From Gaetz to Rubio: The New Faces of Trump’s Cabinet
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Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, friends. I'm Bea Spear. And I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream, presented by Betches News. Where we explore the absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience. Bea.

Yeah. Have you seen the news just as we're recording this? I have not. I've been on calls. Okay. Well, the pick for attorney general is Matt Gaetz. No, Samantha. Yes. Well, she, no, I did not see. We're not even, I did not see that. It literally just happened. Matt Gaetz. Why would he do that?

Why not? Because he can. Remember, because he can, that's the true MAGA logo. I mean, at least it's not Ken Paxton, question mark. They need him in Texas. We need to keep some people in place. It is interesting how unconcerned Donald seems to be with pulling all these people out of his slim house majority. I know. Because none of it matters.

We're going to talk today about the fever dream of appointments that Donald Trump has announced because it's a little bit of a preview of what we can expect, I think, in the days, weeks, months, years to come. And we're going to give you the rundown of who is going to be in leadership starting in 2025.

and what some of their priorities are based on their experience and how they've handled Donald Trump in the past. Yeah. So I think we should start with the skippy dipshit in the room, which is Elon Musk, who has been couch surfing on Donald Trump's coattails at his Mar-a-Lago resort and now apparently traveled with him for his transition meetings into the Oval Office yesterday. Elon just riding that mega wave to nowhere and saying,

We haven't seen this kind of bromance slash stand in for the first lady since the so-called bachelor president Buchanan moved his friend William Rufus Devane King of Alabama into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where they shared a bed. What's your over under on Elon and Trump sharing a bed?

I don't. That's not the vibe I'm getting. They're so in love with each other, though. The narcissistic fallout is going to be nuclear. Just absolutely chaos. Yeah, apparently Elon Musk will not get the fuck out. He has been attached at the hip to Donald Trump, posing in their family photo. It's just him in front of Lara Trump. And I think there's already signs of trouble in paradise because the eroticism isn't around anymore.

I think for them, I think it's around power. And Trump has already said of Elon Musk, it was just reported in the Hill, Elon won't go home. I can't get rid of him until I don't like him. I mean, that's what it's going to be. I can't imagine like Elon and Trump having a long friendship because Elon is not only just so fucking awesome.

annoying, but he draws a ton of attention away from Trump. Trump's used to it being like, Donald Trump showed up here and now it's Elon Musk shows up with Donald Trump, right? Elon's name is kind of leading the conversations as the point of interest. And there is no amount of money in the world that Trump will accept to play second fiddle to Elon Musk or to share a stage with him. It's just, it's straight up not going to happen. Two narcissists cannot last like that.

Also, he doesn't need to accept any money for anything because he is going to be the president and that is all the power he could possibly need. But I also want to note that Kara Swisher said on Pivot, I think it was yesterday or Monday, she had said that the people in the White House...

Right.

The only thing that might stop them from successfully grabbing power is their own self-destruction. Well, and he created this government department, this alleged government department, the Department of Government Oversight or something it is, DOJ, which is just because Elon Musk is so lax creativity at such a level that the only thing he can name his companies after are X or DOJ or things that he's already had.

This is not a real thing. This is not a real company. This is not a real department of the government. He and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to be tasked with going through line by line the whole budget and making people prove that their allocations are worth it. And if they're not, they're going to redline them.

This is not like Model UN, boys. This is not like play school time or play business time. This is a real government in the most powerful country in the world. And the Doge department is like something that would come out of like a frat bro podcast wet dream. I don't see this.

being put into effect. I don't see them allowing Elon Musk and Vivek to usurp the powers of Congress to make decisions about how the government spends money. Maybe, but my sense is that it might be used more like a patronage shop where they can basically have a line to Trump that enables him to raid the federal budget

to his own advantage and then simultaneously use it as a way to dole out favors to the people who they want to dole out favors to based on government contracts? When they go through and they say, okay, well, I think that the Bureau of Indian Affairs doesn't need any money, so I'm going to redline that item.

I don't think that Congress is going to say, yeah, okay, that sounds good and just take it for what it is. I don't think that they're going to get away with that kind of stuff. And that's the kind of stuff that they're trying to say they'll be able to do is they'll be able to redline entire budgets. Well, I guess my question is like, where are we getting the impression that Congress is going to be maintaining control?

any substantial power because he has already floated some ideas, including a warrior board to get rid of the woke generals where people in the military will be replaced based, you know, four star five, you know, three and four star generals are going to be replaced by cronies.

