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Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Gates
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Federal agents briefly detain aide at New York Rep. Jerry Nadler’s office during nearby protests against migrant detentions
by Alaa Elassar and Gloria Pazmino
CNN
Updated Jun 1, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/01/us/rep-j ... ongressman
[x]
US Congressman Jerry Nadler speaks to members of the media at US Immigration Court in New York City on May 28, 2025. David 'Dee' Delgado/Reuters
Federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security handcuffed and briefly detained a staff member in New York Rep. Jerry Nadler’s Manhattan district office on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the congressman.
Video taken by a person inside Nadler’s office, obtained and reported by Gothamist, shows one of his aides being handcuffed by an agent with the Federal Protective Service while another agent tries to access an area inside the office.
In the footage, a second staffer stands in front of the agent and asks if he has a warrant. “You’re harboring rioters in the office,” the federal agent is heard telling her, before walking in. In the background, the handcuffed aide is heard crying while someone tries to comfort her.
The agents allegedly entered Nadler’s office because they were told protesters were present and the agents “were concerned about the safety” of employees in the office, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN in a statement on Saturday.
Activists on Wednesday were protesting outside of Varick Immigration Court — located on a different floor of the same building as Nadler’s office — in opposition to the detention of migrants at the courthouse by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Upon the officers’ arrival, they identified themselves and said they were conducting a security check when “one individual became verbally confrontational and physically blocked access to the office,” the statement said.
“The officers then detained the individual in the hallway for the purpose of completing the security check. All were released without further incident,” DHS said.
Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s chief of staff, told CNN on Sunday the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events was a “total fabrication.”
The incident occurred as the Trump administration has taken extraordinary measures to crack down on immigration, aggressively pressuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick up the pace of migrant arrests and touting mass deportation plans.
Nadler called the incident “deeply troubling” in a Saturday statement and confirmed Department of Homeland Security officers “forcefully” entered his office and handcuffed the staff member.
Video taken inside Rep. Jerry Nadler's district office in New York City shows one of his staff members being handcuffed and detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the congressman.
“President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are sowing chaos in our communities, using intimidation tactics against both citizens and non-citizens in a reckless and dangerous manner,” he said, adding the incident showed a “deeply troubling disregard for proper legal boundaries.”
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone – and it is happening,” Nadler said.
“I call on President Trump and DHS to halt the use of these dangerous tactics and to abandon use of the expedited removal process which denies due process to immigrants and citizens alike,” the New York representative said.
Gottheim said the agents appeared “upset” because members of Nadler’s staff witnessed the officers detaining migrants inside the building, and because staffers had invited advocates who saw the detentions to the congressman’s office.
Court watchers, advocates and some members of Nadler’s staff had gathered on the fifth floor, which houses the immigration court, to observe court activity following reports that immigration officers were detaining migrants after their immigration appointments.
Staff members noticed ICE officers were in the lobby holding sheets of paper with pictures of asylum seekers who were coming in for their hearings, Gottheim said.
“Really what happened is we have these ICE officers who are working with Federal Protective Services, upset that we are watching them, seeing what they’re doing, and that we invited these other people who were observing back to our office,” Gottheim told CNN.
Officers ignored staffers’ requests to see a warrant, he added.
“They push their way into the office, even though my staff doesn’t want them in,” Gottheim said. “They had no right to be in the office, and there’s no exigent circumstances of why they would have come: We didn’t call them for assistance, there was no riot, there was no protest going on in the office.”
Nadler was not in the office at the time of the incident but arrived shortly after his staff called him to alert him to what was unfolding.
The aide was still detained when he arrived, according to Gottheim, but Nadler spoke with the officers and helped defuse the situation so that the staffer could be released.
Activists express outrage at migrants being detained at court hearings
Twenty-three people were taken into custody during Wednesday’s protest, according to police, CNN affiliate CBS New York reported. CNN has reached out to the New York Police Department for comment and additional information regarding the arrests.
Protesters told CBS New York they began demonstrating after witnesses reported that several people were taken into custody inside the ICE field office in SoHo.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been working here for a couple years and I’ve never seen this many agents, let alone agents dressed in plain clothes, wearing masks, pulling people out of line. It’s totally out of the ordinary,” a man named Ben told CBS New York.
Videos taken at the protests showed how tensions escalated when officers and demonstrators clashed over the barricades.
“People say, ‘Oh, let them come in legally,’ and when they try to come in legally and follow court proceedings they’re being kidnapped,” a woman named Mariposa told CBS New York.
The White House is putting intense pressure on law enforcement agencies across the government to meet a goal of one million deportations per year, leading to a surge of agents and officers across the federal government focusing their attention on arrests and deportation efforts.
In New York City, activists have intensified their efforts to protest the rising number of migrant deportations, staging multiple demonstrations in opposition of the administration’s controversial moves against immigrants.
One of the latest incidents was the arrest of a 20-year-old New York City public school student named Dylan, a Venezuelan national who was detained by ICE on May 21 after a hearing in federal immigration court regarding his asylum request, CNN affiliate WABC reported.
“Dylan is a 20-year-old student who followed our legal process and is trying to get an education and provide for his family,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said on X. “ICE took advantage of his court date to arrest him. It’s despicable.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson released a statement on Wednesday demanding “accountability” for Dylan and slammed the Trump administration, who she said is unfairly targeting and exploiting immigrant families.
