donald trump
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Beyoncé‘s record label has sent a cease-and-desist to Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign over its use of the megastar’s song “Freedom” in a social media video, according to Rolling Stone, which reports that the campaign did not have permission to use the track. In the offending clip, which was posted to Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung‘s […]
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Donald Trump finds himself under more scrutiny after a report suggested that the former president allegedly contacted Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to halt ceasefire talks with Hamas. The reason is that the Trump campaign believes a successful ceasefire deal would boost Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz’s campaign hopes.
In a clip from PBS NewsHour shared by Parsons School of Design professor David Carroll, veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff shared that she saw reporting that pointed to Donald Trump contacting Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on bringing a ceasefire with Hamas to fruition.
“The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the prime minister of Israel urging him not to cut a deal right now because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign,” Woodruff is heard saying in the video below.
Among several negative marks that President Joe Biden’s administration has suffered in the eyes of voters is what is seen as a blind support of Israel in its battle with Hamas with many believing the administration is funding a genocide. Under President Biden’s orders, Secretary of State Antony Blinken just completed his ninth visit to the Gaza region where the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to unfold and was once again unable to garner a truce.
If the reports that Trump reached out to Israeli leadership regarding the ceasefire deal, it would be considered by some to be a violation of the Logan Act.
The Logan Act, established in 1799, is a law that states, “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
During the Trump-Pence administration’s time in the White House, Trump accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act for reportedly having talks with Iran, and in 2015, Democrats and others charged Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas with violating the Logan Act after he enacted a coalition of Congress members to oppose President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Further, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack accused Donald Trump of violating the act when the convicted felon and former reality television star encouraged Russian hackers to go after Hillary Clinton’s email account during the 2015 presidential campaign.
Carroll added in his string of replies on X where Woodruff may have gotten the information regarding contact between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu by sharing a report from Reuters that says Axios was the first to mention the talks between the pair earlier this month and confirmed via sources. However, Netanyahu’s office says that the discussion with Trump regarding the ceasefire never happened as reported by Axios.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty / Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan got caught in 4K, making a complete a** out himself.
TMZ Sports exclusively shared a video of the WWE Hall-of-Famer talking about allegedly performing wrestling moves on Vice President Kamala Harris while promoting his beer at a bar in Medina, Ohio, on Monday.
The iconic wrestler, who also was caught on tape saying the N-word with the hard ER, also used the moment to take a page out of the MAGA GOP playbook by questioning VP Harris’ racial identity.
Hogan might have realized he had crossed a line blaming his violent rhetoric on the booze he was drinking.
Per TMZ Sports:
The Hulkster was at the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina, Ohio promoting his new beer Monday night when he grabbed the mic and started firing up the crowd … and things quickly flew off the rails.
Hulk asked the place … “Want me to body-slam Kamala Harris? Want me to drop the leg on Kamala?”
Hulk took some more shots at Kamala in Ohio, including mocking her Indian heritage, and making a racist gesture referring to indigenous Americans. So … racist and ignorant, if you’re keeping score.
At that point, Hulk seemed to realize he may have taken things too far … and said it was just the beers talking.
https://twitter.com/tltown2019/status/1825977905375228332
Hulk Hogan Is Team MAGA All The Way
Hogan threw his bandana into the political space when he appeared during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. He happily ripped off his shirt, revealing he was down with the MAGA movement.
His jabs in the video should be no surprise because we know how Team MAGA gets down.
Folks on X, formerly Twitter, have been hitting the Hulkster with Stone Cold Stunner, calling him a racist and expressing disappointment in the once-beloved professional wrestler.
Welp.
He is never beating the racist allegations.
In the gallery below, you can see more reactions to Hulk Hogan making an a** out of himself.
