Mike Johnson fired the GOP chairman of the House Intelligence Committee ,Mike Turner, this week, even going so far as to remove him from the committee entirely. He has told reporters that Johnson said the order came from Mar-a-Lago although Johnson is denying it.
Turner was a sort of old school Republican with generally hawkish views who supported Ukraine and the use of FISA warrants, both of which are anathemas to the far right. He also called out some of his fellow Republicans last year (anonymously) for being dupes of Russian propaganda which I would guess is probably at the heart of all this.
Nonetheless, he had the respect of both Democrats and Republicans on the committee and they are upset:
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a hawkish Intelligence Committee member, told reporters “we all have questions and concerns” and that Turner’s removal “kind of came out of nowhere.”
“McCarthy spent a lot of political capital right-sizing and fixing that committee so that it would be what it needed to be. And Johnson, it’s not really clear what his plan is,” Crenshaw added.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), another hawk, told Axios “it divides the conference, and I don’t think that’s good,” adding that “most of us agree” with Turner on issues like Ukraine and intelligence collection. “I’m not happy with the decision. I think the vast majority of us are not happy with the decision,” said another House Republican who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Despite Johnson’s denials, several House Republicans pushed the theory that the right-wing House Freedom Caucus pressed President-elect Trump’s team to demand Turner’s ouster.
The House Republican who spoke anonymously said the right-wing group, still smarting over a successful Turner-led push to reauthorize the federal government’s spying capabilities, engineered the move. “The House Freedom Caucus remembered that, went down to Mar-a-Lago, extracted a pound of flesh from somebody they didn’t like,” they said. The right-wing group met with Trump at his Florida resort last weekend.
Crenshaw called it a “very believable theory.”
“Rumors are HFC demanded it,” offered Bacon, adding that “if the rumors are true, it’s offensive.”
Freedom Caucus members pleaded ignorance.
This is only going to cause more trouble for Johnson. NBC reported:
One lawmaker who, like Turner, is a member of the Main Street Caucus, said the unexpected swap at the intelligence panel has eroded trust within the Republican conference and could make it much harder to pass Trump’s agenda. With two House Republicans up for positions in the Trump administration, the party’s majority could soon shrink to 217-215 — giving Johnson just a one-seat cushion on party-line votes.
These Republicans said they were giving Johnson an earful after Turner’s removal became public.
“This hurts us in the reconciliation process,” said the lawmaker, referring to the expedited budget process Republicans plan to use to pass legislation related to Trump’s pledges on taxes, the border and energy costs. “Looks like backroom politics and backstabbing.”
A second GOP lawmaker, one who had a recent conversation with Turner, predicted the ousted chairman would make life difficult for Johnson in the coming year and could be in a position to halt Republicans’ entire agenda if he chooses to do so. Turner did not participate in House votes on Wednesday or Thursday.
“I think Turner will burn the House down,” the second lawmaker said. “He will be a no vote on everything. I mean, he just got totally f—–.”
Apparently, he has not shown up for any votes.
Rep. Mike Turner R-OH, ousted yesterday by Speaker Johnson as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, missed all House votes again today.
I don’t know that it’s realistic to hope for something like this to happen but you never know.
This development bears close scrutinyRepublicans have a 219-215 edge in the HouseBut they will lose 2 members to the Trump administrationSo it’ll be 217-215If Mike Turner flips parties-or just wants to make the GOP payThat makes it 216-216And Republicans won’t be able to pass ANYTHING
It’s rare for a Republican to jump to the Democrats (it’s usually gone the other way) but politics ain’t what it used to be so who knows? In any case, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be a good team player.
They’ve moved the inauguration ceremony inside die to the cold weather. I’m sure he doesn’t want his pet oligarchs to be uncomfortable.
I guess he doesn’t want to be the William Henry Harrison of our time?
