The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | November 16th, 2024: Grading Trump’s Cabinet Appointments & Bombshell UFO Hearing Breakdown
Sat, 16 Nov 2024
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: Donald Trump’s cabinet is taking shape less than two weeks after his victory over Kamala Harris. We’ll analyze his surprising picks for Secretaries of State and Defense with Retired Senior Military Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer. Congress held a hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), where a former military intelligence officer declared, "We are not alone in the cosmos." National Security Analyst Brandon Weichert from The National Interest joins us to break down the revelations. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key cabinet appointments made by Trump?
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Less than two weeks after Donald Trump's victory over Kamala Harris, you may have heard about that, his cabinet is already taking shape. Now, some major surprises have come with the announcements for top spots like secretaries of state and defense.
We'll break down his picks with retired senior military intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer. He's a great one to come in here and bring his insight. He actually served on the transition team back in 2016 for President Trump's first term. Later in the show, we're diving into a topic once reserved for conspiracy theories, UFOs. You didn't see that coming, did you?
This week, Congress held a hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, that rolls off the tongue, or as they say in Washington, D.C., UAPs, where a former military intelligence officer boldly declared during the hearing, we are not alone in the cosmos.
National Security Analyst Brandon Weichert from the National Interest joins us to unpack what was revealed at the hearing and what was not revealed at the hearing. But first, today's spotlight. President Trump is shaping his new cabinet, rolling out key appointments since last week's re-election win.
Now, some of his choices, like Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, have received broad approval, but other picks have sparked surprise and, in some cases, disappointment and, in some cases, outright shock. The biggest surprise so far? Trump's selection of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. Gaetz's appointment has stirred up a storm
and heads have been exploding all across the country, especially after he resigned from Congress just after the announcement. Speculation is swirling that he stepped down to sidestep an upcoming ethics probe set to drop this week. Another unconventional pick is Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
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Chapter 2: Who is Tony Schaefer and what insights does he offer?
Now, while Hegseth is a decorated 20-year veteran, many are questioning whether he has the experience to lead a vast bureaucracy like the Pentagon. And it is a vast bureaucracy. To dive deeper into Trump's choices, we're bringing in retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer. Hey, good to be on with you, Mike. Thanks for having me. Of course, of course. And thanks for coming back.
Not everybody does. Okay, so we had an election, I am told. Anyway, I haven't been paying attention. And as Barack Obama used to always famously say, elections have consequences. And one of those consequences is that the incoming president starts naming senior positions and cabinet posts and traditionally is given a great deal of deference to build a team around them.
So I was hoping to get your overview. You've spent a lot of time and you got a lot of experience. I don't mean to age you, but God, you're what? You're in your early 80s now at this point, right? Am I wrong?
feel that way. No, I'm actually 62 and proudly now able to get discounts at all known eating establishments.
Chapter 3: What were the reactions to Matt Gaetz's appointment as Attorney General?
That's great. I mean, to be fair, you don't look a day over 61, Tony. What I'm hoping to do is give me some thoughts based on all your experience and then maybe throw out a letter grade, A to F, just like we're back in school, and let us know what you're thinking. So we're starting with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Look, I was on the transition team in 2016, so I've had some experience making judgments on folks. And having been through and seen this, I think the president, as you said, has a right to do this. So let's go to Marco Rubio. I've met Marco Rubio. I've met the senator. I've met him there in the green room at Fox where you've been before. I think he's someone who understands national security.
He's got a very even temperament. I think as long as he's willing to do what the president wants done, and he said this publicly, I think he has a potential to be an A minus Secretary of State. And I'm saying that because he's not a new guy. And from what I'm hearing, Mike, they're having crying sessions at the State Department about Marco Rubio coming over. So that's a good sign.
Let's hope they don't resort to having Kool-Aid drinking sessions like they did in Georgetown. That would be bad. But I think it's a good sign that they're freaking out over there. Crying sessions at the Department of State.
Chapter 4: What insights were shared about the UFO hearing?
Yeah. That reminds me of universities providing wellness days, health days off for students after the election results came in following the last Tuesday's election. Okay, those are university students. They still don't need to be coddled, right? They shouldn't have to be coddled. But now we're talking about grown adults at the Department of State. So it is somewhat striking.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you on Rubio. I think, again, very non-controversial. I think he's going to get fine bipartisan support, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senate Intel Committee. Yeah, I think that, yeah, he's almost a lock. And I tend to agree with you. I think he's very even keeled. And so I think you're A minus. I'm right alongside you with that one.
