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President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general.
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The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.
He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral.
He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it.
The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards.
Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”
In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates.
The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information.
But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks.
In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.
This story was originally published by The Associated Press.
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Elon Musk‘s X is now firmly the main meeting space for all things MAGA, offering a safe haven for the hateful and belligerent who fell in line with the movement. However, “First Buddy” Elon Musk and his DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy are catching MAGA wrath on Musk’s social media platform.
To illustrate what is happening with the proposed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) coalition of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, we look into their recent activity on X as the impetus of the critique both are receiving. On Christmas Day (Dec. 25), Musk posted a missive on X shooting down the idea that more American engineers should be hired over foreign workers, sparking a testy debate.
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low. Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win,” Musk wrote.
An X user fired back with, “There are over 330 million people in America. Surely, there must be enough among them to build your ultimate team? Why would you deny real Americans that opportunity by bringing foreigners here?” to which Musk fired back and doubled down with, “Your understanding of the situation is upside-down and backwards. OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”
The H-1B visa, which allows foreign nationals to work for American companies in special capacities, has been criticized by President-elect Donald Trump in the past and he has shown his preference in hiring American workers first.
Ramaswamy added fuel to the proverbial fire by siding with Musk, who is an immigrant, and pushing the concept of hiring outside of the United States to bring a standard of excellence to the nation. It was a lengthy post from Ramaswamy and we’ll share a portion below.
From Vivek Ramaswamy’s X account:
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.
The posts from Musk and Ramaswamy have created quite a firestorm of comments from the likes of Laura Loomer and other conservative figures who believe that the pair are getting this wrong. You can read one of Loomer’s X replies to Musk here.
On X, observers are taking note of the MAGA infighting and potential for implosion within the incoming Trump administration and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet. We’ve got reactions below.
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Photo: Getty
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The House of Representatives’ ethics report on Matt Gaetz was leaked, showing numerous illegal acts committed by the former congressman during his tenure.
On Monday (December 23), CBS political correspondent Scott Macfarlane obtained a report on Matt Gaetz from the House of Representatives Ethics Committee. The 40-page report found evidence that the former Republican congressman from Florida paid thousands for sex with women or drugs on at least 20 different occasions, including an instance in 2017 where he allegedly committed statutory rape with a 17-year-old girl. “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the nearly 40-page report reads.
https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1871188819082629479
The report comprised evidence, including text message conversations, witness testimony, and receipt of Venmo and PayPal payments to various women. “Nearly every young woman that the Committee interviewed confirmed that she was paid for sex by, or on behalf of, Representative Gaetz,” the report said. All of the instances occurred as Gaetz was a sitting congressman, including a trip to the Bahamas in 2018 which “violated the House rule” where he indulged in sex with multiple women, with one testifying that the trip “was payment” for her. The report also details that between 2017 and 2019, Gaetz “used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.”
Concerning the 17-year-old girl, the allegation comes from her direct testimony to the committee. “Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex,” the committee wrote. “Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.” Gaetz defended himself last week, saying that “in my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated — even some I never dated but who asked.”
Gaetz, who is currently set to be a commentator at the conservative One America News Network next month, had filed a complaint on Monday morning to prevent the report’s release but was unsuccessful. The former congressman had been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to be his attorney general in late November, resigning in what some saw was an attempt to stifle the report’s release. Observers also noted how other House Republicans including Speaker Mike Johnson sought to prevent the report’s release.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will appeal her disqualification from the election interference case against Donald Trump by the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Hours after the Georgia Court of Appeals announced that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday (December 19), Willis’ office declared its intent “to petition the Supreme Court of Georgia” to appeal the decision in a motion filed with the court. There has been no further comment from Willis or her office.
Willis’ debarment from the highly intricate case came after the three-judge panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the trial judge’s decision earlier in the day, by a vote of 2-1. Judge Scott McAfee had ruled in March that Wills could remain on the case despite revelations that she had been in a romantic relationship with the lawyer she brought on to handle the prosecution, Nathan Wade. The defense attorneys in the case seized upon that information, forcing Willis to testify about the relationship in January of this year.
