned foreign policy hand from past Republican administrations, his challenge will be that the State Department is the centerpiece of the post-1945 experiment of alliance-building and globalism, which Mr. Trump said he would dismantle.

Rex W. Tillerson Mr. Trump’s choice is the president and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, whose ties with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin may draw scrutiny during the confirmation process.

Interior Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The Interior Department manages the nation’s public lands and waters. The next secretary will decide the fate of Obama-era rules that stop public land development; curb the exploration of oil, coal and gas; and promote wind and solar power on public lands.

Ryan Zinke Mr. Trump has selected Montana’s freshman representative, a former Navy SEAL commander who was an early supporter of the president-elect and ran for office largely on a national security platform.

Energy Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

Despite its name, the primary purview of the Energy Department is to protect and manage the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Rick Perry Mr. Trump has selected the former Texas governor, who in 2011 proposed scrapping the Energy Department while he was seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Labor Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The Labor Department enforces rules that protect the nation’s workers, distributes benefits to the unemployed and publishes economic data like the monthly jobs report. The new secretary will be in charge of keeping Mr. Trump’s promise to dismantle many Obama-era rules covering the vast work force of federal contractors.

Andrew F. Puzder Mr. Trump’s expected choice is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants — and a donor to his campaign — who has criticized the Obama administration’s labor policies.

Small Business Administration

Requires Senate confirmation

The agency guarantees loans for small businesses, helps them get government contracts and supports their interests on Capitol Hill.

Linda McMahon Mr. Trump has selected the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment to lead the agency. Ms. McMahon, a failed Senate candidate from Connecticut, was with her husband, Vince, one of Mr. Trump’s biggest donors.

E.P.A. Administrator

Requires Senate confirmation

The Environmental Protection Agency, which issues and oversees environmental regulations, is under threat from the president-elect, who has vowed to dismantle the agency “in almost every form.”

Scott Pruitt Mr. Trump has selected the Oklahoma attorney general, who is a close ally of the fossil fuel industry.

Homeland Security Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The hodgepodge agency, formed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has one key role in the Trump administration: guarding the United States’ borders. If Mr. Trump makes good on his promises of widespread deportations and building a wall, this secretary will have to carry them out.

John F. Kelly Mr. Trump has named the retired four-star Marine general, whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The incoming secretary will shape the fight against the Islamic State while overseeing a military that is struggling to put in place two Obama-era initiatives: integrating women into combat roles and allowing transgender people to serve openly. Both could be rolled back.

James N. Mattis Mr. Trump announced at a rallythat he had selected General Mattis, who led a Marine division to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and led the United States Central Command from 2010-13. General Mattis, now retired, has been a critic of the Obama administration. He would need a waiver from Congress to lead the Pentagon because he has been out of uniform for less than seven years.

Treasury Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary will be responsible for government borrowing in financial markets, assisting in any rewrite of the tax code and overseeing the Internal Revenue Service. The Treasury Department also carries out or lifts financial sanctions against foreign enemies — which are crucial to President Obama’s Iran deal and rapprochement with Cuba.

Steven Mnuchin Mr. Trump has selected Mr. Mnuchin, who served as his campaign finance chairman. Mr. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, has deep roots in Hollywood but no government experience.

Transportation Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The next transportation secretary will oversee Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to increase infrastructure funding to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, airports and transit systems.

Elaine L. Chao Mr. Trump has selected Ms. Chao, the labor secretary under President George W. Bush. Ms. Chao, who is married to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has been a fixture of the Republican establishment in Washington.

Health and Human Services Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary will help Mr. Trump achieve one of his central campaign promises: to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The department approves new drugs, regulates the food supply, operates biomedical research, and runs Medicare and Medicaid, which insure more than 100 million people.

Tom Price Mr. Trump has selected Mr. Price, a six-term Republican congressman from Georgia and orthopedic surgeon who has led opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Price has said the law interferes with the ability of patients and doctors to make medical decisions.

White House Counsel

Appointed

As the president’s adviser on legal matters, the White House counsel may have an unusually daunting job in the Trump administration, given Mr. Trump’s far-reaching business empire and potential conflicts of interest.

