Donald Trump is Controlled Opposition
If You Can’t See It, You’re Asleep
Donald Trump is the most successful controlled opposition asset in American history. He isn’t some anti-establishment savior. He is a safety valve, designed to absorb and neutralize a revolutionary level of populist anger, all while ensuring the system he rails against remains perfectly intact. He’s a carefully managed distraction, a WWE heel playing a role. If you still believe this billionaire reality TV star, who spent decades schmoozing with politicians and bankers, suddenly became the people’s champion, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Controlled opposition follows a simple formula: create chaos, pretend to fight the system, then fold when it matters. Trump’s entire presidency was a masterclass in this. He’d rage on Twitter about the deep state, then appoint its leaders to his cabinet. He’d promise to "blow up" the establishment, then sign every bloated spending bill Congress put in front of him.
The function of controlled opposition is not to win. It is to manage dissent. It’s to take a populist wildfire of legitimate rage and channel it into a cul-de-sac. Trump did this perfectly. He made us focus on him, on his tweets, on his rallies, on the daily drama. While we were all glued to the show, the national debt skyrocketed by nearly $8 trillion under his watch. Big Pharma got its liability shield and a trillion-dollar payday. The surveillance state was never dismantled. The swamp creatures he pardoned were overwhelmingly political allies and white-collar criminals, not whistleblowers or political prisoners like Julian Assange.
A guy who recently endorsed Lindsey Fucking Graham1 is your rebel against the system? Give me a break. He didn’t drain the swamp—he stocked it with Goldman Sachs executives, corporate lobbyists, and Bush appointees.
Trump’s entire brand is built on the lie that he’s an outsider. Trump didn’t come from nowhere—he was always part of the club. His mentor was Roy Cohn, a mob-connected fixer who taught him how to play the game. His kids are best friends with the same media and banking elites they pretend to hate. Ivanka and Jared Kushner? They were rubbing shoulders with globalists while Daddy tweeted about "America First."
Remember when he said he’d "lock her up"? How did that work out? It was a fantastic chant, wasn’t it? It electrified rallies and made you feel like justice was finally coming. What happened? Absolutely nothing. He had four years to go after the Clintons—and he did nothing. Because he was never meant to. Hillary Clinton was never investigated, let alone charged. The chant became a punchline, a hollow promise tossed out to a roaring crowd, forgotten the moment Air Force One took off. It was pure political theater, designed to satiate the masses with rhetoric while the powerful remained untouched.
He didn't break the system. He made a spectacle of fighting it, ensuring that any real opposition to the system would be painted with the same brush as his chaotic, ultimately impotent brand of populism. He absorbed all the energy and left the grassroots with nothing but rally memories and red hats. Trump’s supporters argue he faced a hostile Congress, judiciary, and media, which blocked his ability to enact promises like Obamacare repeal or deep state reforms. While resistance was real, Trump had significant executive power (e.g., to fire appointees or issue executive orders).
If Trump was actually fighting the establishment, he wouldn’t be alive, let alone president again. The fact that he’s still allowed to be a political figure proves he’s playing a role. The elites need him—as a boogeyman to scare liberals, as a puppet to keep conservatives distracted, and as a safety valve to redirect populist anger into dead-end theatrics. By adopting populist rhetoric, Trump captured the energy of anti-establishment movements but redirected it toward electoral politics and personal loyalty rather than reform.
Look at the actions, not the words. Look at the appointments, not the promises. To believe in Trump in 2025 is to willingly sign up for a sequel to a movie you already know has a terrible ending. It’s an exercise in willful ignorance. Trump is a controlled demolition of the populist movement, and if you’re still falling for it, you’re part of the problem.
Foreign Policy
Trump’s foreign policy maintained U.S. support for key establishment priorities. He escalated drone strikes, approved a $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a long-standing goal of the pro-Israel lobby. His withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal aligned with neoconservative agendas.
His supposed "anti-war" stance was a fraud. He bombed more countries than Obama.2 I’ll grant you that his rhetoric was a refreshing change. But his actions? In his first term, he vetoed a bipartisan bill to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and he talked about bringing troops home from Syria, then turned around and sent them back to "secure the oil." Both terms, he’s brought us to the brink of a full-blown war with Iran. (Remember General Qasem Soleimani? I assure you, Iran does.)
We all clearly remember Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine. He could have ended the conflict within weeks by halting U.S. military aid and removing the CIA operatives from Ukraine. Instead, Trump is now expanding U.S. involvement by authorizing new arms shipments.
He went from opposing the war to enabling it. Trump portrays it as a business deal. “The European Union is paying for [America’s Patriot missiles]. We are not paying anything for them. This will be a business for us.” So, U.S. defense contractors continue to profit off of dead Ukrainians and Russians.
The Deep State
Trump’s “drain the swamp” mantra included vows to confront the “deep state”—unelected bureaucrats and intelligence officials. He promised to expose corruption within agencies like the FBI, CIA, and NSA, particularly regarding surveillance abuses and alleged bias against him. Trump pledged to declassify documents related to the Russia probe, FISA abuses, and Hillary Clinton’s emails to expose deep state corruption. While he authorized some declassifications in January 2021, these were late, limited, and had minimal impact. Key documents remained classified or heavily redacted, and no major intelligence officials faced prosecution. Trump criticized surveillance abuses but did not push for reforms to the Patriot Act or FISA courts. His administration renewed Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act in 2018, which allows warrantless surveillance.