“Dylan did everything right. He enrolled in school in our Borough and got his license to obtain a delivery job to take care of his younger siblings,” Gibson wrote. “It is outrageous and horrible to learn he was detained by federal authorities last week during a court appearance. This is unacceptable and nothing short of an injustice.”
Advocates report that under the Trump administration, it’s becoming more frequent for ICE to detain migrants at their immigration court appearances.
“It’s a catch-22. You don’t show up for your court hearing then you could also be ordered removed from the country and deported,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told CBS New York.
CNN’s Sharif Paget contributed to this report.
******************************************
Trump administration arrests ANOTHER Democrat
by Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias
Jun 4, 2025 Democracy Watch with Marc Elias
Democracy Watch episode 317: Marc Elias discusses the arrest of a Democratic staffer by the Trump administration.
Transcript
[__] No, she did not ! That is not what happened !
That is not the -- Okay, what --
Hold on a second
contact information right now no I'm
going to sign you
hey we got you we got you
i don't have You're okay you're okay
you're going to be okay i'm a federal
officer we're here checking on something
we have the right to check i'm giving
you a warrant i'm not resisting stop
resisting you you harboring riers in the
office
so there's not a problem let's walk
inside let's walk in for what let me see
what's in here let's go
this is Democracy Watch mark that was an
aid of Jerry Nadlers getting arrested by
the Department of Homeland Security in
uh Nadler's Manhattan office being
handcuffed uh can you give an update in
terms of where we stand right now and
the legality of this move by the Trump
administration yeah this is
extraordinary i mean when we say it's an
aid this is a congressional staffer this
is someone who is employed by a member
of Congress in the legislative branch
which is a co-equal branch of government
and for Donald Trump's administration to
send into a congressional office to
begin with uh uh these folks is
extraordinary for them to then take the
position that they are going to handcuff
the congressional aid uh the the
congressional staffer is just you know
almost unprecedented i mean I I was
trying to recall anything akin to this
and the only thing that came to mind
believe it or not was in 2006
uh the Department of Justice under
George W bush uh executed a search
warrant in a congressional office
against Bill Jefferson this was the the
Louisiana congressman remember the cash
in the freezer uh uh situation this was
his office and it caused such an outrage
such an uproar among Republicans in
Congress as well as Democrats right the
the the Republican speaker Denny Hastard
was upset about it the the Democrats
were upset about it that George W bush
had to issue a statement saying that
they were reviewing the situation and uh
and that they would you know sort of
figure out how to handle this in the
future i mean that was a Republican
president a Republican Department of
Justice uh uh where you had you know
obviously there was cash in the guy's
freezer and all kinds of other problems
and and but there was still a
recognition that going into a
congressional office even where there
had been a search warrant approved by a
federal judge was a really big deal and
yet here we have this situation and the
Trump administration acts like this is
business as usual notwithstanding the
unprecedented nature of this move can
you speak on the legality of of the
Trump administration going in here and
effectuating this arrest yeah so look I
think there are two questions with
respect to the legality the first is was
it legal for them to enter into the
congressional office the way they did
it's a little hard from the video to
tell how exactly they got in whether
they burst themselves in or whether they
were invited in the second is the what
is clearly an arrest right this person
has been detained against their will
they're not free to go they are they are
handcuffed and there even setting aside
the the the constitutional issues
separation of powers issues the question
is what what what probable cause do they
have to make an arrest here what
possible basis did they have it doesn't
look like this woman was was somehow a
threat to to law enforcement but again
we need to then return to the the what
I'll call the article one issue which is
whether or not it was legal at all for
them to do this to a congressional
staffer performing their congressional
duties uh presumably on congressional
time and I think that's something the
courts are going to have to uh sort out
i suspect what's you're going to see now
is the Department of Justice back away
from all of this and say "Oh you know no
harm no foul no problem here." much like
they've tried to do with the mayor of
Newark by the way and we just saw the
mayor of Newark uh file a lawsuit so
that's what I want to dig into because
we've now seen the mayor of Newark we've
seen this judge out in Wisconsin we've
seen Representative McGyver and now this
congressional aid in Jerry Nadler's
office all suffer at the hands of a
Trump administration that's decided to
wield their power against these folks
and so what is the ultimate goal here by
this administration in in in exercising
their power in the way that they are
yeah so I want to point out that in each
and every one of those instances it has
been the Department of Justice or it or
the Department of Homeland Security uh
the Trump administration exercising this
extraordinary power uh in something
involving immigration right like you
know for all of the rhetoric that the
administration came into office about
how they were going after the worst of
the worst and they were going to lock up
the criminals and all of that what so
far what they've managed to do is target
a whole bunch of Democratic officials
and Democratic judges and Democratic uh
and Democratic staff and so what it
tells me is that if you want to
understand what Donald Trump's
administration is about you have to
understand it is about the use of the
federal government's power to go after
Donald Trump's opponents and his
political enemies and that is what I
think we are seeing there is no chance
that we would see the Department of
Justice arrest a Republican judge or
Republican member of Congress how do we
know that because they are actually
pardoning Republican members of Congress
in the case of Cory Mills they they have
prosecutors that won't even sign uh uh
they they won't even sign documents that
