Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 8:34 a.m. No.22215922   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>5930 >>6042 >>6048

Rumble Stock Soars After Video Platform Gets $775M Investment From Tether

By Bill McColl Published December 23, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Rumble received a $775 million cash injection from cryptocurrency company Tether.

Rumble explained that Tether would be purchasing 103.3 million shares at $7.50 each, although CEO Chris Pavlovski would remain the majority shareholder.

• The company said it would use $250 million of the proceeds to support growth initiatives, with the rest to pay for a self tender offer of its Class A shares.

 

Rumble (RUM) shares skyrocketed 60% Monday morning after the video platform received a $775 million investment from Tether, operator of a cryptocurrency platform and creator of the stablecoin of the same name.

 

Rumble announced that Tether had purchased 103.3 million shares of Rumble for $7.50 each. It noted that the transaction would not change the status of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chris Pavlovski as majority stakeholder in the firm.1

 

The company said it will use $250 million of the proceeds to "support growth initiatives and the remaining proceeds to fund a self tender offer for up to 70 million of its Class A Common Stock, at the same price."

 

Pavlovski called Tether "the perfect partner that can put a rocket pack on the back of Rumble as we prepare for our next phase of growth."

 

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino added that along with the investment, his firm plans to form "a meaningful advertising, cloud, and crypto payment solutions relationship with Rumble."

 

Oppenheimer Says Deal 'Should Alleviate Investor Concerns Related to Liquidity'

 

Oppenheimer wrote in a note to clients that for Rumble, the deal "should alleviate investor concerns related to liquidity" ahead of positive free cash flow. It has a "perform" rating on the stock.2

 

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.

Shares of Rumble soared 61% soon after the opening bell to $11.61, their highest level since November 2022.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/rumble-stock-soars-after-video-platform-gets-usd775m-investment-from-tether-8765696

Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 9:09 a.m. No.22216099   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6105 >>6112

Trump’s big Mike Johnson decision

A messy Capitol Hill endgame has the president-elect pondering a change in House leadership. Speaker Mike Johnson is facing doubts from President-elect Donald Trump, and they couldn't come at a worse moment.

By Rachael Bade 12/23/2024 06:01 AM EST1/2

 

After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker MikeJohnson proclaimedto reporters thatPresident-elect Donald Trump was “certainly happy about this outcome.”

 

Not by a long shot.

Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward. This much became clear to me:Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too.

 

He’s unhappy that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hikehe made clear he wanted. Hefelt blindsidedby the initial deal Johnson struck with Democrats. And, in the end, he wasunimpressedwith the entire chaotic process, which left the incoming administration questioning whether Johnson is capable of managing an even thinner majority next year.

• “The president is upset — he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,” said one Trump insider, who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Trump and Johnson.

• “In the past couple weeks,we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” said another.

• “No one thinks he’s strong. No one says, ‘Damn, this guy’s a fighter,’” went another reaction I got to Johnson’s bid to keep the speaker’s gavel.

• “I don’t see how Johnson survives,” said a fourth.

 

House GOP agrees to raise threshold needed to oust speaker

Johnson and his allies have good points to make in his defense — that the president had unrealistic expectations of what was possible, that Joe Biden is still president and Democrats control the Senate, thus limiting how much could be achieved. But when it comes to Johnson staying as speaker, all that matters is how he’s perceived in Trump’s eyes.

 

Maybe this is just another instance where Trump toys with one of his minions just watch him squirm — just ask Kevin McCarthy, Johnson’s predecessor, what that’s like. But Republicans tell methere’s no way Johnson will win the gavel again without Trumpnot only endorsing him but actively whipping for him.

 

And, as of this weekend, it’s an open question at Mar-a-Lago about whether Trump will lift a finger to help him.Trump is sitting back and watching the coverage, I’m told, mulling whether it’s worth it to defenestrate another speaker. “If he wanted to bury Mike Johnson,everyone knows he could — and he hasn’t,” said one of the previously quoted Trump confidants. “While the president thinks there could have been a better deal, he also hasn’t pulled the ripcord. Where we end up in a week or two is largely undecided.”

