Humor-Satire Trump Staff Picks, Co-Conspirators and the Revolving Door of Departures [2024 Edition]

[KaraBulut]

When Biden was President, then Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested bring Biden's non-judicial nominees to the floor in blocks, where the Senate would voice vote yea/nay on groups of nominees- 10 or 20 at a time. Republicans screamed like a mashed cat, so it never happened.

Until 2025. John Thune, not to be outdone, is holding votes on Trump's nominees one hundred at a time.

Included in the next round of nominees is Anthony D'Esposito to be the Inspector General at the Department of Labor.

In 2024, D'Esposito lost his US House seat from New York. During the campaign, it came out that D'Eposito had hired his mistress to work for his Congressional office (the mistress was not the woman who was his fiancée). He also hired his fiancée's daughter. He was also under investigation for poor record-keeping on his campaign- submitting over $130,000 in expenses without a receipt and paying for private meals that were submitted with descriptions that were vague (e.g. "steak").

In spite of a long list of corruption issues, D'Esposito will be confirmed by the Republican Senate as part of one of the blocks of 100 nominees.

https://www.congress.gov/nomination/119th-congress/60/8

CREW submits statement for the record on D’Esposito’s nomination - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

The Senate must reject former Representative Anthony D’Esposito’s nomination for Inspector General at the Department of Labor due to his history of allegedly violating ethics rules.

www.citizensforethics.org

 

[KaraBulut]

After the shooting at Brown University, the White House sent out a message saying that the shooter had been apprehended. The information coming out of the White House was false.

Then hours later, the Ka$h Patel sent out messages bragging about how the FBI had used geolocation technology to apprehend the shooter. He gave details about guns, along with information about the source and methods used to apprehend the suspect.

Turns out that it was incorrect. The local police were acting on a tip from the public, not "geolocation technology". The "person of interest" wasn't a suspect, he was just someone that they wanted to talk to after the tip from the public.

Meanwhile, the news outlets picked up the tweet and repeated it. Students at Brown breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the shooter was in police custody and was no longer a danger to the public.

Only, the guy wasn't the shooter. He was released after the police determined that the guns that the suspect had did not match the gun used in the shooting.



Pundits on the right and the left are calling for Ka$h to resign. He's incompetent. He keeps screwing up. He's a distraction. His deputy, podcaster Dan Bongino, needs to go too.

Meanwhile, Trump is making excuses and blaming "the school" for the shooting.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5650235-trump-blames-brown-university-shooting-suspect-delay/

Kash Patel slammed over this nightmare FBI blunder in Brown University killings

It’s not the first time that the director has come in for criticism.

www.yahoo.com

Megyn Kelly turns on 'friend' Kash Patel over probe flub: 'Keystone Cops comes to mind'

Longtime pro-Trump commentator Megyn Kelly had some harsh words for FBI Director Kash Patel over how he handled the first hours after the Brown University shooting, The Daily Beast reported on Monday.Kelly, who said she considers Patel to be a "friend," particularly slammed how the Trump...

www.rawstory.com

FBI's handling of Brown shooting investigation renews scrutiny of Patel

The FBI released a person of interest in the Brown University shooting after evidence shifted, renewing scrutiny of Patel's public messaging.

www.washingtonexaminer.com

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/crime/2025/12/15/fbi-kash-patel-criticized-after-person-released-in-brown-shooting/87774017007/

Brown shooting probe called a mess as local police publicly fault the FBI

CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem said the investigation into the fatal Brown University shooting is already in disarray, highlighting an unusual public rift between local police and the FBI. After a person of interest promoted by FBI Director Kash Patel was released for lack of evidence, Kayyem said...

www.rawstory.com

 

[rareboy]

But he won't resign. Or be fired.

Making the FBI look incompetent is his job.

 

[KaraBulut]

But he won't resign. Or be fired.

Making the FBI look incompetent is his job.

If so, we may have found the one thing that Ka$h Patel is good at.

 

[rareboy]

Meanwhile...Susan Wiles. The Project 2025 nursemaid who is actively enabling her demented boss to batter away at decency and norms every day.

I still suspect she was the one who pushed the Reiner piece out the door to divert attention from Trump's mental speech at the WH event the day prior...and I'll bet she works with her boys Miller and Scavino to orchestrate a lot of the chaos.

The Vanity Fair piece is apparently lax in challenging her but no question that she was a fool to have given out so much opinion fodder.

