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Red Flags Raised Over Ex-Trump Official’s TikTok Bid

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Former Trump Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin announced Thursday he is putting together a group of investors to buy the highly-influential social media platform TikTok, and it immediately raised red flags.

A House Republican-sponsored bill to force the sale to a U.S. company passed by a wide, bipartisan margin on Wednesday. If it passes in the Senate, and President Joe Biden signs it, Mnuchin, like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, could be in charge of a company whose algorithms affect what information Americans see, how that information is framed, and by whom. Mnuchin just last week said he would be open to working in a second Trump administration.

President Biden reportedly has said he would sign the bill if it gets to his desk.

The House bill, which passed in a 352-65 vote, was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI). Explaining what he said was the need for the legislation, which would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it is not sold to an American company, is its strong impact on younger Americans.

READ MORE: ‘I’ve Been So Busy’: Speaker Johnson Says No Time to Assess Biden Impeachment Evidence

Sky News reported Gallagher “insists there is a need to ban the app because it’s ‘becoming the dominant news platform for Americans under 30’.”

“Mnuchin was in the admin[istration] when Trump initially sought to ban TikTok from U.S. app stores. He argued back then that it should be sold to a U.S. company, while others advocated for an outright ban,” noted CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.

Critics are expressing great concern.

“If you’re worried about what the Chinese might do with that video of your puppy wait until you see what a Trump Administration would do with the intel community, law enforcement, your privacy rights, to anyone who spoke out against him, in coordination w/right wing tech moguls,” warned foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf.

READ MORE: ‘Like the Nazis Did’: Critic Slams Trump Plans to Remake US Education System

Media Matters’ Andrew Lawrence sarcastically wrote on X, “rest easy everyone, instead of china exploiting your info itll just be a bunch of former trump admin goblins doing it instead.” He added, “i dont think congress should force an influential social media app to be sold to their political cronies.”

BBC political political analyst Mary Anne Marsh wrote, also sarcastically, “Oh, so the Saudis and China can control @tiktok_us. No national security concerns whatsoever…I mean the Saudis only gave Mnuchin $1 billion then gave @jaredkushner $2 billion when they walked out of the @WhiteHouse…”

Attorney Luppe B. Luppen, co-author of a book on the future of the Democratic Party, observed: “Having seen what happens when a Trump-aligned rich guy buys a social media network, I would not want my government to have a hand in bringing that about again.”

Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic Instructor Alejandra Caraballo posited, “Ask yourself why Republicans keep lining up to try and buy Tiktok. Larry Ellison at Oracle, Bobby Kotick, and now Trump treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. They want to weaponize it to push conservative views like Elon and Dems are complicit in it.”

Democratic strategist and senior advisor to former Obama cabinet secretary Julian Castro said, “Democrats shouldn’t help Republicans force the sale of another major media platform to right-wing billionaires.”

See the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘I’d Rather Sit Down With Hannibal Lecter’: Johnson’s Grip on Speakership Slips Further

 

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‘Disgraceful’: ICE Slammed After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying US Congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

READ MORE: Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

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Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

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A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

READ MORE: Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

 

 

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Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.

Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.

“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”

READ MORE: White House Touts Trump’s ‘Track Record’ on Affordability

On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”

“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.

Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.

“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”

Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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