1. We been on the energy
2. Wrestling gods if you’re listening
3. You think?
5. Lol, facts
7. You know that is not happening
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The Democratic National Convention kicked off on Monday (August 19) in Chicago, and the early returns suggest that things are off to a roaring start. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered one of the more fiery speeches of the evening, aiming at Donald Trump and his record of busting unions while also praising Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among several Democratic Party stars to deliver standout speeches, including former First Lady and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and a spirited showing from President Joe Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez’s speech opened with how just six years prior, she was working as a waitress in New York City after graduating from Boston College. During that time, Ocasio-Cortez worked alongside her mother to fight foreclosure on their home.
As the speech rolled on, Ocasio-Cortez aimed her attention at Donald Trump, attacking the former president on rumored financial cronyism among other digs.
“Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the speech to loud applause.
She added, “And I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life.”
Ocasio-Cortez also used her speech to graciously praise President Biden for his leadership and framed Vice President Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz as champions for the middle class. This too also garnered heavy applause from the attendees at the United Center.
On X, formerly Twitter, the reactions to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s speech at the Democratic National Convention have been plentiful. We’ve got them listed down below.
A video of the speech is posted below, courtesy of PBS NewsHour.
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Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty
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Source: Tierney L. Cross / Getty
Donald Trump falsely claimed that Taylor Swift endorsed his presidential campaign online, sharing AI-generated images in the process.
On Sunday (Aug. 18), Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shared a post on his Truth Social network that he cited as an endorsement from Taylor Swift. The post contained four screenshots of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts in different styles, which was taken from a post on X, formerly Twitter. Another image showed Swift dressed up like the character of Uncle Sam with the text, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump” emblazoned on it. “I accept!!” Trump wrote in the caption of his post. The pop superstar has not publicly endorsed any support for Trump, and it’s since been discovered that all of the images save for one were generated by artificial intelligence.
According to a report from WIRED magazine, the lone image is of a Trump supporter by the name of Jenna Piwowarczyk, who created the “Swifties For Trump” t-shirt, which she wore to his campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin, in June. Piwowarczyk is selling other copies of the shirt on Etsy. The other images were traced back to Amuse, a conservative news account on X, formerly Twitter. The group cited the cancellation of Swift’s concert dates in Vienna, Austria, due to a thwarted terror attack attempt in their post. The post is labeled as satire.
Swift, who is currently performing at London’s Wembley Stadium during her Eras Tour run, hasn’t commented on the false postings. Stephen Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said in an email that “Swifties for Trump is a massive movement that grows bigger every single day.” Swift publicly endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, and blasted Trump after his “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” comment after George Floyd’s murder, condemning his “nerve to feign moral superiority” after “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has willingly shared AI-generated imagery online in his campaign against Harris. He also shared one image featuring Vice President Harris dressed in red, presumably speaking to a crowd of Maoists at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but with the old Soviet Union flag bearing the hammer and sickle hanging up.
After Donald Trump posted AI-generated images to social media that falsely suggested Taylor Swift had endorsed him, can the superstar take legal action against the Republican presidential nominee? We asked the experts.
Posted on Sunday (Aug. 18) to Trump’s account on his own Truth Social platform, several of the photos showed women in t-shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump” emblazoned on the front. Some of those shots appeared to have been generated by AI, including several originally posted by a satire website.
But the most prominent image showed Swift herself, dressed up as Uncle Sam in the style of a World War II-era recruiting poster, bearing a clear message: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” At the top of the post, Trump himself responded to the apparent endorsement: “I accept!”
Trending on Billboard
The images quickly sparked outrage among fans of the superstar singer, who has long been an outspoken critic of the 45th president. Though she has not yet endorsed a candidate in 2024, Swift supported Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in 2020 — and she blasted Trump for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism” and urged her legions of fans to vote him out of office.
As news of Trump’s post spread across the internet, many Swifties quickly wondered the same thing: Could Taylor take legal action against the former president?
According to Jessica Silbey, a professor at Boston University School of Law and an expert in intellectual property and constitutional law, Trump’s fake endorsement post likely violates Swift’s right of publicity — the legal power to control how your name, image and likeness are used by others.
