Trump Has a Disturbing Next Gig in Mind for Vivek Ramaswamy

Donald Trump is moving his pawns around the board.

The incoming forty-seventh president has reportedly encouraged Vivek Ramaswamy to take the Ohio Senate seat vacated by Vice President–elect JD Vance, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Vance officially resigned from the post Friday. The next senator will be chosen by Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who under Ohio law will be tasked with appointing a replacement until 2026, when a special election will determine who will serve in the role until the term expires in 2029.

Two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter told the Post that Trump had personally appealed to Ramswamy to take the high-powered position if offered.

DeWine has been tight-lipped during the months-long process to fill Vance’s vacancy, but potential candidates have included Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, former state Senator Matt Dolan, Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose, Columbus-area Congressman Mike Carey, former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, the last of whom has emerged as a clear front-runner.

But a visit to Mar-A-Lago on Thursday could have planted another suggestion.

“I’ll have an announcement probably next week,” DeWine told reporters in Florida that day.

Blade Columbus Bureau chief Jim Provance had the inside details on DeWine’s process.

“He has said that, number one, he wants somebody who can legislate and have Ohio in mind for any progress that would be made. He’s also said that he wants somebody who can raise money,” Provance told WTVG on Monday. “You have to remember that the Moreno–Sherrod Brown race set records.”

Ramaswamy publicly backed out of the race to replace Vance in November after Trump announced him as a potential co-chair for the not-yet-real Department of Government Efficiency alongside world’s-richest-man Elon Musk. The bold new agency was tasked with identifying what they determined to be wasteful government spending to help the Republican trifecta make sweeping spending cuts. Ramaswamy’s exit could call the project’s future into question, especially as Musk’s presence (and his opposing views on immigration) face heightened scrutiny in Trumpworld.

“Trump’s decisive victory on Tuesday opens up a lot of possibilities to change the country,” Ramaswamy told ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland in the wake of the election. “We’re obviously having discussions, and they’re not going to be sorted out in the press.”

It doesn’t seem like Greenlanders are warming up to Donald Trump’s pitch to take over their territory.

Fox News’s London-based correspondent Alex Hogan traveled to Nuuk, Greenland’s frigid capital, where she reported Tuesday that there had been a “lot of mixed reaction” to Trump’s threat to acquire the island. But she quickly revealed that they spoke to only one native Greenlander who seemed interested in the idea. 

“Most other Greenlanders we spoke with bashed Trump’s comments, calling them offensive,” Hogan explained.

She spoke to one resident, Jørgen Boassen, whom she described as an “avid Trump supporter.” The man, who was decked out in MAGA merch, had been “trying to convince others that a partnership between Greenland and the U.S. just makes sense,” Hogan explained. 

Boassen told Hogan that the U.S. could potentially protect Greenland from aggression from China and Russia.

Meanwhile, three other Greenlanders said they weren’t the slightest bit interested in becoming U.S. citizens. One man said he would like to “stick with” the current Danish government. Another noted that he would “prefer to be with Denmark than with the U.S.”

“The United States used to be a place that was sort of admired here, and basically all the goodwill that they used to have is almost gone now,” said a third man. 

This is consistent with other reports indicating that there isn’t much enthusiasm for a Trump takeover. Earlier this month, Trump sent his idiot son on a futile mission to the world’s largest island to drum up hype for his bad idea. However, the event they held with supposed MAGA fans was completely staged, according to local reports. Instead of finding actual supporters, staffers reportedly just rounded up a group of “homeless and socially disadvantaged” people who are often outside the supermarket directly across from the hotel where the event took place, put them in some merch, and filmed them.

In the last month, Trump has been outspoken about his pipe dream to acquire the Danish-controlled territory, for its value as a geopolitical asset and mineral and oil resources. After Danish officials made clear that Greenland wasn’t for sale, Trump refused to rule out the prospect of taking it by force.

Of his outlandish imperialist claims (he’s also made threats against Canada and the Panama Canal), this is decidedly the most unserious, but it does reveal a startling obsession with size and a penchant for picking on countries he knows won’t fight back.  

Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general pick, revealed in her confirmation hearing Wednesday that there probably is an enemies list after all.

When asked by Senator Mazie Hirono about specific people who have been targeted by Republicans in the past, Bondi refused to say she wouldn’t use the Justice Department against them.

“On Fox News, you said ... ‘The prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated,’” Hirono said. “Is Jack Smith one of those bad prosecutors that you will prosecute as A.G.?”

Bondi pushed back, stating that she wouldn’t answer “hypotheticals.”