Susie Wiles: Trump's chief of staff hits back at Vanity Fair 'hit piece'

In the interview, Wiles describes Donald Trump as having an "alcoholic's personality" and JD Vance as having been a "conspiracy theorist" for a decade.

www.bbc.com

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

Susie Wiles: "Pathetic, amoral enabler".

 

[KaraBulut]

DHS has spent $220 million on Noem's dress-up videos. The moral stench in Washington must be stifling.

Tick tock ICE Barbie...

https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-dhs-ad-campaign-strategy-group

Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts

The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.

On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”

Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.

The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.

 

[KaraBulut]

When the going get tough, the not-so-tough return to podcasting.

Dan Bongino preparing to leave FBI deputy director job — with rumored replacement waiting in the wings

Four sources told The Post that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s departure is expected soon, with two specifying that they have heard he is likely to depart in January.

nypost.com

Dan Bongino preparing to leave FBI deputy director job — with rumored replacement waiting in the wings

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is expected to leave his position in the coming weeks — after reportedly packing up his belongings and bidding adieu to his team.

Four sources told The Post that Bongino’s departure is expected soon, with two specifying that they have heard he is likely to depart in January.

President Trump confirmed on Wednesday Bongino is heading for the exits.

 

[rareboy]

Probably with a platinum NDA parachute.

Expect him to start his MAGA grift up again...I suspect that he sees no end in sight to Patel's fuck-ups and destruction of the Agency and also must see that at some point, he is just going to be the most convenient patsy to take the fall.

And also expect TrumpCo. to install someone even worse.

 

[KaraBulut]

More details about the bumbling, inept, cross-eyed FBI director and his bungling of the Brown University shooting case:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/politics/stumbles-search-brown-university-shooter-wrong-man

On Sunday morning, as investigators rushed to prepare a search warrant for a hotel room in Coventry, Rhode Island, FBI Director Kash Patel broke the news on social media celebrating that a person of interest had been detained in the Brown University mass shooting...

It turned out to be the wrong man.

Patel’s announcement, made in a post on X, highlighted the role of the FBI in using cellphone tower data to find the alleged person of interest. By that time, however, some investigators already knew that the person of interest’s cellphone was never identified at the scene of the shooting, casting doubt on the man’s involvement, three people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Within hours, those doubts grew as investigators determined that tests on shell casings found at the scene of the shooting didn’t match the DNA of the person of interest, two of the sources said. Two handguns found in the hotel room of the person of interest also didn’t match ballistics of the casings, and a residue test on the man’s hands came back negative, the sources said.

And a reminder: every Republican in the Senate, except Murkowski [R-AK] and Collins {R-ME] voted "yes" on Patel's nomination.

 

[rareboy]

Hilarious.

 

[KaraBulut]

Lying and moral rot has a price:

She's only 28 years old.

Before Trump:

After plastic surgeries.

Then and now:

Now:

 

[rareboy]

She is another one who will end up looking like Jocelyn Wildenstein. But who wears it better?

 

[KaraBulut]

She is another one who will end up looking like Jocelyn Wildenstein. But who wears it better?

This montage has less guyliner than the actual JD photo...

Or the parody:

 

[KaraBulut]

Pete Hegseth is a joke.

Previous SecDefs focused upon bettering the conditions for the troops and ensuring that Americans were safe from foreign foes.

Hegseth's priority: restoring Confederate names to military bases and restoring Confederate statues.

One of the statues that was removed in 2023 after a review by a Pentagon commission was the Arlington Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery. It was a particular distasteful monument.

In the early 1900s, Arlington Cemetery designated an area for former Confederate soldiers to be buried, in spite of the fact that these were insurrectionists who committed treason against the United States.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, an avowed racist, held a celebration at Arlington cemetery to celebrate the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America. Along with the celebration, a statue was unveiled which had been commissioned by the Daughters of the Confederacy. The cost in 21st century dollars was nearly $2 million. The statue celebrated the heroism of the Confederate soldiers and depicted "Mammy" type slaves thanking the soldiers for defending the South. The statue was erected on Stonewall Jackson Circle in the Confederate section of the cemetery.



Hegseth intends to re-install the Arlington Confederate Memorial. This is the kind of performative nonsense that Hegseth is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on.

Hegseth announces return of Confederate memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, removed by 'woke lemmings'

Pete Hegseth reverses 2023 decision to remove Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery, calling the Reconciliation Monument historically significant.

www.foxnews.com

"It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it," Hegseth said.

