Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[diller]

LOL, so it begins....

Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to become attorney general after days of debate over whether to release a congressional report on sexual misconduct allegations against him.

On X, formerly Twitter, the 42-year-old said that the controversy over his potential nomination "was unfairly becoming a distraction" to the work of the incoming Trump administration.

The report included the findings of a probe sparked by allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.

Gaetz has denied the claims but said that he hoped to avoid a "needlessly protracted Washington scuffle."

The withdrawal of Gaetz - who Donald Trump selected to be the top US law enforcement officer - represents a setback for the president-elect.

On his own Truth Social social media platform, the former and soon-to-be president said he appreciated Gaetz’s effort to become attorney general.


“He was doing very well, but at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect,” Trump added.

In his post on X, formerly Twitter, Gaetz said that Trump's justice department "must be in place and ready" on the first day of his administration in January.

"I remain fully committed to see that Donald J Trump is the most successful president in history," he wrote.

"I will forever be honoured that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I'm certain he will save America," Gaetz added.

The shadow cast by the long-running investigation by a congressional ethics panel into a number of claims involving drugs, bribes and sex meant that Gaetz was likely to face an uphill battle when it came time to be confirmed by the US Senate.

Lawmakers - including some fellow Senate Republicans - had expressed concern about his nomination, reportedly prompting a significant closed-door effort by him and Trump to secure the necessary support.

The day before his withdrawal, the House Ethics Committee - which compiled the report - met behind closed doors to debate whether or not it should release the report into Gaetz.

The committee's chair, Democrat Susan Wild, said that the group had not been able to come to an agreement and was evenly divided, 5-5, on party lines.

Gaetz had withdrawn from the House last week after Trump nominated to become Attorney General.

It is unclear whom Trump will nominate in his place.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxy2qxxpzo

[fwc577]

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...orney-general/

Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration


And some of ya'll thought that this was going to be a new era of Trump where Trump somehow has a mandate and destroys the US Government and we never have elections ever again.

Matt Gaetz AG nomination lasted 0.73 Scaramucci's.

[Lenonis]

Trump's cabinet is looking to be the best assembled cabinet in history.

The only people who actually believe this are unserious people or people who want to watch the world burn.

[Rasulis]

Advertisers are now making their way back to X and engagement is at an all time high. Despite multiple layoffs, the platform works fine (albeit went thru some bumps along the way). You can't simply use its monetary value as the only gauge for its success.

A lot of people downloaded X during the election. Their share of payment from Apple Store and Google went up. Those are small money though.

The big money is in advertising. That is still going down.

X’s ad revenue continues to fall after Musk takeover

The social media platform ad revenue dropped by almost half (46.4%) between 2022 and 2023 – from $4.5bn to $2.2bn year-on-year, according to analysis from WARC Media.

This decline is forecast to continue with revenue in 2024 predicted to come in at $2bn and below that in 2025. WARC estimates a hypothetical loss of $5.9bn in ad revenue overall since Musk’s acquisition two years ago.

Other social media platforms, in comparison, have experienced strong growth in ad revenue during the same period – Instagram was up by 24.9%; Snapchat by 13.8%; and Pinterest up 18.1%.

X is losing to 14 years old Instagram. Not to mention, Instagram is highly profitable.

[Draco-Onis]

https://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...orney-general/

Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration


And some of ya'll thought that this was going to be a new era of Trump where Trump somehow has a mandate and destroys the US Government and we never have elections ever again.

Matt Gaetz AG nomination lasted 0.73 Scaramucci's.

Well to be fair Gaetz just couldn't handle the heat, he could have gone through if he had more Trump in him.

[Lenonis]

You can't simply use its monetary value as the only gauge for its success.

Unless you are looking at a non-profit it is quite literally the only gauge for success of a business operating in a capitalistic space.

You are going to absurd lengths to try to make Elon out at some genius. By any metric used to value businesses, Elon has ruined X.

Now if you want to paint it as his playground to turn twitter into his own right wing hellscape - well, you do you I guess.

- - - Updated - - -

IMO we're overdue for this. If anything to at least take a LOOK. Even Jon Stewart had a segment on TDS talking about bloated government, too many loopholes and rules, etc. I think both sides will welcome it.

You are completely ignoring WHO is doing the looking and WHAT their motivation is.

Elon and Vivek are 1000000% the wrong people for this.

[Xyonai]

Gaetz dropping out surprises me more than him never getting nominated in the first place. I'm sure Trump will find some other weaselly little dipshit to take his place, but - for now - we don't have a credibly accused sex trafficker and child rapist wielding the AG gavel.

[Skjaldborg]

We've moved on a tad but I'd like to take this opportunity to remind every US citizen here that if you don't know what an agency is doing, pretty much everything not covered by intelligence agencies can be accessed by the public via FOIA request.

You can literally just do that. Taxpayer dollars go into these projects so they are a matter of public records. I know every project I handle gets posted online because I post them myself. Different departments will likely have different access portals, though.

I wonder if the Gaetz investigation can be accessed via FOIA...

[Breccia]

LOL, so it begins

Remember what loyalty to Trump gets you?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Stupid!

[Draco-Onis]

Gaetz dropping out surprises me more than him never getting nominated in the first place. I'm sure Trump will find some other weaselly little dipshit to take his place, but - for now - we don't have a credibly accused sex trafficker and child rapist wielding the AG gavel.

I am sure the lesson Trump will learn from this is to find a pedophile that doesn't have any sense of shame.

[Doomcookie]

I am sure the lesson Trump will learn from this is to find a pedophile that doesn't have any sense of shame.

Matt Gaetz is that pedophile.

It wasn't shame that stopped this.

[diller]

Remember what loyalty to Trump gets you?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Stupid!

And now he's unemployed since he gave up his seat already

[Edge-]

And now he's unemployed since he gave up his seat already

More time to spend volunteering at local highschools to mentor young girls!

[btlcryct]

And now he's unemployed since he gave up his seat already

I don't if this is how it could work, but I saw someone say Gaetz could fill Rubio's seat if he's confirmed as the Secretary of State. Not sure if that's a possibility. So he may not be gone for good.

[Belize]

Does anyone think there will be a special name for the 'camps' ?

I bet they'll have catchy slogans, along the lines of working for your freedom

[Nymrohd]

I'd say the issue with Gaetz was that the GOP senate members just did not like him and would not confirm him and they probably made that clear to Trump so they can all avoid that embarrassment.

[diller]

I'd say the issue with Gaetz was that the GOP senate members just did not like him and would not confirm him and they probably made that clear to Trump so they can all avoid that embarrassment.

I agree, he has beefing with the 'moderate' Republicans and actively working against them for years so there is no way they would vote for him.

[DarkTZeratul]

I don't if this is how it could work, but I saw someone say Gaetz could fill Rubio's seat if he's confirmed as the Secretary of State. Not sure if that's a possibility. So he may not be gone for good.

It is theoretically possible Ron DeSantis could appoint him to Rubio's seat.

Feels really fucking unlikely, though, as the man has burned his bridges with basically the entire party.

[Biglog]

Gaetz must have already seen that he wasn't going to get the votes to be confirmed. This was an extreme litmus test by Trump, but it's an early sign the GOP Congress isn't going to just be a rubber stamp for everything. The way out-there wacky ideas will still get some pushback.

[Corvus]

With Gaetz gone, dies Trump nominate Guiliani next?