Trump Cabinet Appointments

[Winehole23]

the friggin FBI is the Make-A-Wish Foundation for Kash Patel

When Kash Patel said in one of his first video calls as FBI director that he wanted agents to train with UFC cage fighters, many officials thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

htps://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/ufc-fighters-to-hold-training-event-for-fbi-agents-75e9f2af

[Winehole23]

“While South Africa welcomes active public diplomacy and the strengthening of bilateral ties, we emphasize that such engagements must remain consistent with established diplomatic etiquette and international protocols,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told a press conference. “In this regard, we have called in the ambassador of the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to explain his undiplomatic remarks.”


Foreign ministry director-general Zane Dangor said Bozell met with South African officials and the ambassador “apologized and expressed regret.”

https://apnews.com/article/south-afr...d4320bc3e7e248

[Winehole23]

State and local public health officials have interviewed 3 ill people about food exposures of interest in this outbreak. All 3 people (100%) reported eating RAW FARM- brand raw cheddar cheese. State and local officials are working to gather additional data for the 4 other illnesses, including 2 illnesses that occurred in 2025. Epidemiologic evidence indicates that RAW FARM-brand raw cheddar cheese products made by RAW FARM, LLC are the likely source of this outbreak.


FDA has recommended that RAW FARM, LLC voluntarily remove their raw cheese products from the market, and the firm has declined.

https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-f...ese-march-2026

[Winehole23]

RFK's vaccine panel illegally appointed, says judge

The appointment of a controversial slate of vaccine advisers by Robert F Kennedy Jr likely violated federal law, and all votes taken by the committee over the past year have been stayed, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) is not able to meet later this week, since its membership has been invalidated, the judge said. The meeting has been postponed, an HHS official said.

The unprecedented changes to routine US immunization recommendations in January, when health officials unilaterally changed one-third of the schedule, were “arbitrary and capricious” and were also blocked, the court found.
Judge Brian E Murphy ruled on a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“This is a major victory,” said Richard Hughes IV, one of the lawyers representing the AAP.

When Kennedy fired all 17 members of the ACIP in June and replaced them with his own hand-picked advisers, many of whom have expressed anti-vaccine views, the health secretary likely violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), the judge found.

For that reason, the 13 appointments were stayed by the judge, essentially invalidating their role on the committee.

All votes made by those advisers are also invalidated, including decisions to ban thimerosal (thiomersal) from flu vaccines; ending the recommendation for the combination measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and chickenpox vaccine; and the end of the universal birth dose recommendation for the hepa is B vaccine.

“HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” said HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...policy-changes

[Winehole23]

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heal...a-coli-o157-h7

[Winehole23]

And a very high risk of cross contamination to other foods as it survives on surfaces for a very long time and appears to survive some disinfection

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4270005/

[Winehole23]

actually argued the discretion of CDC to promote the spread of disease isn't judicially reviewable

[Winehole23]

Kari Lake's appointment has already been ruled illegal, the court is now ordering Voice of America back to work




https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...79211.222.0.pd

h/t, @chrisgeidner

[Winehole23]

blatant graft alleged by prison contractor

his mistress, the former DHS Secretary, approved all contracts over 100,000

More than a year ago, The GEO Group founder George Zoley asked for a meeting with Corey Lewandowski, a close ally of President Donald Trump who had just started a powerful position as a top adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem

As a an of the private prison industry, GEO Group stood to benefit from Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which would require the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to transport, detain, monitor and deport undo ented immigrants. The company’s federal contracts in those areas already totaled more than $1 billion per year.

But Zoley and his advisers were worried that the road to securing new government contracts now ran through Lewandowski. The two had history: Lewandowski and Zoley had butted heads during the transition between Trump’s November 2024 election and his January 2025 inauguration, before Lewandowski officially worked for the government, according to two industry sources and one senior DHS official familiar with the matter.

During the transition, Lewandowski told Zoley that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and growing GEO Group’s DHS contracts, according to a senior DHS official and three people familiar with their discussion. Zoley, concerned about the propriety of the ask, told Lewandowski he would have no part of it, the sources said, describing the confrontation as tense.

Lewandowski took a role as an unpaid “special government employee” at DHS once the new administration was sworn in, where he advised and acted as a “de facto chief of staff” to Noem and, sources said, influenced contract awards. Zoley scrambled to find a way to assuage tensions from the meeting during the transition, two industry sources familiar with the matter said. He secured a follow-up with Lewandowski in late February or early March 2025.
That second meeting did not go much better.

Zoley offered to put Lewandowski on retainer — a recurring consulting fee — with GEO Group, according to two industry sources familiar with the matter.

Lewandowski balked, saying he wanted to be compensated based on the company’s new or renewed contracts with DHS, the two sources said.

