Dec 7, 2016 by Todd Beamon
President-elect Donald Trump said he would only use military force “when it is in the vital national security of the United States” and pledged Tuesday to seek elimination of the federal budget sequester.
“We don’t want to have a depleted military, because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that just we shouldn’t be fighting in,” Trump told supporters at rally at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, N.C., on the second stop of his “thank you” tour of battleground states. “We’re going to have such a strong, powerful military. It is not going to be depleted any longer.”
“We’re going to have the finest equipment in the world,” Trump added of the nation’s armed forces. “It is going to be new. It is going to be modern. It is going to be clean. It is going to be the best.
“We’re not going to be a depleted military any more.”
“We will stop racing to topple foreign governments – foreign regimes that we know nothing about – that we shouldn’t be involved with,” the president-elect said.
“Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS. And we will.”
Trump’s first stop on his tour was Ohio last week — and he is scheduled to visit Iowa and Michigan later this week.
Reiterating his campaign theme of “peace through strength,” Trump said he would ask Congress to eliminate the sequester that began in fiscal 2013 in his first budget request.
The automatic spending cuts, to last through 2021, have caused drastic reductions to the nation’s armed forces.
“I call it ‘depletion,'” Trump said. “Gets worse and worse every year.
“Not for our military.”
He added a Trump administration would work with other nations that share his mission on eliminating terrorism and promoting peace because “we want to strengthen our friendships and seek out new friendships.
“Rather than a rigid dogma, we’re guided by the lessons of history and desire to promote stability — stability all over.”
“This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks, come to an end,” Trump said.
“We seek harmony and goodwill among the nations of the world — and we believe that respect for mutual sovereignty helps form the basis of trust and understanding.”
“But we don’t want people taking advantage of us anymore,” Trump warned. “We don’t want countries taking advantage of us anymore.”
Trump also introduced retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as nominee for Defense Secretary, whom he referred to by his nickname of “Mad Dog.”
Mattis, 66, was a key commander during the Iraq invasion. He led the 1st Marine Division and later oversaw the retaking of Fallujah in 2004.
He retired from the Marines in 2013 after a 41-year career.
“This is going to be so great for us,” Trump said. “He led an assault battalion in Operation Desert Storm, and you saw what happened.
“That was the way you were supposed to lead it. There was no games.”
“‘Mad Dog’ plays no games,” Trump said.
In his brief remarks, Mattis thanked Trump for “the confidence that you have shown in me.”
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to our troops, because I know how committed they are and how devoted they are to the defense of our country, the defense of our Constitution,” he said.
In other comments, Trump told the rally he would introduce his veteran’s agenda, and he pledged to “see what we’re going to do” to people who burn the American flag.
“We salute their sacrifice, and we salute the flag they fought to protect,” Trump said as he saluted American soldiers stationed in the Tar Heel State.
“We love our flag,” the president-elect continued. “And we don’t like it when we see people ripping up our flag and burning our flag. We don’t like it.”
“And we’ll see what we’re going to do about that,” Trump said. “OK? We’re going to see.”
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http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/military-force-national-security/2016/12/06/id/762562/
Trump to nominate EPA critic Pruitt to lead agency
Dec 7, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump is planning to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt – an outspoken critic of the EPA – to lead the environmental agency, a senior transition source confirmed to Fox News.
Word of Trump’s choice for the Environmental Protection Agency came as the president-elect also named Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as his pick for ambassador to China and asked retired Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Trump announced late Wednesday as well that he’ll nominate Linda McMahon, former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, as administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Pruitt may be the most controversial pick of the four.
Pruitt, 48, has been a reliable booster of the fossil fuel industry and a critic of what he derides as the EPA’s “activist agenda.”
Representing his state as attorney general since 2011, Pruitt has repeatedly sued the EPA to roll back environmental regulations and other health protections. He joined with other Republican attorneys general in opposing the Clean Power Plan, which seeks to limit planet-warming carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Pruitt has argued that curbing carbon emissions would trample the sovereignty of state governments, drive up electricity rates, threaten the reliability of the nation’s power grid and “create economic havoc.”
His installment, if confirmed, would mark a significant break with the current EPA approach toward global warming.
In an opinion article published earlier this year by National Review, Pruitt suggested the debate over global warming “is far from settled” and claimed “scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.”
He also filed court briefs in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline project blocked by the Obama administration, which would have run through his state. And Pruitt sued the EPA over the agency’s recent expansion of water bodies regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.
“Respect for private property rights have allowed our nation to thrive, but with the recently finalized rule, farmers, ranchers, developers, industry and individual property owners will now be subject to the unpredictable, unsound and often byzantine regulatory regime of the EPA,” Pruitt said last year.
As word of Pruitt’s nomination spread Wednesday, environmental and liberal groups quickly responded with condemnation.
