Tag: mar-a-lago
Trump Is Vandalizing The White House In Tacky Mar-A-Lago 'Style'

Trump Is Vandalizing The White House In Tacky Mar-A-Lago 'Style'

President Donald Trump is gilding the White House, using his so-called "gold guy" to add gold touches to the Oval Office on the taxpayer dime to make the historic building look like his tacky Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, The Wall Street Journalreported.

Trump has gilded the furniture, affixed gold ornaments to the Oval Office fireplace, added gold sculptures and picture frames, and reportedly installed a gold Trump crest over the doorway into the White House. He even ordered his and Vice President JD Vance’s portraits to be reprinted with a gold border because he wanted the pictures to “catch the light,” the Journal reported.

“It’s the Golden Office for the Golden Age,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal.

The Journal reported that Trump also wants to add a ballroom to the White House complex where he can hold events, like he does at his Florida club, where guests pay stupid amounts of money for the chance to heap praise on the egomaniacal leader.

Trump loves his gilded Mar-a-Lago ballroom, telling guests at an event in February, “The ballroom is in top shape. We just spent a lot of money on gold. I’ve got more gold in the ballroom than anybody’s ever had in a ballroom before.”

Trump apparently wants to recreate that at the White House.

The ballroom addition is a project Trump has wanted to do since 2016, when he reportedly spoke to the Obama White House and offered to build the $100 million project—even though Trump is notorious for not paying his bills and stiffing workers. During his campaigns he even stiffed localities, refusing to pay hundreds of thousands in fees for the public safety provided for his ego-stroking rallies.

The Obama administration laughed off Trump’s offer.

“I'm not sure that it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign … on any part of the White House,” then-White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at the time.

But in Trump’s second term in office, where he’s acting like the dictator he’s always dreamed of being, he is now serious about remaking the White House—a worrying sign from someone who has mused about staying for a third term, despite the Constitution banning such a thing.

Trump’s tacky ballroom would be in addition to his plan to pave over the Rose Garden, the beautiful green space outside the White House where presidents hold events and press conferences. Trump’s reason for that? He said women are uncomfortable when their high heels sink into the grass. The horror!

Trump is gilding the White House and turning it into a gaudy mess comes at the same time that his administration is slashing federal spending for critical social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, preschool education for low-income Americans, and more. He is also cutting medical research, disease mitigation, and foreign aid, which is already having disastrous consequences and will undoubtedly lead to even more.

Worse, as Trump demands austerity from the country, he’s reportedly planning to spend tens of millions on a grotesque military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his own birthday.

Trump is taking a page out of Marie Antoinette's playbook. "Let them eat cake!"

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” as part of his freewheeling, often wild speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

Trump’s proposal has already picked-up steam among his most faithful allies in Washington, D.C. At some point during Trump’s hourlong speech, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she’ll introduce a bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico.

“President Trump’s second term is off to a GREAT start,” she posted to X.

Trump’s most recent comments about Mexico highlight his continued focus on the country as he prepares to begin his second term in the White House. By proposing a name change, in addition to harping on his vanity projects to acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, the president-elect seems to be reasserting his plans for U.S. sovereignty across the globe.

He wouldn’t be the first to toy with renaming the Gulf of Mexico, however. According to ABC News, former Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland, a Democrat, proposed a bill in 2012 that would’ve renamed the gulf “the Gulf of America.”

Holland later admitted, however, that he was just kidding and introduced the legislation as a joke to mock his Republican colleagues for being anti-immigrant.

Trump, who is known for his racist and xenophobic remarks toward Mexicans, didn’t seem to be joking. This is despite the fact that the name “the Gulf of Mexico” actually predated the United States. As the St. Augustine Record noted, the name appears on maps as far back as the 16th century.

Trump’s comments made waves, in part, because he’s currently in an ongoing—and very public—rift with Mexico’s leadership including its president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Despite the two sharing a “wonderful” phone call in late November, they previously butted heads after Trump falsely claimed that Sheinbaum promised to close her country’s northern border with the United States. (Sheinbaum has not publicly responded to Trump’s latest remarks.)

Indeed, any goodwill between Trump and Sheinbaum might be lost after Tuesday’s speech. In the same tirade, he denounced Mexico as a “very dangerous place.”

“We have a massive deficit with Mexico,” Trump said. “We help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, can’t let that happen. Mexico’s really in trouble, a lot of trouble. Very dangerous place.”

Trump has complained about the nation’s trade deficit with both Mexico and China. During his most recent campaign run, he raised concerns about the issue and has since promised to levy tariffs across the board, including a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico.

Trump has a long history of making false, and oftentimes broad, pronouncements about Mexico’s management of its side of the border. But his comments disparaging Mexico on Tuesday were particularly notable, in part, because the Mar-a-Lago news conference was intended to share what was billed as good news.