that would allow the prosecution to
proceed yeah we saw theo the wholesale
pardoning of of January 6 uh
insurrection so this is this is you know
just very very clear to me that we
cannot get lost in the details of what
did this judge do with this courtroom
and what did this member of Congress do
here and what did this staffer do here
because that's the game the Trump
administration wants us to play they
want us to reduce this to the individual
facts and say well you know the mayor
probably shouldn't have been where he
was but after all we dismissed the
charges and the staffer probably
shouldn't have been where she was but we
you know dropped that and the judge was
wrong and blah blah blah blah blah what
we need to do is recognize what's really
going on here which is just the use and
abuse of of the power of the federal
government which is an awesome power
this is taxpayer you know funded
limitless resources to intimidate people
who are who Donald Trump doesn't want
standing in his way and to send a
message frankly to the rest of us to me
to Brian to you to everyone watching
here that you need better watch your
step or else that power can come for you
too and I would note to that exact point
of being able to use your voice and
speak out uh you have been relentless in
doing exactly that you have a new
YouTube channel called Democracy Docket
that I'm going to put right here on the
screen and also on the post description
of this video for anybody watching if
you are not yet subscribed to Democracy
Docket and you want to support Mark's
work elevate his voice please hit the
subscribe button doesn't cost you
anything to do that but it will it will
uh amplify his voice in this ecosystem
which is desperately needed mark to this
exact point you you mentioned that
everything they're doing ultimately
boils down to the issue of immigration
and so is there some worry from a
political perspective that raising a
stink over this issue is clearly
something that they want they wouldn't
be wielding this awesome power if if
they didn't think they were on somewhat
firm uh at least political ground at
least PR ground uh if not legal grounds
but is there some concern that that by
virtue of doing this that that we we are
feeding into exactly what they want by
really engaging in a fight over
immigration because every day that we're
talking about somebody getting arrested
in Newark or arrested in Wisconsin or
arrested in Jerry Nadler's office in in
New York that's another day that we're
not talking about them cutting 13.7 uh
million people off of their Medicaid
gutting $300 billion in food assistance
whatever whatever it is that they're
trying to distract us from so that we
can talk about immigration that we're
falling into their trap by virtue of
doing it yeah so I think the answer is
no for two reasons the first on the pure
politics of it I actually think the
Trump administration has miscalculated
here and I think they've realized it i
think it's part of the reasons frankly
why they dropped the charges against the
mayor uh in Newark i think it's the
reason why you know they are trying to
reccalibrate um some of the the
deportation or the the the the um
transporting of migrants uh uh expelling
migrants out of the country because I
think they actually realized they lost
that war because it became a fight about
due process and to the extent that this
is a fight about due process should you
be handcuffing a a woman in a
congressional office should you be
arresting the mayor of Newark when he is
in Newark you know should you be uh you
know arresting uh uh federal uh state
judges in Wisconsin um should you be
dismantling the the Department of
Justice's wall against political
interference should you be sending
people to goologs in foreign countries
without even giving them any notice and
hearings and they're losing on that
issue because actually due process is
extremely popular among the American
public the fact is one of the things in
popular culture that we all have grown
up with is this notion that everybody
gets their say in court right you always
get your chance to pitch your argument
to the judge that there is a burden of
proof and that it is on the government
that there is a presumption of innocence
that everybody enjoys and so I actually
think politically the Trump
administration has found itself on a
back foot on some of this stuff because
it's not seen as a fight about
immigration it's seen as a fight about
due process the second thing is though
Brian to your point it's why I say we
should not dwell on the details of each
of these individual cases because that's
actually what Donald Trump wants instead
we need to recognize this as just Donald
Trump doing what he said he would do he
said that he would have vengeance and
this is vengeance he said he would be he
would be retribution for the MAGA
movement this is his retribution he said
that that he expects complete that he'd
be a dictator and dictators obviously
expect complete loyalty from their
sickopants and that's what he's getting
and so so I think that that that we that
we need to talk about these things
because these are
manifestations of a dictatorial and
authoritarian promise that he made that
he's now trying to carry out that that
was perfectly put mark let's finish off
with this i would ask is there do do you
think that there should be some concern
among Republicans in Congress
establishing a precedent where a
president of one political party can
just wield uh the federal government
like a cudgel against members of the
opposite party i mean these are the same
people that would lose their skulls if
Barack Obama or Joe Biden or some
subsequent you know some future
Democratic president tried to do uh to
do the same thing and so but but by
virtue of being quiet now by virtue of
enabling this and emboldening Trump to
continue doing this because they're not
going to offer any push back doesn't
that create a precedent that these
people would again lose their minds over
if and when it's it's exercised in the
future yeah look that's the reason why I
started with the William Jefferson
example because the fact is Republicans
in Congress did lose their minds when it
was a Republican president uh uh going
after a Democrat because they saw that
risk i mean you know just as you point
out let's think about this for a second
so there are from time to time these
incidents of where a staffer or even
members of Congress bring firearms into
the capital and there's some there's
some issue could you imagine if if Joe
Biden in one of those instances had said
"Look we need to send the Capitol police
your own police or the DC police or the
FBI into an office to ask questions."