The three judges on the Court of Appeals panel are all Republicans. The Georgia Supreme Court is also predominately composed of Republican judges. Appealing the decision comes with a high risk – if the Georgia Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s decision, it would effectively scuttle the case which is the last standing prosecution against Trump. Sentencing in his “hush money” case in New York City has been delayed, and the Department of Justice opted to drop its cases against the president-elect citing the precedent of not prosecuting a sitting president.
Former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons said that “it’s a tough call to say whether the Court of Appeals got it right,” in an interview with the New York Times adding that “their reasoning was that the people lost confidence in the case.” But he also noted that Judge McAfee, who is a conservative, saw enough merit in Willis to continue on the case and cited Willis having “won re-election in a landslide, suggesting that Fulton County at least has confidence in her.”
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk is being hammered for using his influence and X, formerly Twitter, to force a government shutdown to aid Donald Trump.
Tech billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk is exerting outsized influence over President-elect Donald Trump, with some seeing him aiming to force a shutdown of the federal government. Democratic lawmakers and observers are pointing to how Musk has been using the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to amplify calls to do so as House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to get the stop-gap bill passed with two days to go. In a post on X, Musk wrote: “Shutting down” the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869476312278286359
He would also post that any member of the House of Representatives who voted for it “deserves to be out in 2 years.” Musk was joined by former Republican presidential candidate and co-chair of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Vivek Ramaswamy, who also blasted Johnson and the bill. The call to “kill the bill” was amplified by MAGA supporters, and Trump himself said he was against the bill to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday (Dec. 18). When asked if those actions weighed on the GOP members, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs replied, “I think it’s having an effect on some people. I think it probably is.”
The moves by Musk have earned him scorn from Democrats. “If this is the type of power he has, then he is going to be the unelected co-president of this country and we’ve got to be super blunt about it,” said Florida Representative Maxwell Frost, who had a back-and-forth with Musk on X afterward. Vermont Representative Becca Balint echoed his statements. “I’m going to be talking to my folks back home in Vermont who voted for Trump: You thought you voted for Trump, but in fact, Trump just caved to Musk,” she said to Axios.
The pressure is now on Johnson to come up with a plan to satisfy conservatives – one proposal reportedly would include a “clean CR” and dropping $100 million in disaster aid and $30 billion for farmers. Both moves would greatly affect Trump’s base. Johnson’s position is also shaky with a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as his vote to remain Speaker takes place Jan. 3.
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Former Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has been chosen by Donald Trump as his ambassador to the Bahamas.
On Tuesday (Dec.17), President-elect Donald Trump picked the former football star and Republican political candidate Herschel Walker to be the American ambassador to the Bahamas. Trump announced the choice on his Truth Social online platform, citing his past athletic record and former role in his first administration as the co-chairman of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. “Herschel has spent decades serving as an ambassador to our nation’s youth, our men and women in the military, and athletes at home and abroad,” Trump wrote.
The position has been empty for over a decade, mainly due to the Senate failing to move forward with nominations for the role. President Joe Biden nominated Calvin Smyre in 2022, and both of Trump’s picks in his first administration were also stalled. The pick demonstrates Trump’s preference for those loyal to him to fill his Cabinet – former Georgia senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have also been appointed to positions, with the former chosen to run the Small Business Administration and the latter chosen as U.S. Ambassador to China. Trump’s ties to Walker go back to the running back’s time with the New Jersey Generals, the 1980s USFL team that the former president owned.
Walker’s most recent political foray was in 2022 when he challenged the incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia. The race was bogged down with scandal as Walker, who ran on a platform of anti-abortion, was revealed to have paid for the procedures for two girlfriends. He also was forced to disclose the identities of two other children who he hadn’t acknowledged – which came after his comments criticizing absentee fathers, pointedly in Black households. The former Heisman Trophy winner was also found to have lied about graduating from the University of Georgia at the top of his class and of having an elite role in law enforcement.
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Donald Trump met with the CEO of TikTok at his Florida estate, as the social media company is fighting a potential ban in the U.S.
