Latest news with #MAGA-fueled
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats Are Running Circles Around Republicans on Epstein
When it comes to fighting President Donald Trump, Democrats across the nation have complained for months about the sluggish reflexes of party leaders in Washington. Who would have guessed that a MAGA-fueled conspiracy theory would change all that? Congressional Democrats appear to have finally found their mojo in sticking it to the White House by seizing on the Jeffrey Epstein saga to humiliate the president and split the GOP. Unlike in the past, senior Democrats have shown a surprisingly nimble ability in recent days to pivot to the GOP's vulnerability du jour, threatening to force votes exposing a divided Republican Party. The strategy has effectively hijacked the House, derailed Hill Republicans' agenda and forced Speaker Mike Johnson to send lawmakers packing for an early August recess. That's not to mention embarrassing Trump in the process and exposing the surprising limits of his sway on a party he's held in his clutches for the better part of a decade. 'We've been trying to say Trump is full of shit for years and it hasn't really stuck, right? But something about this topic is making a healthy portion of MAGA world — particularly folks who are not ideologically aligned with Trump but kind of flirted with him last year when they pulled the lever for him — be like, 'Yea, he's definitely full of shit,'' a senior Democratic campaign aide boasted to me. (This aide and others in the story were granted anonymity to speak candidly about dynamics on the Hill.) Even better for the Dems: Their effort tapping into MAGA world fury has legs. Between a bipartisan discharge petition expected to ripen this fall and Trump bowing to public pressure in promising to release grand jury information in the coming weeks, the issue will almost certainly remain at the forefront for weeks to come. That means Democrats will have plenty of opportunity to continue to stir the pot. At issue is Trump's handling of the Epstein files amid a public clamor for the documents' release. The president's top MAGA allies have argued for years that the government is covering up for powerful men who had connections with the convicted sex offender. But now that some of those allies are running the Justice Department, they've gone back on promises for transparency. In the middle is Trump, who once had a well-documented friendship with Epstein and who has been referenced in court documents surrounding the now deceased financier — though who is not accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. Trump has tried to smother the controversy, even scolding his supporters for obsessing. 'Everyone's always talking about Trump being 'Teflon' — obviously that's because all Hill Republicans are pretty much a suit of armor for him, right? But in this instance, they're not,' said a senior Democratic aide discussing the strategy. 'And so it exposes him, I think, to more attacks that otherwise would be brushed off — and makes it easier for us to drag his numbers down while creating chaos among the Republicans.' The most interesting part about the strategy is how organically it came together. After watching the MAGA-sphere melt down over the administration's announcement in early July that there was no 'client list,' Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) grabbed the issue, telling his colleagues that the matter was kryptonite for the GOP, according to people close to him. In the House Rules Committee, ranking Democrat Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and his team had similarly been watching the feeding frenzy with right-wing podcasters and influencers, sensing an opportunity to needle Republicans so clearly out of step with their own base. Khanna found an unexpected ally in libertarian gadfly Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), teaming up to launch a discharge petition that could let House members circumvent Johnson's attempt to keep the issue from a vote on the floor. Through it all, Democratic leaders were cheering on their members. Beyond giving Khanna tacit support to work with Massie, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries set the tone for members early last week. He insisted in press conferences and in private meetings that this issue was a lose-lose situation for Republicans: either Trump and his allies had been lying for years about what was in those files or they were right and were now hiding evidence to protect their cronies. For longtime Hill watchers like myself, Jeffries' embrace of the scandal was a surprise. AsAxios wrote last week, Jeffries has been known for an 'often taciturn approach to salacious stories of the day, preferring to remain disciplined and on-message in his public communications.' But like his members, Jeffries sensed the Epstein scandal was different, insisting it could feed into a narrative of corruption that would resonate beyond just the Democratic base. Last week, Jeffries convened his committee leaders and other key Democrats with a message: 'Keep the pressure on,' he told them, according to people privy to his closed-door instructions. Democrats then tried to force Republicans to kill language that would instruct the DOJ to release the files, a roll call that trapped Republicans between the base's fury and loyalty to Trump. By this week, when McGovern announced that he'd be running the play again, GOP members feeling the heat back home had had enough: They didn't want to vote with Trump anymore, making Johnson shut the House down early so they wouldn't have to take the vote. Senior Democratic aides say forcing these votes — or threatening to force them — successfully widened the controversy from a Trump-focused scandal to one that engulfs the entire Hill GOP, exposing rifts in the party and knocking them off their message. Democrats' messaging arm, meanwhile, sent around several rounds of talking-point guidance, including a bullet point accusing Republicans of 'protecting child sex abusers.' Leadership also encouraged rank-and-file members to use their 'paid communications budgets' to fund mailing, texting or digital solicitations to reach voters on the issue. 