not even to arrest anyone just to ask
questions about you know whether the it
would be front page news among the
entire right-wing media eos i mean the
full media ecosystem for weeks and weeks
and weeks they would call him a dictator
i mean impeachment proceedings would
begin that's exactly right and so you
would think that Republicans would have
some reason to not want to set this
precedent but I think what they
understand is what you just said is that
there is this double standard i mean the
fact is that that that when that would
happen if this happens in the future
with a Democrat even for the best of and
most innocent of reasons um uh the
Republicans will jump all over it the
right-wing media system uh ecosystem
will jump all over it and then the
legacy media will feel the need because
they always feel the need uh to then say
well this is a legitimate issue and
let's let's unpack this and so meanwhile
there's only a price to be paid on one
side and there's no price to be paid on
the other side and that's part of the
reason why you know I think Republicans
feel like they can get away with this
it's part of the reason why you know you
have the the legacy media hawking books
about whether Joe Biden remembered
someone's name or not at the same time
that Donald Trump is literally reposting
whether whether Joe Biden was in in fact
died and has been replaced by a robot
yeah i mean uh where are the where are
the where where is the legacy media
hawking books on that right right well
look I think that that underscores the
importance of trying to trying to uh uh
gain some parody in this asymmetric
media ecosystem and and again for
everybody who's watching right now a
small step that we can all take to do
that is to subscribe to Mark's YouTube
channel Democracy Docket i'll put the
link right here on the screen and also
in the post description of this video
i'm Brian Teller Cohen i'm Mark Elias
this is Democracy Watch
by Alaa Elassar and Gloria Pazmino
CNN
Updated Jun 1, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/01/us/rep-j ... ongressman
[x]
US Congressman Jerry Nadler speaks to members of the media at US Immigration Court in New York City on May 28, 2025. David 'Dee' Delgado/Reuters
Federal agents with the Department of Homeland Security handcuffed and briefly detained a staff member in New York Rep. Jerry Nadler’s Manhattan district office on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the congressman.
Video taken by a person inside Nadler’s office, obtained and reported by Gothamist, shows one of his aides being handcuffed by an agent with the Federal Protective Service while another agent tries to access an area inside the office.
In the footage, a second staffer stands in front of the agent and asks if he has a warrant. “You’re harboring rioters in the office,” the federal agent is heard telling her, before walking in. In the background, the handcuffed aide is heard crying while someone tries to comfort her.
The agents allegedly entered Nadler’s office because they were told protesters were present and the agents “were concerned about the safety” of employees in the office, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN in a statement on Saturday.
Activists on Wednesday were protesting outside of Varick Immigration Court — located on a different floor of the same building as Nadler’s office — in opposition to the detention of migrants at the courthouse by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Upon the officers’ arrival, they identified themselves and said they were conducting a security check when “one individual became verbally confrontational and physically blocked access to the office,” the statement said.
“The officers then detained the individual in the hallway for the purpose of completing the security check. All were released without further incident,” DHS said.
Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s chief of staff, told CNN on Sunday the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events was a “total fabrication.”
The incident occurred as the Trump administration has taken extraordinary measures to crack down on immigration, aggressively pressuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick up the pace of migrant arrests and touting mass deportation plans.
Nadler called the incident “deeply troubling” in a Saturday statement and confirmed Department of Homeland Security officers “forcefully” entered his office and handcuffed the staff member.
Video taken inside Rep. Jerry Nadler's district office in New York City shows one of his staff members being handcuffed and detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the congressman.
“President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are sowing chaos in our communities, using intimidation tactics against both citizens and non-citizens in a reckless and dangerous manner,” he said, adding the incident showed a “deeply troubling disregard for proper legal boundaries.”
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone – and it is happening,” Nadler said.
“I call on President Trump and DHS to halt the use of these dangerous tactics and to abandon use of the expedited removal process which denies due process to immigrants and citizens alike,” the New York representative said.
Gottheim said the agents appeared “upset” because members of Nadler’s staff witnessed the officers detaining migrants inside the building, and because staffers had invited advocates who saw the detentions to the congressman’s office.
Court watchers, advocates and some members of Nadler’s staff had gathered on the fifth floor, which houses the immigration court, to observe court activity following reports that immigration officers were detaining migrants after their immigration appointments.
Staff members noticed ICE officers were in the lobby holding sheets of paper with pictures of asylum seekers who were coming in for their hearings, Gottheim said.
“Really what happened is we have these ICE officers who are working with Federal Protective Services, upset that we are watching them, seeing what they’re doing, and that we invited these other people who were observing back to our office,” Gottheim told CNN.
Officers ignored staffers’ requests to see a warrant, he added.
“They push their way into the office, even though my staff doesn’t want them in,” Gottheim said. “They had no right to be in the office, and there’s no exigent circumstances of why they would have come: We didn’t call them for assistance, there was no riot, there was no protest going on in the office.”
Nadler was not in the office at the time of the incident but arrived shortly after his staff called him to alert him to what was unfolding.
The aide was still detained when he arrived, according to Gottheim, but Nadler spoke with the officers and helped defuse the situation so that the staffer could be released.