Immigration
First Term
Trump’s signature 2016 promise was to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border, fully funded by Mexico, to curb illegal immigration. He also pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and end policies like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In 2020, he reiterated commitments to strict immigration enforcement and completing the wall.
By the end of Trump’s first term, approximately 458 miles of border barriers were constructed, much of it replacing existing fencing rather than new walls. Mexico did not pay for any of it; funding came from U.S. taxpayers, primarily through redirected military budgets (e.g., $11 billion from Pentagon funds), which faced legal challenges.
While deportations occurred (ICE reported about 935,000 deportations from 2017–2020), this was lower than under Obama (1.2 million from 2009–2012). Trump did not implement mass deportation programs targeting millions, as promised. DACA remained in place after court rulings, and “catch and release” policies continued in practice due to legal and logistical constraints.
Trump promised to end sanctuary cities and restrict asylum claims, but sanctuary jurisdictions persisted, and asylum policies (e.g., “Remain in Mexico”) faced legal pushback, limiting their impact.
Second Term
Trump Expresses Support for H-1B Visa Worker Program
Trump says he will work with Democrats to come up with a plan to help 'Dreamers' stay in US
Federal Reserve
Trump criticized the Federal Reserve but appointed Jerome Powell as its chairman, who continued the status quo. No structural reforms to the Fed were pursued. No serious push for an audit of the Fed materialized, despite campaign rhetoric and bills like the Federal Reserve Transparency Act being proposed by Rand Paul. Trump has repeatedly complained about Powell's actions as chairman, but has done nothing to remove him.
The only time Trump has praised Powell was during the COVID-19 recession. In a rare instance of honesty, Trump told Fox News that he was "very happy with his performance" and that "over the last period of six months, he's really stepped up to the plate." Beginning in 2019, the Federal Reserve's tolerance of rising asset prices contributed to a surge in wealth inequality, reaching levels not seen in the U.S. since the 1920s. Its large-scale asset purchases were also linked to the emergence of a K-shaped economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dynamic allowed wealthier individuals, who held significant financial assets, to maintain or even grow their wealth, while many others—especially younger generations like millennials who owned few or no assets—bore the brunt of the economic fallout.
Big Tech
Trump railed against Big Tech companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook because of their censorship and undermining of free speech. He promised to regulate or break up tech monopolies. While the Justice Department under Trump launched an antitrust lawsuit against Google in October 2020, it focused entirely on search dominance and did not address broader issues like censorship or data privacy. No major tech monopolies were broken up or significantly regulated. Trump’s own bans from Twitter and Facebook in January 2021 highlighted his vulnerability to Big Tech’s power, yet his administration had not built infrastructure to counter this. Truth Social relies on existing tech infrastructure, meaning its independence is a fake as Trump’s “tan”.
Healthcare
Trump vowed to lower healthcare costs, repeal and replace Obamacare with a better system, and take on Big Pharma to reduce prescription drug prices. He positioned himself as an outsider fighting a corrupt healthcare-industrial complex. Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare “on day one.” While the administration pushed for repeal in 2017, the effort failed in Congress (notably due to John McCain’s vote).
Trump signed executive orders in 2020 to lower drug prices, such as allowing imports from Canada and tying Medicare prices to international rates. However, these were late in his term, faced legal challenges, and had minimal impact. Big Pharma’s influence remained untouched, and drug prices did not significantly decrease.
Deficit and Balanced Budget
Trump promised to eliminate the national debt “over a period of eight years” (2016 campaign) and reduce the federal deficit through spending cuts and economic growth. He positioned this as a rejection of establishment fiscal irresponsibility. However, the national debt increased from $19.9 trillion in January 2017 to $27.7 trillion by January 2021, per Treasury Department data, driven by tax cuts, increased defense spending, and COVID-19 relief packages (which would not have been necessary if COVID had been treated as the sniffles are usually treated, but I’ll get to that). The annual deficit nearly doubled, from $585 billion in 2016 to $1 trillion in 2019, pre-COVID.
Trump signed massive omnibus spending bills (e.g., $1.3 trillion in 2018, $1.4 trillion in 2020) that included establishment priorities like foreign aid and corporate subsidies, with no significant push for spending cuts in entitlement programs or discretionary budgets.
Economic growth from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (projected to add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over a decade, per CBO) did not offset increased spending, contradicting Trump’s promise of fiscal discipline.
DOGE
This article on why DOGE failed makes some excellent points and is worth reading to see how far the actual outcome was from the hype.
However, it misses a couple of key facts.
Did anyone actually read the executive order that created the Department of Government Efficiency?
Show me where it says anything about eliminating regulations, eliminating entire agencies, or the mass firing of unnecessary federal workers.
DOGE was nothing more than the renaming of the United States Digital Service to the United States DOGE Service.
Arguably, DOGE didn’t even have the authority to do the little that it actually did. (And $170 billion, or less, is little when we’re talking about federal spending.)