Donald Trump wants you to think he is concerned that 20 degree weather at the Capitol constitutes "dangerous conditions for Law Enforcement" pic.twitter.com/kMEgF8iWvp
Since the inauguration is moving indoors, here is a suggestion for decorations so the “law and order” guy see what supporters did. Just make it as it was on Jan 6, 2021. pic.twitter.com/yRUer3n1XU
— Staff Sergeant Gonell, Aquilino (@SergeantAqGo) January 17, 2025
In '61, John F. Kennedy was Inaugurated on the Capitol steps, in windchills of 7 degrees. It was almost as cold for Obama in '09. In fairness, Trump IS more than 3 decades older than JFK & Obama were. Or did he just fear small crowds? pic.twitter.com/3TFJil3HqF
For all the media folderol about Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House, new polling shows that most Americans are actually feeling pretty meh about the prospects for any of his grandiose plans. The AP Norc poll shows that Trump’s 41% approval rating is only a few points higher than it was when he was ignominiously rejected four years ago and most people don’t have any confidence that he’ll be able to accomplish most of what he’s promised.
For a man who erroneously insists that he won a landslide and claims that he’s been given a mandate for massive change, it doesn’t appear that most Americans actually support his agenda (other than eliminating taxes on tips) either:
Members of both parties say they want compromise but considering recent history it’s pretty clear that the Republican party simply is no longer organized to do that. They are in the grip of an extremist faction, led by Trump himself, that is immune to any kind of concession. From all the reports coming out of the new Congress nothing has changed on that count.
Trump and his crony oligarchs have been soaking up all the attention over the past couple of weeks, raising expectations that, in the words of his former adviser now internet influencer and activist Steve Bannon, he will enter the White House and immediately begin a campaign of “shock and awe” which will immediately upend the country and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.
No doubt Trump will issue a bunch of executive orders reversing all of those Joe Biden put in place and then claim that his actions immediately turned the economy around and fixed the border within the first week. (His allies are already saying it.) And it’s likely that he’ll very quickly issue pardons for the January 6th rioters, the only question being if he’ll let off those who assaulted police officers and planned insurrection. (I’m betting he will — the MAGA faithful will be livid if he doesn’t.) All that is to be expected.
However, there is actual governing to be done and from the looks of it, that’s not going to be quite as easy as everyone wants to believe. First of all, as quickly as they are attempting to move on the cabinet, Trump’s goal of getting them confirmed immediately is unlikely although so far, unless something unexpected happens, it appears they’ll all make it through the process eventually.
Other than that, the Congress is a total mess. We already experienced its extreme dysfunction with the circus around Mike Johnson’s election as Speaker and the chaos that erupted when Elon Musk activated the MAGA trolls to put sand in the gears of the budget and almost shut down the government just days before Christmas. It’s only getting messier.
Generally speaking when a party controls both branches of government they would have mapped out their legislative strategy long before they will have sworn in the new Congress. In 2017 when Trump was inaugurated the first time, then-Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had plans for their budget resolution hammered out a week beforehand. The Democrats did the same in 2021 (and they had to contend with a violent insurrection.) But for all of the Trumpers’ bluster, they aren’t even close to figuring out how they plan to proceed and they are facing an imminent debt ceiling, an expiring continuing resolution and before too long, the expiration of the tax cuts Trump signed into law back in 2017.
There are several roadblocks. The first is that they simply can’t agree on whether they should pass their dream agenda in “one big beautiful bill” as Trump wants them to do or break it up into two. This must be done using the reconciliation process in order to circumvent the filibuster in the Senate which the new Majority Leader John Thune has already said they will continue to honor. He is on record preferring they break up the massive agenda which includes a very expensive border bill, energy legislation and more tax cuts, wisely understanding that the prospect of getting everything want with such a small margin in the House is minimal so they need to prioritize. Johnson, naturally, wants to follow Trump’s orders and also knows that passing two reconciliation bills in one year is difficult and hasn’t been done since 2006.