Activists express outrage at migrants being detained at court hearings
Twenty-three people were taken into custody during Wednesday’s protest, according to police, CNN affiliate CBS New York reported. CNN has reached out to the New York Police Department for comment and additional information regarding the arrests.
Protesters told CBS New York they began demonstrating after witnesses reported that several people were taken into custody inside the ICE field office in SoHo.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been working here for a couple years and I’ve never seen this many agents, let alone agents dressed in plain clothes, wearing masks, pulling people out of line. It’s totally out of the ordinary,” a man named Ben told CBS New York.
Videos taken at the protests showed how tensions escalated when officers and demonstrators clashed over the barricades.
“People say, ‘Oh, let them come in legally,’ and when they try to come in legally and follow court proceedings they’re being kidnapped,” a woman named Mariposa told CBS New York.
The White House is putting intense pressure on law enforcement agencies across the government to meet a goal of one million deportations per year, leading to a surge of agents and officers across the federal government focusing their attention on arrests and deportation efforts.
In New York City, activists have intensified their efforts to protest the rising number of migrant deportations, staging multiple demonstrations in opposition of the administration’s controversial moves against immigrants.
One of the latest incidents was the arrest of a 20-year-old New York City public school student named Dylan, a Venezuelan national who was detained by ICE on May 21 after a hearing in federal immigration court regarding his asylum request, CNN affiliate WABC reported.
“Dylan is a 20-year-old student who followed our legal process and is trying to get an education and provide for his family,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said on X. “ICE took advantage of his court date to arrest him. It’s despicable.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson released a statement on Wednesday demanding “accountability” for Dylan and slammed the Trump administration, who she said is unfairly targeting and exploiting immigrant families.
“Dylan did everything right. He enrolled in school in our Borough and got his license to obtain a delivery job to take care of his younger siblings,” Gibson wrote. “It is outrageous and horrible to learn he was detained by federal authorities last week during a court appearance. This is unacceptable and nothing short of an injustice.”
Advocates report that under the Trump administration, it’s becoming more frequent for ICE to detain migrants at their immigration court appearances.
“It’s a catch-22. You don’t show up for your court hearing then you could also be ordered removed from the country and deported,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, told CBS New York.
CNN’s Sharif Paget contributed to this report.
******************************************
Trump administration arrests ANOTHER Democrat
by Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias
Jun 4, 2025 Democracy Watch with Marc Elias
Democracy Watch episode 317: Marc Elias discusses the arrest of a Democratic staffer by the Trump administration.
Transcript
[__] No, she did not ! That is not what happened !
That is not the -- Okay, what --
Hold on a second
contact information right now no I'm
going to sign you
hey we got you we got you
i don't have You're okay you're okay
you're going to be okay i'm a federal
officer we're here checking on something
we have the right to check i'm giving
you a warrant i'm not resisting stop
resisting you you harboring riers in the
office
so there's not a problem let's walk
inside let's walk in for what let me see
what's in here let's go
this is Democracy Watch mark that was an
aid of Jerry Nadlers getting arrested by
the Department of Homeland Security in
uh Nadler's Manhattan office being
handcuffed uh can you give an update in
terms of where we stand right now and
the legality of this move by the Trump
administration yeah this is
extraordinary i mean when we say it's an
aid this is a congressional staffer this
is someone who is employed by a member
of Congress in the legislative branch
which is a co-equal branch of government
and for Donald Trump's administration to
send into a congressional office to
begin with uh uh these folks is
extraordinary for them to then take the
position that they are going to handcuff
the congressional aid uh the the
congressional staffer is just you know
almost unprecedented i mean I I was
trying to recall anything akin to this
and the only thing that came to mind
believe it or not was in 2006
uh the Department of Justice under
George W bush uh executed a search
warrant in a congressional office
against Bill Jefferson this was the the
Louisiana congressman remember the cash
in the freezer uh uh situation this was
his office and it caused such an outrage
such an uproar among Republicans in
Congress as well as Democrats right the
the the Republican speaker Denny Hastard
was upset about it the the Democrats
were upset about it that George W bush
had to issue a statement saying that
they were reviewing the situation and uh
and that they would you know sort of
figure out how to handle this in the
future i mean that was a Republican
president a Republican Department of
Justice uh uh where you had you know
obviously there was cash in the guy's
freezer and all kinds of other problems
and and but there was still a
recognition that going into a
congressional office even where there
had been a search warrant approved by a
federal judge was a really big deal and
yet here we have this situation and the
Trump administration acts like this is
business as usual notwithstanding the
unprecedented nature of this move can
you speak on the legality of of the
Trump administration going in here and
effectuating this arrest yeah so look I
think there are two questions with
respect to the legality the first is was
it legal for them to enter into the
congressional office the way they did
it's a little hard from the video to
tell how exactly they got in whether
they burst themselves in or whether they
were invited in the second is the what
is clearly an arrest right this person
has been detained against their will
they're not free to go they are they are
handcuffed and there even setting aside
the the the constitutional issues
separation of powers issues the question
is what what what probable cause do they
have to make an arrest here what
possible basis did they have it doesn't
look like this woman was was somehow a
threat to to law enforcement but again
we need to then return to the the what
I'll call the article one issue which is
whether or not it was legal at all for
them to do this to a congressional