“He wanted payments — what some people would call a success fee,” said a person with knowledge of the meeting.

Zoley declined, the two sources said. In the months that followed, the length of two of GEO Group’s federal contracts shrank, and currently several of its facilities that could house migrants sit idle, even as Congress and Trump have poured money into DHS to execute the mass deportation campaign. GEO Group officials believe that is tied to their not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations, said a source familiar with the GEO Group officials’ thinking.

A senior DHS official told NBC News that within weeks of Lewandowski’s second meeting with Zoley, Lewandowski told him not to award more contracts to GEO Group. Lewandowski, through a spokesperson, denied that. Months later, in December 2025, GEO Group did receive a new contract for $121 million for services that help locate immigrants DHS is trying to find.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ski-rcna263744

[Winehole23]

Robert Malone steps down from CDC vaccine panel

Robert Malone, an ideological ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is stepping away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee following a court ruling that effectively nullified the panel.

https://rollcall.com/2026/03/24/cdc-...o-avoid-drama/

[Winehole23]

.

[Winehole23]

"nomination imperilled"

MAHA is losing its rizz with Murkowski, Collins and Cassidy

CDC has been exposing the public to disease by withholding their honest services, tbh

​

Wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means' nomination to be U.S. surgeon general is stalled a month after senators of both major political parties grilled her on vaccines and other health topics during a tense confirmation hearing, deepening doubts about her ability to secure the votes she needs for the role.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politic...ion-is-stalled

[ChumpDumper]

they haven't had a vote on this grifter yet?

[Winehole23]

this is the pic of Leavitt the White House leaned on AFP/Getty to scrub

[ChumpDumper]

https://x.com/Daily_MailUS/status/2038981992142737650

[Winehole23]

weirdos

[Winehole23]

~an hour apart

[Winehole23]

https://people.com/kristi-noem-devas...eport-11938365

[ChumpDumper]

https://people.com/kristi-noem-devas...eport-11938365

Comment section closed after about an hour.

[Winehole23]

FBI agents think their firings violated due process and civil service laws

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...290982.1.0.pdf

[Winehole23]

President Donald Trump has privately mused about firing his Attorney General Pam Bondi and replacing her with EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.


Frustrated by the backlash and anger in his base over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump has asked people about replacing Bondi, who faces a deposition later this month on Capitol Hill related to the congressional investigation into the late sex trafficker, the sources said. He has also fumed that she hasn’t investigated enough of his political opponents.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/01/polit...cussed-ousting

[Winehole23]

[Winehole23]

Kash Patel is also rumored to be on the chopping block

Several ​of the sources said Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are among those potentially on the chopping block, after Trump ousted Bondi and Homeland Security ⁠Secretary Kristi Noem in recent weeks.


Trump has in recent months expressed displeasure with Gabbard, said one senior White House official. Another source with direct knowledge of the matter said Trump had asked allies about their thoughts on potential replacements for ​his intelligence chief.


Some high-profile Trump allies, meanwhile, are privately pushing for the removal of Lutnick, a close personal friend of the president who has faced renewed scrutiny in recent months for his relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...ws-2026-04-04/

[Winehole23]

knives out for Kash Patel

binge drinking and unexplained absences

Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, in many cases at the private club Ned’s in Washington, D.C., while in the presence of White House and other administration staff. He is also known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room, in Las Vegas, where he frequently spends parts of his weekends. Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me.


On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials. A request for “breaching equipment”—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request.

Inside the FBI, which had been wounded by a number of scandals, many hoped that Patel could give the bureau a fresh start. But even many of those who had been enthusiastic about his arrival have since been disappointed. Officials said that Patel has been an irregular presence at FBI headquarters and in field offices, and that he has compounded the agency’s existing bureaucratic bottlenecks. Several current and former officials told me that Patel is often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations. On several occasions, an official told me, Patel’s delays resulted in normally unflappable agents “losing their .”

Patel has publicly proclaimed that the FBI needs to demonstrate that it is “fierce,” and officials I spoke with said that he is fixated on that image in private as well. He recently expressed frustration with the look of FBI merchandise, complaining that it isn’t intimidating enough. Officials have grown accustomed to such behavior, and they have learned to roll their eyes at it. But they said that the absurdity masks real concerns about what Patel’s leadership has meant for an ins ution that the country relies on for national security and the safety of its citizens. “Part of me is glad he’s wasting his time on bull , because it’s less dangerous for rule of law, for the American public,” one official told me, “but it also means we don’t have a real functioning FBI director.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...DbuHDQIcYF7oRx

[Winehole23]

Sending in the SWAT team to breach Patel's bedroom door so he can make some sort of critical executive level decision while being some combination of drunk and stoned out of his mind seems like a recipe for success.