'No one in the government should be trying to keep the facts on these child predators hidden,' says one template I got my hands on. The strategy has Democrats sounding more like Megyn Kelly and Steve Bannon than Speaker Johnson. Yet it's working. Not only did Jeffries and his members successfully delay passage of a partisan immigration bill this week amid the GOP dysfunction, they're above-the-fold news for the first time in months — and seeing a groundswell of support online. Millions of Americans are tuning into these otherwise wonky House debates on the matter, and social media influencers with large followings are propping them up. Theo Von and Flagrant — two pro-Trump podcasters with MAGA followings — have tweeted in support of the Massie-Khanna resolution. What's more, Democrats across the nation are starting to copy the playbook, following Jeffries after months spent criticizing Washington leaders for not showing enough backbone. Behind the scenes, there's a question even among senior Democrats about whether this issue will impact the midterms. Americans, after all, are more likely to be motivated by their own pocketbooks rather than online obsessions and scandal. And Trump is doing his damndest to argue that this is exactly that: a very-online, inside-the-beltway obsession that nobody actually cares about. But House Democrats' ploy here could maybe — just maybe — have electoral impact for a few reasons, Democrats say. For one, Republicans were hoping to spend August recess selling their 'big beautiful bill' to constituents — a new law that, let's face it, needs some salesmanship, according to the polls. Now instead Republicans will be on the defensive, ducking questions about how they'll vote when the Massie-Khanna discharge petition is ready to hit the floor in September. There's also a belief among senior Democrats that this controversy feeds into a narrative that is in fact critical to 2026 messaging: that the president is more interested in protecting the rich and powerful than average Joes and children. That, they surmise, dovetails nicely with their accusations that Republicans are robbing from the poor on Medicaid and food stamps to pay for tax breaks for the rich. Notably, this moment comes less than a week after Quinnipiac Universitypolling found that Hill Democrats' approval rating has dipped to an all-time low. Fewer than two in 10 Americans approve of their performance, which is the lowest on record since the group started asking the question more than 25 years ago. But right now, it's House Republicans who are squirming. Beyond having to cancel votes, they are engulfed in finger-pointing about who's to blame for the embarrassment. Johnson spent most of Tuesday, for example, chastising Massie and some of his own members who he says are hurting their own teammates. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has been complaining that Democrats are being disingenuous, arguing that former President Joe Biden could have released the Epstein files but didn't. 'They spent four years covering up for Epstein, and you know, at least President Trump's in the courts right now trying to get documents released,' he said. Yet, at least for the moment, that pushback is getting drowned out in the frenzy. What's more, this is politics, Mr. Leader. Consistency has never been this town's strong suit.
Axios
25-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Tech's dance with the Pentagon speeds up
Silicon Valley's on-again, off-again cycle of engagement with the U.S. military is swinging hard toward defense work. The big picture: The Trump administration has opened the door to spending, the Pentagon is pushing modernization and a new era of instability and flash wars has engulfed the world just as AI is remaking the entire tech industry. Driving the news: The Army announced earlier this month that four tech executives would become lieutenant colonels in the new Reserve Detachment 201: Meta CTO Adam Bosworth, OpenAI product head Kevin Weil, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Bob McGrew, a Palantir and OpenAI veteran. The Detachment 201 project, whose genesis predates the second Trump administration, aims to fast-track the introduction of Silicon Valley expertise into the vast defense bureaucracy. These new commissions put a human face on an epochal shift of tech industry energy into defense work. Hardware firms are pushing aerospace projects, satellites and drones, autonomous vehicles and VR and AR headsets. Software providers bring data collection, management and analysis tools for everything from Defense Department supply-chain management to cybersecurity to real-time battlefield decision making . Meanwhile, everyone is promoting AI as the all-purpose answer to taming the Pentagon's vast unwieldy systems and unlocking a competitive edge for the U.S. in its global conflicts and rivalries, most urgently with China. Last week DoD awarded a $200 million contract to OpenAI to "develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains." Google and Anthropic are also working with the Pentagon. Industry critics have painted this shift as a MAGA-fueled power grab by a new generation of contractors — like Palantir, Anduril and Elon Musk's companies — and investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel. Yes, but: While those players are definitely making hay as their allies (former venture capitalist Vice President Vance, White House tech adviser David Sacks) have assumed power, tech's new defense mania is part of a decades-long oscillation by the industry. Today's Silicon Valley got its start 75 years ago thanks to a flood of postwar defense contracting work that flowed toward Stanford and the nascent Santa Clara Valley electronics industry. That engagement ebbed during the 1970s with stagflation and post-Vietnam cuts, surged again in the 1980s under Reagan's Cold War defense ramp-up, then dropped once more in the 1990s as the Soviet empire collapsed and the internet blossomed. Post 9/11, many tech firms rushed to join the "global war on terror" — only to disengage once more as the U.S.'s Afghan and Iraq wars faltered. Our thought bubble: Tech's reputation as a left-leaning industry — inspired by its San Francisco Bay Area roots and the counterculture heritage of both the personal computing and internet revolutions — is largely a myth. Any time the federal government has been willing to throw dollars at defense technology, the tech industry has been eager to sell. Between the lines: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's emphasis on a " culture of lethality" might once have raised hackles in tech boardrooms and among staff. But AI companies — even those that put "safety" at the heart of their missions — are now rushing to compete for deals, as a call to patriotism has replaced an insistence on caution along the road to "superintelligence." OpenAI, Google and other AI leaders who once had policies barring certain kinds of military and weapons work have removed or loosened those rules over the past two years. What to watch: Support for the tech-Pentagon alliance — both inside firms and among the broader public — could splinter if AI, autonomous vehicles and other advanced tech plays a high-profile role in Trump administration immigration enforcement efforts or military deployments in U.S. cities.