staffer performing their congressional
duties uh presumably on congressional
time and I think that's something the
courts are going to have to uh sort out
i suspect what's you're going to see now
is the Department of Justice back away
from all of this and say "Oh you know no
harm no foul no problem here." much like
they've tried to do with the mayor of
Newark by the way and we just saw the
mayor of Newark uh file a lawsuit so
that's what I want to dig into because
we've now seen the mayor of Newark we've
seen this judge out in Wisconsin we've
seen Representative McGyver and now this
congressional aid in Jerry Nadler's
office all suffer at the hands of a
Trump administration that's decided to
wield their power against these folks
and so what is the ultimate goal here by
this administration in in in exercising
their power in the way that they are
yeah so I want to point out that in each
and every one of those instances it has
been the Department of Justice or it or
the Department of Homeland Security uh
the Trump administration exercising this
extraordinary power uh in something
involving immigration right like you
know for all of the rhetoric that the
administration came into office about
how they were going after the worst of
the worst and they were going to lock up
the criminals and all of that what so
far what they've managed to do is target
a whole bunch of Democratic officials
and Democratic judges and Democratic uh
and Democratic staff and so what it
tells me is that if you want to
understand what Donald Trump's
administration is about you have to
understand it is about the use of the
federal government's power to go after
Donald Trump's opponents and his
political enemies and that is what I
think we are seeing there is no chance
that we would see the Department of
Justice arrest a Republican judge or
Republican member of Congress how do we
know that because they are actually
pardoning Republican members of Congress
in the case of Cory Mills they they have
prosecutors that won't even sign uh uh
they they won't even sign documents that
that would allow the prosecution to
proceed yeah we saw theo the wholesale
pardoning of of January 6 uh
insurrection so this is this is you know
just very very clear to me that we
cannot get lost in the details of what
did this judge do with this courtroom
and what did this member of Congress do
here and what did this staffer do here
because that's the game the Trump
administration wants us to play they
want us to reduce this to the individual
facts and say well you know the mayor
probably shouldn't have been where he
was but after all we dismissed the
charges and the staffer probably
shouldn't have been where she was but we
you know dropped that and the judge was
wrong and blah blah blah blah blah what
we need to do is recognize what's really
going on here which is just the use and
abuse of of the power of the federal
government which is an awesome power
this is taxpayer you know funded
limitless resources to intimidate people
who are who Donald Trump doesn't want
standing in his way and to send a
message frankly to the rest of us to me
to Brian to you to everyone watching
here that you need better watch your
step or else that power can come for you
too and I would note to that exact point
of being able to use your voice and
speak out uh you have been relentless in
doing exactly that you have a new
YouTube channel called Democracy Docket
that I'm going to put right here on the
screen and also on the post description
of this video for anybody watching if
you are not yet subscribed to Democracy
Docket and you want to support Mark's
work elevate his voice please hit the
subscribe button doesn't cost you
anything to do that but it will it will
uh amplify his voice in this ecosystem
which is desperately needed mark to this
exact point you you mentioned that
everything they're doing ultimately
boils down to the issue of immigration
and so is there some worry from a
political perspective that raising a
stink over this issue is clearly
something that they want they wouldn't
be wielding this awesome power if if
they didn't think they were on somewhat
firm uh at least political ground at
least PR ground uh if not legal grounds
but is there some concern that that by
virtue of doing this that that we we are
feeding into exactly what they want by
really engaging in a fight over
immigration because every day that we're
talking about somebody getting arrested
in Newark or arrested in Wisconsin or
arrested in Jerry Nadler's office in in
New York that's another day that we're
not talking about them cutting 13.7 uh
million people off of their Medicaid
gutting $300 billion in food assistance
whatever whatever it is that they're
trying to distract us from so that we
can talk about immigration that we're
falling into their trap by virtue of
doing it yeah so I think the answer is
no for two reasons the first on the pure
politics of it I actually think the
Trump administration has miscalculated
here and I think they've realized it i
think it's part of the reasons frankly
why they dropped the charges against the
mayor uh in Newark i think it's the
reason why you know they are trying to
reccalibrate um some of the the
deportation or the the the the um
transporting of migrants uh uh expelling
migrants out of the country because I
think they actually realized they lost
that war because it became a fight about
due process and to the extent that this
is a fight about due process should you
be handcuffing a a woman in a
congressional office should you be
arresting the mayor of Newark when he is
in Newark you know should you be uh you
know arresting uh uh federal uh state
judges in Wisconsin um should you be
dismantling the the Department of
Justice's wall against political
interference should you be sending
people to goologs in foreign countries
without even giving them any notice and
hearings and they're losing on that
issue because actually due process is
extremely popular among the American
public the fact is one of the things in
popular culture that we all have grown
up with is this notion that everybody
gets their say in court right you always
get your chance to pitch your argument
to the judge that there is a burden of
proof and that it is on the government
that there is a presumption of innocence
that everybody enjoys and so I actually
think politically the Trump
administration has found itself on a
back foot on some of this stuff because
it's not seen as a fight about
immigration it's seen as a fight about
due process the second thing is though
Brian to your point it's why I say we
should not dwell on the details of each
of these individual cases because that's
actually what Donald Trump wants instead
we need to recognize this as just Donald
Trump doing what he said he would do he
said that he would have vengeance and
this is vengeance he said he would be he