Donald F. McGahn II Mr. Trump has chosen Mr. McGahn, who served as general counsel for the Trump campaign. Mr. McGahn, a Washington lawyer who pushed to deregulate campaign finance and election laws, served on the Federal Election Commission for five years.

Commerce Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

The Commerce Department has been a perennial target for budget cuts, but the secretary oversees a diverse portfolio, including the census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Wilbur Ross Mr. Trump has selected Mr. Ross, an investor whose fortune is estimated by Forbes to be $2.9 billion. Mr. Ross has said the United States must free itself from the “bondage” of “bad trade agreements,” and has advocated threats to impose steep tariffs on China.

Education Secretary

Requires Senate confirmation

Mr. Trump has said he wants to drastically shrink the Education Department and shift responsibilities for curriculum research, development and educational aid to state and local governments.

Betsy DeVos Mr. Trump has selected Ms. DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and an education activist who is a passionate believer in school choice, as his nominee.

U.N. Ambassador

Requires Senate confirmation

Second to the secretary of state, the United States ambassador to the United Nations will be the primary face of America to the world, representing the country’s interests at the Security Council on a host of issues, from Middle East peace to nuclear proliferation.

Nikki R. Haley Mr. Trump has selected Ms. Haley, the governor of South Carolina, as his nominee. The daughter of immigrants from India, she was a prominent and frequent critic of Mr. Trump early in his run.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary oversees fair-housing laws, the development of affordable housing and access to mortgage insurance. As a real estate developer, Mr. Trump is attuned to the tax breaks for housing development.

Ben Carson Mr. Trump has selected the former neurosurgeon and presidential candidate to be his nominee to lead HUD. Mr. Carson had previously said he did not want to work in government.

C.I.A. Director

Requires Senate confirmation

Mr. Trump takes over at a time of diverse and complex threats to American security. The new C.I.A. director will have to decide whether to undo a C.I.A. “modernization” plan put in place this year by Director John O. Brennan, and how to proceed if the president-elect orders a resumption of harsh interrogation tactics — critics have described the tactics as torture — for terrorism suspects.

Mike Pompeo Mr. Trump has selected Mr. Pompeo, representative of Kansas and a former Army officer, as his nominee. Mr. Pompeo is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and was a sharp critic of Hillary Clinton during the congressional investigation into the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Attorney General

Requires Senate confirmation

The nation’s top law enforcement official will have the authority for carrying out Mr. Trump’s “law and order” platform. The nominee can change how civil rights laws are enforced.

Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump has selected Senator Sessions, of Alabama, as his nominee. Mr. Sessions is a strong proponent of strict immigration enforcement, reduced spending and tough-on-crime measures. His nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986 was rejected because of racially charged comments and actions, which are very likely to become an issue as he faces another set of Senate confirmation hearings.

Carrier Deal – A Big Controversy – Not All Jobs Saved as Stated by Trump

As reported by Angela Hanks of ‘Newsweek’- December 8th, 2016 issue, Donald Trump made a decision to pay Carrier with $7 million in tax incentives, so that the company would keep jobs from going to Mexico or overseas. Donald Trump bragged that he cut the deal with Carrier and 2000 jobs were saved in the deal. But the deal really only saves 850 jobs. These jobs are not even guaranteed to stay. The jobs still may move to Mexico, or may eventually just disappear.

The Newsweek article further stated

“For all of Trump’s tough talk about companies facing consequences for moving jobs out of the United States, it appears that his plan in practice is to line companies’ pockets as these companies continue to lay off their workers.”

The Newsweek article continues…

“Trump may have bought those workers a little time, but he has by no means helped secure their futures. In the meantime, Trump has set a dangerous precedent for other companies: Threaten to move jobs overseas, and the government will pay you off to keep some of them in the United States.”
U.S. workers that may loose there jobs as their company decides to relocate overseas will have allot to be concerned about. If Donald Trump tries to fix it, most likely it will stay broken, and in these cases most likely will be at the taxpayers expense. So where did Trump get the money to make this deal in the first place? Actually, he didn’t do a thing, but takes the credit. His Vice-President elect Mike Pense, the present governor of Indiana, took state funds – tax incentives that were used to pay-off Carrier. Did this sink in yet? Mr. Donald Trump and Mike Pence has taken U.S. taxpayer dollars and has given it as a payoff to Carrier.
As Angela Hanks of Newsweek said in her December 8th article,

“Donald Trump’s Carrier deal is a Scam”.