I talked about that ahead of the election. I said he promised he would fill the ranks in the chain of command with civilian loyalists. Now, there will be resistance. Okay, but where is Congress getting the power? Where is Congress? Like, sure, there might be like a little bit of compromise on what I believe will ultimately be cosmetic changes or small delays, but

But he's already said he is a 53-seat majority in the Senate, and he is asking to have his appointments pushed through as recess appointments because he doesn't want to put up his political appointees, who we're going to speak about in a second, up for the normal confirmation process. So why would he do that? He would probably get them through anyway, right?

He had also basically said to the Senate, like, you can't let through any of Biden's lame duck appointees. Like, where does he get the belief that he can have any power over these things? Well, let me let me tell you what gave me a little bit of hope, because I'm going to find the one silver thread in this shit needle haystack situation.

The Senate voted, the Republicans in the Senate voted for who their new majority leader would be. On a secret ballot. On a secret ballot for who their new majority leader would be. And they selected John Thune. Now, the importance of this is that they did not select Rick Scott.

After Tucker Carlson and Trump and all of the MAGA wing openly campaigned, even gave money for Rick Scott to be the majority leader for the Senate. They didn't do that. There was enough people, granted on a secret ballot or not, who said, you know what, we're going to go with John Thune.

And I think that that tells me that there are still some people in the government who understand that a full kangaroo court, a full craziness of MAGA Trump rampantness is something that they are trying to even put harm reduction up against. And the idea that John Thune even got in as somebody who called Trump's attempt to overturn the election in 2020 inexcusable.

I think goes to show that maybe behind the scenes, it won't be as swift and unanimous as we're made to feel. So I want to just talk about John Thune for a quick second for folks who don't know who he is. He's going to take over for what Mitch McConnell's job used to be because Mitch McConnell literally is too old to do it anymore.

And John Thune is just not a fucking weirdo. That's all I can start with is, for one, John Thune is a decent man. He's not a sadist. He is no doubt a conservative Republican, but like in a Mitt Romney kind of way. You're right. He's the least bad of the worst.

He's the least bad of the worst. He held the Republican whip position, which is the number two in leadership. So he's got clout within the Senate. This isn't like some new guy situation. You know, he told Trump that he would be a professional partner. He did not tell him that he would be like, you know, a loyalist.

And I appreciate that. John Thune is the senator from South Dakota. Kristi Noem was supposed to run against him for his seat in the Senate because he wasn't Trump loyal enough, and she didn't have the balls. So I think that John Thune holds a little bit of weight here. Here's my good and bad list for him.

He may be a good partner to the Democrats slash not ruin the country, be a little bit of harm reduction because he's a super smart money guy. And it seems like he is going to maybe get Trump to lay off some of these tariff dreams, ideally, or at least point out the flaws in them. He also voted for the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, which enabled employers to contribute up to $5,250.

$50 to their employees' student loans, which I think, you know, he's not for student loan forgiveness, but he is for your employer, like taking a vested interest in your improvement. I was like, okay, that's bare minimum. He voted to extend unemployment benefits from 39 weeks to 59 weeks. He said yes to a minimum wage increase, but he is very anti-union. He's anti-Russia, extremely pro-Ukraine, and he is gay marriage agnostic. He did not vote for the Respect for Marriage Act in

because he didn't think it gave straight people the protections they deserve, which I don't know what they need protecting from, but that's what he said. He's not a raging homophobe and describes himself as comfortable with gay marriage, though he believes marriage is between one man and one woman, which is coming a long way for him because in 1999, he had voted yes to banning gay marriage outright and banning gay adoption. So again, is this guy a ghoul? Yes, but is he the final boss of ghouls? No.