would be retribution for the MAGA
movement this is his retribution he said
that that he expects complete that he'd
be a dictator and dictators obviously
expect complete loyalty from their
sickopants and that's what he's getting
and so so I think that that that we that
we need to talk about these things
because these are
manifestations of a dictatorial and
authoritarian promise that he made that
he's now trying to carry out that that
was perfectly put mark let's finish off
with this i would ask is there do do you
think that there should be some concern
among Republicans in Congress
establishing a precedent where a
president of one political party can
just wield uh the federal government
like a cudgel against members of the
opposite party i mean these are the same
people that would lose their skulls if
Barack Obama or Joe Biden or some
subsequent you know some future
Democratic president tried to do uh to
do the same thing and so but but by
virtue of being quiet now by virtue of
enabling this and emboldening Trump to
continue doing this because they're not
going to offer any push back doesn't
that create a precedent that these
people would again lose their minds over
if and when it's it's exercised in the
future yeah look that's the reason why I
started with the William Jefferson
example because the fact is Republicans
in Congress did lose their minds when it
was a Republican president uh uh going
after a Democrat because they saw that
risk i mean you know just as you point
out let's think about this for a second
so there are from time to time these
incidents of where a staffer or even
members of Congress bring firearms into
the capital and there's some there's
some issue could you imagine if if Joe
Biden in one of those instances had said
"Look we need to send the Capitol police
your own police or the DC police or the
FBI into an office to ask questions."
not even to arrest anyone just to ask
questions about you know whether the it
would be front page news among the
entire right-wing media eos i mean the
full media ecosystem for weeks and weeks
and weeks they would call him a dictator
i mean impeachment proceedings would
begin that's exactly right and so you
would think that Republicans would have
some reason to not want to set this
precedent but I think what they
understand is what you just said is that
there is this double standard i mean the
fact is that that that when that would
happen if this happens in the future
with a Democrat even for the best of and
most innocent of reasons um uh the
Republicans will jump all over it the
right-wing media system uh ecosystem
will jump all over it and then the
legacy media will feel the need because
they always feel the need uh to then say
well this is a legitimate issue and
let's let's unpack this and so meanwhile
there's only a price to be paid on one
side and there's no price to be paid on
the other side and that's part of the
reason why you know I think Republicans
feel like they can get away with this
it's part of the reason why you know you
have the the legacy media hawking books
about whether Joe Biden remembered
someone's name or not at the same time
that Donald Trump is literally reposting
whether whether Joe Biden was in in fact
died and has been replaced by a robot
yeah i mean uh where are the where are
the where where is the legacy media
hawking books on that right right well
look I think that that underscores the
importance of trying to trying to uh uh
gain some parody in this asymmetric
media ecosystem and and again for
everybody who's watching right now a
small step that we can all take to do
that is to subscribe to Mark's YouTube
channel Democracy Docket i'll put the
link right here on the screen and also
in the post description of this video
i'm Brian Teller Cohen i'm Mark Elias
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Thu Jun 05, 2025 3:37 am
“Empire of AI”: Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/k ... pire_of_ai
Karen Hao, longtime technology reporter who leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series program for training journalists on how to cover artificial intelligence.
The new book Empire of AI by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We turn now to the Empire of AI. That’s the name of a new book by the journalist Karen Hao, who has closely reported on the rise of the artificial intelligence industry, with a focus on Sam Altman’s OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Karen Hao compares the actions of the AI industry to those of colonial powers in the past. She writes, quote, “The empires of AI are not engaged in the same overt violence and brutality that marked this history. But they, too, seize and extract precious resources to feed their vision of artificial intelligence: the work of artists and writers; the data of countless individuals posting about their experiences and observations online; the land, energy, and water required to house and run massive data centers and supercomputers,” she writes.
Karen Hao’s book comes at a time when Republican congressmembers are trying to block states from regulating AI. The House recently passed Trump’s so-called big, beautiful budget bill, that contains a provision that would prohibit any state-level regulations of AI for the next decade, in major gift to the AI industry. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has criticized the provision, even though she voted for the bill. She wrote online, quote, “Full transparency, I did not know about this section… I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.” She says she won’t vote for it if it remains in there after the Senate votes.
To talk about this and much more, we’re joined by the journalist Karen Hao, whose new book, again, is just out, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, former reporter at The Wall Street Journal and MIT Technology Review. She leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series program for training journalists on how to cover AI.
You should train everyone on how to understand AI, Karen. It’s an amazing book.
KAREN HAO: Thank you so much.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you start by talking about the title, what exactly you mean? For a lay audience, for — I suspect a lot of our audience are Luddites, so you really have to explain —
KAREN HAO: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — what artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence is.
KAREN HAO: So, AI is a collection of many different technologies, but most people were introduced to it through ChatGPT. And what I argue in the book, and what the title refers to, Empire of AI, it’s actually a critique of the specific trajectory of AI development that led us to ChatGPT and has continued since ChatGPT. And that is specifically Silicon Valley’s scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development.