“Everyone enjoys a right of publicity,” says Silbey, who has written extensively about the internet. “This kind of use — being made to say and seen as believing things you don’t — is at the core of the right.”
As the explosive growth of artificial intelligence tools has made it easier to convincingly mimic real people, lawmakers have scrambled to empower individuals like Swift to better protect their right of publicity. The federal NO FAKES Act, currently under debate in Congress, would make it illegal to publish a “digital replica” of someone’s likeness without their consent, including their voice or their image.
Trump’s post — featuring a photorealistic, AI-generated replica of Swift’s image without her consent — would almost certainly violate that new federal law. But even without the NO FAKES Act, states across the country already protect the right of publicity and would likely give Swift grounds to sue Trump or his campaign. Silbey says Swift might also explore suing him for defamation, claiming the false presidential endorsement harmed her reputation.
Whether the star should do so is a different question. Such litigation would be long and costly and Trump has potential defense strategies, including pinning the blame on the people who originally created the images, or arguing that his posts were free speech shielded by the First Amendment. And even if Taylor won, it’s hard to say whether it would be worth the effort to pull down one post.
“I’m skeptical the juice would be worth the squeeze,” says Woodrow Hartzog, another professor at Boston University School of Law.
Rather than responding with cease-and-desist letters or a lawsuit, Swift might decide that she’s better off fighting Trump’s fake endorsement with a legitimate endorsement of her own, broadcast across social media to her millions of die-hard fans. That’s the kind of remedy that no court can issue — and one that will likely hurt Trump far more than any judge could.
“I think Swift probably has more effective political rather than legal recourse here,” Hartzog said.
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Source: @ali.aam.06 / TikTok
In case you were wondering, Kanye West is still Team Donald Trump. Ye and his wife Bianca Censori were spotted hitting up a Trump rally in Beverly Hills on Saturday (August 17).
Reportedly, the couple who has never seen a camera they won’t pose for pulled in a Tesla Cybertruck (probably a promo gift from Phony Stark, allegedly).
Reports TMZ:
Ye and Bianca rolled up Saturday in Bev Hills, where supporters of the former president were waving American flags and “Make America Great Again” banners. They just stopped on the side of the road, but that was enough to fire up the crowd.
Check out the video … a group swarms the Tesla, not realizing at first it’s Kanye behind the wheel, but when they spot him, they go nuts and start chanting his name!
Ye loves the attention. Democracy, not so much—just saying.
Bianca on the other hand, didn’t seem too enthused to be there.
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Source: Adam Gray / Getty
A former writer for Politico has publicly wondered why their outlet and many others haven’t published leaked info from Donald Trump’s campaign.
According to reports, at least three major news outlets – the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico – all received leaked internal documents from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign earlier in the week. None of them have published information from them, which has former Politico senior writer Marc A. Caputo perplexed enough to question why. “It may be that the Times, the Post, and Politico are all working to ensure that no erroneous material was deliberately inserted,” he wrote in his Bulwark newsletter. “But that is not the explanation they have offered so far for why they are holding off.”
Caputo would write that the information contained in the 271 pages of leaked documents includes vetting information gathered for Ohio Senator JD Vance, which the Trump campaign team apparently used to determine whether to pick him to be the former president’s running mate. Caputo writes that it’s “baffling” that the outlets wouldn’t publish that information, as “what a campaign thought about its own vice presidential candidate is inherently newsworthy.”
Caputo would then cite the internal emails from Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign spokesman John Podesta being hacked by someone named “Guccifer” in 2016, who then sent them to Wikileaks. That led to heavy coverage of the information in those emails, with the New York Times doing most of it in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. Caputo also spoke about the stories concerning Hunter Biden and the laptop he left behind in a computer-repair shop being part of the news landscape before the 2020 election. He noted the extreme caution by editors then, saying, “that episode showed that journalists had overlearned their lessons from four years prior.