Furthermore, where is the evidence of any real desire on the part of Trump or Musk to make genuine changes? We could argue about just how smart Musk actually is, but whether you believe the genius hype or not (I don’t), he isn’t dumb. But apparently none of the ideas in the Reason article seem to have occurred to him.
COVID
5 Times Trump Praised Dr. Fauci Before Retweeting That He Should Be Fired
He retweeted someone saying that Fauci should be fired, but he never actually even attempted to fire Fauci.
Trump’s push for rapid COVID-19 vaccine development aligned with pharmaceutical interests, and he did nothing to challenge lockdowns, vaccine mandates, or Big Pharma’s liability protections.
Think about this. An issue that has truly activated his base post-2020, the hill many are willing to die on, is the fight against medical mandates and experimental vaccines. And who, pray tell, is the self-proclaimed "father of the vaccine"? Who fast-tracked the mRNA shots, silenced dissenting doctors with the weight of the federal government, and put Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx on national television every single day? It was Donald J. Trump.
He still brags about it. "We did something that was historic," Trump said in a December 2021 interview with Candace Owens. "We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide… The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind." He’s not ashamed; he’s proud. He's proud of the very thing that his most ardent supporters are against. How can anyone reconcile these two realities? The 4D chess explanation wears thin when the supposed master move is to hand the globalists a weapon and then take a victory lap for it.
January 6th
The ultimate psyop. The truth of what happened that day (as opposed to the MSM version) is well known to anyone likely to be reading this, so I won’t rehash it here.
The timing was certainly convenient. January 6th effectively ended any congressional debate about election irregularities. What should have been a day of constitutional process turned into a spectacle that shut down any questioning of the 2020 election. Mission accomplished.
Now, every conservative who questions elections is branded an "insurrectionist." How convenient for the “elites.”
But Trump didn't pardon anyone.
In his last two weeks in office, Trump could find the time to pardon 74 people for crimes including: bank robbery, tax evasion, money laundering, embezzlement, fraud, wildlife smuggling, transportation of a stolen vehicle, stalking and harassment, and various drug crimes. But he couldn't be bothered to pardon his supporters.
You Can Judge a Man By the Company He Keeps
Family
Melania Trump
In October 2018, Melania Trump traveled to Africa on a solo trip. During her visit, she highlighted "humanitarian efforts" led by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which drew attention to her husband's alleged efforts to reduce the agency's funding.
That same year, she publicly criticized the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. She stated that she disliked seeing families divided and expressed hope for "meaningful immigration reform".
Melania was also the first in the Trump family to appear in public wearing a mask during the COVID-19 scamdemic. She recorded a public service announcement promoting mask use, and her social media regularly shared propaganda from the CDC.
Ivanka Trump
In 2007, Ivanka Trump contributed $1,000 to then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In 2012, she publicly supported Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency. The following year, she and her husband, Jared Kushner, held a fundraiser for Democrat Cory Booker, raising over $40,000 for his U.S. Senate run. In 2018, she officially changed her New York voter registration from Democrat to Republican.
In 2010, Ivanka co-founded Girl Up in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. The initiative "encourages American girls to channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for their counterparts in the developing world".
Funds raised through Girl Up will support proven United Nations programs that help the hardest-to-reach girls in such countries as Malawi, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Liberia.3
In her speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention,
Ivanka Trump pointed out that she "[does] not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat. More than party affiliation, I vote on based on what I believe is right, for my family and for my country."
If . . . the Republican who gave those interviews to MSNBC and CNN didn't share her last name, it's fair to wonder which party Ivanka Trump would back in 2016.4
The fact that she "was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2015)" was proudly included in her WhiteHouse.gov biography. Her official biography as "First Daughter and Advisor to the President".
Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner was a Democrat, contributing over $10,000 to Democratic campaigns starting at age 11. He supported Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign and, through his newspaper, The New York Observer, endorsed Barack Obama. Kushner registered as an Independent in 2009 and endorsed Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. Despite this supposed shift, he continued to donate to Democratic groups through 2014. He formally registered as a Republican in 2018.
In 2014, Kushner co-founded the online real estate investment platform Cadre (now RealCadre LLC) alongside Goldman Sachs and billionaire George Soros.
Charles Kushner
In 2005, Charles Kushner (father of Jared Kushner) was found guilty of making unlawful campaign donations, committing tax fraud, and tampering with a witness. He was sentenced to two years in prison. On December 23, 2020, Trump granted him a pardon. Kushner was friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton and had been a major Democrat donor before 2016, but then became a significant financial supporter of Trump’s campaigns. In 2025, Kushner was nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to France.
Donald Trump Jr.5
Donald Trump Jr. may (and I stress may) actually be conservative. The only evidence that I can find against his being a genuine conservative is a $4,000 donation to Hillary Clinton's campaign to be the Democratic presidential nominee and the fact that he was not registered as a Republican before New York's 2015 primary (he made the news for missing the state's voter registration deadline). However, he's also widely considered by Trump staffers, and possibly his father, to be an idiot.6 So, while his father is happy to use Don Jr.'s popularity with MAGA supporters to his advantage, I strongly suspect that his influence is greatly overstated.