According to Politico, despite being publicly polite to one another, it’s clear the Thune and Johnson are at odds and Trump has reportedly left it in their hands to work it out, saying that he’ll accept whatever they decide even though he’s made his preference clear. He has come up with one brilliant new strategy he thinks will force the Democrats to vote for his draconian policies. He wants the debt ceiling raised in the reconciliation bill and he wants to force Democrats to vote for it:
Trump tells Dan Bongino he wants to hold Los Angeles wildfire disaster aid hostage to get his agenda passed. 👇🏽😕
It’s entirely predictable that Donald Trump would tell Californians in the midst of an epic disaster that they will have to vote for mass deportation and tax cuts for billionaires if they want the federal help that’s routinely given to any other state. I won’t be surprised if they try it but it won’t work because the Democrats will not agree to do it and there’s even a fair chance that the Senate will balk at such a cretinous move. It would just delay the negotiations and they’ll have to go back to the drawing board anyway. (Regardless, there’s going to be a big battle over aid to California one way or another. Many Republicans are demanding that the state capitulate to Trump and the climate deniers’ delusional demands.)
Politico reports that they are so far behind that there’s almost no way they can get anything passed in the House before the end of February and it’s likely to take much longer than that. And that’s assuming these Republicans can come up with even one reconciliation bill that meets all of their standards. They have pledged that anything they spend will have to be paid for and that includes raising the debt ceiling as Trump adamantly demands and the House Freedom Caucus is already throwing its weight around. The kind of cuts that would be called for to do that will cause a firestorm and will probably start to fracture their coalition. And even if they can keep it together, they’ll have to deal with the Senate parliamentarian who will decide whether their bills meet the criteria for reconciliation packages. Thune has pledged to abide by that decision, whatever it is.
And who knows what Elon Musk and his DOGE commissars are going to do? He already killed Trump’s honeymoon before it even started. If he decides to meddle again, he might just blow the whole thing up. It will not be surprising if we’re sitting here next year at this time with Trump’s agenda sitting in a smoldering pile on the House floor. From the looks of the polling, the American people don’t particularly want or expect anything different.
In my post below, Michael Steele hammers Democrats for trying to play nice with his former political party. An exasperated Steele says Republicans are “gonna shove those [bipartisan] plowshares up your behind!”
The MAGA GOP is playing “constitutional hardball,” clinically defined by Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law School in 2004 as:
… political claims and practices – legislative and executive initiatives – that are without much question within the bounds of existing constitutional doctrine and practice but that are nonetheless in some tension with existing pre-constitutional understandings. It is hardball because its practitioners see themselves as playing for keeps in a special kind of way; they believe the stakes of the political controversy their actions provoke are quite high, and that their defeat and their opponents’ victory would be a serious, perhaps permanent setback to the political positions they hold.
In the age of kayfabe showmanship, bad faith argument, Republican faux outrage, and intimidation of politicians and private citizens by flying monkeys, Democrats are still trying to play nice with the likes of Stephen Miller (unlocked):
Mr. Trump may not complain about Mr. Miller, but he does occasionally poke at his obsession with immigrants — a hostility that goes far beyond Mr. Trump’s. In one meeting during the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump said that if it was up to Mr. Miller there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller, according to a person with knowledge of the comment. Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, denied the account.
President Joe Biden comes from a time before constitutional hardball. In his final Oval Office interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, Biden admits his party’s failure to loudly and proudly advertise their own accomplishments. Republicans loudly take credit for things they never did. Dermocrats need to up their game.
Biden on Trump’s name on stimulus checks: The mistake we made was, I think I made was not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this… I’m not a very good huckster. I spent too much on the policy. Not enough time on the politics pic.twitter.com/PcgY7G4Jtf
We are dealing with four more years of mean-spirited hucksterism (and worse) from the incoming president and his anti-American lackeys. So suck it up, buttercups. Never give the suckers an even break.
Dems won’t win the 21st century with 20th-century politics
Tons of respect for Democrats in Congress who have served honorably and bring years of deep experience in legislative arcana to their jobs, and a passion for improving American’s lives. I still want the Democrats’ gerontocracy to go home. You’re living in the past. Make room for younger leaders with 21st-century political and media skills.
Former RNC chair Michael Steele says it better than I could. *
Michael Steele: They think we’re playing the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill kinda kumbaya moment. ‘Yeah, we skirmish here and there, but in the end we’re gonna have a little toast with some bourbon or some good whiskey and call it even.’ No, that’s not what this is…. I very much respect Hakeem Jeffries, very much excited about his leadership, but you do not hand over the gavel and say we’re putting down our swords and picking up our bipartisan plowshares? They’re gonna shove those plowshares up your behind!
