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After Donald Trump received the 2024 election, roughly a million customers signed up for social media website Bluesky, lots of them in protest of X’s growing right-wing tone and proprietor Elon Musk’s alliance with the Republican candidate.
Nevertheless, in accordance with one outstanding progressive, liberals shouldn’t soar ship from X simply but.
“I think that everything [Musk] has said publicly is he believes in free and open speech, and we need to have more platforms. Now, I don’t think X should be the only platform,” California congressman Ro Khanna, who represents a district in Silicon Valley, informed POLITICO’s Energy Play podcast. “Not only do I stay, I use it all the time … I don’t think that the answer for progressives is to disengage.”
Khanna has identified Musk for years and informed the podcast he hopes to seek out widespread floor on points like reducing what they see as exorbitant U.S. spending on the army.
Each the Democrat’s district and his politics make a relationship with Musk and the incoming administration unavoidable.
Khanna, a pro-tech, pro-labor Democrat, represents a swathe of Silicon Valley that includes Tesla’s Fremont manufacturing unit.
Khanna’s district comprises a Tesla manufacturing unit (Getty Photos for Court docket Accountab)
He not too long ago rallied to Musk’s protection over experiences that California was contemplating reviving a tax credit score for EVs that may possible exclude Tesla if the federal authorities follows by means of with an anticipated rollback of comparable incentives underneath Trump.
“Tesla makes over 550,000 vehicles in Fremont in my district & employs over 20,000,” Khanna wrote on X. “Let’s not play politics with keeping manufacturing in California. It would be foolish to exclude Tesla.”
Khanna has additionally praised Trump labor secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer, for her assist of the union-focused Professional Act.
“I hope I can work with her to persuade a few other Republicans to pass majority sign up, an increase in the minimum wage, and labor neutrality,” the Democratic rep wrote on X final week.
Professional-labor advocates have expressed cautious optimism over the nomination of Chavez-DeRemer, the daughter of a Teamsters union member, who’s extra pro-union than the everyday GOP member in Washington.
”This document stands in stark distinction to Donald Trump’s anti-worker, anti-union document, and his excessive Undertaking 2025 agenda that may intestine office protections, make it more durable for employees to unionize, and diminish the voice of working folks,” Nationwide Schooling Affiliation President Becky Pringle mentioned in a current assertion.