“I’m just asking whether you would consider Jack Smith to be one of the people,” Hirono responded. “How about Liz Cheney? How about Merrick Garland?”

Bondi would not answer—revealing that those individuals are very likely among the top targets of a Trump DOJ.

Earlier in the hearing, Bondi refused to disavow Trump’s FBI pick Kash Patel’s past comments on compiling an “enemies list.”

“Would you have hired someone to the Florida Attorney General’s Office who you knew had an enemies list?” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Bondi.

“Senator, to cut to the chase, you’re clearly talking about Kash Patel,” Bondi said. “I don’t believe he has an enemies list. He made a quote on TV, which I have not heard.… He has great experience in the intel department and Department of Defense. I have known Kash, and I believe that Kash is the right person at this time for this job.

“There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” she added, a disingenuous comment given the full-throated defense of Patel.

This list comes from Patel’s own 2023 book, Government Gangsters. While he does not include a literal hit list in the book, he does attach an appendix titled, “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” Patel refers to this “deep state” as “a cabal of unelected tyrants” and “the most dangerous threat to our democracy” in other sections of the book. The list includes names like Bill Barr, Joe Biden, Lloyd Austin, Sally Yates, Kamala Harris, and 55 other people whom Trump considers political opponents.

Israel and Hamas have brokered a ceasefire agreement, marking a pause to the violence that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians and wounded 109,000 more since the conflict began 15 months ago.

But on Wednesday, an American leader who was never in office during the war jumped to take credit for the historic deal.

“WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!”

“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump continued in a separate post. “I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.

“With this deal in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven,” Trump said, promising to expand the Abraham Accords.

“We have achieved so much without even being in the White House. Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!”

The Biden administration had yet to make an announcement by the time Trump made his posts.

Trump warned last week that “all hell” would break loose if the two nations did not reach a ceasefire agreement by the time he returned to the White House on January 20.

“It will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, remarking that there “should have never been” the October 7 attack that obtained the hostages.

Trump’s remarks were well received by his allies, who claimed that it was singularly Trump and his threats that were responsible for expediting the hostage release.

“We’re hopeful there’s going to be a deal that is struck toward the very end of (Joe) Biden’s administration—maybe the last day or two,” Vice President-elect JD Vance said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

“It’s very clear that President Trump threatening Hamas and making it clear that there is going to be hell to pay, is part of the reason why we’ve made progress on getting some hostages out,” Vance said.

Journalists at The Washington Post are sounding the alarm over a crisis at the newspaper.

More than 400 reporters and editors on Tuesday evening sent a petition to the outlet’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, urging him to intervene and make changes.

“We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues to leave,” the journalists wrote in the petition, which was first reported on by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik.

The petition did not mention anyone by name, including the paper’s CEO, Will Lewis, who has faced criticism for his editorial decisions, as well as accusations of obstruction of justice from his time working more than a decade ago for Rupert Murdoch in England.

Since assuming the position in 2023, Lewis’s decisions have not been well received, including his choice of executive editor Robert Winnett, who ended up withdrawing from the position due to ethics concerns. Then, in October of last year, Lewis announced that the newspaper’s editorial board would not be making an endorsement in the presidential election.

This caused an immediate backlash, with the newspaper losing more than 250,000 subscribers days after Lewis’s announcement. The decision was seen as the paper trying to soften its coverage of Donald Trump, under the influence of Bezos. When a cartoonist for the Post, Ann Telnaes, decided to satirize Bezos and other tech leaders’ approach to Trump, her cartoon was spiked by an editor, leading to her resignation.

Shortly after the election, Lewis announced that remote work for Post employees was over and that staffers must return to working in the office five days a week, which couldn’t have earned him any deference at the newsroom.

In recent weeks, several high-profile editors and writers have departed the paper. Two political reporters, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, left for The Atlantic, while reporter Tyler Pager moved to The New York Times. Former managing editor Matea Gold, once considered a contender for executive editor, also left for the Times last month. And last week, the Post laid off 4 percent of its staff, comprising close to 100 people on the business side of the paper.

“We understand the need for change and we are eager to deliver the news in innovative ways. But we need a clear vision we can believe in,” the Post’s journalists wrote in their petition. It’s hard to see what Bezos will do, considering Lewis was his choice to take over as publisher and that he is likely the reason behind many of their grievances.

After Trump took office the first time, the Post adopted the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Now that Trump is taking office again, and Bezos is cozying up to him, it seems that the Post’s journalists are making a last-ditch effort to live up to that slogan. The question is whether Bezos will listen.