The GOP has spent a generation plotting for this moment, Steele continues, trying to upend the structures put in place to try to govern. They’re not interested. Policy isn’t the goal, the narrative is.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Steele says of current Democratic leadership, “a political operation that is oxymoronic … they’re not an operation and they’re not political.”
He and @NicolleDWallace explained that Democrats have become part of the problem by ignoring that the norms are already gone and refusing to use what power they have left pic.twitter.com/XxkOh3biQK
Stop playing by rules that the other side has blown up.
Kristy Greenberg: I hear people say, ‘Well, that’s against the norms.’ But there are no norms. [Trumpublicans] are going to shatter the norms.
Nicolle Wallace (referencing The Sixth Sense): The norms are dead. And you’ve got one party that’s proud of it … but you’ve got the other party that still doesn’t know it.
* FYI, Bluesky vids still won’t play inside WordPress. Otherwise, I try to avoid X posts.
This tribute by Kyle Mclaughlin is one of the best I’ve ever read:
Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision. What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.
Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.
David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.
While the world has lost a remarkable artist, l’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own.
I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh.
His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.
I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.
David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.
Outside The circus gathering Moved silently along the rain-swept boulevard. The procession moved on the shouting is over The fabulous freaks are leaving town.
They are driven by a strange desire Unseen by the human eye. The carnival is over
-from “The Carnival is Over” by Dead Can Dance
I did a piece in 2015 about my 10 favorite midnight movies. One of my picks was David Lynch’s Eraserhead, of which I wrote:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my fifty-odd years on the planet, it’s that when it comes to the films of David Lynch, there is no middle ground. You either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em. You buy a ticket to a Lynch film, my friend, you’d best be willing to take the ride-and he will take you for a ride. And do you want to know the really weird thing about his films? They get funnier with each viewing. Yes, “funny”, as in “ha-ha” . I think the secret to his enigmatic approach to telling a story is that Lynch is in reality having the time of his life being impenetrably enigmatic-he’s sitting back and chuckling at all the futile attempts to dissect and make “sense” of his narratives. For example, have you noticed how I’ve managed to dodge and weave and avoid giving you any kind of plot summary? I suspect that David Lynch would find that fucking hysterical.
When I heard the news today about Lynch’s passing at age 78, my first thought was anger (I skipped denial and shook my fist at a bleak and indifferent universe) This isn’t fair. Then I went straight to bargaining: I still have a few tickets left over…I want to take more rides! Then I leapfrogged over depression and went straight to acceptance, thinking to myself: Well, I guess David Lynch’s Carousel of Dreams has closed down, the dwarf has danced his last waltz, and the carnival is over.
Oddly enough I’ve had Lynch on the brain, as I recently finished my annual Twin Peaks binge. From my 2014 review of a Blu-ray box set of the first two seasons:
Who killed Laura Palmer? Who cares? The key to binge-watching David Lynch’s short-lived early 90s cult TV series about the denizens of a sleepy Northwestern lumber town and their twisted secrets is to unlearn all that you have learned about neatly wrapped story arcs and to just embrace the wonderfully warped weirdness. The real “mystery” is how the creator of avant-garde films like Eraserhead and Blue Velvet managed to snag a prime time network TV slot in the first place…and got away with it for two seasons!
Of course, I watched in proper order; beginning with Lynch’s 1992 theatrically-released prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, then proceeding with the original 2 season TV run (1990-1991) and concluding with the belated Season 3 , which debuted on Showtime in 2017.
I don’t know why it’s become a holiday tradition for me. Maybe it’s something about living in such close proximity to the exterior shooting locations. Maybe it’s the mood; the Northwest noir vibe that permeates Twin Peaks complements my annual mid-winter Seattle blues.