Administration of Donald Trump

Decision is not decided

Donald Trump is building an administration that is full of people who have great deals of money, business interests. The Guardian put together a list of people selected for his Cabinet. Trump claims that he ‘will drain the swamp’ but is he really?!?!?!!!

They are as follows:

Todd Ricketts – for Deputy Commerce – Net worth of $5.3 billion

Betsy Devos – Secretary of Education – Net worth $5.1 billion

Wilbur Ross – Secretary of Commerce – Net worth of $2.9 billlion

Steven Mnuchin – Secretary of the Treasury – $46 million

Tom Price Secretary of HHS – Net worth $13.6 million

Sen. Jeff Sessions – U.S. Attorney General – Net worth $7.5 million

Elaine Chao – Secretary of Transportation – $1+ million

During the Housing collapse for example, Trumps selection of the Secretary of the Treasury – Steven Mnuchin owned a bank that foreclosed on a 90-year-old over a 27 cent error on a mortgage payment.

Here are some details of a few others yet to be confirmed by the Congress…

Betsy DeVos currently serves as the Chair of the American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C.-based single-issue organisation that promotes charter school education.
According to the New York Times, Mrs. DeVos openly criticised Trump during the primaries and spent time raising money for other candidates.
Betsy DeVos and her family are considered Michigan royalty. The DeVos family are heirs to the Amway fortune and in the last three elections (2012, 2008, 2004), members of the family gave nearly $9.5 million to party committees and candidates. Note: The DeVos family gave nearly 1.4 million in 2 months before the August 2nd primary.
In addition, her husband Dick DeVos unsuccessfully ran for Governor of Michigan in 2006.

In 2012, Dick DeVos led the charge in getting the Legislature to make Michigan a right-to- work state. Ultimately, eliminating work rules that made financial support of unions a condition of employment for teachers in public schools. Betty and Dick DeVos founded their own charter high school, the West Michigan Aviation Academy, located on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand rapids.

Wilbur Louis Ross, Jr. is an American investor, and former banker, known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel, coal, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles. Ross is a frequent critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement and has blamed it for jobs going to Mexico. Ross also runs the private equity firm W.L. Ross Co. and, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $2.9 billion. Ross also worked with Trump to help restructure the debt for Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Todd Ricketts is an American businessman and a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. He is the son of Ameritrade founder and billionaire Joe Ricketts.

More Factors Come to Light with Trump’s Carrier Deal

NOT A GOOD DECISION

I had previously reported that the majority of jobs would still be lost to Mexico, and that Carrier Corporation would be keeping a small amount of employees at the plant in Indiana. There are various reports on the correct number of people that are getting axed. Trump claimed that the deal he made with Carrier would save employee jobs. Actually as reported today by CNN Money, Carrier actually made an announcement that 800 out of 1400 jobs would be saved, at a cost of $7 million dollars at the expense of U.S. taxpayers of Indiana. This means that at least 500 people will be let go from the comany. The company will also receive $200,000 a year to retain the 800 workers. What encouragement for other companies to copy what Carrier has done. Thank you Governor Pence, still acting Governor of the State and President-Elect Donald Trump!

Remember how Donald Trump claimed that he was going to tax Carrier at 35% of all products they sell to the United States but built in Mexico? It now looks like the shoe is now on the other foot. Carrier has now hiked the prices of its air conditioners and furnaces up to 5% and will take effect on January 1, 2017. To be honest about their decision, they planned to do this even before they negotiated with Trump, but the fact is even after all they are receiving to keep workers in the states, they will still up the cost of all products sold in the United States.