“Maybe, in the wake of 2016, these outlets formulated a more stringent policy concerning the use of hacked materials,” Caputo writes. “But whatever the case, they ought to be transparent about their thinking. If the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post have decided that some considerations prevent them from publishing this authenticated and newsworthy information, then the least they could do is explain to the public what those considerations are.” He stressed that bringing the information in the leaks is important so people don’t feel there’s partisanship being practiced. “It’s important to start adopting clearer standards—because it’s easy to see this occurring over and over,” he concludes.
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Donald Trump sat down with Elon Musk for an exclusive chat on the X platform’s Spaces section in support of his presidential campaign. In the chat, Donald Trump appeared to display slurred speech with listeners on X reacting to the meandering conversation in kind.
Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t begin their planned conversation on Monday (August 12) as expected with well over 800,000 attendees having to wait 40 minutes before the conversation started. As some observers on X noted, this was not the first time Musk has been met with a technical glitch using the Spaces feature with a presidential candidate. Musk claimed that there was a cyberattack on his platform leading to the delay.
The environment was certainly friendly to Donald Trump with Elon Musk asking safe questions that allowed the candidate to freely riff as he’s known to do without facing much in the way of pushback. Trump, displaying a familiar campaign talking point of being tough on immigration, promised at one point to enact the largest deportation in U.S. history. Trump is seizing on the fears of voters who have been sold an idea that illegal immigrants are funneling in drugs committing crime, and taking jobs from Americans.
Musk, a former critic of Trump, praised the business mogul at several intervals in the discussion. Trump also gushed over Musk supporting his reelection bid, saying that Musk’s “endorsement meant a lot.”
It was also a moment for Musk to cozy up further to Trump, suggesting at one point that a presidential commission is formed with a focus on government efficiency while boldly asking to be appointed to the commission. Trump seemed pleased by the idea.
Although his campaign heads are denying what others heard, there have been several replies on X noticing that the former president routinely slurred his speech. The same X users are noting that few major news outlets are pointing out the deficiencies in Trump’s speaking, an opposite position those outlets took when discussing President Joe Biden’s speech during the debate he held with Trump.
We did not hear the whole discussion in full as we only heard clips shared by users on X. However, what we did hear does confirm that Trump was struggling to speak clearly at points but the reasons are unknown to us.
Check out the reactions to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s chat below,
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Photo: Getty
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Donald Trump’s promotion of a conspiracy theory claiming Vice President Kamala Harris used AI to fake her rally sizes in photos was thoroughly debunked on CNN.
Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump has been touting a new conspiracy theory claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris’ huge crowds at her recent campaign rallies and events were faked using artificial intelligence. However, that assertion was thoroughly debunked on air during a CNN segment on Sunday (August 11). The host, Fredericka Whitfield, began by stating that, “former President Trump is launching a new attack at Vice President Harris, claiming she faked a recent campaign photo.”
The photo, taken on August 7, showed Harris being greeted by a massive crowd on the tarmac at a Michigan airport while deplaning from Air Force Two.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.‘d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”, Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform afterward.
“If you’re looking for any more evidence that the size of these Harris campaign rallies are capturing Trump’s attention and getting under his skin, look no further than these posts that he’s putting out today, essentially lending voice to a conspiracy about the size of her rally in Detroit earlier this week,” said CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak in the segment.
“To back up his claim, he seems to be using a photo that a Harris campaign staffer posted from the event and trying to claim that there’s no reflection of the crowd on the exterior of the plane that it was somehow manipulated,” he added. “But we can say with certainty that his claims the crowd didn’t exist are just false.”
Liptak provided further detail on the scene.
“For starters, CNN was at the event and I’ve spoken to just one of the esteemed chief correspondents who was there. He told me that his team witnessed a crowd of many thousands that filled the large hangar where she was. There were two risers, the crowds spilled out onto a sprawling tarmac where Air Force Two and you see it there came to a stop to large risers.”
When contacted, the Harris-Walz campaign team said it was “an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,” also jabbing Trump over his lack of campaign events in comparison: “Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week… Low energy?”
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Photo: Getty