A bombshell report from The New York Times suggests that despite her title, Attorney General Pam Bondi is hardly running the show at the Department of Justice.
According to the Times, Bondi “sees her role as that of a surrogate, a faithful executor and high-volume messenger, compelled to cede ground to empowered players in the West Wing.”
“The decisions are being made at the White House, and then they’re being pushed down to the Department of Justice, which is very, very atypical,” observed DOJ alum Elizabeth Oyer. “It feels like she is just performing a part. She is like an actor, in a way.”
this whole administration is basically a shadow government with figureheads
That’s why Trump chose media personalities to head all his departments
Am I surprised a Stasi looking pedophile is in charge? Nope.
Am I surprised a bottle blonde Barbie bobblehead is a token figurehead? Nope.
Yeah, this is why they’ve been spamming social media(including lemmy) with the whole “Kakistocracy” thing recently.
They really want you to think the idiots are in charge, that way you don’t try to dig deeper as the idiots chop off everything they see and some parts they’re told. Just look at the Librarian of Congress thing. People were making jokes about librarians, meanwhile she was basically in charge of defining DMCA and digital copyright.
This is how you get past the problem of Senate confirmation hearings when the person you want to appoint is so horrible that the process could expose things like how they’re less of a Nazi sympathizer and more of an actual Nazi.
Similarly, Trump’s team has repeatedly denied that Elon Musk was the head of DOGE in order to reduce the amount of congressional oversight that he receives.
“It was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department, current and former Trump aides said,” observed the Gray Lady.
Who the fuck is Gray Lady?
That’s a nickname for the NYT. Supposedly a reference to how old fashioned and circumspect it is, but as a compliment?
Thanks. Seems like a pretty obscure reference to just include naked in the article like that.
It’s not obscure, it’s an old, well-known nickname, you just hadn’t heard it before.
Agreed.
Eh. It’s always been a part of discourse. If they instead said, “our view of the administration’s workings don’t even rise to the level of observing shadows projected on a cave wall, we are truly in the dark”, I’m betting you would go right along with it, even though there are plenty of people that wouldn’t get the reference.
This just happens to be one you didn’t know … And now you do.
I think you’re replying to the wrong comment lol
Unlike the person I replied to, I knew that the NYT is called The Gray Lady already, though admittedly I didn’t know WHY, so I looked that up.
I’m 42 and would put good money on most other people familiar with the nickname being a generation or two older than me, making it a pretty niche reference to casually expect the wider readership to understand without having to stop reading to look it up…
Mayor of Bowerstone
Well of course. Trump doesn’t trust women, but he likes having them around as tokens to flaunt. I doubt any women under his admin are allowed any actual amount of power or control over their own departments.
Maybe Noem. She’s proven herself to be a sociopath, and that’s his kind of people.
Even she has that Pakled Homan to do the real dirty work. She just cosplays for photo ops.
The guy even looks like a henchman. Wtf.
Stephen “PeeWee Himmler” Miller
He’s 100% the image of the violent overseer that cracks his whip across the backs of slaves with a smug sickly sneer on his ugly face in a movie. The one that everyone cheers for when his victims get their justice against him, slashing him with his own whip a dozen times before choking him out with it. Let us hope he receives his deserved comeuppance in real life as well.
hes also the guy that DYED his scalp to make it look like he has a youthful amount of hair.
She’s too busy delivering 747s from her “former” bosses to her “current” boss to be bothered with much else.
OBVIOUSLY, she was the conduit for this entire deal. Qatar had already paid her a fortune for her lobbying services, she would have been the first phone call they made to set up the deal.
I could read a similar report for almost any cabinet post, or more likely multiple cabinet posts, and I wouldn’t bat an eye. I would almost assume this is happening in most cases to some degree.
Most of these secretaries are picked for their willingness and ability to absorb what passes for tough questions in congressional hearings while the real power like Hobgoblin here make the decisions.
Blondi, bombshell. I like it.
