Protecting Donald Trump and his entourage grows more expensive daily.

Take his jaunt to his Palm Beach resort for Thanksgiving. NBC News reports it cost taxpayers $7 million:

As the soon-to-be first family sat down in Florida for their Thanksgiving feast, they were watched over by the core part of their new extended family — a contingent of at least 150 Secret Service personnel.

His and his wife's selfish insistence on maintaining two residences with Trump flying to New York on weekends will up the secret service contingent and related personnel to 950 and cause the expense to skyrocket.

Also complicating security arrangements is Melania Trump's decision to stay in Manhattan until Barron is done with school in June. Donald Trump has told his team that he intends to make regular weekend trips home to Trump Tower until his wife moves into the White House. So millions of dollars worth of infrastructure will have to be installed in Trump Tower to turn it into a White House North

Right now the cost to the Feds (funded by taxpayers of course) is already $2 million a day (just the federal cost): [More...]

Donald Trump moved his spectacle of the revolving door to his potential cabinet picks to his golf course in New Jersey this weekend, shutting down the Lincoln Tunnel in both directions Friday night causing delays of more than an hour as his motorcade passed by.

While that may not be of interest to anyone who doesn't live in NY or New Jersey, other issues of concern to the entire nation are glossed over as Trump deflects attention from them by causing a distraction. Latest example: The public would rather talk about his tweet criticizing the cast of Hamilton for what it said to Mike Pence than his willful blindness to the danger of his global conflicts of interest.

Another Trump distraction: Melania and Barron will stay in New York at least until June so the 10 year old doesn't have to be inconvenienced by changing schools mid-year. He can go to school in Antarctica for all I care. But what does matter is who will bear responsibility for the exorbitant extra security cost and the inconvenience to New Yorkers (and tourists)? The public should be demanding Trump bear the expense. And since New York City intends to ask the feds for reimbursement, this concerns all taxpayers. [More...]

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions and the Munchkins. Separated at birth? I think so.

I don't really have much to say about Trump's Friday dump of radical right cabinet picks. They are to be expected. It just shows the futility of Democrats' efforts to "reach out" to him in hopes he'll exercise some moderation. He's too far gone. He thinks he's the Wizard of Oz, controlling the country from behind the iron curtains of Trump Tower. If you're not one of his billionaire bundlers or an extremist right wing politician, you won't get as far as the elevator.

The New York Times calls Session's nomination for Attorney General "an insult to justice." (It calls Michael Flynn's nomination for National Security Advisor "an alarming pick."

Here's an article from McClatchy on Sessions hard-core anti-immigration views. [More...]

One week after the election, UnPresident Donald Trump shows he's not ready for primetime. His team is in utter disarray. It's one fiasco after another. The entire Republican party is mired in one crisis after another. And, barring an Indictment or impeachment of Donald Trump in both houses, the majority of the electorate -- who voted for Hillary -- are stuck with him and his seemingly rudderless ship for the next four years. [More...]

Trump has chosen Republican Chair Ron Priebus as his Chief of Staff. He named Steve Bannon his "senior strategist and chief counselor."

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus will be his chief of staff and Steve Bannon, the former chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News, will serve as his senior strategist and chief counselor.

The announcement says they will be “equal partners”. White House staff appoints don't require Senate confirmation. They include: [More...]

Donald Trump announced today he will deport millions of undocumented residents with criminal records first, and then he'll figure out what to do with the rest.