Oldest Friends
Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn was a prominent attorney whose client list included high-profile figures such as Donald Trump, Aristotle Onassis, and mob leaders like Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, John Gotti, and Mario Gigante. He also represented the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and attorney Alan Dershowitz, who once described Cohn as “the quintessential fixer.”
Though officially registered as a Democrat, Cohn lent his support to many Republican presidents and influential GOP figures in New York. He maintained close ties with conservative political circles and acted as an informal advisor to both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Cohn worked on the 1980 Reagan campaign, where he befriended Roger Stone.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was also among Cohn’s clients. Cohn is said to have lobbied President Reagan on Murdoch’s behalf and is credited with introducing Murdoch to Donald Trump during the mid-1970s, laying the foundation for their long-standing alliance.
While representing Trump for violating the Fair Housing Act, Cohn was also the attorney for mobster Anthony Salerno. Salerno, along with other organized crime figures, controlled New York’s concrete unions. It is alleged that Cohn introduced Salerno to Trump, a connection that reportedly led to Salerno supplying discounted concrete for the construction of Trump Tower.
Christine Seymour, Cohn’s longtime switchboard operator, claimed that Cohn regularly spoke by phone with First Lady Nancy Reagan and said that former CIA director William Casey contacted Cohn almost daily during Reagan’s first presidential campaign. Cohn met Alan Dershowitz while working together on the Claus von Bülow case, and he admired Dershowitz’s strong defense of Israel. He also maintained friendships with prominent figures such as Estée Lauder, William F. Buckley Jr., and former New York Mayor Abraham Beame.
In 1986, Cohn was disbarred for a range of professional misconduct, including mishandling client funds, lying on his bar application, and tampering with a will. Despite his disbarment, several notable individuals, including Barbara Walters, William F. Buckley Jr., and Donald Trump, spoke on his behalf as character witnesses.
Cohn referred to Trump as his closest friend. He claimed that Trump called him between 15 and 20 times each day, and according to Seymour, Trump was the last person to speak with Cohn before his death in 1986.
Roger Stone
Donald Trump's longest-serving political adviser.
In 1977, at age 24, Roger Stone was elected president of the Young Republicans, with his campaign being managed by his close friend, Paul Manafort.
Stone met Donald Trump in 1979 through Trump’s lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn. At the time, Stone was serving as the Reagan campaign’s regional political director for New York and was focused on fundraising efforts. He has said that he and Trump "hit it off immediately."
Following their involvement in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, Stone and Manafort partnered with Charlie Black to form a political consulting and lobbying firm. The company, Black, Manafort & Stone (BMS), sought to capitalize on their access to the incoming administration. It became one of Washington’s first major lobbying operations and played a significant role in Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign.
Due to the firm’s willingness to represent brutal third-world dictators, it earned the nickname “The Torturers’ Lobby.” Alongside controversial international clients, BMS also represented major corporations, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and, beginning in the early 1980s, Donald Trump. Stone acted as a lobbyist for Trump’s casino interests and worked to block efforts to expand casino gambling in New York State.
In 1996, Stone stepped down as a consultant for Senator Bob Dole’s presidential campaign after a report in the National Enquirer revealed that he and his second wife, Nydia Bertran Stone, had placed personal ads seeking sexual partners. Although Stone denied it for years, he eventually admitted in a 2008 interview with The New Yorker that the ads were genuine.
Stone also managed Donald Trump’s aborted campaign during the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries. Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett later claimed that Stone encouraged Trump to sideline Pat Buchanan and sabotage the Reform Party in an attempt to lower their vote total to benefit George W. Bush's campaign.
In 2010, Stone took on the role of campaign manager for Kristin Davis—known for her involvement in the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal—during her run for the Libertarian Party’s nomination for governor of New York. That same year, Stone was seen at a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, whom he has publicly supported.
He, and his dirty fingerprints, were all over the 2020 presidential election, the failed attempt to stop the steal, and January 6.
Appointees with Documented Ties to George Soros
Steven Mnuchin - Secretary of the Treasury (Feb. 13, 2017 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Mnuchin was one of the few prominent figures in President Trump’s cabinet who remained in their roles throughout the entirety of Trump’s first term.
Mnuchin began his career at Goldman Sachs in 1985, the same firm where his father, Robert Mnuchin, held the position of general partner. Over the course of 17 years at Goldman Sachs, he rose through the ranks and eventually took on the role of chief information officer. After departing the firm in 2002, he went on to both work for and establish various hedge funds. He also founded Dune Entertainment, a movie production company that helped finance several projects for 20th Century Fox. During the 2008 financial crisis, he acquired the struggling mortgage lender Indymac, restructured it into OneWest Bank, and later sold it—actions that led to legal challenges related to controversial foreclosure practices.
Between 2003 and 2004, he served as the CEO of SFM Capital Management, a fund supported by billionaire investor George Soros.
From 1995 to 2014, Mnuchin contributed more than $120,000 to a range of political entities, including candidates, parties, and political action committees. Of his total donations, 11 were made to Republican candidates and 36 to Democrats. Among the recipients of his political contributions were Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney. Mnuchin later explained that many of these donations were made as personal favors for friends.
