Locator: 50673BURGUM.
In another side-bar discussion with a reader, not ready for prime time.
This is so much better than The NY Times assessment of the guest list. From earlier:
White House dinner.
So, who attended? Link here. Here it is.
Wow: Doug Burgum and wife. Of the Trumps, only Barron missing.
To the reader:
1. We have not even begun to see how big the [global] realignment will be [after the Iran War]. Folks forget that in the Mideast, Persia is the outcast -- and made worse by the revolution in 1979. Leaving OPEC, UAE will need friends and the only friend it will have is the US. Their relationship will be very, very quiet.2. The royal / state dinner was probably the dinner of Trump's four-year term. I'm trying to think of someone more "important" than Charles and Camilla showing up in Washington.
Xi and/or Putin would be more important from a strategic / military / diplomatic point of view, but from a purely TMZ / Vanity Fair / social point of view, the British monarchy beats them all. Interestingly, the Brits are pretty much washed up as force to be reckoned with.
Even Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has more cajones than either the PM or the King. And probably more ships.2a. Only 100 people were on the guest list. Not one Democrat and not one left-leaning reporter was there. Six (seven, depending how you count) were from Fox, including Gutfeld! That was a huge embarrassment to legacy television news. This was the White House Correspondents' Dinner that wasn't. LOL. Except for four (?) Brits, not one Brit was invited. It was all Trump's most important friends. If you were on that list you are never going to jail. For anything. Six billionaires -- including Ellison, his closest friend, I think. But then this: Tim Cook. I ran through the list fairly quickly so I probably missed others, but Tim Cook stood out .... not even the CEO of Intel was there. Tim Cook. Let that sink in.2b. These were the folks from Silicon Valley: Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff: CEO of Salesforce, attending with Lynne Benioff, Marc Andreessen, Ruth Porat: President and CIO of Alphabet and Google; and Ellison, as mentioned. That's a pretty select group. No room for Musk? Altman?2c. CEO of Archer Daniels Midland. Only one reason why he was there.2d. But look at this: all the Trumps were there except Barron which meant of the 100 or so guests, 10% were Trumps.2e. I think they said six of the Supreme Court justices were there. Not one from the left.2f. Maybe half a dozen US Senators; most from western states, or deeply conservative states. None from Texas?2g. Kraft (NFL, Patriots); Rory McIlroy! Trump likes winners.2h. Hegseth and Caine, of course.
2i. The four astronauts and their significant others would have total eight -- would have overshadowed the Trumps, and at the end of the day, walk-on-baggage. The Artemis II mission, not the significant others.
2j. But this is what really caught my attention: the total number of cabinet-level appointees often exceeds 20, including roles like the Chief of Staff and EPA Administrator. Of those 20, only a handful were invited. Among the handful: Doug Burgum! He easily could have been left out and no one would have noticed. [Apparently he's not a billionaire but he's considered to be in the "billionaire class." Forbes has him at $100 million or thereabouts.] I don't think Litnick was there. So, I find it amazing that Doug Burgum was there. No one from intelligence services?Movers and shakers: Rory, Kraft, a few others are NOT political movers and shakers. They were there for other reasons. But Doug Burgum was there. Wright, Energy, was not there. That speaks volumes -- Energy not there; Commerce not there but Interior was there. Why?I think folks underestimate the importance of a strong secretary at Interior. Under:
Biden: Deb Haaland, first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary; DEI.
Obama: Sally Jewell (CEO of REI); Ken Salazar (Colorado Senator)
Clinton: Babbitt, governor of Arizona.Power politics. It will be a different list of attendees for Xi and/or Putin. You know, this state dinner now completely overshadows the WHCD "re-do." Assuming it is re-done. A lot of folks will say that box was checked off.
