The Daily Populous Saturday May 11st, 2024 morning edition
Authored by newrepublic.com and submitted by thenewrepublic

There’s every reason to think candidate Trump is subcontracting not just oil and tax policy, but his entire second-term agenda (minus a handful of pet projects) in return for campaign contributions, more enthusiastic support, or possibly nothing at all. It may be that the Trump campaign simply appreciates lobbyists as free labor. Why create a policy shop to establish second-term priorities when industry hacks want to do that work for you? Policy shops require salaries, which costs money, and Trump needs to reserve campaign funds to pay legal fees in his four criminal prosecutions.

Spencer Chretien, a former aide in the Trump White House, runs Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s program to micromanage a second Trump presidency down to mowing the White House lawn and taking out the garbage. (I exaggerate, but only slightly.) Project 2025 has drafted various executive orders allowing a future President Trump to roll back access to abortion. “We’re trying to do as much, now, of the future president’s work that we can,” Chretien told Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein way back in January. Why can’t the future president write his own executive orders, or get his White House staff to write them? Because they won’t be competent enough to do so. Having worked on the inside, Chretien ought to know.

Some will say I’m being naïve. Lobbyists and think-tankers tend to swagger, especially when they talk to Politico, and Democrats and Republicans alike depend on outside groups to advise them on policy. It’s not unheard of, for instance, for environmental or labor groups to help draft regulations. That’s all true. But it’s pretty rare for an outside group to go full Docusign like we’re seeing here. And anyway, when public interest groups help prepare policy documents they’re acting in, well, the public interest. When representatives of corporations (and their Heritage Foundation lackeys) tell a possible future president to just sign on the dotted line, they don’t pretend to be acting on behalf of anything other than private profit.

odieman1231 on May 10th, 2024 at 18:39 UTC »

I remember when I was short on cash over a decade ago. Never committed a crime, squeaky clean record. But I owed too much money on student loans from college and made very little money, so i had to choose between food or paying my loans and I chose the former. My loans defaulted.

I soon got my dream job working for the government. I got hired on a temporary security clearance. About three months in I met with a investigator to go over my history. Basically went through the last 10 or so years of my life at that point. Where I lived, who i knew, my student debts. They were most concerned with the debts. They didnt want anything possibly being held over my head if I was approached to sell secrets in the future. I was honest with them through the whole interview process.

I got notified 2 weeks later my clearance was denied and I was let go immediately. They told me I could appeal, which I did. I checked in every Monday with HR to see if they had any updates. After 30 days they let me know, for the first time, that after 30 days I essentially lose them as my sponsor for the appeal/job and therefore my appeal basically stopped. That was it. Job gone, clearance not attained. Over student loans.

Yet here we are, a candidate WITH crimes, who needs money. One who has already been questioned based on relationships with foreign powers that we are opposed to. Not only did he once have access to probably the highest security clearance in the country, but he might actually hold the position again. It's just kinda a joke.

Fluffy_Rock1735 on May 10th, 2024 at 18:29 UTC »

He is openly asking for bribes...how is this fucker not in jail yet...(rhetorical question I know why.)

mountaintop111 on May 10th, 2024 at 18:10 UTC »

Trump was the most corrupt president in US history. SMH.