On Monday (Dec. 16), President-elect Donald Trump met with Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The sit-down comes weeks before the social media company is set to undergo a potential ban in the United States. TikTok made an emergency request before the Supreme Court to block a law that would require the company’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it off before Jan. 19, 2025. The law was signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year. “The Act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” TikTok’s lawyers said in the filing. “This, in turn, will silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.”
The emergency application asked for a decision to be made by Jan. 6. Their reasoning for this was so that they could “coordinate with their service providers to perform the complex task of shutting down the TikTok platform only in the United States” if the justices decide to let the ban proceed. A 90-day extension could be enacted if the company is to be sold, but the Chinese government has protested the sale of the algorithm that powers the social media app, and TikTok says that such a sale is impracticable.
Trump previously supported a ban on TikTok but in a press conference later that day, he said that his incoming administration would review the situation. “We’ll take a look at TikTok,” he said. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points. There are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that. TikTok had an impact.” Trump’s former solicitor general, Noel Francisco, has represented TikTok in court. Trump joined the platform in June, gaining millions of followers. But his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, did capture the majority of 18-to-29-year-olds who voted in the 2024 presidential election.
Jelly Roll was spotted shaking hands and smiling with president-elect Donald Trump at a UFC match New York City’s Madison Square Garden last month, leading to controversy surrounding the country star’s political opinions. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news However, Jelly cleared the air alongside his wife […]
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Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity to dismiss his hush money conviction were struck down by the presiding judge in New York, dealing him a temporary loss.
On Monday (Dec. 16), New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan ruled that Donald Trump cannot use presidential immunity as a reason to overturn his felony conviction in the “hush money” election interference case. The decision is a blow to the president-elect weeks before he is set to return to the White House and comes after he has already seen several wins in other court cases against him.
“The People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch,” wrote Judge Merchan in a 41-page document detailing the ruling. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to covering up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels, which was overseen by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000. Trump would eventually repay Cohen.
The ruling is not the definitive ending to this case. Judge Merchan has paused sentencing in the case several times, and prosecutors have signaled that they wouldn’t stand in the way of putting the case on hold until after Trump has served his time in office. While the conviction does carry a potential sentence of up to four years in prison, Judge Merchan can uphold the conviction but not impose any prison time or any other punishment. Trump can also argue for the conviction to be thrown out if he chooses to take it to the conservative Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor concerning presidential immunity in June.
Representatives for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for President-elect Trump, called the decision “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity,” adding: “This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed.”
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Chris Rock’s monologue for SNL jabbed at multiple figures in the news, including Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the CEO of UnitedHealthcare who was killed in midtown Manhattan.
Last Saturday’s (Dec. 14) episode of Saturday Night Live was hosted by veteran comedian Chris Rock. His opening monologue wasted no time in going after multiple people prominent in today’s news but started off with a playful jab at show director Lorne Michaels for “25 great years of Saturday Night Live!” (The show is currently celebrating 50 years on the air.) Rock was a former cast member on the show from 1990 to 1993 and has hosted SNL three times in 1996, 2014, and 2020. He took a shot at Diddy first by bemoaning having to walk by a pack of “baby oil-sniffing dogs.”
He continued by talking about the capture of Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan earlier this month. “I really feel sorry for the family,” Rock began. “Everybody’s fixated on how good-looking this guy looks. If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They’d already given him the chair already — he’d be dead. But he actually killed a man — a man with a family, a man with kids. I have condolences. This is a real person, you know? But you also got to go, ‘You know, sometimes drug dealers get shot.’”
The Top Five actor also made sure to roast President-elect Donald Trump and his base of supporters by calling out the history of past American presidents and his proposed plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. “Menendez brothers are getting out of jail — just in time to get deported. Trump is going to deport their ass, you murdering Mexicans!” he quipped before taking aim at tech billionaire Elon Musk. “He’s working with the number one African American in the world. The richest African American in the world: Elon Musk. That’s right. He is African American. Elon’s got more kids than the Cleveland Browns. That’s right. Nobody knows how to get rid of people like a South African.”
Check out the entire monologue above.