NBC News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie finds himself on an island in his feud with Trump
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is finding few friends on Capitol Hill in his escalating feud with Donald Trump, with Republicans wary of taking sides against the powerful president. As Massie has repeatedly bucked Trump on both his domestic and foreign policy agendas, Trump's political team has launched a super PAC aimed at booting Massie, a seven-term congressman, out of office. But most Republicans want little to do with what is likely to be a messy and pricey primary battle in Kentucky's 4th District next year that pits their colleague against Trump world. Asked Tuesday by NBC News whether he'd defend Massie in a primary, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it the 'hardest question I had this morning,' prompting some laughs from his leadership team standing behind him. 'I'm a leader of my party here, and the speaker leads the incumbent protection program. I got to make sure everybody gets re-elected,' Johnson said. But he also added that he 'certainly understands the president's frustration about the colleague you named, and he and I talk about that quite a bit.' Other rank-and-file members echoed the sentiment. Rep. James Comer, Massie's fellow Kentucky Republican, said: 'I try to get along with my colleagues, but I sure want to get along with the president.' Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who fended off a MAGA-fueled primary challenger last year, said he'd rather steer clear of the fight. 'Teaming up to go against President Trump? Yeah, no, that doesn't sound like a winning mission for me,' Gonzales said. 'I'll sit this one out, boys. You all let me know how it goes.' And even Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio — who, like Massie, opposed Trump's strikes on Iran over the weekend and his 'big, beautiful bill' on the House floor last month — was careful not to choose sides. 'I like both of them,' Davidson said. 'So I hope they get along better.' The predicament is that while Republicans generally want to support a colleague who is coming under attack, they also see little upside to angering Trump. In addition, Massie has long been a nuisance for Republican leaders in Congress. This year alone, he has voted against Johnson's speakership bid, the party's sweeping domestic policy package and a government funding bill. Now, he is still reserving the right to force a floor vote on a war powers resolution if the ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran doesn't hold. And his scorched-earth tactics in his fight with Trump aren't helping him win over allies, either. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance posted on X: 'I wonder if other VPs had as much excitement as I do.' Massie replied to the post: 'Ask Mike Pence about his last month' — an apparent reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol when Trump supporters called for Pence to be hanged. So far, Massie's most vocal supporter in the GOP is Sen. Rand Paul, another Kentucky Republican who has also been a thorn in Trump's side. 'He's the most faithful to the Constitution of any of the members of the House. He's fiscally conservative, and I think he cares a lot about Kentucky,' Paul said of Massie. 'And I think that's what they'll remember when they vote for him.' The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm, typically doesn't get involved in primaries, but it has resources available for incumbents. Outside groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund could get involved in primaries if they choose, but they tend to spend their resources on battleground races that will determine the House majority. It's also not unusual for individual lawmakers to chip in donations to colleagues in tough races. Massie sounded unbothered by Johnson's lack of commitment to supporting him. 'Whether he's for me or against me, the results are probably the same,' he said. For the libertarian-minded Massie, being on an island — and the subject of Trump's attacks — is nothing new. Trump encouraged a primary challenge to Massie in 2020 after he voted against a Covid relief package, but a serious contender never emerged. Massie that year handily defeated a GOP primary opponent who tried to align himself with Trump, even though Trump didn't make an endorsement, a victory that Massie argued gave him 'Trump antibodies' in his solidly red district. Trump even went on to endorse Massie for re-election two years later. Massie told NBC News that some of his recent 'sassy with Massie' social media posts about Trump have earned him some private fist bumps from Republicans. Massie has also sought to capitalize financially off of Trump's attacks, saying that over the last 24 hours, he has raised $140,000 from 1,648 donors. While Massie sounded confident he could go up against Trump, he also acknowledged he'd prefer not to have Trump pouring in resources against him. Asked whether he sees an off-ramp to the feud, he quipped: 'I'm looking for a ceasefire.' So far, only one Republican — Niki Lee Ethington — has filed to run in the primary in the 4th District. According to her campaign website, Ethington is a registered nurse who graduated in 2021 and hasn't held public office. Republicans think that if Trump continues to make him a top target and is able to recruit a formidable challenger, it could be a problem for Massie. 'His endorsement is going to make or break you in the Republican Party,' said Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. 'It's about his trust and who he wants to partner with.' Asked whether he was committed to running for re-election, Massie suggested he was dug in: 'If they would just quit hitting me, I might get bored and give up, but I am not going to lose. I do not lose.'