On the top of the statue is a heroic figure that faces south and lauds the efforts of the soldiers.


There's a shield with the name of each of the Confederate States:


There are a number of dramatic figures intended to portray the Rebels as heroes. Also included is a male slave who is accompanying his white master to war.


On the right are slaves thanking Confederate soldiers for defending the South. The large slave woman with the rag on her head has engraved tears streaming down her face.




A nude female appears with a shield. The original design had the shield with the phrase "State's Rights" to support the Daughters of the Confederacy's efforts to rewrite the history of "The War Between the States". After a redesign, the text was changed to say "Constitution", implying that the Southern States were defending the Constitution by declaring war on the United States.

 

[KaraBulut]

Unhappy with your increased insurance premiums? Unhappy about higher costs for home improvement projects? Unhappy about groceries?

Well, you can solve all of your problems by applying to be the FBI Director. In the Trump Administration, the job comes with free housing on a military base, your own airplane and a fleet of custom armored BMWs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/12/22/kash-patels-new-armored-bmw-sparks-new-controversy-over-alleged-job-perks/

Kash Patel’s New Armored BMW Sparks New Controversy Over Alleged Job Perks

• FBI Director Kash Patel is using new luxury BMWs for his travel that the agency purchased at his request, MS Now reported Monday, commissioning the German-made cars as the FBI director already faces a House investigation for his alleged misuse of taxpayer funds.
• The FBI confirmed to MS Now that it has purchased an unspecified number of luxury armored BMW X5s for Patel’s use, with the outlet reporting Patel requested them for his travel in order to be less “conspicuous.”
• The vehicles break with usual practices by FBI directors, who typically travel in Chevrolet Suburbans, though the U.S. government does use the same class of BMWs to transport State Department officials and diplomats in high-risk international areas.
• The new fleet has drawn scrutiny from Patel’s critics, with former Justice Department official Stacey Young telling MS Now the move was “an embarrassment.”
• FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson defended the choice to MS Now by arguing the BMWs were chosen because they were more cost-effective than other upgraded vehicles the agency could have purchased—though he didn’t disclose how much they cost—claiming the move was “evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient.”
• The BMW report comes as Patel has already come under fire for his taxpayer expenses, including using the FBI’s private jet to visit his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins and reportedly hiring a FBI security detail for her.
• Patel said in December he is following FBI policy that bars directors from flying commercially and is “entitled to a private life,” and claimed he is being attacked for his use of taxpayer resources because his critics “know this FBI is succeeding in ways prior leadership failed.”

A non-armored BMW X5 retails for between $73,000 to $129,700 each (before tariffs). Ka$h ordered 4 of them.

 

[KaraBulut]

It's been a year for airline fatalities.

The term of Sec Sean "Real World" Duffy began with a plane crash at Washington National that killed 67 people.

A Brookings study found that the FAA under Duffy is falling short of their goals for hiring new air traffic controllers. The study also points to Congress and the OMB under Russ Vought as contributing to the continuing shortages.

Air traffic controllers and why there aren’t enough of them | Brookings

Dorothy Robyn details how shutdowns, hiring shortfalls, and training limits have deepened the FAA’s controller shortage.

www.brookings.edu

Yesterday, another victim of the Kentucky UPS plane crash died. This brings the death toll from the Nov 4th crash to 15 total.

15th victim of UPS plane crash dies, according to Kentucky Gov. Beshear

The plane crashed during takeoff at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4 after an engine separated from the wing.

abcnews.go.com

 

[rareboy]

IF people only stopped wearing track panmts and pyjamas on flights, everything would be safer and you wouldn't need controllers.

Meanwhile the bar continues to be lowered in the hiring department.

"Trump promotes attorney and part-time salon owner to oversee visas for people coming to the US

Mora Namdar, whose parents are Iranian immigrants, was sworn as the State Department’s new assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs"​

Trump promotes attorney and part-time salon owner to oversee US visas

Mora Namdar, whose parents are Iranian immigrants, was sworn as the State Department’s new assistant secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs

www.the-independent.com

 

[rareboy]

And an interesting look at the questions still around Stephen Miller's attempt at extraordinary rendition of detainees to El Salvador CECOT ultimately failed.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/27/we-dont-know-how-when-stephen-miller-fails/