Trump Takes a Phone Call from Tiawan’s President Breaking Long Outstanding Protocol

Not a good decision

Another decision that Donald Trump has made is that he has broken decades of protocol , actually since the mid 70’s, with a simple phone call with Tiawan’s president. It is important that the President-Elect simply ignored the fact he will be the next U.S. president, No U.S. president has had diplomatic contact with Tiawan since the 1970’s. China is very upset with the change in protocol, and has lodged a formal complaint with the United States.
Ok, so you can’t take back the phone call. It’s happened so now what. First the implications of the phone call throws up a red flag about his fitness to be president. He does things not in tradion it seems, but obviously that is not what he is about, and he ran on non-tradition and change. He’s presently on a nationwide ‘thank-you tour for getting elected to the presidency. No other president has done that. People also wonder now that he’s willing to break long standing protocol with Tiawan, his upcoming Secretary of State choice seems to be critical.
And there is a conflict of interest here. Trump has interest in building luxury hotels in Tiawan according to a reporter and staff writer of the Taiwan News on November 16, 2016. So you have to wonder if this is all about diplomacy, or to line up his own pockets with dollars. He has nothing to loose here, but everything to gain, and from a foreign governments to boot – but it is a blatent example of ‘conflict of interest’.
Presently, all that Trump is doing is making the news, but figuratively speaking, he is hanging out his neck just enough to get it chopped off as soon as he becomes president. The Republicans are happy to let things slide when it comes to Trump, because now they have a big agenda that the Congress has been working on for over a year on things that they plan to get done. I’m certain that the Democrats will not let anything slide regarding U.S. protocol with foreign nations.
Donald Trump has already caused a diplomatic incident and he is not even President yet. Continued actions such as this will shine a negative light about the United States to our allies accross the world.
Maybe I’m wrong about Trump. Maybe he will not make decisions of this nature when he takes the oath of office as the 45th President of the United States, but maybe he will. He is not showing any sign that he will change.
Donald Trump believes that once he is president, he can do what he wants. Even if that were the case, acting in such a way as president of the United States, will cause issues for himself and others. The stocks will fluxuate upon his every tweet. That’s scary. He continues to tweet because he feels that it’s a great way to immediately talk to at least 40 million of his followers on Twitter in which he will be able to get his word out fast. Thanks to the news media, they follow each and every tweet, and they monitor his feed all the time, which is exactly what Donald Trump wants. He wants the media to be talking about him all the time.
By now, everyone believes that Donald Trump will be a very vocal and a very outspoken president. But he also claims that the element of suprise is something he plans to incorporate when it comes to wars, and he may receive his first test on this revelation when he claims that he will confront ISIS and destroy them. He will be considered a war president, but the question is will he start his own war with another country. Seeing how he can easily provoke China with a simple phone call, what’s next on his agenda to make headlines?

Privatizing Social Security and Medicare

Not a good decision

It all started back in 2005 by George W. Bush. His State of the Union speech, centered around his belief to prioritise the New Deal’s guarantee of a dignified retirement. It became his number one priority. Back in 2005, then House of Representatives Minority Leader from California, Nancy Pelosi rejected the plan from Bush then, and is willing to begin all over again with President Trump after he takes his oath of office of the Presidency in January.
During the election campaign, Donald Trump swore to protect Medicare on the campaign trail, but now is compiling a list of privatizers, beginning with Paul Ryan who has been trying to gut Medicare and turn it into a fist full of vouchers beginning next spring. Then there is Georgia’s Congressman Tom Price who is be designated as Trumps Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you check history, Tom Price has a long history of wanting to slash Medicare and Medicaid and stands behind Paul Ryans plan to voucherize Medicare.

Will the Democrats fight again?

Here is a quote from Elizabeth Warren as she commented on the issue in 2005.

“The American people didn’t give Democrats majority support so we can come back to Washington and play dead. They didn’t send us here to wimper, whine or grovel. They sent us here to say no for efforts to sell Congress to the highest bidder. They sent us to stand up to what is right, and now they are watching, waiting and hoping, hoping that we show some spine, and start fighting back”

The Democrats fought and won. They were rewarded by voters. They picked up 31 seats in House in 2006, while Nancy Police became the House Speaker and Harry Reed became the Senate majority speaker.

