Trump administration 2024-2028

[PrairieFella]

US consulate in Winnipeg to ISE.

U.S. to close consulates in Canada, other countries, Reuters sources say

The U.S. State Department has notified Congress that it plans to close five foreign missions in a rare downsizing of America’s global diplomatic footprint, according to people familiar with the notice.

www.ctvnews.ca

This hurts Manitoba but does this ever hurt Minnesota and N/S Dakota more. Lots of vertical trade but the US side of the border has far less national influence than Manitoba has with Ottawa.

 

[GK.Dundas/ Guest]

This is an administration that seems to delight amost in making decisions that will hurt them.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2084712380383322143

A politician who is the perfect reflection of the times we live in. I do love how he still can't shut his mouth after getting his ass whooped

 

[FSTO]

This hurts Manitoba but does this ever hurt Minnesota and N/S Dakota more. Lots of vertical trade but the US side of the border has far less national influence than Manitoba has with Ottawa.

Well Minnesota is a corrupt regime and I expect an invasion to overthrow the tyrannical leadership at any moment! Oh, did I say Minnesota? I meant Washington DC!

 

[Maxman1]

US consulate in Winnipeg to ISE.

U.S. to close consulates in Canada, other countries, Reuters sources say

The U.S. State Department has notified Congress that it plans to close five foreign missions in a rare downsizing of America’s global diplomatic footprint, according to people familiar with the notice.

www.ctvnews.ca

Apparently that one doesn't do regular consular services and isn't open to the public. This is a total non-story.

 

[HavokFour]

A shocking update that no one saw coming.

Jeanine Pirro drops Reflecting Pool vandalism case against Olympian David Hearn — blames Interior Dept for holding back ‘flawed installation’ info

DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro is moving to dismiss charges against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn for allegedly vandalizing the reflecting pool.

nypost.com

Absolute gong show.

And another 3 for the scoreboard.

Pirro drops charges against three more in Reflecting Pool cases after Trump rebuke

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office dropped charges against three more Reflecting Pool defendants after Trump criticized an earlier case dismissal.

www.washingtonexaminer.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

Apparently that one doesn't do regular consular services and isn't open to the public. This is a total non-story.

I would have guessed it could get busy with border crossings as busy as Fort Frances/International Falls not tooooooo far away. If it doesn’t do a ton of traffic, then it is a nothing burger.

 

[Altair]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/05/trump-hegseth-clashed-camp-david-over-iran-missile-depletion-concerns/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, two people familiar told The Washington Post.


The encounter took place on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday where Trump vented at Hegseth that he thought the munitions issue “had been fixed,” according to both persons familiar with the conversation, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.


The shortages, particularly in long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptors, have been part of the reason Trump has pulled back from launching additional massive strikes against Iran in recent days, one of the sources said.

The lack of interceptor missiles is also altering how the U.S. decides whether to employ munitions against an incoming threat, based on where it’s assessed to be heading and whether or not it’s “a factor,” the U.S. official told The Post, a change in tactics that was first reported by NBC News.

Back at Camp David, as he was confronted by Trump over the bare weapons stockpile, Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue, both persons familiar said.
The exchange underscored Trump’s increasing frustration with his defense secretary, who was one of the biggest early advocates for taking military action against Iran, convincing Trump it would be a quick and relatively easy win, according to multiple officials.

The similarities between Trump and Putin is remarkable.

Both leaders not wanting bad news, getting sanitized and often outright false reports and then being blindsided when hit with reality.

 

[RangerRay]

Funny how I never heard this much angst about munitions stocks during the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan when far more forces were deployed in much larger, longer term operations.

I still maintain that if the US were serious about ending things with Iran, they will have to invade with a far larger force than they did with Iraq. That will be very messy.

Trump got played by Bibi and now he’s paying the price for being a mark.

 

[brihard]

Funny how I never heard this much angst about munitions stocks during the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan when far more forces were deployed in much larger, longer term operations.

I still maintain that if the US were serious about ending things with Iran, they will have to invade with a far larger force than they did with Iraq. That will be very messy.

Trump got played by Bibi and now he’s paying the price for being a mark.

They were operating with absolute air dominance and no meaningful anti air threat, and could get away with eschewing standoff most of the time; that really opened up their options.a lot of the fast air missions in Iraq or Afghanistan are either not feasible or are at least statistically a lot riskier over Iran. I think the U.S. learned that after the F-15 shoot down and the hairy CSAR that resulted.

 

[ModlrMike]

Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue, both persons familiar said.

Sec Hegseth... your subordinate may be responsible, but you are accountable. That's how leadership works, and to blame said subordinate is an epic failure on your part, not theirs.

 

[Eaglelord17]

They were operating with absolute air dominance and no meaningful anti air threat, and could get away with eschewing standoff most of the time; that really opened up their options.a lot of the fast air missions in Iraq or Afghanistan are either not feasible or are at least statistically a lot riskier over Iran. I think the U.S. learned that after the F-15 shoot down and the hairy CSAR that resulted.

They also hadn’t been feeding Ukraine and Israel their stockpile for the last 5 years at that point without doing much to ramp production up.

 

[RangerRay]

Sec Hegseth... your subordinate may be responsible, but you are accountable. That's how leadership works, and to blame said subordinate is an epic failure on your part, not theirs.

I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.

He could have blamed his subordinate's failure on low testosterone levels.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Funny how I never heard this much angst about munitions stocks during the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan when far more forces were deployed in much larger, longer term operations.

I still maintain that if the US were serious about ending things with Iran, they will have to invade with a far larger force than they did with Iraq. That will be very messy.

Trump got played by Bibi and now he’s paying the price for being a mark.

I had occassion to be deployed to Iraq in the counter ISIS fight. The global PGM supply was under a lot of pressure in 16/17 because of the high usage rate, often to do "terrain denial" in the Syrian desert.....

 

[HavokFour]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/05/trump-hegseth-clashed-camp-david-over-iran-missile-depletion-concerns/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

The similarities between Trump and Putin is remarkable.

Both leaders not wanting bad news, getting sanitized and often outright false reports and then being blindsided when hit with reality.

Had another one of his overnight episodes.

 

[medicineman]

Sec Hegseth... your subordinate may be responsible, but you are accountable. That's how leadership works, and to blame said subordinate is an epic failure on your part, not theirs.

Might that be the reason he wasn't really allowed to actually command troops?

 

[MrWhyt]

Had another one of his overnight episodes.

View attachment 101613

Is it a "leak" if it's not true?

 

[Nvlgzr]

On a beer positive note:

Controversial brewery offers half-price beer when Mitch McConnell dies

The Minocqua Brewing Company is facing backlash after saying it would offer half-price beer when Sen. Mitch McConnell dies.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Seyek]

Might that be the reason he wasn't really allowed to actually command troops?

I have more time commanding a company and I'm an NCO.

Had another one of his overnight episodes.

View attachment 101613

That seems an awful lot like a confirmation that stockpiles are in fact low.

This is another clear example of why the rest of us need to get our act together. We need a multitude of Non-US sourced munitions of all types, ideally redundant types across multiple countries to help encourage innovation and take and apply lessons learned from each other, and build up stockpiles (and surge industrial capacity). Identifying all the elements of the supply chain and ensuring we can maintain a supply across the whole thing chain also needs to be a part of it. I've said it in other threads, and we seem to be doing good in part with the Navy, but a good chunk of our expanded spending needs to be on building out a robust defence industrial base with stockpiling and continuous production.