Gunna b a high filter day today.
Trump Open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison Buying TikTok
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/tiktok-elon-musk-larry-ellison/2025/01/22/id/1196005/
U.S. President Donald Trump said he was open to either billionaire Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison buying social media app TikTok.
“I have a right to make a deal,” Trump said at the White House Tuesday, at an event at which he announced a $500 billion private partnership investment in artificial intelligence, with Ellison standing at his side.
“I’m thinking about saying to somebody, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of American, and we’ll give you the permit, and they’ll have a great partner,” Trump said, Bloomberg reports.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
The short video app used by 170 million Americans was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Sunday.
According to reports last week, Chinese officials were in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok's operations in the United States to Musk, though the company has denied that.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans' data being misused.
TikTok remained unavailable to download on Apple and Android devices in the United States on Tuesday afternoon.
KEY QUOTES
"I would be, if he wanted to buy it," Trump told reporters on Tuesday when asked if he was open to Musk buying the platform.
"I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners," Trump added.
"You have an asset value that has no value or has a $ trillion value," Trump said. "It all depends whether or not the United States gives the permit."
CONTEXT
Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok's ban under a law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden.
The company says U.S. officials misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the U.S.
Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help Trump win November's presidential election, has said there was an "unbalanced" business environment between the U.S. and China.
"I have been against a TikTok ban for a long time, because it goes against freedom of speech. That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced," Musk, who owns social media platform X, said over the weekend.
Probably pissed he wasn't invited to the party.
GOP Aims to Remove Aliens From Census Count
https://www.newsmax.com/us/trump-census-2030/2025/01/22/id/1196021/
Full story at link above.
Republican efforts to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from numbers used to divvy up congressional seats among states have begun anew, with four Republican state attorneys general suing to alter the once-a-decade head count even before President Donald Trump’s second term in office began Monday.
Trump joined in the battle immediately upon returning to office, signing an executive order on Monday that rescinded a Biden administration order and signaled the possibility of a push by his new administration to change the 2030 census.
Those efforts may get a boost from the GOP-controlled Congress, where Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards from North Carolina earlier this month re-introduced legislation that would put a citizenship question on the census form.
During his first term, Trump signed an order that would have excluded people in the U.S. illegally from being included in the 2020 census numbers used to allot congressional seats and Electoral College votes to each state. The GOP president also mandated in a second order the collection of citizenship data through administrative records.
A Republican redistricting expert had written that using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for the purpose of redrawing congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.
Trump issued the memos after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his earlier attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire. The high court said the administration’s justification for the question "seems to have been contrived."
Both Trump orders were rescinded when President Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, before the 2020 census figures were released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation's largest statistical agency.
…just so they can show the rest of the board they are a shill.
Here we go again! Block POTUS & his admin at every turn!
Dem-Led States, Advocates Sue Over Birthright Citizenship
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/lawsuit-immigration-donald-trump/2025/01/21/id/1195933/
Democratic-led states and civil rights groups have filed the first lawsuits challenging executive orders U.S. President Donald Trump signed after taking office, including one that seeks to roll back birthright citizenship in the U.S.
A coalition of 18 Democratic-led states along with the District of Columbia and city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Tuesday arguing the Republican president's effort to end birthright citizenship is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
That lawsuit followed a pair of similar cases filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant organizations, and an expectant mother in the hours after Trump signed the executive order, marking the first major litigation challenging parts of his agenda since he took office on Monday.
"State attorneys general have been preparing for illegal actions like this one, and today's immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits, which were all filed in federal courts in Boston or Concord, New Hampshire, take aim at a central piece of Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown, an order directing federal agencies not to recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who are in the country illegally or are present temporarily, such as visa holders, and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.
More lawsuits by Democratic-led states and advocacy groups challenging other aspects of Trump's agenda are expected, with cases already on file challenging the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and an order Trump signed affecting job protections for civil servants.
Any rulings from judges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire would be reviewed by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose five active federal judges are all appointees of Democratic presidents, a rarity nationally.
The lawsuits argue that the executive order violated the right enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is considered a citizen.
The complaints cite the U.S. Supreme Court's 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, a decision holding that children born in the United States to noncitizen parents are entitled to U.S. citizenship.
If allowed to stand, Trump's order would mean more than 150,000 children born annually in the U.S. would be denied for the first time the right to citizenship, according to the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.
"President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights," she said in a statement.
The plaintiffs challenging the order include a woman living in Massachusetts identified only as "O. Doe" who is in the country through temporary protected status and is due to give birth in March.
Temporary protected status is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other extraordinary events and currently covers more than 1 million people from 17 nations.
Several other lawsuits challenging aspects of Trump's other early executive actions are also pending.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents federal government employees in 37 agencies and departments, late Monday filed a lawsuit challenging an order Trump signed that makes it easier to fire thousands of federal agency employees and replace them with political loyalists.
Several other lawsuits by government employee unions and public interest groups argued that DOGE violates a federal transparency law.
Criminal border crossings.
Senate Readies Final Hegseth Vote Amid New Abuse Claims
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/senate-john-thune-pete-hegseth/2025/01/21/id/1195992/
The Senate is poised to hold a final vote on Pete Hegseth's embattled nomination for defense secretary by the end of the week, despite an affidavit alleging abuse and excessive drinking that has intensified scrutiny of his candidacy, The Hill reported.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put the procedural wheels in motion to confirm Secretary of Defense nominee Hegseth by the end of the week.
Senate Republicans are moving ahead despite an affidavit from his former sister-in-law obtained by Senate Democrats that accuses him of having an alcohol problem and being abusive to his ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth.
Samantha Hegseth issued a statement to NBC News denying there was "physical abuse" in their marriage.
Thune filed a motion Tuesday to end debate on Pete Hegseth's nomination, which cleared the Senate Armed Services Committee by a party-line, 14-13 vote only hours after President-elect Donald Trump took the oath of office.
That step sets up a Senate vote on Thursday to advance Hegseth's nomination. The final vote is expected on Friday or possibly early Saturday.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told reporters that Republicans will work into the weekend to confirm Hegseth.
"The next would be on cloture, and that would be Thursday afternoon," Wicker told reporters.
Cloture is a legislative procedure in the Senate used to end debate on a measure or nomination, allowing the chamber to move forward with a vote. It typically requires the support of at least 60 senators, which prevents a minority from using extended discussion or filibusters to block final action.
Wicker dismissed the affidavit alleging that Samantha Hegseth once hid in her closet from the nominee because she feared for her safety.
"I have not reviewed the document. My reaction is that I have grave doubts as to the substance," Wicker told reporters.
"I think the nomination is going to go forward, and the next vote is going to be Thursday," he said, noting Democrats could delay a final vote until "late on Friday night."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a key Republican on military matters, also dismissed the new charge.
"I heard what his wife said. It didn't happen. I'm getting tired of this stuff being dropped at the last moment," Graham said, according to The Hill. "You got the person who denies being physically abused. That's it for me," he added, declining to address claims that the nominee frequently drank excessively. "Nah, I'm good."
Democrats say the affidavit shows Hegseth is unfit to lead the Pentagon.
"These firsthand observations are highly significant and credible and hopefully will persuade my Republican colleagues that Hegseth is unfit to be secretary of Defense," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
"There was no question that Pete Hegseth is unqualified and unprepared to be secretary of Defense. The affidavit adds additional weight to a case that is already overwhelming against him," he added.