If there was a commonality in Lynch’s films, it was their distinctive mood; a dream-like (or nightmarish, if you prefer) kind of mood. There’s a reason that “Lynchian” has entered the lexicon. Even his less lauded films were nothing, if not dreamlike. From my 2021 review of Denis Villenueve’s Dune:
(Interviewer) This week they released a few photos from the new big-screen adaptation of Dune by Denis Villeneuve. Have you seen them?
I have zero interest in Dune.
Why’s that?
Because it was a heartache for me. It was a failure, and I didn’t have final cut. I’ve told this story a billion times. It’s not the film I wanted to make. I like certain parts of it very much — but it was a total failure for me.
You would never see someone else’s adaptation of Dune?
I said I’ve got zero interest.
If you had your choice, what would you rather make: a feature film or a TV series?
A TV series. Right now. Feature films in my book are in big trouble, except for the big blockbusters. The art house films, they don’t stand a chance. They might go to a theater for a week and if it’s a Cineplex they go to the smallest theater in the setup, and then they go to Blu-ray or On Demand. The big-screen experience right now is gone. Gone, but not forgotten.
[…]
Obviously, David Lynch is not a fan of his own 1984 adaptation; the first time I saw it 37 years ago I wasn’t either …but in the fullness of time, it has grown on me (as Lynch’s films tend to do). Yes, it has certain cheesy elements that even time cannot heal, but how can you possibly top Kenneth McMillan’s hammy performance as an evil, floating bag of pus, Brad Dourif’s bushy eyebrows…or Sting’s magnificently oiled torso?
He may be gone, but like “the big screen experience” his work will not be forgotten. Rest in dreams, Mr. Lynch.
Here’s a few more of his films that grown on me in the fullness of time:
The Elephant Man – This 1980 film (nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture) dramatizes the bizarre life of Joseph Merrick (magnificently played by John Hurt), a 19th Century Englishman afflicted by a physical condition so hideously deforming that when he entered adulthood, his sole option for survival was to “work” as a sideshow freak. However, when a compassionate surgeon named Frederick Treaves (Anthony Hopkins) entered his life, a whole new world opened to him.
While there is an inherent grotesqueness to much of the imagery, Lynch treats his subject as respectfully and humanely as Dr. Treaves. Beautifully shot in black and white (by DP Freddie Francis), Lynch’s film has a “steampunk” vibe. Hurt deservedly earned an Oscar nod for his performance, more impressive when you consider how he conveys the intelligence and gentle soul of this man while encumbered by all that prosthetic. Great work by the entire cast, which includes Anne Bancroft, Freddie Jones and John Gielgud.
Blue Velvet– Any film that begins with the discovery of a severed human ear, roiling with ants amid a dreamy, idealized milieu beneath the blue suburban skies instantly commands your full attention. Writer-director David Lynch not only grabs you with this 1986 mystery thriller, but practically pushes you face-first into the dark and seedy mulch that lurks under all those verdant, freshly mowed lawns and happy smiling faces.
The detached appendage in question is found by an all-American “boy next door” (Kyle MacLachlan), who is about to get a crash course in the evil that men do. He is joined in his sleuthing caper by a Nancy Drew-ish Laura Dern. But they’re not the most interesting characters. That honor goes to the troubled young woman at the center of the mystery (Isabella Rossellini) and her boyfriend (Dennis Hopper). Hopper is frightening as the 100% pure bat shit crazy Frank Booth, one of the all-time great screen heavies.
Mulholland Drive – This nightmarish, yet mordantly droll twist on the Hollywood dream makes TheDay of the Locust seem like an upbeat romp. Naomi Watts stars as a fresh-faced ingénue with high hopes who blows into Hollywood from Somewhere in Middle America to (wait for it) become a star. Those plans get, shall we say, put on hold…once she crosses paths with a voluptuous and mysterious amnesiac (Laura Harring).
What ensues is the usual Lynch mindfuck, and if you buy the ticket, you better be ready to take the ride, because this is one of his more fun ones (or as close as one gets to having “fun” watching a Lynch film). This one grew on me; by the third (or was it fourth?) time I’d seen it I decided that it’s one of the iconoclastic director’s finest efforts.
