Musk vs MAGA war: Trump camp in bitter fight over immigration, foreign worker visas
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Donald Trump has endorsed the current speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, for re-election ahead of Friday’s crucial vote when Congress returns from its holiday recess.
Johnson, who narrowly averted a government shutdown before Christmas, hopes to hold onto the gavel but cannot afford more than one Republican representative voting against him in the GOP’s narrow majority.
Taking to Truth Social to call for Republican unity, the president-elect backed the incumbent by hailing Johnson as “a good, hard working, religious man.”
“He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN,” Trump said. “Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
Elon Musk, whose antics derailed the stop-gap spending bill before Christmas, also said he is giving his “full support” to Johnson.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling against the president-elect after he challenged a jury’s verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E Jean Carroll.
Jurors “could reasonably infer” that Trump engaged in “a pattern of abrupt, nonconsensual, and physical advances on women he barely knew,” three appellate judges wrote in their decision Monday.
So, what are H-1B visas?
Rhian Lubin explains the visa program driving a wedge between Trump’s MAGA base and big business Republicans and Silicon Valley billionaires:
Alex Woodward31 December 2024 02:00
Fox News pundit questions whether Jimmy Carter was actually ‘decent’ as he ‘essentially’ called Reagan ‘racist’
Fox News contributor Bill McGurn on Monday challenged the public perception that the late President Jimmy Carter was a “decent” man, pointing out that Carter “essentially” labeled Ronald Reagan a “racist” and “warmonger” during the 1980 presidential election.
Alex Woodward31 December 2024 01:00
Nearly half of Republican voters support using military to lock up immigrants in camps
Nearly half of Republican voters believe the military should be used to detain undocumented immigrants in camps until they can be deported, according to polling from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.
Trump has already suggested that his administration would deploy U.S. military for what he is calling the “largest mass deportation operation” in American history. He also has vowed to invoke a 226-year-old law to detain immigrants in camps.
The poll shows that Trump’s base appears to support the plans even as most Americans likely oppose them.
Alex Woodward31 December 2024 00:00
Just in: Elon Musk has been staying at $2,000-a-night Mar-a-Lago cottage — hundreds of feet from Trump’s main house
Elon Musk is getting closer and closer to Donald Trump, quite literally.
The world’s wealithest man has been staying in a cottage at Mar-a-Lago, just behind the main house.
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 23:00
Fox News declares the ‘real losers’ in the MAGA civil war over visas: Democrats?
After carefully tip-toeing around the growing tensions that have rocked the GOP in recent days, Fox News appears to have finally found a narrative it can sell right-wing viewers on the MAGA civil war over immigrant visas.
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 22:30
Family detention, raids and ‘no price tag’: Trump’s mass deportation plan comes into focus
Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to arrest, detain and deport people living in the country without legal permission as part of his “day one” agenda. The president-elect promises to deploy federal, state and local law enforcement into immigrant communities he says are “poisoning the blood of the country,” relying on stories of violent crime to support a brutal crackdown that could impact millions of families.
Here’s a look at what steps Trump plans to take when he enters office:
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 21:50
Exclusive: Cash advance firm sues Mike Lindell for refusing to pay back $1.5 million loan
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has once again found himself staring down the wrong end of a seven-figure lawsuit, this time being dragged into court by a merchant cash advance firm that accuses the election fraud conspiracist of ducking out on nearly $1.5 million in outstanding debt.
Justin Rohrlich has more:
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 21:20
Just in: Jack Smith hands over Trump’s classified docs case to U.S. attorney’s office in Florida
Special counsel Jack Smith has handed over what remains of the classified documents case against Donald Trump to the U.S. attorney’s office in Florida.
The filings with the U.S. court of appeals show Smith’s team of prosecutors formally withdrawing from the case, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe taking over.
Trump is accused of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago state and obstructing efforts from federal law enfrocement agenices to retrieve them after he left office. The case was dismissed by Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, which Smith’s team appealed. Following Trump’s election victory, and the likelihood he would fire Smith and order the investigations to come to an end, Smith announced he was effectively shutting them down.
He is expected to issue a report with his office’s findings.
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 21:05
Georgia attorney general urged state’s top court against hearing Fani Willis appeal
Georgia’s attorney general Chris Carr is calling on the state’s Supreme Court to reject an appeal from Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who was removed from prosecuting the sprawling criminal case against Trump and his allies.
Earlier this month, Georgia’s Court of Appeals struck down a lower court decision and argued Willis should be taken off the case, arguing that her former romantic relationship with a special prosecutor amounted to a “significant” conflict of interest that warranted her dismissal.
Willis filed a notice of appeal shortly after the ruling.
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 20:35
U.S. attorney whose team led January 6 prosecutions is stepping down before Trump can fire him
U.S. attorney Matthew Graves is stepping down as the chief federal prosecutor in Washington D.C., effective January 16, four days before Donald Trump takes office.
Graves’s office has overseen the largest investigation in Justice Department history with the prosecution of hundreds of people in connection with the January 6 attack on the Capitol — defendants Trump has promised to pardon as soon as he enters office.
“Serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has been the honor of a lifetime,” Graves said in a statement Monday. “I am deeply thankful to Congresswoman Holmes Norton for recommending me; to President Biden for nominating me; and to Attorney General Garland for placing his trust in me.”
To date, roughly 1,600 people have been charged in connection with the attack, with nearly 1,100 receiving sentences, including sentences for the convictions of the first seditious conspiracy cases in decades.
“Because politically motivated violence and destruction rip at the fabric of our society, Mr. Graves made federally prosecuting such crimes a priority,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Here’s a look at some of the most notorious January 6 defendants that Trump could pardon when he returns to the White House.
The notorious January 6 rioters Trump could pardon
Hundreds of defendants admitted to their crimes or were convicted by juries after attacking police, threatening lawmakers or conspiring against the government. Trump could wipe their slates clean, Alex Woodward reports
Alex Woodward30 December 2024 20:15
