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Who The Fuck Has Left The Trump Administration

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#472

Not quite within the parameters of this list but it’s a weird story so I’m including it.

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — The commander of the prison at Guantánamo Bay has been fired seven weeks before he was to leave the job.

Adm. Craig S. Faller relieved Rear Adm. John C. Ring for a “loss of confidence in his ability” to lead, the United States Southern Command said on Sunday in a brief statement. Admiral Ring’s deputy, Brig. Gen. John F. Hussey, is now the acting commander.

Col. Amanda Azubuike, a spokeswoman for the Southern Command, which oversees the prison, said the decision to remove Admiral Ring had nothing to do with a recent news media visit he hosted there. She said only that he was let go after a monthlong investigation that was opened in March.

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#473

Economists in the Agriculture Department’s research branch say the Trump administration is retaliating against them for publishing reports that shed negative light on White House policies, spurring an exodus that included six of them quitting the department on a single day in late April.

The Economic Research Service — a source of closely read reports on farm income and other topics that can shape federal policy, planting decisions and commodity markets — has run afoul of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue with its findings on how farmers have been financially harmed by President Donald Trump’s trade feuds, the Republican tax code rewrite and other sensitive issues, according to current and former agency employees.

The reports highlight the continued decline under Trump’s watch in farm income, which has dropped about 50 percent since 2013. Rural voters were a crucial source of support for Trump in 2016, and analysts say even a small retreat in 2020 could jeopardize the president’s standing in several battleground states.

“The administration didn’t appreciate some of our findings, so this is retaliation to harm the agency and send a message,” said one current ERS employee, who asked not to be named to avoid retribution.

The hill has this too.

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#474

DOJ says goodbye to Rod Rosenstein

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#475

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) chief David Redl resigned abruptly from his position on Thursday, officials confirmed.

Redl has been at the helm of the NTIA, the body tasked with advising the Trump administration’s telecom policy within the Department of Commerce, since November 2017.

An NTIA spokeswoman said that Diane Rinaldo would be taking over as acting administrator. Rinaldo is a former staffer with the House Intelligence Committee who has been Redl’s deputy at NTIA for the past year.

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#476

Nick Geale is leaving the Labor Department

The top aide to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is leaving the Trump administration after a clash with White House officials who regarded him as personally difficult and an impediment to President Trump’s deregulatory agenda, according to sources with direct knowledge.

Behind the scenes: Senior White House officials — especially within the Domestic Policy Council — have made it clear to Acosta that they’re frustrated that, in their view, the Labor Department hasn’t been moving quickly or aggressively enough on deregulation. And some have pointed to Geale as the problem. The White House also separately lodged a complaint about Geale.

A source who is close to the president and has direct knowledge of the situation told me: “The pace of change has not been sufficient. [Acosta] tends to be fairly fearful of taking hardline positions. He tends to be solicitous of the unions, often making the argument that that’s what the president wants.”

  • “The only question in my mind is, is it Nick Geale that’s the problem? Or is he just doing his boss’s bidding? It’s not clear to me that Nick is the only problem. You take your cues from the top.”
  • Geale has told Secretary Acosta that he will be leaving shortly. A source with direct knowledge told me Geale’s departure date is May 31.
  • Geale told me: “We in the administration all want to do what is best for the country. There are lots of passionate people in the administration and I certainly am one of them. I believe I’ve done a great job in implementing the president’s vision and I wish everyone good luck in continuing their important work.”

A Labor Department spokesperson defended the department against White House accusations that it had been slow on deregulation.

  • “The U.S. Department of Labor had $3.28 billion in deregulatory savings in FY 2018 — the second most in the Administration,” the spokesperson said. “Even more actions like the current rulesmaking on overtime, joint employer and regular rate are in process.”
  • “Nick Geale plays an important role in these efforts. The Department of Labor will continue to work aligned with presidential priorities.”

Context: The White House’s frustrations with Acosta’s Labor Department are not new. Bloomberg News describes the clashes and philosophical disagreements between the White House and the Labor Department exhaustively in this article. They boil down to a view among conservative White House officials that Acosta hasn’t cracked down hard enough against unions and has been too cautious to implement deregulatory policies that might spark a uproar on Capitol Hill.