 

Inside Trump’s exasperation

Frustration with Johnson started well beforethis week’s meltdown on the Hill. In several conversations with Johnson after the election — as reported previously in Playbook — Trump mentioned his interest in quickly raising the debt ceiling to clean the slate for 2025. One of the Trump insiders called

the borrowing limit a “cleaver hanging over his head in the middle of the year”— something that would give Democrats major leverage to oppose the spending cuts he is seeking, given how thoroughly Republican loathe voting to raise it: “He brings it up in every conversation — he says the debt ceiling is going to be the thing that [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck [Schumer] uses” to obstruct his agenda.

 

The way Hill Republicans see it, Trump never explicitly endorsed attaching the debt ceiling bill to the year-end spending package until two days before the shutdown deadline. If Trump — never shy about what he wants — was that serious about raising the borrowing limit in the lame duck, they argue, wouldn’t he have been tweeting about it for weeks, publicly demanding lawmakers act?

 

Another Trump official bristled at that suggestion, arguing that it’s not Trump’s job to get into the minutiae of legislative strategy: “He said, ‘Deal with the debt ceiling prior to me coming into office.’ … Let’s not play semantics.

 

The situation escalated on Tuesday when Johnson unveiled his deal with Democrats, which included a host of measures that had little to do with keeping the government open.

 

Multiple Republicans on the Hill said the speaker’s team let the incoming administration know exactly what would be in the bill — including pay raises for members, transferring ownership of Washington’s RFK Stadium and restricting investments in China —though they acknowledged that didn’t necessarily mean Trump himself knew.

 

https://archive.is/7jX7L#selection-925.0-3355.61

Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 9:11 a.m. No.22216105   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>22216099

2/2

“Maybe they should have taken it to the top sooner,” one Hill aide said. “There was a lot of CYA after Elon [Musk] began picking apart, line by line, on the bill,” another one added, suggesting Trump’s team didn’t fully convey what was happening to their boss. (They are actually trying to blame Trump)

 

Trump insiders firmly pushed back, arguing that while Johnson’s team may have provided some “bullet points” and toplines, they didn’t get a full picture of the deal in advance. (“Bullshit,” the second Hill aide said.) Things only deteriorated further from there. After the initial deal collapsed and Johnson agreed to add the debt ceiling to a Plan B proposal,Trump officials claim that Johnson assured them the votes would be thereto get it over the finish line. Trump decided at that point to endorse the bill and pressure Republicans to fall in line.

 

When that deal failed spectacularly, with 38 Republicans voting against it,Trump’s team was floored — and felt Johnson had made Trump look foolish for weighing in. “You can’t bring the president a deal that you say you have the votes for if you don’t have the votes,” one said.

 

Johnson could have recovered some favor with the president had he taken one final step, they say:Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance both made clear they’d be fine allowing a holiday-season shutdownto try to force Democrats into swallowing a debt ceiling deal. Johnson considered it, people close to the speaker said, but he never committed. Like most senior Republicans, Johnson knew that denying Christmastime paychecks to military members or FEMA workers delivering hurricane relief would be an impossible fight to win. (It’s not true FEMA shuts down, very few agencies shut down)

 

“A shutdown would have bogged Republicans down, taking away our ability to hit the ground running and risked delaying Trump’s swearing in,” the previously quoted aide said. Instead, Johnson scrambled to assemble a new, slimmer CR deal that also didn’t include Trump’s debt ceiling demand. Trump decided to stay out of it, and it passed 366-34 — with the help of 196 Democrats.

 

Johnson’s fate in the balance

Johnson has been underestimated throughout his 13 months in office — not only by his avowed foes, but by other senior Republicans who have been predicting his downfall for months. Each time, with Trump’s support, Johnson was able to survive.