Hindustan Times
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Lillie Schechter's husband, Brian Trachtenberg misidentified as Minnesota shooter; issues urgent plea
MAGA falsely accused a Texas man of being Vance Boelter, the suspect charged with killing two Minnesota lawmakers and injuring their spouses in a shooting over the weekend, and they are now struggling to reverse their claim. The real suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, was arrested Sunday night in the woods near his home in Green Isle, Sibley County, in 'the largest manhunt in state history.' Hennepin County authorities say he faces two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is set to appear in court Monday afternoon. But as law enforcement was closing in on Boelter, MAGA users were spreading a very different and very wrong narrative. ALSO READ| Who are named in Vance Boelter's manifesto? Shocking list mentions Amy Klobuchar, Kelly Morrison and more A photo from a political rally in Texas went viral, showing Brian Trachtenberg and his wife, Lillie Schechter, former Chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, Houston, Texas, wearing a 'gun' t-shirt. The image surfaced after a larger thread posted by right-wing author Trisha Hope. In it, MAGA activist 'MAGA Michelle S' falsely identified the man in the picture as Boelter, trying to suggest that the Minnesota shooting suspect had ties to liberal activism. This claim, however, fell apart almost immediately under scrutiny. Community notes on the platform X (formerly Twitter) quickly corrected the misinformation, clearly stating that the man in the photo is actually Brian Trachtenberg, not Vance Boelter. 'MAGA will believe anything if you just put a caption on a photo, even that a guy who was in Minnesota murdering people was also at a rally in Texas,' a Brooklyn-based attorney posted on X. 'Over the past six months I have changed from being a lifelong anti-gunner to an avid shooter,' Trachtenberg posted on Facebook following the frenzy. 'I produced (with intent to sell), and wore a pro-gun, pro-resistance, pro-Dem (to me, at least) shirt and wore it to Houston's beautiful, non-violent No Kings rally. Some people scowled, and some took pics of me in my tee with joy.' 'Well. Someone took that pic, said it was a pic of the MN shooter of Dem lawmakers, and launched it far and wide. All over the right wing social sphere, I am Vance Boelter, and Lillie Schechter, who has devoted her life to peace, love, and Democracy (and who doesn't share my views in guns), is his allegedly complicit wife,' he clarified. ALSO READ| Minnesota suspect Vance Boelter's wife, Jenny, was an intern with Tim Walz? Here's the truth Notably, the MAGA-fueled post remained up for hours, even after the correction, racking up thousands of views and shares.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Is Bleeding Hundreds of Millions Thanks to Musk's War
The explosion of Donald Trump's once-cozy friendship with Elon Musk is hitting them hard where it hurts most—in the pocketbook. As reported Thursday, Musk's personal fortune was cut by $26.6 billion after Tesla shares slumped by more than 14 percent, wiping a mind-boggling $150 billion off the EV giant's market value. But Trump isn't escaping unscathed. According to Axios, Trump Media & Technology Group stock declined 8 percent, while his MAGA-fueled $TRUMP cryptocurrency tumbled 12 percent—bleeding him of more than a billion dollars. The website reported that the 8 percent dip in Trump Media & Technology Group cost the president around $202 million. But he may be more concerned by the roughly 10 percent decline in the value of of his Official Trump meme coin, potentially costing him nearly $900 million. As Axios noted: 'Both men got to vent their frustrations publicly, and it only cost them about $21 billion.' The dramatic split was triggered when Musk, having departed his DOGE post on May 30, torched Trump's so-called 'One Big Beautiful Bill'—a sprawling tax-and-spending package—as a 'disgusting abomination.' Musk, who had personally poured nearly $300 million into Republican campaigns in 2024, tweeted: 'Without me, Trump would have lost.' After an uncharacteristic delay, Trump hit back—threatening to strip federal contracts from Musk's companies, which would kill electric vehicle tax credits and cost Tesla $1.2 billion this year, according to JPMorgan analysts. Musk then pressed the nuclear button by alleging Trump's name appears in sealed legal files on the late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. He also called for Trump's impeachment, responding 'yes' to a user on X who wrote: 'Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.' However, a truce may be on the horizon, as Trump and Musk are expected to speak in person on Friday, according to Politico's White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns. Perhaps, as the old adage goes, money really does talk.