Mnuchin is the third former Goldman-Sachs executive to serve as Secretary of the Treasury, after Hank Paulson, under President George W. Bush, and Robert Rubin, under President Bill Clinton.
Scott Bessent - Secretary of the Treasury (Jan. 28, 2025 - Incumbent)
In 1991, Bessent began working at Soros Fund Management, where he rose to lead the firm’s London operations. He was a protégé of George Soros, SFM's founder. In 2015, he departed Soros Fund Management to establish his own hedge fund, Key Square Group, which launched with a $2 billion initial investment from George Soros.
In 2000, he organized a fundraising event for Al Gore at his residence in East Hampton, New York. He also contributed $1,000 to John McCain’s campaign during that election cycle. In 2007, he gave $2,300 to Barack Obama’s campaign, and in 2013, he donated $25,000 to support Hillary Clinton. At the time, he was generally viewed as a Democrat with progressive political leanings.
Following Donald Trump’s election in 2016, he gave $1 million to the committee responsible for organizing Trump’s 2017 inauguration. In the subsequent 2023 and 2024 election cycles, he contributed over $1 million in support of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
He has maintained personal ties with notable people such as King Charles III and Robert Trump (Donald's younger brother). Blaine Trump, Robert’s former wife, is the godmother of his daughter.
Appointees with Documented Links to Intelligence
JD Vance - Vice President (Jan. 20, 2025 - Incumbent)
JD Vance’s mentor, pro-Israel billionaire Peter Thiel, spent $15 million dollars funding his 2022 U.S. Senate campaign in Ohio. Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies, a CIA-backed analytics firm.
You can read all about Vance here, here, and here.
James Mattis - Secretary of Defense (Jan. 20, 2017 – Jan. 1, 2019)
His mother served in military intelligence for the U.S. Army while stationed in South Africa during World War II.
As a four-star general, Mattis ensured that someone from the intelligence community was present at every meeting on his staff to "challenge any assumptions” made.
In August 2013, he was appointed an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Notable Hoover fellows and alumni include Henry Kissinger, Newt Gingrich, and Condoleezza Rice (the current director).
Lee Zeldin - Administrator of the EPA (Jan. 29, 2025 - Incumbent)
From 2003 to 2007, Zeldin served in the U.S. Army as part of the Military Intelligence Corps.
During his 2018 congressional campaign, Zeldin held fundraising events that featured Steve Bannon.
Zeldin has described Israel as the United States’ most strongest ally and said that Congress must "protect Israel's right to self-defense". In 2016, he backed anti-BDS legislation that was approved by the New York State Senate. The following year, in March 2017, he co-sponsored a bipartisan measure in the House called the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, aimed at opposing economic boycotts against Israel and countering the broader Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Michael Flynn - National Security Advisor (Jan. 22, 2017 - Feb. 13, 2017)
In September 2011, Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned as assistant director of national intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Seven months later, President Barack Obama nominated Flynn to be the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
On 25 November 2020, Flynn was issued a presidential pardon by Trump.
Michael Flynn, Newly Pardoned, Calls for Trump to ‘Temporarily Suspend the Constitution’ and Impose Martial Law. Which fed into the QAnon psyop.
Julia Nesheiwat - Homeland Security Advisor (Feb. 20, 2020 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Served as a U.S. Army military intelligence officer. She later held high-level positions working on a White House commission, within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and in various senior roles focused on economic and national security issues at the State Department during the Bush, Obama, and Trump presidencies.
Nesheiwat was an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Governing Advisory Council for the World Economic Forum. In addition, she contributed to the WEF’s Governing Advisory Council on Clean Energy.
Mike Waltz - Ambassador to the United Nations (Nominee), National Security Advisor (Jan. 20, 2025 – May 1, 2025)
Waltz worked in the Pentagon as a defense policy director for secretaries of defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. He went on to serve in the White House as the vice president's counterterrorism advisor.
His wife is Julia Nesheiwat.
While in Congress, Waltz voted for the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158), which effectively prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement from cooperating with the Department of Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of Unaccompanied Alien Children. (Which, by the way, passed both houses and was signed by Trump.)
He's the genius who added Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat discussing the upcoming US strikes in Yemen targeting Houthi militia.
Appointees with Documented Links to the Koch Brothers
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State (Apr. 26, 2018 – Jan. 20, 2021)
In 1996, Pompeo relocated to Wichita, Kansas, where he and three friends from West Point combined three companies that made aircraft components, forming Thayer Aerospace. Venture funding included a nearly 20% investment from Koch Industries.
By 2006, the company had been renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace, and Pompeo sold his stake to Highland Capital Management. At the time, Highland’s clients included major aerospace and defense firms such as Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream Aerospace, Cessna Aircraft, Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, and Raytheon Aircraft. Following that, Pompeo took on the role of president at Sentry International, a company that manufactured oilfield equipment and was also a partner of Koch Industries.
When Pompeo was appointed CIA Director in 2017, he selected his former business partner, Brian Bulatao, to serve as the agency’s chief operating officer.
During his 2010 campaign for Kansas’s 4th congressional district, Pompeo received $80,000 in contributions from Koch Industries and its employees.
In the 2012 election, Koch Industries gave Pompeo's campaign $110,000.
In his confirmation he failed to disclose the links between his company and a Chinese government-owned firm.
Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defense (Jan. 25, 2025 - Incumbent)
In May 2007, Hegseth participated in a campaign fundraising event for Senator John McCain of Arizona. Later, Hegseth took a position with Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group financially supported by the Koch brothers.
In a call to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after being sworn in as Secretary of Defense, Hegseth said that the United States was "fully committed" to the security of Israel.
Appointees and Lawyers with Documented Links to Jeffrey Epstein
William Barr - Attorney General (Feb. 14, 2019 – Dec. 23, 2020)
The most interesting thing about William Barr is his father. Donald Barr was part of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. He later served as headmaster of the Dalton School from 1964 until 1974.
In September 1974, at the age of 21, Jeffrey Epstein began teaching physics and math to high school students at Dalton. Donald Barr, who had stepped down as headmaster just a few months earlier in June, had previously been noted for making unconventional hiring decisions. The timing raises obvious questions, as does the fact that Epstein secured the job despite lacking teaching qualifications.
In 1973, Donald Barr authored a science fiction novel titled Space Relations, which depicts a society on another planet controlled by elites who exploit children for sex.
Between 1971 and 1977, William Barr worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.
He served as U.S. Attorney General during the final 18 months of President George H. W. Bush’s administration. During his tenure, he initiated a surveillance effort that involved collecting records of international phone calls made by innocent Americans.
Barr has had a longstanding relationship with Robert Mueller, dating back to the 1980s. The two are considered close, with Mueller having been a guest at the weddings of two of Barr’s daughters. Additionally, their wives are in the same Bible study group.
Today, he’s a partner in Torridon Group, a “strategic consulting firm,” along with Pat Cipollone. Mike Pompeo is a senior advisor.
Barr was of course utterly useless with respect to the stolen election in 2020.
Alexander Acosta - Secretary of Labor (Apr. 28, 2017 – Jul. 19, 2019)
Acosta served in four presidentially appointed, U.S. Senate-confirmed positions in the George W. Bush administration, the third of which was Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. In that capacity, he supported federal involvement in a case in Oklahoma to defend a student's right to wear a hijab in public school. He also collaborated with state officials in Mississippi to reopen the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teenager whose 1955 kidnapping and murder played a major role in igniting the civil rights movement.
In 2008, while serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acosta approved a controversial plea agreement that granted Jeffrey Epstein immunity from federal prosecution. The deal extended to four identified co-conspirators and included any unnamed individuals who might have been involved. As a result, a broader FBI investigation—aimed at uncovering additional victims and potentially other high-profile participants—was brought to a halt, and the indictment was sealed.
During his vetting process for a cabinet position in the Trump administration, Acosta stated, “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.”7
You can read all about Acosta and Epstein here. (Also has more than you probably want to know about Epstein's daily life.)
Alan Dershowitz
Dershowitz was part of the legal team representing Jeffrey Epstein during his first criminal case, which involved allegations of repeatedly soliciting sex from underage girls. Dershowitz had become acquainted with Epstein through their mutual friend, Lynn Forester de Rothschild. That case ended in a controversial non-prosecution agreement, which Dershowitz helped to negotiate on Epstein’s behalf.
In January 2020, Dershowitz joined the legal defense team for Trump during the impeachment trial. His involvement drew attention, as he supported Hillary Clinton and had made a number of controversial televised defenses of Trump in the two years leading up to the trial.
Following the impeachment proceedings, Dershowitz used his connections within the Trump administration to advocate for clemency on behalf of several clients. He was involved in securing at least a dozen pardons or commutations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz#Retracted_sexual_abuse_allegations
Ken Starr
In 2007, Ken Starr became part of the legal team representing Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein ultimately entered into a plea deal, admitting guilt to charges related to soliciting and trafficking minors. As part of the agreement, he served 13 months in a private section of the Palm Beach jail under a work-release arrangement and was required to register as a sex offender. Starr later stated that he had been present during the negotiations led by then–U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, describing Acosta as someone with "complete integrity" and claiming that "everyone was satisfied" with the outcome of the deal.
On January 16, 2020, Starr was named to President Donald Trump's legal team for the Senate impeachment trial, where he presented arguments in Trump's defense.
Howard Lutnick - Secretary of Commerce (Feb. 21, 2025 - Incumbent)
Lutnick, a lifelong Democrat, is currently registered as a Republican. During the 2016 election cycle, he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and to Kamala Harris’s Senate run. According to Bloomberg News and OpenSecrets, the Lutnick family has been making political donations dating back to 1989.
In 1998, Lutnick purchased a Manhattan property which was previously owned by an entity associated with businessman Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein.
Others
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Secretary of Health and Human Services (Feb. 13, 2025 - Incumbent)
We can start with the fact that he’s a Kennedy. RFK was a venture partner and senior advisor at VantagePoint Capital Partners, a leading global venture capital firm specializing in clean technology. Notably, VantagePoint was the earliest and largest institutional backer of Tesla, Inc. prior to its initial public offering.
"My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years."8
Elon Musk - Senior Advisor to the President (Jan. 20, 2025 – May 30, 2025)
In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, a company offering online banking and email-based payment services. To avoid competition, X.com merged the following year with Confinity, an online banking firm founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel. Confinity had developed its own digital money transfer platform, known as PayPal.
