https://apnews.com/article/trump-cabinet-doodle-misspelling-eyes-closed-84df52bbc901a001e98e325155224954WASHINGTON (AP) — With Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting chugging past the two-hour mark, President Donald Trump ‘s eyes fluttered and closed. His budget director busied himself doodling a fluffy cloud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was lucky enough to speak early, but the title on his nameplate was misspelled.The sleepy, and occasionally slipshod, gathering nonetheless ended with a flurry of news. Trump declared that he didn’t want Somalis in the U.S. and Hegseth cited the “ fog of war ” in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea in September.The president started things off by noting that it was the last time his Cabinet would gather until 2026. And, though marathon sessions with his top advisers lavishing praise have become a Trump trademark since he returned to the White House, this latest installment felt at times like a holiday break was needed.Trump offered lengthy opening comments largely rehashing his key previous policy announcements from recent months. He also repeated old grievances, going back to his falsehoods about having won the 2020 election. ‘Go quickly’The president then gave each Cabinet member a chance to speak, declaring, “We’re gonna go quickly.” That did little to stop most Cabinet members from offering long presentations.Hegseth went first and praised the Trump administration’s move to rename his agency the Department of War — something that can’t be officially done without an act of Congress. But the nameplate in front of Hegseth labeled him the “ssecretary of war,” including a mistaken double “S” that quickly became the source of searing online ridicule.
After that, as each official took turns speaking, a TV camera trained on Trump showed him struggling to stay alert. The president sat back in his chair with his eyes occasionally drooping and sometimes shutting completely.Trump’s apparent sleepiness followed his criticism of a recent New York Times story examining his schedule and stamina at age 79. Trump again slammed the Times story early in Tuesday’s meeting and even slipped into the third person to assure all involved that “Trump is sharp.”Another indication that things were dragging came from budget director Russell Vought, who was spotted sketching a bucolic scene on White House letterhead.Vought drew mountains framed by pine trees topped by the kind of friendly-seeming clouds that public television legend Bob Ross preferred to crowd his serene landscape paintings with. The budget chief also sketched an arrow underneath his mountain. Where it was supposed to be pointing was not clear.Clashing affordability messagingJust as Trump’s admonishments to keep things tight were flouted, some of the Cabinet members also defied the president in their presentations when it came to the issue of affordability.Trump made a point in his opening remarks to call concerns that Democrats have raised about rising costs a “con job.” That didn’t stop many of his administration’s top voices from earnestly detailing how they were indeed seeking to reduce prices nationwide.Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talked about economic pressures on farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called affordability a “crisis,” and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said that hundreds of thousands of Americans becoming first-time homebuyers was an example of how the administration was making strides to achieve greater affordability.
The final speaker was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke for several minutes and acknowledged: “I know I’m last, so I wanted to be fast. But there’s a lot to cover.”All told, Tuesday’s gathering lasted more than two hours. That fell short of Trump’s Cabinet meeting record: an August marathon that stretched to a whopping three hours and 17 minutes.Still, even the president acknowledged that the latest meeting was going long. “We’re spending a lot of time in here,” he said.Trump wrapped things by taking questions from reporters, but only after jokingly asking, “After that, do you WANT to ask any questions?” He also pointed at a journalist holding a boom mic to capture sound from the Cabinet meeting and playfully offered, “How strong are you?”“You’ve been holding that for two hours,” the president continued, drawing laughs from Cabinet members. “There are very few people who could do that. I’m very proud of you.”A newsy Q&AReporters’ questions shook off the doldrums.Hegseth said he did not see that there were survivors in the water when the second strike on the boat off Venezuela was ordered and launched in early September. He said “the thing was on fire” and cited the “fog of war” in defending what occurred. He also said he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission following the initial strike.In response to a later question, Trump declared he didn’t want Somali immigrants in the U.S., adding that residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country should stay there and try to fix their homeland. He also accused Somalis of being too reliant on U.S. aid programs while offering little to the nation in return.That drew applause from his Cabinet, though the questions ended abruptly with journalists soon hustled out of the room. Trump punctuated the conclusion by slapping his hand twice on the table, pushing his chair back, standing up and thumping Hegseth on the shoulder.
>>1462129>ssecretary of warSounds like something that would be said by Judge Dredd's nemesis, Judge Death.
>>1462129How is it possible that Trump's second term is turning out to be even more amateur hour than his first?There isn't a single senior cabinet member this time around who isn't either brutally incompetent, blatantly corrupt, or both.
>>1462135>SSnot beating the accusation that the trump regime are just nazis.
>>1462142You still had SOME tard-wranglers in the first one.Now the whole circus is run by the clowns.
>>1462157This, the bigger problem is how they are go to rig the midterms and worse, how will they stage trump's second coup in 2028 so he can stay in power.
>>1462159They are trying to gerrymander early and Bannon has a scheme to let Trump run in 2028.
>>1462263If he lives that long, the scheme is obvious.>No person shall be """elected""" to the office of the President more than twiceHe can just run as VP and have Vance or whoever is president promise to resign.If SCOTUS rules that>no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United Statesmeans people ineligible to be elected president, which they wouldn't cause they're a bunch of Republican cunts, Republicans will just run with the promise that if they win the WH and the House, they'll appoint Trump as Speaker and the President and VP will resign and make him president that way and SCOTUS won't do jack shit cause it will have already happened before they can act and they aren't about to try to coup their own party's president.
>>1462268Worth noting this is the same bullshit Putin used.
>>1462263Goddamn shame only Newsom realizes the threat we're all under and did retaliation gerrymandering, all the other democratic states are just sitting on their asses or worse, refusing to act because they're deluding themselves that the system will magically work, after it's utterly failed for decades.
>>1462278This chaos is exactly what Karl Rove planned 20 years ago. >"He who controls redistricting controls Congress." Rove said that in 2004 I think, when Texas first started off-census gerrymandering.
>>1462278>retaliation gerrymandering,Lel. As if California hasn't been gerryfucked for decades.Shut the duck up, I'm talking to my phone.
>>1462281I wish I could find it, but there was an old news report where some congressmen snuck into a bipartisan redistricting office and specifically altered his district so it wouldn't be competitive and it was caught because the room was being streamed at the time and people saw him do it.>>1462285Texas shouldn't have done a racist gerrymandering then. Reap what you sow.
>>1462285Before this year California had an independent commission do the redistricting under a law passed during Schwarzenegger's term. Newsome put the issue on the ballot a few months ago and the voters voted to go back to gerrymandering to counter the Republicans in Texas.
>>1462159>>1462263You have to be somewhat competent to rig an election. I don’t think these chucklefucks are gonna cut it.
>>1462285We actually haven't, Schwarzenegger ended gerrymandering when he was governor. It's also why he got fucking destroyed when he tried to get reelected.
