#Musk offered a totally new explanation for his Saturday night email to #FederalWorkers requiring they provide five points summarizing their work over the past week. He now says it was not meant as a performance review. “It was a pulse check review,” searching for *phantom employees*, he said.
[I call bullshit]
Musk also said he asked #Trump before sending the email blast & was told by Trump that it was OK to send.
After some #FederalAgencies told their employees not to respond because of national security concerns, Musk now says employees could simply say they’re working on #classified matters.
#Musk refused to share how many federal jobs they are seeking to eliminate, saying he wants to keep people who are doing *good work* in *essential* roles. [presumably by his & Trump’s metrics]
#Trump said that #LeeZeldin, the new #EPA administrator, plans to cut up to 65% of his employees 💔.
While #Trump says he will balance the #budget & pay down the #debt, it’s worth remembering that he promised during the 2016 campaign that he could eliminate the entire national debt accumulated over more than two centuries during 8 years in office. Instead, during his first term, he ADDED $8.4 trillion in new borrowing over 10 years.
#Trump asked #HowardLutnick, #commerce secy, to talk about Trump’s new plan to issue #GoldCard #visas to folks willing to pay $5M. He said it stems from an existing #EB5 program, which allowed #wealthy foreign investors to pay up to pay from $500k to >$1M to put themselves on a pathway to #citizenship. Lutnick is correct that program was subject to scrutiny over the years, including cases of #fraud involving people w/possible ties to #China & #Iran #intelligence.
[see posted video yesterday] 🧵
#Trump once again makes clear that he picks senior officials in part because of their nicknames. During his first term, he constantly noted that James Mattis, his defense secretary, was called “Mad Dog” — a nickname that #Mattis actually detested. Today, Trump gushed that his choice to become the next chairman of the #JointChiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, is called “Razin Caine.”
“As soon as I heard his name, I said I like that guy,” Trump said.🙄
#Trump talked about the botched U.S. withdrawal from #Afghanistan under President #Biden & suggests that any generals involved in it should be fired. He does not mention that TRUMP WAS THE ONE WHO NEGOTIATED THE WITHDRAWAL agreement w/ the #Taliban that Biden then carried out.
#Trump says he would have kept the #Bagram base rather than give it back to #Afghanistan, but the agreement that Trump sealed did not call for keeping Bagram. In fact, the Trump-#Taliban deal committed the #UnitedStates & its allies to “withdraw all their forces from remaining bases.”
#Defense Sec #PeteHegseth, said he was auditing the #Defense Dept’s #military leadership involved in the withdrawal. Trump then said he thought those leaders would “largely” be out.
#Trump again said he wants #Canada to be the 51st state, asserting that Canada depended on the #UnitedStates. “If they had to pay their way, they couldn’t exist.”
Trump may want Canada, but Canadians do not want to be part of the US. Just 15% of Canadians support becoming part of US, while 77% oppose it, according to a YouGov survey. Even among members of Canada’s Conservative Party, just 23% favor the idea, while 73% do not.
“The #EuropeanUnion was formed in order to screw the United States,” #Trump said idiotically. He said he wants to hit the bloc with a 25% #tariff over car imports & other things.
Trump said he does believe President Vladimir #Putin of #Russia will need to make concessions in the negotiations over ending the war in #Ukraine.
#Trump parroted #Putin’s line about the origin of the #war, saying that the prospect of #NATO membership for #Ukraine is “probably the reason the whole thing started.”
Putin wrote a lengthy treatise in July 2021 making clear that he did not think Ukraine was a nation & was supposed to be part of Russia.
Trump acknowledged that a peace agreement will be tough. During the campaign, he boasted it would be easy, so much so that he vowed to end it in 24 hrs, or before his inauguration.
#USpol 🧵
@Nonilex Where does he get his idiotic ideas from? Putin, Miller or both and Musk!