It appears that the Republicans are already ready to pick a fight that they absolutely cannot win. The Democratic party built Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that helped protect the American middle class.
Donald Trump is in the process of creating a Cabinet full of millionaires and billionaires and they will attempt to roll back all the gains created for the American middle class. If he is as wise as some may think, Donald Trump may veto any such plans for privatisation. But I wouldn’t bet money on it.

What is to come next regarding plans for Medicare from a totally Republican controlled Congress led by Donald Trump is not predictable. On one hand, Trump says that he will not allow Medicare to be prioritised, but on the other, he nominates people for Cabinet positions that want to prioritise Medicare. But to be sure, Donald Trump will loose his base overnight if he tries to mess with Medicare that helps the middle class. If Trump doesn’t realise that it would a very stupid thing to do, then I sincerely believe his political future will be in jeopardy, not to mention how stupid it is in the terms of economic management.
So essentially how they want to prioritise is to give everyone 401K’s, giving wall street the edge and our 401K funds will be dependent on the ups and downs on wall street.

Here is what President-Elect said in a speech he gave back on June 15, 2015…

“Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it. Get rid of the fraud, get rid of the waste and abuse, but save it. People have been paying into it for years, and now many of these candidates want to cut it. you save it by making the United States, by making us rich again by taking back all of the money that’s being lost.”

But Donald Trump reverses course on just about anything he says or promises. But if he even attempts to mess with Medicare or Social Security for that matter, it will be nothing less than a disaster in the making. The Democrats will come at this with everything they have and the political impact would have a incredibly negative effect against Trump.

So at first when I heard about some of the hires to be in Donald Trump’s Cabinet, I was alarmed, but all you have to do is go into the history books and look up George W. Bush and what happened to him when he tried to prioritise programs that would hurt the middle class.

Trump the ‘Hit Man’ Keeps Good on a Promise – OR DID HE

Partially good decision

To continue focusing on Donald Trumps decisions, one of his promises has been fulfilled today. At first glance, you may think that Donald Trump has made good on one of his promises. Out front, you can say that he did, but actually, the way that it was done is worth covering. His original promise made to the American people in several of his debates, and even off the stage is that if Carrier Air Conditioning moves to Monterrey Mexico, he would tax their imports from Mexico into the United States at 35%. From that statement, you can surmise that Donald Trump was going to be very tuff on companies leaving America, but selling their products in the United States.

Donald Trump is now taking credit for keeping Carrier jobs in the United States. He originally stated himself that over 1400 jobs would be lost if the company moved to Mexico. Trump met with the executives from Carrier by visiting their plant and yes, he did save jobs, as the air conditioning company will keep their plant in the United States. Was it just a promise by Carrier that they would keep their plant in the United States, without incentives? Of course not. It was reported today that Carrier will receive money to keep their plant open.

The question is where will they be getting their money to keep the plant in the United States. Since Trump is making good on his promise, is he paying the company out of his bank account? Carrier, from Indiana, which happens to be the home state of present governor Pence, or Donald Trump’s Vice-president elect, is taking state funds, approximately 7 million dollars of tax payer money from the general funds and pay Carrier as an incentive to stay in Indiana. Tax payer money? How is this a good thing for the taxpayers of Indiana? The people of Indiana will pay a company to move around 95% of their existing jobs to Mexico. That means layoffs are coming. How is this fair? Does Donald Trump expect all of this Republican governors to pay money to companies that plan to leave their state? To say that it is ok for a company to leave the country if they just keep part of their business in the United States, and to pay them for making this decision to leave will spark an overwhelming amount of companies to do just that because he has set a precedent here.