I think we might have our first sacrificial lamb. We do. Well, here's the thing. But here's the way is that he's super Republican-y because I don't want to get people too up on it. He wants to do all the Republican stuff like eliminate state tax. He doesn't like the Green New Deal. He doesn't want regulations on oil. He is super duper duper pro-Israel. Not an American.

murder everyone way, but very much in a punish anyone who has boycotted Israel or is not supporting Israel. He calls people who want to hold Israel accountable Hamas sympathizers. So there's that side of it. Very much wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Not a fan of CHIP, which is the childhood health plan. Very pro-gun rights, including wants the right to

for you to be able to put a gun in your checked luggage or carry a gun concealed carry on an Amtrak train. He's an evangelical Christian pro national abortion ban wants to include the preborn into 14th amendment rights, but a no on renewing the violence against women act and wants to confirm strictly conservative judges also support school prayer and the voucher program. So yeah,

you know, mixed bag here with him. Mixed bag, but this is what you'd be getting with a Nikki Haley administration or a Ron DeSantis administration. At the core of my concerns are not those things. Obviously, heading pre-Bourne into the 14th Amendment is like, that's really serious stuff. And I mean, all of these things really are, but that's very different than saying we will dissolve the authority of the Senate. So,

to your point, like, I do think he might stand a little more firmly. And we're gonna see. I mean, we're not gonna, we're not gonna stop it. It's certainly not as bad as Medicare fraud, Rick Scott being in charge, who is literally just a MAGA crony. And he would, there's no no in his vocabulary when it comes to Donald Trump. And with John Thune, I think there will be so

I don't want to say anything. Yeah, I don't know. I think he's a cunning linguist. He's a cunning linguist. He's a very attractive old man, which Donald Trump loves. He's very good with the money. He's a good talker. I think while he can't stop MAGA, he certainly knows how to finesse them. And maybe that is all we're going to get out of this. And that's better than Rick Scott. What I feel like it's kind of come down to as a question is, will we be Hitler or will we be Hungary?

And John Thune is someone who will push you more in the hungry direction. Yeah. That's how I would describe the distinction. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This month is all about practicing gratitude. But when you're feeling down, it can be tough to see the bright side of things. Or when you're feeling down, it can be tough to see the bright side of things.

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Calling all book-loving Betches. We had such a great time at the Betches Book Club in New York City talking about the Midnight Club and sharing our favorite new treat, Nutella Biscuits. So it is only right that we keep the fun going for everyone. Together with Nutella Biscuits, we are bringing Betches Book Club to the podcast through a miniseries starting November 11th. We are so excited for you all to join and can't wait to make every chapter sweeter with the perfect club snack.

On the podcast, Aileen Jordana and I will be diving into the bestselling novel, Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Mentor over four special episodes. Such a Bad Influence is a modern mystery for all the social media sleuths out there. So if you're that friend in the group chat who can find out anything quicker than the FBI, we want you to read and snack along with us. Because what better way to discuss a book about a missing influencer than on a podcast?

So whether you love a good club for the friends, snacks, or actual activity, we've got it all, especially the snacks. Because no get-together is complete without the perfect shareable treat. So stock up on those irresistible Nutella biscuits for you and your besties and follow along on the App Etches feed, wherever you get your podcasts, as we break it down chapter by chapter. Another surprise pick for Trump, which is Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, which I could not have ever guessed I would see the day.

Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, for those who like, I mean, we're all getting like a basic civics lesson here. And Secretary of State mostly deals with the president's foreign policy. Rubio will be the first Latino to represent the United States of America internationally, which there's something very exciting and interesting about that.

Rubio hates China, so we'll see what that does when it comes to Donald Trump saying he's going to save TikTok. He also hates Cuba. We'll see what that has to do with Cuban immigration being given some special circumstances compared to other Latinos that immigrate to this country.

He said that Ukraine needs to negotiate to end the war and stop trying to regain their territories, which to me is not necessarily saying Russia could do whatever they want so much as Rubio saying Ukraine needs to accept that they're not getting Crimea and some of other regions back.

and Russia needs to quit. He is pro-NATO. So he said last time Donald Trump was president, he wanted to get rid of NATO too, and it didn't happen. So he doesn't want to see that happen this time. Yeah. I mean, if I were rating the picks in terms of my fear of them, he would be on the bottom of my fear list. This is a very hawkish on China cabinet in terms of their orientation. I'm sure Vladimir Putin will say, thanks guys.

To your point about Ukraine, I think the writing's on the wall for that territory that they lost. Unfortunately, NATO, TBD, I think Europe is realizing that they are on their own and it is going to come down to their own strength because we're talking about joining NATO. Putin wants to put a delay for 20 years, wants them to not

Right.