Following the merger, Peter Thiel shifted the company’s focus entirely to PayPal, and in 2001, the business officially adopted the PayPal name. eBay purchased PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock. At the time, Musk was the largest individual shareholder with an 11.72% stake, earning him $175.8 million from the deal. In 2017, Musk bought back the domain name X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed price, citing personal significance.
During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Musk made Starlink internet services available to Ukraine free of charge.
In 2016, Musk helped launch Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, investing $100 million. The startup's mission is to build brain-implantable devices designed to interface directly with artificial intelligence. (A technology that is not all worrying.)
Musk supported Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, and voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
Steve Bannon - Senior Counselor to the President (Jan. 20, 2017 – Aug. 18, 2017)
He grew up in a pro-Kennedy and pro-union Democrat family.
Bannon worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department and left with the title of vice president.
Bannon was a founding board member of Breitbart News and following the death of Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart, Bannon became executive chairman of Breitbart News LLC. And let's not forget that Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos are former Breitbart editors.
According to co-founder Larry Solov, he and Andrew Breitbart were in agreement that the site should be "unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel".
“I've never been a supporter of ethno-nationalism.”
Mike Pence - Vice President (Jan. 20, 2017 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Mike Pence, the corporate right’s inside man
Most importantly, Pence oversaw the certification of Biden and Harris after the election was stolen.
Jeffrey A. Rosen - Deputy Secretary of Transportation (May 18, 2017 – May 21, 2019), Deputy Attorney General (May 22, 2019 – Dec. 23, 2020), Acting United States Attorney General (Dec. 24, 2020 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Rosen was General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation under George W. Bush
Attorney General William Barr urged Trump to choose Rosen as his deputy.
Rosen led the Justice Department’s handling of criminal and civil cases involving opioid producer Purdue Pharma. He announced that the company had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S., violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and two additional charges—though no individuals would face prosecution in the case.
He was utterly useless with respect to the stolen election.
Following the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, Rosen condemned the incident as an "unacceptable assault on a core pillar of our democracy." After the damage to the was done, he deployed hundreds of DOJ law enforcement personnel to the Capitol, allowing Congress to resume and complete the certification of the Electoral College results later that evening. Rosen also committed the Department to investigating those involved, with roughly 150 individuals facing charges before his departure two weeks later.
L. Lin Wood
Wood's career looks good, and he seems entirely reasonable. Until you get to his endorsement of "flat Earth" and the idea that the moon landing was faked. Almost as if his job is to make election "conspiracy theorists" look nuts.
Pat Cipollone
He was a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. The same firm where John Bolton, Jeffrey Clark, Alexander Acosta, Alex Azar, William Barr, Brett Kavanaugh, and Jeffrey A. Rosen all worked at one time or another.
Cipollone strongly objected to the idea of merely sending a letter to Georgia state legislators urging them to void Biden's "win" in their state.
Cipollone’s role as White House Counsel during the closing days of the Trump administration became a focal point in the January 6 committee hearings. Vice Chair Liz Cheney repeatedly urged him to appear before the committee, stating a week prior to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony that “our evidence indicates Pat Cipollone and his team attempted to uphold the law.”
Christopher Miller - Acting Secretary of Defense (Nov. 9, 2020 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Nothing obviously wrong with him up until the point when he facilitated the January 6 psyop.
As a sidenote, Miller's chief of staff as acting secretary of defense was Kash Patel.
Alex Azar - Secretary of Health and Human Services (Jan. 29, 2018 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Served as general counsel of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush.
Between 2012 and 2017, Azar led the U.S. branch of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company as its president. During his tenure, he also held a seat on the board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a major lobbying group for the pharmaceutical industry.
His nomination for secretary of health and human services received backing from two former Senate majority leaders—Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Bill Frist, a Republican. Both were associated with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that receives funding from Eli Lilly.
In his role as health and human services secretary, Azar had oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On June 29, 2020, it was announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had agreed to buy 500,000 remdesivir treatment courses.
Wilbur Ross - Secretary of Commerce (Feb. 28, 2017 – Jan. 20, 2021)
Ross was a registered Democrat, having served as an officer on the New York State Democratic Committee. He also hosted fundraising events for Democratic candidates at his New York City apartment. In January 1998, he contributed $2.25 million in seed funding to support the gubernatorial campaign of his then-wife, Betsy McCaughey, who was seeking the Democratic nomination in New York.
Ross began leading the bankruptcy advisory division at N M Rothschild & Sons in New York in the late 1970s.
During the 1980s, Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos faced the possibility of foreclosure. At the time, Ross was the senior managing director at Rothschild & Co and was representing the casino’s investors. Together with Carl Icahn, Ross played a key role in persuading bondholders to reach an agreement that allowed Trump to retain control of the properties.
In the 1990s, Ross served as a privatization adviser to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and President Bill Clinton appointed him to the board of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund.
His bungling of the attempt to add a question about citizenship 2020 census provided a pretext for the Supreme Court to block it.