Public Citizen called him a “terrible choice,” saying in a statement: “Pruitt is cozy with the oil and gas industry and treats the EPA like an enemy.”
Business leaders in his home state, however, lauded Pruitt’s selection, especially those in the oil and gas industry.
“Scott Pruitt is a businessman and public servant and understands the impact regulation and legislation have in the business world,” said Jeffrey McDougall, chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association. “His appointment will put rational and reasonable regulation at the forefront.”
Fox News’ John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/07/trump-to-nominate-epa-critic-pruitt-to-lead-agency.html
Trump Taps WWE Co-Founder Linda McMahon as Small Business Head
Dec 7, 2016 By Thomas Barrabi
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Linda McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) cofounder and former CEO, to head the Small Business Administration in his Cabinet, his transition team announced Wednesday.
“Our small businesses are the largest source of job creation in our country,” McMahon said in a statement. “I am honored to join the incredibly impressive economic team that President-elect Trump has assembled to ensure that we promote our country’s small businesses and help them grow and thrive.”
As administrator, McMahon will spearhead the federal government’s efforts to work with small businesses and entrepreneurs across all 50 states. The 68-year-old executive was a major Trump donor during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Along with her husband Vince, McMahon founded WWE in 1980 and gradually built the wrestling company into a publicly-traded, $1 billion brand. McMahon left the company in 2009 to enter politics, running unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012.
“Linda has a tremendous background and is widely recognized as one of the country’s top female executives advising businesses around the globe,” Trump said in a statement. “She helped grow WWE from a modest 13-person operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees in offices worldwide. Linda is going to be a phenomenal leader and champion for small businesses and unleash America’s entrepreneurial spirit all across the country.”
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/12/07/trump-taps-wwe-co-founder-linda-mcmahon-as-small-business-head.html
Trump poised to tap John Kelly for DHS, adding another general to team
Dec 7, 2016
Adding yet another general to his administration, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap retired Marine Gen. John Kelly as his choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Kelly told Fox News Trump already has asked him to serve in the DHS position.
“I have been asked and would consider it an honor,” he said.
Kelly would be the third general Trump has picked for his administration, after announcing James Mattis – who along with Kelly is a four-star general — as his pick for Defense secretary. Trump also announced in November that retired Gen. Michael Flynn would be his national security adviser.
Kelly retired from the Marine Corps earlier this year after leading U.S. Southern Command for three years, during which he was involved in the oversight of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and the southern border.
Kelly was picked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to serve as his senior military adviser and then served in the same position under Leon Panetta before moving to Southern Command.
Kelly complained at his last Pentagon press conference in January that after 40 years as a Marine he had the authority to watch drug dealers heading to the border by sea, but he could not disrupt them. He is believed to have a good relationship with current DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, with whom he served as Pentagon general counsel.
He served three tours in Iraq, and holds the somber distinction of being the most senior military officer to lose a child in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. His son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly was killed in November, 2010, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Known as an outspoken but loyal commander, Kelly will be first to lead the department who is not a lawyer and the fifth overall. The department was formed after the 9/11 terror attacks in order to help foil future attacks on the American homeland.
Sources say Trump has settled on Kelly for the role, and is expected to name him in the next few days. Kelly’s selection will require confirmation by the Senate.
Immigration enforcement is a familiar issue for Kelly, and a big part of the DHS portfolio. Southern Command, which is based in South Florida, regularly works with DHS on missions to identify and dismantle immigrant smuggling networks. And it has partnered with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an operation targeting human smuggling into the U.S. and helped with the rescue of children arriving alone at U.S. borders.
While Trump has tapped military officials for key appointments, doing so can also bring complications. Gen. Mattis will need to secure a waiver from Congress in order to be considered due to a requirement that military officials be out of service for seven years before being secretary of Defense.
Trump, meanwhile, said Wednesday that he has taken, and acted on, advice from President Obama on who he should appoint to various positions in his administration.
“I have asked him what he would think of this one and that one,” Trump said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I would say that, yes, I take his recommendations very seriously and there are some people that I will be appointing, and in one case have appointed, where he thought very highly of that person, yes.”
While he did not go into specifics, he said that he likes Obama “as a person” despite the brutal criticism he leveled at the president on the campaign trail.
“I will say this, I’ve now gotten to know President Obama. I really like him. … I can’t speak for him, but we have a really good chemistry together. We talk,” Trump said.
A coziness between current and former presidents is not unusual. President George H.W. Bush wrote President Bill Clinton a warm note when Clinton took office, while President Obama has repeatedly spoken of how accommodating President George W. Bush’s team was to Obama in the lead-up to him taking office in 2009.
Fox News’ John Roberts and Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/07/trump-poised-to-tap-john-kelly-for-dhs-adding-another-general-to-team.html
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