And I think we're taking these things for granted. We're watching a lot of this, what this will look like take place. I feel, I at least feel again, I feel delayed in the worst case scenario with Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. I'm not excited about it. I think he, you know,

We'll do some things that I'm going to deeply disagree with, but as far as keeping NATO together, at least continuing to try to advise Trump to keep NATO together, I think that at least delays us ever pulling out of that circumstance more than somebody else would have, more than if it was Chip Roy or some other person. I mean, there are people that are horrible who are yet to fill in that we may see fill in these places.

Chip Roy is actually putting up putting up opposition to Mike Johnson being the House speaker because the Republicans shortly before this episode, before we recorded this episode, are projected to officially take the House. So there is a few stragglers who are going to have to figure out their way. But I did also see reporting that's like Elon Musk is going to fund a primary challenge against anyone who falls out of line with Donald Trump within Congress. But also,

How's that relationship playing out? We'll see how that goes. He's not going to make it that long. How many Scarmuchis do we have on these people? His entire administration from the last time didn't back him this time. And he goes through people so quickly that we can only deal with, like we said, short-term decisions. What are we dealing with today? Well, this is what I'm starting to realize. And there was a report from the Russian news agency TASS that

One of Putin's aides, his name is Nikolai Petrushev, said yesterday, the election campaign is over. To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them. He said when Trump was a candidate, made many statements critical of the destructive foreign and domestic policies pursued by the current administration, saying,

But very often election pledges in the United States can diverge from subsequent actions. So what they're saying, I'm reading between the lines, I don't think this is necessarily in...

as much control of Trump or Elon or John Thune. And I think that there are bigger geopolitical forces here. And dare I say that the Cold War never ended and we lost just now. Like last week, we lost. Well, I wonder, did that statement come out before or after Russian media aired all of Melania's nude photos from her modeling career? I'm 99% sure it came out after because it came out on...

On Monday. Yeah, they're here to now embarrass him. He's a puppet. They got what they wanted, and now they're going to show their power in ways of massive embarrassment. But V, they have us by the balls. Our country. Everything that we grew up understanding, believing about

this country, everything it gave us, that's all going to go away. We have to resist that. I'm not willing to make statements like that. You're the one who said that we can't submit to the autocracy. Well, I'm just telling you, I think people, I'm not saying that it has to remain this way forever. Oh, no, that's their goal is to destroy the West. That was the idea. And now they've really, really got us in a tough situation for a while. Yeah.

So we'll figure it out, I guess. Well, let's talk about the next embarrassment on the list. And that is the proposed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

better known as a Fox news host who admitted on air that he hasn't washed his hands in like 10 years. He thinks it gives him natural immunity. He is an army reserve veteran. This is an important distinction and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he has no Pentagon or government experience outside of his military service. And all my guys were not excited about this and,

Because all branches of the military and in your services respected, and that includes the Army Reserves, but there is a known kind of like little joke in the military about the reserves not being as disciplined as, say, you know, an enlisted Marine or somebody who's active duty because they're reserves.

And, um, they're fucking really worried about somebody with that particular attitude who has always been made to feel like they're the last man in the military. They're the butt of the joke, sometimes being top brass and sort of trying to seek their revenge on the active and enlisted because the army reserve, you know, gets razzed a little bit here and there and that they don't take that razzing well. Um, and,

So this guy, he truly has no idea what he's doing. I am not certain. I mean, all these people have to be confirmed. I don't see how they confirm him. I was on News Nation this morning, which is like pretty Trumpy. I know they're doing acting or whatnot, but even Republicans are like,

We're not fucking with that guy. We have different generals. I think they would rather see Michael Flynn than Pete Hegseth. I just don't think, I think when you talk about MAGA people and whatnot, I'm not sure that they're super hot for this guy. This Fox and Friends weekend host is going to oversee the Pentagon and 1.3 million active duty troops.

