Beltway Insider: Trump/DOGE, Pentagon Cuts, Trump/Putin, Ukraine/Russia, Pope Francis

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 23 February 2025 07:55

Written by Janet Walker

President Trump continues to steamroll his domestic and international agendas, allowing DOGE greater access to the citizen's personal data and verbally pummeling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing the leader of instigating the war with Russia.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website Fivethirtyeight.com for the period ending February 23, 2025, decreased by 0.5% to 48.5% of those polled who those polled approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 1.3% to 47.0% of those polled. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.

Beltway Insider: Trump/DOGE, DEI Shrinks, Gaza, NTSB, DOJ Resignation/Adams, Kennedy Center/Blowback

DOGE Has Its Day in the Sun

The Elon Musk led Department of Government Efficiency, (DOGE), which was created to implement the President's agenda for modernizing and streamlining the federal government. 

The DOGE's goals include reducing government spending, reducing bureaucracy, Identifying and rescinding regulations that go beyond congressional authorizations, reducing the federal workforce, relocating federal agencies outside Washington, DC., and cutting federal budget outlays.

Musk has already boosted of exponential cost cuts totaling $55 billion, a number that at first glance wows the people as a campaign promise fulfilled, when in fact this number is incorrect, tossed out to the media so the impressionable population, Trump loyalists will take hold, and spread this figure, using the oldest marketing method known to man, gossip, to further his agenda.

DOGE quietly, and with less fanfare, made the corrections to the "mistakes" in the first posting of monies saves, apologizing, not in the fanfare moments of the announcement, but apologizing nonetheless for the mistakes (not embellishments or lies), simple mistakes in reporting.

"The DOGE website has made several modifications to the data since it went live earlier this week, wiping nearly $9.3 billion from its originally listed savings. The largest one addressed the cost of a terminated service-disabled veteran-owned management consultant contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Earlier versions of the contract in the FPDS database listed $8 billion, but the most recent version of the contract listed $8 million, which was earlier reported by the New York Times," reported The Washington Post.

World News: Trump and Putin Seek to Resurrect the Iron Curtain

Trump Dismisses Joint Chiefs of Staff

President Trump has continued to push his America First agenda and until he is satisfied. He will continue to advance this agenda through all branches. This agenda includes removing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, a four-star Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., an African American, who Trump appointed to the Joint Chiefs in his first term, and replaced him with a little known, three star retired officer Lieutenant General Dan Caine, who is white.

General members of the Joint Chiefs essentially, are the highest ranking military personal of all five branches, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the highest ranking officer and acts as the primary military advisor to the president.

Those cuts also include releasing many of the most advanced and knowledgeable leaders in each of the branches of service and releasing members of the Joint Chiefs and replacing them with less decorated, which is typical is sustaining long-term loyalty, simply appointing a less qualified underling and placing them in a position of power and they will be loyal for life.

Pentagon Realigns Budget Priorities

Out of step with a traditional Republican government of a strong defense, Trump and his newly appoint Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth plan to cut 8 percent of the United States Defense over the next five years which has caused outrage even among his own party.

"Hegseth ordered the proposed cuts to be drawn up by Monday, according to the memo, which is dated Tuesday and includes a list of 17 categories that the Trump administration wants exempted. Among them: operations at the southern U.S. border, modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense, and acquisition of submarines, one-way attack drones and other munitions," reported The Washington Post.

Trump's domestic agenda for defense, which is clear from the exempted programs, also includes a stronger southern border, which is no surprise as during his first term he instituted the southern border wall, which impeded the entry of illegal immigrants. Over the course of time, Cartel's which also are in the human trafficking business, found ways around this obstacle. Illegal immigration has been a problem since Ronald Reagan and will not be magically resolved under Trump. A stronger border is imperative, as is a stronger northern border, which will be the next step in bypassing the simplest points of entry.

While the Pentagon has proposed massive cuts to its $850 billion dollar budget, the monies saved from the proposed cuts, will be moved to other programs within Trumps agenda, including an advanced defense missile system, akin to Israel's Iron Dome, building state-of-the-art submarines, drones, and other advanced munitions, and increasing the nuclear weapons program.

Federal Employees Self-Report

DOGE Director Elon Musk has taken his new role, and continued encouragement from President Trump, and built a new checks and balance system into his effort to cut approximately ten percent of the government workforce, forcing employee to self-report their value each week.

A memo that went out from DOGE explained that all employees must reply to the email with five bullet points explaining to the Tesla CEO what each worker did last week.

"Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to describe what they did last week — as Elon Musk warned on social media that, if employees fail to respond, it will be taken as a resignation," reported The Washington Post.

World News: A New World Diplomacy

Trump Bangs Russia's Drum

Alienating is not new to President Trump. In less than one month, he has alienated most federal workers, nearly all European Allies, and now he is alienating Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, as he bangs Russia's drum and cozies up to Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin.

Trump, throughout his first term, was known as a Putin ally, the harsh realities of Putin's iron rule became clear over the past year, when he modified the Russian constitution to allow him to remain President for life. Trump, many Americans believe, would, if possible, create an emergency and limited Constitutional ratification to allow him a third term, and with the court of five Conservative Justices bent on his bidding, the possibility of Trump, for the good of the nation, remaining in office, through a national vote for a third and unprecedented (and illegal) term can make this a reality.