Okay, well, we're talking foreign policy. So let's go to UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik.
a good choice, she's shown courage And first off, as you know, she called out publicly the chancellors of Yale, of NYU, of Pennsylvania. She was fearless in going after these people. And I think, Mike, she got rid of most of them. I think they all ended up leaving in some form based on her being dogged.
So I think by the fact that the president chose her based on her performance, based on the fact that she can be publicly, I don't want to say in your face necessarily, but she can be very demonstrative in what she wants to get out of people. I think her going to the U.N. is going to be a good thing.
You know, I was hoping that you would have someone who's going to be able to not only fight the U.N., but be able to go in there and do things necessary. Also build some level of cooperation. So you got to do both. I think there are people in the UN who are willing to work with us. And I think she's got to have, and I think she's got that skill. I think she can go hard when she has to.
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Chapter 5: How did the speakers grade Marco Rubio as Secretary of State?
At the same time, I think she's going to earn respect of others. build bridges and make things work. So I think, again, I'm going to go with an A minus with her too, based on the fact that, yeah, we don't know how she's going to perform at the international level, but she's done a fabulous job at the national level so far regarding what she's had to do. So.
I wish I had you as a professor. I came out of university with an abysmal GPA, but I didn't have anybody lobbing grades like this at me. I think for what it's worth, and this is my two cents, which nowadays is worth what? About three quarters of a penny. It's one thing to take on the head of Columbia University or an Ivy League university president.
It's another thing to sit in the UN and go back and forth with the UN representatives from the Chinese regime or the Russian regime. The jury's out on that one for me. I was a little surprised. I get what you're saying.
And I guess top line also, we have to, and we'll look at this after we go through this list, but there's this question that says, okay, I understand if you've got a mandate, which the election certainly shows that he does. Right. to pursue the policies that you ran on, right? So people, you have to assume if you're logical, they voted for you because of the policies that you heard.
And so, therefore, you want people who will implement those policies, but you also want to some degree, and this is where it gets a little tricky because people will say, nope, you don't want independent thinkers, right? You want people who are going to say yes and keep marching. I want to have that conversation after we go through some other names. Homeland Security. This one surprised me.
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This may be where you and I may have some agreement. I like her. I don't know her. I've never met her. That's not a prerequisite for my judgment. I'm just saying that I know, you know, I've met some of the other folks we're going to be talking about. She's not had law enforcement experience that I know of.
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Chapter 6: What are the expectations for the nominee for Homeland Security?
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Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. All right. Joining me once again is retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer. Now, we've been doing the hit parade of nominees for the incoming president-elect.
And I think it sounds like, remarkably, because I don't know that we've ever agreed on anything in the past, but it sounds like we're on the same sheet of music for most of these choices. Let's go with CIA Director John Ratcliffe. What can you tell me about that?
So Radcliffe was notable in that he's already served as the DNI, I believe. He was appointed to that. He had been nominated before for some senior posts. And I got to tell you, I'm not overly impressed with him. I know this is probably going to get me in trouble. It's going to come out to bite me. But I'm going to say this, and I think you'll agree with me.
Someone going into CIA, and I'm getting this from Jim Woolsey, our friend Jim. Jim has said from his own experience, you need to have been a serving line intelligence officer to fully understand and run CIA. That's from Jim Woolsey, who's not an intelligence officer. So I'm just going with what Jim is saying. So I think there were better, more adequate and effective choices.
Maybe Mike Baker would have been one just saying. Uh, because I think that guy, I'm just, I'm just telling you to be effective. Look, I'm, I'm, I'm trained by you guys. I went through the farm. Uh, I'm just saying that if you're, you need to have the respect of the DO you come on, Mike, you know, if you don't have the DO, you don't run the eights.
Uh, and I know a lot of folks who've never really gained, uh, the respect to the DO. And if you don't have that, you're not really running CIA, just saying. So I'm skeptical, and I'm going to give it a B at this point, based on a little bit of skepticism, since he's not an intelligence.
But you know what? That's still actually very nice, a B. A B is still very nice. The guy was there for a long time. I've always had the opinion that My preference was to have a director who had come up through the ranks. Now look, and again, I was territorial, right? So I always thought the best ranks would be to come up through the director of operations.