Well, there is a check on that, though, that we have a civilian run military. There is a top civilian that is a partner to him. That is a check and balance to this. Now, I understand that we're in unprecedented times, but I don't want to get into a place where we start saying things like the entire military is going to fall when those people have taken an oath to the Constitution and have repeatedly said that they will not do anything illegal and that if they are getting orders from somebody that there are enough

consensus amongst the enlisted and the chain of command to resist the idea of one, weakening the military to a level of inefficiency, or two, breaking their oath to the Constitution. Fair enough. Fair enough. This guy, though, he has a white nationalist tattoo. Yes, he does. And we know this because he had said...

that because he was in the reserves, he had been called up to help guard the 2020 inauguration for Joe Biden, but that he had been then later told to stand down because he has an extremist tattoo. Because if you remember January, after January 6th, people were like, maybe we should have these white nationalists near the inauguration. Yeah. So Pete Hegseth

kicked out of that. And now he is going to oversee the Department of Defense. Well, we're going to see, right? We're going to see. I want people to not submit to it. And I don't see how that's going to happen. Even in the military, they're like, all the guy has is a degree from Princeton and Harvard. And I thought we thought that wasn't the thing to do. So

I don't know. The Pentagon's got a lot of leadership and a lot of stuff. I don't want this guy anywhere near any of the information. I don't trust him like I don't trust Trump to not just sell information for shits and giggles.

Yeah, I mean, well, does it make you feel any better knowing that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is going to be heading up the Homeland Security Department? Well, she is a cold, hard bitch. So no, I am not excited about the women who shot her own dog and her own goat being responsible for immigration and border control. I think she is brutal. And I actually, I said in a TikTok, I was more worried about her heading Homeland Security because we know that the Republicans are typically pretty sexist.

Why they put a woman in a position that they considered like the most important, most powerful position is because she will be so brutal and her being a female is they think is going to soften or take the blow off or make people not think it's as bad as it is.

They use women all the time to try and take the burn off of horrific things. Yeah, remember Kirstjen Nielsen? Yeah, and to be like, ooh, she's a woman. She's a mother. She's not a mass murderer. And it's like, yeah, she is. You know, the one hope I have is that Pete Hegseth's lack of handwashing will at some point...

Let national selection take its course. He just constantly has a runny nose and can't come to work. Yeah. We don't wish anything more than a terrible sinus infection, but I hope every single day you can't make it to work. Yeah. Kristi Noem, she'll get in. She'll pass the Senate, I think. I think she'll get in. I am not really holding my breath for any sort of confirmation hearings. So TBD. Well, what are they going to do? Who's going to be the governor? Who's going to be the governor of South Dakota, you think? Yeah.

Bitch, I don't know. Special election? Special election? Yeah, we'll see what happens, right? There is one holdover from his first administration. The new CIA director will be John Ratcliffe, who was the former director of national intelligence. He's also a former Texas congressman. He is also very hawkish on China. So that kind of adds to this.

that tone for the crew. And we'll see how that plays with the tariffs too, right? I mean, he's saying no TikTok ban, which I think he's saying because he knows that TikTok, like I've said, they're too big to just like ban. So you might as well be on the side of like, I saved it and try to win some votes. But I think- Barron told him to keep TikTok. Barron told him to keep it. You know who, New York, I'm like-

Like this guy, fucking Lee Zeldin, who we narrowly escaped as governor of New York, is now going to potentially – is his pick to lead the EPA? He does not know anything about any kind of green policy or regulations. This is, again, another guy who I believe was –

U.S. Army reserves again. Yes. Lee Zeldin ran for governor after serving in Congress for Long Island for the district that I currently live next to, but was recently redistricted both in and then out of. You know, just a gerrymandered soul blowing in the wind. And

I mean, I don't really think they care about the EPA. My sense is that this is, again, more of a gutting job and that a lot of these roles are thank yous.

Yeah. Oh, for sure to him. Yeah. Like he just made Tulsi Gabbard be director of national intelligence. You know what? Why not make Tulsi Gabbard the head of the Pentagon though? I mean, she was a legit service woman. She, I think is a little bit more understanding of the chain of command because she was in the traditional chain of command. Like I'm not saying she's good, but when I look at her versus Pete, I'm like, look, man, if I had to pick one, Tulsi Gabbard certainly understands the

Maybe they don't want a woman in the chain of command. They don't want a woman that's too woke or something. Yeah. I will tell you what Ruth Ben-Ghiat wrote in her most recent newsletter was that putting a Fox News host at the top will socialize the Trump administration's desires because he's a popular guy who they identify with and that you're putting someone who they trust first.

I guess so. So, well, Gabbard has no, she's up for office of national intelligence. Um, and she has absolutely no experience in the intelligence world. Also opposed interventions in Ukraine and Syria and constantly suggests that the U S actually is the one who provoked Russia into their aggressive policies. So she's pretty, pretty in the pocket of Russia. Um,

Her having access to her intelligence is deeply concerning. But again, she's got to get confirmed, I guess. I don't know.