Elaine Chao - Secretary of Transportation (2017–2021)
Chao served as Deputy Secretary of Transportation from 1989 to 1991, under George H. W. Bush. She was U.S. Secretary of Labor from 2001–2009, under George W. Bush. Her husband is the ultimate swamp creature, Senator Mitch "Turtle" McConnell.
Rick Perry - Secretary of Energy (Mar. 2, 2017 – Dec. 1, 2019)
In 1984, Rick Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat. During his time there, he developed a friendship with fellow freshman legislator Lena Guerrero, a committed liberal Democrat who later supported his 2006 reelection campaign. Perry backed Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and was involved in Gore’s campaign efforts in Texas.
Karl Rove managed Perry’s 1990 campaign for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.
In February 2007, Perry signed an executive order requiring that school-age girls in Texas be vaccinated against HPV. Since 2001, Merck—the company that produces the vaccine—had contributed $28,500 to Perry’s political campaigns through its PAC.
In 2001, Perry voiced his pride in a new law allowing illegal aliens who met Texas residency criteria to qualify for in-state tuition. He reaffirmed that support during a debate in September 2014.
Also in 2001, Perry signed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, which increased penalties for offenses driven by bias related to race, religion, national origin, disability, age, gender, or sexual orientation. The law was opposed by previous governor George Bush, who said that "all crimes are hate crimes." (One of the rare times I agree with Bush.)
Marco Rubio - Secretary of State (Jan. 21, 2025 - Incumbent)
When Marco Rubio assumed the role of Speaker of the Florida House, Jeb Bush was ending his final term as governor. Rubio hired 18 of Bush’s former staffers, prompting some at the Capitol to refer to his office as “the governor’s office in exile.”
In March 2012, Rubio publicly endorsed Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
He appointed Cesar Conda, a former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, as his chief of staff.
Rubio backed U.S. military involvement in Libya aimed at removing Muammar Gaddafi from power.
Throughout his time in Congress, Rubio strongly supported the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and introduced a proposal that included a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.
Unlike many of other Trump's other cabinet nominations, Rubio's attracted little controversy, which may have something to do with the fact that he was ranked the tenth most bipartisan senator in the first session of the 115th United States Congress by the Bipartisan Index.
In March 2025, Rubio issued an emergency declaration authorizing a $4 billion arms transfer to Israel, bypassing congressional approval.
Jerome Powell - Federal Reserve Chairman (February 5, 2018 - Incumbent)
In 1992, Powell became the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance after being nominated by George H. W. Bush. In December 2011, Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Barack Obama.
John Bolton - National Security Advisor (Apr. 9, 2018 – Sep. 10, 2019)
As is only to be expected of a warmongering neocon who has never seen a country he didn't want to invade, Bolton was a supporter of the Vietnam War, but avoided combat through a student deferment followed by enlistment in the Maryland Air National Guard.
Bolton spent decades in government in high level positions with USAID, the Department of Justice, and the Department of State.
In 2002, Bolton reportedly traveled to Europe to insist on the resignation of José Bustani, the Brazilian director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and played a key role in orchestrating his ousting. Bustani was viewed as an impediment to building the case for invading Iraq. Bustani recalled that Bolton gave him a 24-hour deadline to resign, threatening him by saying, "We know where your children are."
Pam Bondi - Attorney General (Feb. 5, 2025 - Incumbent)
Bondi served as Florida's attorney general from 2011 to 2019.
In 2020, Pam Bondi served as part of President Donald Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial.
On Bondi's first day in office, she disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and scaled back enforcement related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act. (Decisions which aren’t at all suspicious.)
In February 2025, during an interview with Fox News reporter John Roberts, Bondi was asked whether the Justice Department planned to release what was rumored to be a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients. She replied, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” However, on July 2025, the Department of Justice and the FBI issued a memo stating that no such client list existed.
Bill and Hilary Clinton
Bill didn’t show up until the reception, but Hilary had a front-pew seat for Donald and Milania’s wedding.
Donald Trump donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
The Trumps and Clintons: A story of friendship
New photos show Bill Clinton yukking it up with Trump, Melania, and swimsuit model
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
Trump likes to pretend that he never liked Epstein, but there was clearly a time when he did.
How well did Trump and Epstein really know each other? A timeline
AIPAC
See also: AIPAC blueprint all over Trump’s new cabinet
https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1943111236167618918
Both bombed Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. Trump also bombed Iran.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220308160856/https://unfoundation.org/media/united-nations-foundation-launches-girl-up/
https://web.archive.org/web/20161116231017/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/22/who-exactly-was-ivanka-trump-endorsing/
Outside of election season, Eric seems to be almost entirely focused on business. Despite being a popular figure in memes, Barron is a complete unknown. And nobody gives a damn about Tiffany.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190910044317/https://www.gq.com/story/don-jr-not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHe%E2%80%99s%20not%20the,The%20Godfather%20series
https://archive.is/sEy9T#selection-539.211-539.560:~:text=He%E2%80%99d%20cut%20the,and%20hired%20Acosta.
It starts off voluntary, with "encouraging their use." Then insurance companies make it a condition of coverage. Then you aren't allowed outside without a monitor.
https://substack.com/@reeceashdown/note/c-137355087?r=5qrbeg&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
'Nothing can stop what is coming' because there is no stopping the nothing(ness) burger.