Before going off-script, Trump announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in the U.S. by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Hosted German Far-Right 'Friends' Who Defend Nazis

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump Hosted German Far-Right 'Friends' Who Defend Nazis

President-elect Donald Trump recently hosted several members of the far-right German political party whose top leaders have gone on the record defending Nazi war criminals.

That's according to The Guardian, which reported that a group of AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) members recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Trump's 2024 election victory. The incoming president was seen posing for photos with far-right Bundestag candidate Philipp-Anders Rau, who the Guardian described as a "purported semi-professional, one-time porn actor, self-confessed former cocaine user [and] convicted thief."

The outlet also reported that Trump posed for a photo with Maximilian Krah, an AfD member of the European Parliament who went on the record earlier this year defending members of the Nazi party's infamous Waffen-SS unit. Krah's remarks were considered too extreme even for members of France's far-right National Rally, which said it would no longer sit with the AfD in European Parliament.

In one of the photos, Trump is seen posing with Rau, along with right-wing conspiracy theorist Leonard Jäger, far-right activist Beat Ulrich Zirpel, and Fabrice Ambrosini, who had to step away from a political post in 2021 for allegedly flashing the Hitler salute. Zirpel posted a video to Instagram in which Trump is seen greeting the group saying: "Where's my German friends?" The president-elect also shook their hands, and said "thank you, fellas" after they chanted "fight, fight fight!" (Trump's catchphrase after narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt in July.)

The AfD party — which is known for its ardent anti-immigration stance and Islamophobia — is expected to have a strong showing in Germany's upcoming parliamentary elections on February 23. Phillipp-Anders Rau was introduced to Trump by AfD official Jan Wenzel Schmidt, who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021.

"I was convinced that Trump would become president again, and wanted to make contact with the Republicans early on,” Schmidt told the German newspaperBild. “Other parties are hectically setting out and we already have a good connection.”

Similar to Trump, the AfD has also opposed aid for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. Should the party win a plurality of votes in February, it's likely that Kyiv would lose an additional source of support, as the incoming Trump administration is also likely to cut off U.S. aid for Ukraine.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Big Blowup' At Mar-a-Lago Between Feuding Trump Advisors

'Big Blowup' At Mar-a-Lago Between Feuding Trump Advisors

Behind closed doors, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has become a somewhat fractious and chaotic environment according to a new report.

The Washington Post reports that "new camps have formed" at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, with competing visions for how to prepare for the next four years. The outlet described "shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling" as frequent occurrences between various factions.

"As during Trump’s first term, competing factions have begun to run roughshod over each other, sometimes kicking up clouds of dust," wrote the Post's Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer.

According to the Post, three different factions have formed — each with their own leaders and strategic goals. One of those camps is led by Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., with Vice President-elect JD Vance on his side as well as "longtime MAGA warriors" like former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson, Vance advisor Andy Surabian and ex-Trump White House official Cliff Sims.

Another faction is led by Trump White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who also co-chaired Trump's 2024 campaign. Wiles' camp mostly includes her advisors and acolytes, like Trump campaign political director James Blair and deputy campaign officials Taylor Budowich and Robert Gabriel. And a third group consists of transition co-chair and Secretary of Education-designate Linda McMahon and alumni from the America First Policy Institute like Brooke Rollins (who was rumored as a finalist for chief of staff) and Keith Kellogg, who was former Vice President Mike Pence's national security advisor.

Dust-ups between top Trump advisors are also breaking out during Trump transition team meetings. The Post's report began by describing an altercation between Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn and transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick (whom Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Commerce). Lutnick physically blocked Ephsteyn's path as he tried to enter a Mar-a-Lago meeting about potential Cabinet appointees, telling him: "We're not talking legal nominees today." But Ephsteyn reportedly stiff-armed Lutnick, saying: "I'm coming in."

In another contentious meeting, billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — who is sometimes referred to as "co-president" over Vance — and Epshteyn got into a loud back-and-forth, with the former suggesting the latter was leaking sensitive details of meetings to the press. One unnamed witness described the encounter on the Mar-a-Lago patio as a "huge fight" and a "big blowup," with Epshteyn reportedly saying: "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything wrong."

“It’s Boris against the world,” one unnamed "Trump confidant" told the Post, with another anonymous source saying Epshteyn was on “an island of his own.”

Vance has also participated in some the more heated arguments among transition team leaders, with one culminating in a social media post the vice president-elect has since deleted. While several Republican senators were at a SpaceX launch earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) managed to get several of President Joe Biden's last remaining federal judges confirmed. Grace Chong, who works for former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his "War Room" podcast, criticized Vance for missing the vote.

"You guys better show up and do your one fricken[sic] job!!" Chong posted to X, referring to both Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who Trump picked to head the State Department. Vance responded by calling Chong a "mouth-breathing imbecile" in the now-deleted tweet. Chong has since added "mouth-breathing imbecile" to her X bio.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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