  • But, but: Two sources familiar with the situation told me that while White House officials had been frustrated for months with what they perceived as Acosta’s unwillingness to aggressively deregulate, they think Acosta has shown signs of improvement over the past six months.
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#477

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Mentionable News

Mentionable News
#478

Johnny DeStefano, one of President Trump’s top advisers who served as a bridge between the Republican Party and the administration, is leaving the White House on Friday, according to officials familiar with his decision.

DeStefano — one of the last remaining aides from the start of the administration — was a key contributor to the administration’s political strategy during the 2018 midterms and ran the Office of Presidential Personnel in the early days of the administration, where he was responsible for staffing a large portion of the government during the turbulent early days of the Trump presidency.

He told Trump on Monday that he would be leaving the administration, White House officials said. DeStefano declined to comment. He is expected to advise a number of companies, including Juul, the e-cigarette company, while helping on the campaign, according to people familiar with his plans. Juul has significant business in front of the Food and Drug Administration, and former Trump spokesman Josh Raffel also works for the company.

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#479

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/05/21/politics/shahira-knight-white-house-exit/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

President Donald Trump’s point person on Capitol Hill, Shahira Knight, is leaving her post as multiple aides in the White House legislative affairs office and beyond eye the exits heading into a campaign season that will likely freeze legislative activity on both sides of the aisle.

Multiple sources close to Knight say she has discussed leaving the White House for months, and her impending exit was widely expected – particularly because she told colleagues she wanted to last a year in the job, and her anniversary in the role is approaching in mid-July.

"Shahira has done a wonderful job as my legislative affairs director. She was outstanding for us and for our country and will be a tremendous success in the private sector," Trump said in a statement to CNN.

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#480

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

A plan to move Agriculture Department researchers out of Washington, D.C., has thrown two small but influential science agencies into upheaval. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have quit in unusually large numbers since August, when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he would relocate the offices.

ERS leadership has been conducting final site visits this week of candidate locations, and an “announcement Friday is very likely,” said Peter Winch, an organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that currently represents ERS workers.

Perdue presented his idea as a money-saving plan that will move scientists closer to “stakeholders” and “customers” such as farmers. ERS is a statistical agency that provides research for lawmakers; NIFA funds hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural research each year. Each office employs between 200 and 250 people, based on employee estimates. During the Obama administration, NIFA had about 400 workers and ERS had 300.

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#481

The Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services resigned from his post Friday at President Donald Trump’s request, according to his resignation letter.

Francis Cissna will be replaced by former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, according to a person familiar with the situation.

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#482

People are noting that Emmet Flood is the man who was supposed to lead Trump’s Executive Privilege angle. Something’s cooking.

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#483

Kevin Hasset, a top Trump advisor and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, is leaving the administration.

image

The announcement seems to have caught everybody off guard, as almost no stories about it are up yet save for a few automatically generated ones.

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#484

Top DHS watchdog John Kelly (no, not that John Kelly, a different one) retires early after criticism of his FEMA reports

According to press reports, auditors said John Kelly told them to produce upbeat reports about FEMA’s response to disasters, including Hurricane Sandy.

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#485

:joy::joy::joy:

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave the job at the end of the month, President Donald Trump said Thursday.

In a pair of tweets, the president said Sanders will return to her home state of Arkansas. He thanked her for a “job well done.”

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#486

Hah. Just beat me to this 'cause I can’t do three in a row, HUGE news.

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#487

I guess constantly having to make up stuff on the fly has its toll.

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#488

I know I will shed no tears. Nope, not a smokey eye in the house.

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#489

Buh Bye

Jarrod Agen, Vice President Pence’s communications director and a frequent presence at his side, is leaving the White House at the end of the month. He will become a vice president for communications at Lockheed Martin, one of the nation’s leading defense contractors.

Agen had worked in Pence’s office since the beginning of the administration and after 2½ years in the White House said he felt ready for a change, according to friends and associates.

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#490

We knew this was coming…but it does clear out the agency…something that Sen Warren started under Obama.

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#491

Omg! Fuck that guy!

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