Posted on Aug 3, 2019
Trump derails defense contract to punish a personal enemy
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The Pentagon is delaying the award of a $10 billion contract to Amazon for an upgrade of its cloud-computing services pending a review by Secretary Mark Esper who was just confirmed last week. Trump complained about the award two weeks ago, saying "his concern was based on what he called 'tremendous complaints' from competitors of Amazon Web Services, the division of the merchandising giant seen as the all-but-certain winner of the contract."
In the last couple of weeks, one of those competitors somehow got a one-page document, dominated by a chart, onto Trump's desk. That chart is titled "A Conspiracy to Create a Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly," and according to CNN's sources "is identical to one created by Oracle's top Washington lobbyist, Kenneth Glueck, an executive vice president with the company." The flow chart consists of pictures of Amazon employees and executives and current and former Pentagon officials, "with photographs of the previous two secretaries of Defense, Ash Carter (featured alongside President Obama) and Trump's former Defense Secretary, James Mattis" and "images of dollar signs, arrows, and a heart linking the various figures." Clearly, Oracle knows its audience well. Give him pictures of people he hates and tell him it's a conspiracy, and boom, you're in the running for a $10 billion contract you probably don't have the capacity to fulfill.
In the last couple of weeks, one of those competitors somehow got a one-page document, dominated by a chart, onto Trump's desk. That chart is titled "A Conspiracy to Create a Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly," and according to CNN's sources "is identical to one created by Oracle's top Washington lobbyist, Kenneth Glueck, an executive vice president with the company." The flow chart consists of pictures of Amazon employees and executives and current and former Pentagon officials, "with photographs of the previous two secretaries of Defense, Ash Carter (featured alongside President Obama) and Trump's former Defense Secretary, James Mattis" and "images of dollar signs, arrows, and a heart linking the various figures." Clearly, Oracle knows its audience well. Give him pictures of people he hates and tell him it's a conspiracy, and boom, you're in the running for a $10 billion contract you probably don't have the capacity to fulfill.
Trump derails defense contract to punish a personal enemy
Posted from dailykos.com
Government Contracts
Amazon
IBM
Donald Trump
Posted >1 y ago
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Is he really concerned about the quality of the deal or is this a personal vendetta? Given enough time, we will find out. The background on this is that Amazon's competitor is trying to derail the deal. Had they not done what they did, would Trump have done anything? He certainly had no love for Amazon before Oracle's chart appeared. He could have derailed it then if that's all it's about. He didn't. Is that his unique sense of timing or capriciousness? Are the pictures designed to pique Trump's interest? Is Mattis putting his stamp of approval on the deal or is the picture just a picture? If former Secretary Mattis is involved and giving it his tacit endorsement, I will give the deal the benefit of the doubt. The details are far too uncertain for me to take a stance
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In my view PO1 William "Chip" Nagel, this was part of what a good President does! He wasn't sure about this contract and fundamentally paused it until He had someone on board who could perform a detail view to weigh the benefits and issues... A wise move by OUR President and Commander-in-Chief! I wold expect no less! Great Post, Chip!!!
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