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Our girl, Elise Stefanik, who I worked with on the Romney campaign before she snapped her carrot and got full, full weirdo. What do you think is going to happen with our with old girl Elise? Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley's old job. I think she's there to essentially do what she did for the campus hearings at the U.N.

And just kind of browbeat it into being the useless, toothless organization that it's been for quite a bit now. Yeah. She's just going to, she's an obstructionist kind of person.

Yeah, and I think he likes the idea of having that type of voice on the side. I think about people as his errand boys. Rick Scott is now going to become an errand boy. Mine, I think. Well, we'll see. Maybe he'll get a cabinet job now that he's not going to be... I mean, there's still time for him. There's only eight announced. There's 16 spots open, zero confirmed candidates.

I'll look forward to seeing Elise as I represent UNESCO for digital journalism at the UN events.

That'll be fun. I'm sure they're going to be very supportive of digital journey. Well, I guess it's the UN, so it's not a... Yeah, I'm going to be like, Elise, remember when you were way more normal, way more normal. Look, Elise is one of those people who came in as a moderate. She put her finger up in the wind. She saw which way it was blowing and she went all in. That is a type of person. Yeah.

One of my favorite appointments is the appointment of evangelical former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be the ambassador to Israel.

Okay. Thank you. Great. Lucky Jews. Lucky Jews. It's such a good year for the Jews, Sammy. Can you just imagine if Joe Biden or any Democratic administration appointed a non-Jew as the ambassador to Israel? Nope, but this is what it's about. It's about our holy war. Oh, no. It's about the holy war. That's why they're using him. Well, they believe that he is going to be their savior when I'm like,

Look, he said that he moved the embassy to Jerusalem for the evangelicals. He appointed an evangelical as the ambassador. It's not about you. It's not for you. Let me give you the deep Christian cut. So the evangelical...

obsession with Israel, especially as of late, is because they believe that the Jews will get in a fight with the Muslims and then you guys will all kill yourselves and then our savior, the Christian savior, will come back on the star to Jerusalem and Christians will rule the entire world. Can I tell you a secret? That's exactly what the Jews believe.

Except guess who comes out on top in our story? Yeah, you guys, right? And the Muslims probably also have the same story. And they come out on top of that story. What do you think this whole thing is about? But he did also appoint his friend, a man named Steve Witkoff, to be special envoy to the Middle East, who I think is going to be like a Jared Buddy guy.

Well, Jared and Ivanka aren't coming back, and he hasn't put his sons in here anywhere. And I think that's very telling. I think we're in for just a weird-ass time. There's always people behind the scenes who are not formally part of this, but yet they are part of it. You haven't heard from Steve Bannon all week, but he's around. Trust me. He's around. He's in someone's ear.

I mean, they just dropped Matt Gaetz. My fear is that tonight they're going to drop RFK Jr. as head of DHS. I actually... You know what? I don't know why they haven't done that yet because that's so out there. I wonder if they actually will do that or if RFK Jr. has served his purpose to the administration and they don't need him anymore and they actually don't... Maybe they don't want him. I think...

For me telling you all on Tuesday that Susie Wiles was going to keep it under control, man, I got to get out of the prediction business because clearly I can't pick who's going to win president. And clearly I did not lay Susie Wiles out properly. It's funny you mention that because I have a friend who was talking to me about our point about Susie Wiles and saying that we sort of undersold her.

I see. But like, I never expected her to have any influence over these picks. I think she is someone who's going to keep the

the trains running, so to speak. And because her background is more traditional, conventional DC, she is going to keep it cosmetically official looking and seeming. And I don't, I think the point is like her ideas themselves, her personal ideas are not that far out there. Right. Right. But that doesn't matter because she's in the administration. Yeah. There's a couple more people still yet to place and we'll see what happens with them.

I mean, we've got Lara Trump, who might run for Senate somewhere. She might get a job in the cabinet. Dana White, who's the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the UFC. He's a longtime friend of Trump. You know, why not him for Secretary of Defense? Linda McMahon?

Vince McMahon's wife might make a comeback. She was the secretary of labor in Trump's first administration. She could come back. Howard Lutnick, he's in the loop here. We'll see what happens with him.