But having said that, you know, just growing up in that organization and understanding because it's relatively small. So you can be in the DI, you can be in the director of intelligence and understand deeply what goes on in operations because you're You're there, you're absorbing it every day, you're responsible for taking that raw intelligence and making something of it.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of Tom Holman's appointment?
And And again, look at, you know, I take your point. I'm friends with her. But, you know, what that means also is you've had a chance to observe and view and watch. And I've known you for some time and I know you're an honest broker. So if you had concerns, I know that you would also voice them in a diplomatic fashion.
Well, I don't know. I called Lloyd Austin on. I know Lloyd Austin and I called him the ultimate DEI hire yesterday. So I don't know. I think I'm pretty blunt.
I somehow missed that one. Wow. Okay. You know what? I'm sure he's going to take that well. Oh, I'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Stand by for your Christmas holiday party invitation to Lloyd Austin's home. The DNI slot, I will say, it's because of the number of entities that exist in that organization under the DNI umbrella. A lot of it is a management issue, right?
A lot of it is the coordination of all those moving parts.
They do not have budgetary control. Yeah. To your point, Mike, they have no budgetary control. Each entity still has their own budget that they have to justify to Congress. So that was one of the big things. I actually met with Negroponte on this when they formed it.
Ambassador Negroponte was the first DNI, and he and John Layman, my friend, former Secretary of the Navy, they were going back and forth, as this was based on a recommendation from the 9-11 Commission to create this warehousing, if you will, of requirements. And so one of the issues was, and still is, Without budgetary control, you have a hard time being director.
Right.
Right. No, no, it's a very good point. I think a lot of people don't understand necessarily how the DNI functions, what it means. In fact, they don't understand the myriad of organizations that exist underneath it. All right, let's go to another one that raised some eyebrows, and that would be SecDef, Secretary of Defense. And the nomination in this case was Pete Hegsteth, or is Pete Hegsteth.
Well, considering I just badmouthed the current guy, I can only go up from here, Mike. So knowing both men. Now, so this is great. You know, this is great. I know both men. I have served with Lloyd Austin. It's documented in my book, Operation Dark Heart, so people can read about that if they want. And I know Pete Hengstead. I've been, you know, friends with Pete for a long time.
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Chapter 8: What are the concerns about Tulsi Gabbard's nomination as DNI?
Yes, exactly. And I would just say that I hope people don't think that all we got out of Operation Paperclip at the end of the Second World War was rockets and jet engines. There was an entire new science being developed at places like Pinamunda. by the Nazi scientists. And we were racing with the Soviets for a reason to get our hands on that science.
And we did mostly get our hands on that science. And that is a credit to the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. And for about 70 or 80 years now, we've been able to, I think, experiment with highly advanced technologies and build off of it. And this is something that the former head of Skunk Works alluded to in the 90s. I've been out to Edwards Air Force Base. I've I know a lot of people out there.
I talk there usually once a year. And I've always gotten the sense that there are some very advanced programs out there that we will never know about. And in fact, other parts of the government probably don't even know about, because like you said, this is so highly compartmented.
And when I worked on the Hill trying to regulate and oversee the military budget, it's almost a futile exercise because of how they layer these things together.
So what do you make of, if we up on Capitol Hill. What do you make of some of the testimony from folks like Lou Elizondo and Michael Shellenberger, where they're not just saying that we have government programs because we're looking at the issue of hostile nations, perhaps developing new material science capabilities that we need to know about.
They're saying, they're appearing to say that there's extraterrestrial evidence that the government's been sitting on.
You know, I mean, it's hearsay. And, you know, that's not to say that I wouldn't listen to somebody like Lou Elizondo, who has the kind of background that he does in counterintelligence and whatnot. I do think it's interesting a counterintelligence operative is saying this stuff in the public space. But OK, you know, I don't know. I don't I don't have an answer.
I just haven't seen anything compelling that make me think, that little green men, and this is probably my own bias, but that my little green men are coming down here when we're not even questioning beyond the rudimentary, well, is it us? And then we hear from people like Lou saying, oh no, there's no possible way it's us. Well, how do you know that?
With all due respect, nobody in government has all the answers. The government is like 2 million employees. They don't know what's going on in other departments and offices in other departments. And so, I mean, we really should be investigating just what exactly have we been funding in the black budget for the last 70 years. And I think the answers would be really incredible.
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