Wait, there is more, it gets better. Carrier still plans to open shop in Mexico and ship 1300 jobs out of the country, with the exception that they will keep their present plant open in Indiana. But, only 100 people will be left behind to work the plant. Still, over 1100 jobs will be lost to Mexico. Is this the way that Donald Trump is going to keep companies from outsourcing their jobs to Mexico? You can deduct from what happened her is that Donald Trump had to lie to keep a promise that wasn’t actually kept but has the illusion that it was? He said that “they will pay, believe me”. Yes, they are keeping a plant in Indiana, but they still will outsource at least 1100 jobs to Mexico, and instead of the company paying the United States, the State of Indiana is paying Carrier with taxpayer dollars. Talk about an injustice. This is just one of the decisions made by Trump – “the great businessman” out of many I expect to report on even before he becomes President on January 20, 2016. So what Donald Trump actually has done for mostly succeeding in what Donald Trump says that everyone else was stupid to ever do.

What will they still produce at their plant in Indiana – window fans?

Issues Rising from Trump Decisions as President-Elect

Not a good decision

As the editor of this blog, I am trying to keep my opinions nutural, but it seems that I’m going to have to have so much to write about. A couple of things have happened today in the news that people need to know about. In keeping with the reason for writing this blog, the decisions made by Donald Trump, I would like to highlight two issues with more details that Donald Trump may not necessarily want you to know about. Many people know that they are happening because they hear Trump news being reported every day. But not in this detail.

FIRST ISSUE

Bahrain National Day which is held each day on December 16th. Each year, The country celebrates their independence from Britain in 1971. As a country, Bahrain has a terrible human rights record and recently there was a brutal crackdown on an Arab Spring uprising where thousands of people lost their lives and many were jailed by their government.

There is a Bahrain Embassy in Washington DC. Each year a full celebration to celebrate Bahrain National Day takes place. The reception celebration is held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. One year it was held at the Four Seasons Hotel.

This year, they have decided on a new venue. Instead of the Ritz, it will now the Bahrain Celebration will now be held at Trump’s D.C. Hotel, which is now raising ethical concerns. Details about this celebration to be held at one of Donald Trumps properties can be found in a POLITICO article,presented by Nolan D. McCaskill and Madeline Conway dated (11/29/16). Of course, why wouldn’t Bahrain not want to book their event anywhere except on a property owned by the President-Elect. I guess that the Bahrain formal orgainization does not want to meet President Elect Trump at the Ritz, and that could be understandable, not to mention that it may put a little cash in President-Elects pockets. Is there a conflict of interest here or not? Don’t you think they are trying to get in good with the President-Elect? Of course they are.

SECOND ISSUE

A day earlier on December 15, President Elect Trump had another tweet storm here are some of his tweets….

“to be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. While I am not mandated to …”

as stated on Donald Trumps Twitter feed account. He also states

” it is visually important, as President , that in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses. Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”

Originally, Donald Trump mentioned that he was going to allow his kids run his businesses once he becomes president.

There is an office called The United States Office of Government Ethics that sets rules of conflicts of interest in the Executive Branch. They responded to Donald Trump’s tweet today about the Twitter announcement with great excitement but also with great sarchasism.

So now the Twitter war begins….

The Office of Government Ethics tweeted in return..

“OGE is delighted that you’ve decided to divest your businesses. Right decision! Bravo! Only way to resolve these conflicts of interest is to divest. Good call! This divestiture does what handing over control could never have done. We can’t repeat enough how good this total divestiture will be ….”

BUT, here’s the problem. Who is fooling who here… President Elect Donald Trump never said that he is going to divest his business interests. He never said that he will rescind ownership of anything. What he is actually talking about is just turning over control to his kids.

Now if he did the right thing, for example, announce his divestiture, then for sure that would be a great deal in neutralising his conflicts of interest. If he doesn’t divest himself, in essence, he will be taking a bribs, which what is indicated for the celebration at his hotel. He still is benefiting from his private businesses, monies that he receives specifically because he is going to be President. That is the definition of ‘conflict of interest‘. It is specifically prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, even if you are president. But he has made no statement that he will divest his businesses. He does not plan to isolate himself in ANY way from his financial interests, except that he says his kids will run the businesses. You can read more on his businesses ties and his business empire that he has across the world right here.

To get right with the law, the president-elect intends to sell his assets, and put his funds of his assets in a Blind Trust to get right with the law. But to date, neither he or his transition team is saying anything of the such.