And there's a couple other folks still floating around. So Stephen Miller is the deputy chief of staff for policy. We've got a lot of people still here to place. Will Elon Musk get something more than Doge? Probably not. I'm still waiting to hear about Robert F. Kennedy's

What about that lady from the founder of Moms for Liberty? They're talking about her for secretary of education, but will there be a secretary of education if there's no department of education? And also, I really – It could be like the EPA where it's like you're in charge, but you're in charge. It's like a round –

To make it go away. Also, I've seen a lot of fashion influencers lately saying, you know, this is bad and like, I wish I voted, but I am really excited to see Melania's fashion. Melania's not coming back to the White House. There will not be a first lady's office. They're not doing that shit.

They're not doing that. She didn't want to do it the first time. She's not coming back. Ivana doesn't want to come back. We don't have to have a first lady's office. There has been times in history where there wasn't an office of the first lady. Elon Musk is the first lady. Elon Musk is the first lady. They are calling him, what is it, El Melania or something? Elania. Elania. But we don't have to have one. And I'm not even totally certain that he will move back to the White House. I don't think he wants to.

He wants to run the country from Mar-a-Lago. Yeah, he went today to speak to Biden. They had a two-hour meeting. It was a post. It seemed to be very nice. Look, they probably just told each other stories.

I hate it, though. I hate what first of all, Biden. I hate that. And I hate also that Biden made such a point to say that the guy from Israel was there and that it was his longtime friend. I was like, that's a little bit of salt in the wound to like what Kamala and the Democrats are trying to do. Yeah, rebuilding back trust because so many online leftists are saying that she lost because of Palestine, which I don't think is true. But I also think like, relax, Biden.

Those people could not be more wrong, the online leftists. I mean, we can lay that out. But actually, Akilah Hughes wrote an amazing article about that on her sub stack called the Spite Stack. So look up Akilah Hughes sub stack. She wrote specifically about this. And I mean, kind of around her point is that like all these people who

didn't vote for her, stayed home, don't really understand the consequences of not voting for mitigation.

or harm reduction. And that's what we have here. He already started. He already started today saying that they would take the Western Bank, like that Israel would take the Western Bank. I mean, we can do, we'll get, you know, let's let that sit for a while and we'll get, we'll get an expert on here to help explain to us what's going on once we're more into the next administration with Middle East policy. But like,

Yeah, man, that's where we're at right now. The circus has begun. The clowns have arrived. I will say, I don't know if I can underscore how much the pro-Palestinian movement screwed itself up.

Absolutely.

for Kamala and was like, you don't understand. You are putting my people in danger by doing this. And a lot of it was white leftists who got a lot of TikTok clout for running their mouth about something that they didn't fully understand. And now this is where we are. And so, you know, there's a lot of blame to go around for a lot of things. And after an election, there's always tons of finger pointing. But yeah,

you know, certainly it didn't help. So sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way, like how we're going to have to learn about the Trump presidency again. I thought we were done with that, but apparently not. So, but yeah, that's where we're at with that. We'll keep you updated as he adds people, understanding that, you know, historically these folks have had to be confirmed. We'll see what happens.

But I can already start to see some people in here that I think, like you said, can keep the trains running on time or that can at least keep us from grave disaster. And there's still a long ways to go. Here's the thing. Keeping the trains running on time is part of the fascist argument. It's like that Mussolini famously kept the trains running on time. The trains are running on a bad schedule, I guess is the best way I could say it.

But yeah, we are going to be here to talk to you about it. Keep you posted. Next week, we'll definitely be talking about what's going on with immigration and the building of the camps. If you have not watched my TikToks on the people behind the detention center expansions, please go ahead and do that under the desk news. And we don't tell you this stuff to scare you. And I really do appreciate you trusting us. We put a ton of time and effort into making sure we're giving you the information you need to be safe and to be informed without just, you know, trying to scare you or bum you out all the time. And,

We're going to continue to point out the helpers throughout and continue to be a safe space to learn. We love you guys. Please write us about your feelings. Or put it in the comments for Spotify. Or AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com. Please. All right. Well, until next time, I'm Vida Spear. I'm Sammy Sage. And this is American Fever Dream. Good night. Good night.

American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzik. Social media by Candice Monega and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Betches News and follow me, Sammy Sage at Sammy and V at Under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to AmericanFeverDream at Betches.com.