Inland Empire – From Richard A. Barney’s 2009 book David Lynch: Interviews:
Barney: I’ve read some comments you’ve made about the pleasures of [writing a script ‘as you film’]. Can you talk about that and whether [working that way on Inland Empire] was a horror at other times?
Lynch: There’s no horror. The horror, if there is a horror, is the lack of ideas. But that’s all the time. You’re just waiting. And I always say, it’s like fishing: Some days you don’t catch any fish. The next day, it’s another story – they just swim in.
When I read that excerpt (featured in the booklet that accompanies Criterion’s Blu-ray package), a light bulb went off in my (mostly empty) head. Lynch’s answer is analogous to my experience with Inland Empire. The first time I watched it…he didn’t hook me. I watched it once in 2007, found it baffling and disturbing (even for a Lynch joint) and then parked the DVD for 16 years.
Being a glutton for punishment, I purchased the Blu-ray last year (the extras looked interesting, and life is short). When I re-watched the film, I kept an open mind. This time, he caught me – hook, line, sinker and latest edition of Angler’s Digest.
In Inland Empire, Laura Dern stars as an actress (or is she?) who lands a part (or does she?) in a) a film b) her own nightmare, or c) somebody else’s nightmare. It’s Rod Serling’s Alice In Wonderland. It’s a wild ride.
Also recommended: Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story
Pam Bondi was chosen to be Attorney General because she will allow Trump to turn the Department of Justice into an operation to hunt his political opponents.
In her testimony today, Bondi showed she is either is wildly naive or knows the game and isn’t telling the truth. pic.twitter.com/doTVIpuYLw
I got together with @brianschatz and @CoryBooker to talk about the bonkers Republican plan to steal money from Medicaid and Medicare recipients to pay for another giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. pic.twitter.com/QprdxIyicE
a. We aren't idiots. When they say "conditions" they mean punishing California because it votes Democratic and forcing it to adopt Republican policies.
b. This genie never goes back in the bottle. If this is the new rule, we'll be happy to apply conditions to GOP states too. https://t.co/uwxGObji49
Pay attention. As we speak Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. are fawning over Trump, changing their rules to placate MAGA, sending millions of dollars directly to Trump and his interests.
Why? So that he does NOTHING to stop them from getting bigger and bigger, richer and richer. pic.twitter.com/lPLlAGvqWc
A pair of 50-page policyproposals laying out the plan in detail. Discussions about the specifics with President-elect Donald J. Trump and his advisers. And talks with cabinet nominees about how to pay for it.
On the eve of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the cryptocurrency industry is pushing his incoming administration to execute an audacious plan that would have seemed unimaginable just a year ago: a government program to buy and hold billions of dollars in Bitcoin.
As he campaigned last summer, Mr. Trump vowed to create a federal “Bitcoin stockpile” that would serve as a “permanent national asset to benefit all Americans.” Bitcoin enthusiasts hailed the idea as potentially transformative, claiming that it would help reduce the national debt. Mr. Trump could still abandon the plan, and its details are under debate. But industry executives have spent weeks lobbying to shape the proposal, raising hopes that Mr. Trump might act soon after taking office.
The Bitcoin-bros have been working with David Sachs, Musks’ fellow South African loon who Trump has named his “crypto Czar.” They’re trying to sell it as a way to pay off the national debt and “U.S. economic dominance if the global economy someday runs on cryptocurrencies.” Right.
But the most obvious beneficiaries would be people who already own Bitcoin, which surged to a record price of $100,000 last month. Any indication that the government plans to buy it is likely to send prices even higher. In September, Mr. Trump rolled out his own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.
You don’t say.
This is clearly a scam designed to boost the price and prepare for a big government bailout when the whole thing comes crashing down.
Brad Garlinghouse, the chief executive of the crypto company Ripple, said in an interview that he had recently had dinner with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and that he had encouraged the president-elect and his advisers to establish a federal stockpile containing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including XRP, a coin closely tied to Ripple’s business.
“He cares about really living up to his desired legacy of being the crypto president,” Mr. Garlinghouse said.
Have we ever seen such delusions of grandeur from any president? Of course, the main legacy will be as the most corrupt president in US history.