 

This time feels different. And it couldn’t come at a worse moment, with less than two weeks until the critical Jan. 3 speakership vote. Those close toTrump don’t expect the president-elect to outright call for Johnson to go, though that could still happen. What seems more likely is that, should Trump decide he’d prefer a different partner leading the House, he simply lets Johnson flail as he struggles to land 218 votes.

 

Johnson’s best hope rests with the calendar and the clock. Trump, I’m told, is aware that an ugly, protracted speakership battle could stall momentum for his agenda, leaving the House in a state of paralysis — just as it did after Kevin

 

McCarthy’s ouster last year.

Two senior GOP aides said this weekend that without an elected speaker, the Jan. 6 certification of Trump’s victory will be delayed. What’s more, Trump is eager to start moving on his legislative agenda as soon as he’s inaugurated, hoping to sign a border bill within 30 days.

 

“The president recognizes the difficulty of electing a speaker right now — any speaker — is not easy,” one of the Trump confidants said.So Trump has decided to keep his powder dry as things play out — intentionally so, I’m told. While some in the greater MAGAsphere are fuming about Johnson, key figures such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are weighing in on his behalf. The speaker’s fate could ultimately come down to Trump’s gut. As the president-elect told Fox News amid all the drama, Johnson will “easily remain speaker” if he acts “decisively and tough.”

 

The reality is this: Trump now sees him as waffling and weak.

 

https://archive.is/7jX7L#selection-925.0-3355.61

Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 9:13 a.m. No.22216112   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>22216099

The thing about this article that strikes me despicable: During Joe's term you never had democrats condemning Joe for all the evil things he actually did.But you have Republicans blaming Trump publicly and say he was lying, they will never learn to keep discussions in house.

Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 9:20 a.m. No.22216125   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6135

Trump Trolls Obama Over Name of America’s Tallest Peak

David Gardner Mon, December 23, 2024 at 5:28 AM EST

 

==Donald Trump said he will reverse President Obama’s decision to rename North America’s highest mountain.

 

The peak was officially known as Mount McKinley== from 1917 until 2015, when then-President Barack Obama renamed it Denali, as the mountain was known by indigenous Alaskans.

 

Now Trump says he plans to revert the name to honor William McKinley, America’s 25th president.

 

“They took his name off Mount McKinley, that’s what they do to people,” he said.

 

“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” the president-elect told supporters at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix on Sunday, adding that the statesman helped raise a “vast amount of money” to help pay for the Panama Canal and other projects.

 

“That’s one of the reasons that we are going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it.

 

“There are lots of things we can name but I think he deserves it.That’s not very gracious for somebody who did a great job,” he told the right-wing convention in a thinly-veiled swipe at Obama.

 

The U.S. Department of the Interior order signed by Obama to change the name to Denali noted that McKinley had never visited the mountain and had no “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.”

 

The Republican Alaska senator, Lisa Murkowski, was quick to oppose Trump’s proposal, posting a photo of the summit on X, formerly known as Twitter, and writing: “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali - the Great One.” (Shut up you "Fake One")

 

A gold prospector came up with the name originally in 1896 after hearing that McKinley had won the Republican presidential nomination and it was made official 21 years later.

 

The state of Alaska changed the name to Denali—which means the “Great One” in the native Kokuyon language—in 1975 and spent decades pressing the federal authorities to follow suit.

 

McKinley served as president from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/barack-obama-releases-list-favorite-144905190.html

 

chipping away at Obama's fake legacy, much more to go!

Anonymous ID: 2d78dc Dec. 23, 2024, 9:37 a.m. No.22216164   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>22216135

Obama tried to destroy Trump's legacy from day one, hell he's probably still trying after close to 9 years. It's not a good idea, he has no backers except the elites.

 

Wait till he starts working on Joe's legacy, that's 60 years of ineptitude.