To aid his relationship rebuild with Putin, Trump has gone on the attack against Ukraine, and took to his social media platform, Truth Social, this week calling Ukraine President Zelensky "A dictator without elections" and accusing him of milking war for his personal gain and placing blame on him for the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion.

Trump seems to have forgotten, that Putin, in February 2014, amassed a build up of military under the guise of protecting the Sochi Olympics, only to use this cover to advance across the Crimean Peninsula, violating Ukraine's territorial sovereignty in phase one of reunifying Russia by forcibly seizing Crimea, which is part of the Ukraine.

The inflammatory comments received 64.8K likes and 17.7K Retruths (recirculating the comments into another social feed), attempting to fuel an anti-Ukraine rhetoric throughout the nation, as Trump plans to cut aid through his infamous DOGE hit squad.

World News: Trump and Risk Diplomacy

In Trump's new world diplomacy view, which he has voiced through his Vice-President J.D. Vance, during the recent Munich conference, features three global players United States, China, and Russia, and ends multilateralism, which has remained a constant provision since the end of World War II. Trump now wants to cut the cord with our European Allies, which is a Laissez-faire government practice, and a staple of the Republican party foundation.

Releasing European partners to fend for themselves, is an expanded view of the economic theory behind the Laissez-faire theory that "businesses and society are better off without government involvement." Taking this theory to a global stage, for this President, translates to minimal involvement with partners and allies, allowing long-term relationship to wavier in the belief that these governments, partners, and allies will be stronger and more unified without depending on the U.S.

With repairing Russian diplomacy rising on his agenda, which many wonder what's in it for the president, which some have thought is a Trump Hotel in Red Square or something similar, his tactics have become give the powerful what they want and begin the erosion by denigrating the little guy, which in this case is Ukraine President Zelenskyy.

"Trump's comments "exactly echoed what Putin wanted," former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said, and served as a further warning to Europe that the alliances that governed the West for decades could unravel in Putin's favor," reported The Washington Post.

Putin does not plan to end his march across Ukraine with the current new boundaries, which he continues to impress are guaranteed a "free" election and are the "will of the people." Putin plans to reunify Russia to his pre-1990 size, Russia was not a stronger nation before democracy broke the nation apart, it covered more land mass.

His methodology or pattern has been consistent throughout this power grab across Ukraine: Annex the land, hold "free" elections, declare the land parcel Russian territory, move on.

The Russian leader's long-term plan, while not spoken, cannot have escaped the European Union and other global governing bodies, who must remain committed to stopping Putin from advancing any further into Ukraine for the sake of the European continent. Eliciting a promise from Putin of here and no further is akin to attempting to eliciting a promise of never again from a domestic abuser. Everyone understands it will only be a matter of time before the abuser, once again, begins to pummel his target.

Trump has appointed those who blindly see his point of view, those "yes" men and women, who will enact the president's bidding, blindly following him into the unknown, as if it were secure. European Allies, who are counting down the days until a more reasonable occupant returns to the Oval Office, are not those people, they will not and cannot afford to blindly follow the U.S. president, for the sake of table scraps, should he decide to offer a pittance of aid, and must unify and rally against Putin's aggression.

The Ukraine President has made his position clear, fortunately, the Biden Administration understood Trump's power play with Putin, and before leaving office, ensured Ukraine has sufficient weaponry to fight for some time.

Coronavirus Total

At the order of the President of the United States, the U.S. no longer recognizes the value of The World Health Organization. The CDC has recommended every person from age six months, including senior citizens should receive at least one shot of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, annually.  The death toll from Covid-19 has dramatically decreased, as has transmission of the virus. Even as confirmed new cases continue each week, fewer are dying from the newer variants. A recent outbreak of the virus across the European continent has caused the World Health Organization to issue a warning.

For the seven days ending February 16, 2025, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases reported by the World Health Organization increased by 16,441 confirmed cases totaling 777,385,370. The total worldwide death toll increased by 1,026 to 7,088,757 deaths. The United States has stopped providing Covid data to the World Health Organization. (Data updated February 8, 2025, from the World Health Organization).

Pope Francis Gravely Ill

Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for more than a week, has urged his followers from his hospital bed, in Rome, to pray for his recovery.

The 88-year-old pontiff has pneumonia in both lungs, and according to all media, is gravely ill. A released statement said, "The night passed quietly, the Pope rested."

"On Saturday, the Vatican had said that Francis had had a long "asthmatic respiratory crisis" earlier in the day that required "high flows of oxygen." He had also had a blood transfusion, but was alert, according to the Vatican, which is issuing bulletins in consultation with the medical staff at the hospital as well as the pope's doctor at the Vatican," reported The New York Times.

The Science Behind Earthquakes

LA Fires Relief

For those needing immediate assistance FEMA has activated it Critical Needs Assistance program which provides a one-time payment of $750 to survivors so they can quickly purchase critical items, like water, formula, gasoline, and prescription drugs.  All survivors should go to DisasterAssistance.gov or call 1-800-621-3362. 

The LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH) is providing 24/7 support and resources through its help line at (800) 854-7771 or via the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Resources on the LA County website include a variety of wildfire disaster mental health resources and downloadable tip sheets for the City of Los Angeles and Ready LA County.

The California Lawyers for the Arts have posted an extensive resource list. It can be found here.

For more information on President Donald Trump: Whitehouse.gov.

Sources: Various © Articles covered by Copyright protection.

Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is completing the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," which is expected to be released in early 2025. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.