AI models in modern day, they are trained on data. They need computers to train them on that data. But what Silicon Valley did, and what OpenAI did in the last few years, is they started blowing up the amount of data and the size of the computers that need to do this training. So, we are talking about the full English-language internet being fed into these models — books, scientific articles, all of the intellectual property that has been created — and also massive supercomputers that run tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of computer chips that are the size of dozens, maybe hundreds, of football fields and use practically the entire energy demands of cities now. So, this is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms. And that is ultimately why I evoke this analogy to empire.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Karen, could you talk some more about not only the energy requirements, but the water requirements of these huge data centers that are, in essence, the backbone of this widening industry?
KAREN HAO: Absolutely. I’ll give you two stats on both the energy and the water. When talking about the energy demand, McKinsey recently came out with a report that said in the next five years, based on the current pace of AI computational infrastructure expansion, we would need to put as much energy on the global grid as what is consumed by two to six times the energy consumed annually by the state of California, and that will mostly be serviced by fossil fuels. We’re already seeing reporting of coal plants with their lives being extended. They were supposed to retire, but now they cannot, to support this data center development. We are seeing methane gas turbines, unlicensed ones, being popped up to service these data centers, as well.
From a freshwater perspective, these data centers need to be trained on freshwater. They cannot be trained on any other type of water, because it can corrode the equipment, it can lead to bacterial growth. And most of the time, it actually taps directly into a public drinking water supply, because that is the infrastructure that has been laid to deliver this clean freshwater to different businesses, to different homes. And Bloomberg recently had an analysis where they looked at the expansion of these data centers around the world, and two-thirds of them are being placed in water-scarce areas. So they’re being placed in communities that do not have access to freshwater. So, it’s not just the total amount of freshwater that we need to be concerned about, but actually the distribution of this infrastructure around the world.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And most people are familiar with ChatGPT, the consumer aspect of AI, but what about the military aspect of AI, where, in essence, we’re finding Silicon Valley companies becoming the next generation of defense contractors?
KAREN HAO: One of the reasons why OpenAI and many other companies are turning to the defense industry is because they have spent an extraordinary amount of money in developing these technologies. They’re spending hundreds of billions to train these models. And they need to recoup those costs. And there are only so many industries and so many places that have that size of a paycheck to pay. And so, that’s why we’re seeing a cozying up to the defense industry. We’re also seeing Silicon Valley use the U.S. government in their empire-building ambitions. You could argue that the U.S. government is also trying to use Silicon Valley, vice versa, in their empire-building ambitions.
But certainly, these technologies are not — they are not designed to be used in a sensitive military context. And so, the aggressive push of these companies to try and get those defense contracts and integrate their technologies more and more into the infrastructure of the military is really alarming.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to the countries you went to, or the stories you covered, because, I mean, this is amazing, the depth of your reporting, from Kenya to Uruguay to Chile. You were talking about the use of water. And I also want to ask you about nuclear power.
KAREN HAO: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: But in Chile, what is happening there around these data centers and the water they would use and the resistance to that?
KAREN HAO: Yeah. So, Chile has an interesting history in that it’s been under — it was under a dictatorship for a very long time. And so, during that time, most public resources were privatized, including water. But because of an anomaly, there’s one community in the greater Santiago metropolitan region that actually still has access to a public freshwater resource that services both that community, as well as the rest of the country in emergency situations. That is the exact community that Google chose to try to put a data center in. And they proposed for their data center to use a thousand times more freshwater than that community used annually.
AMY GOODMAN: And it would be free.
KAREN HAO: And it — you know, I have no idea. That is a great question. But what the community told me was they weren’t even paying taxes for this, because they believed, based on reading the documentation, that the taxes that Google was paying was, in fact, to where they had registered their offices, their administrative offices, not where they were putting down the data center. So they were not seeing any benefit from this data center directly to that community, and they were seeing no checks placed on the freshwater that this data center would have been allowed to extract.
And so, these activists said, “Wait a minute. Absolutely not. We’re not going to allow this data center to come in, unless they give us a legitimate reason for why it benefits us.” And so, they started doing boots-on-the-ground activism, pushing back, knocking on every single one of their neighbors’ doors, handing out flyers to the community, telling them, “This company is taking our freshwater resources without giving us anything in return.”
And so, they escalated so dramatically that it escalated to Google Chile. It escalated to Google Mountain View, which, by the way, then sent representatives to Chile that only spoke English. But then, it eventually escalated to the Chilean government. And the Chilean government now has roundtables where they ask these community residents and the company representatives and representatives from the government to come together to actually discuss how to make data center development more beneficial to the community.
The activists say the fight is not over. Just because they’ve been invited to the table doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly better. They need to stay vigilant. They need to continue scrutinizing these projects. But thus far, they’ve been able to block this project for four to five years and have gained that seat at the table.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how is it that these Western companies, in essence, are exploiting labor in the Global South? You go into something called data annotation firms. What are those?
KAREN HAO: Yeah, so, because AI, modern-day AI systems are trained on massive amounts of data, and they’re scraped — that’s scraped from the internet, you can’t actually pump that data directly into your AI model, because there are a lot of things within that data. It’s heavily polluted. It needs to be cleaned. It needs to be annotated. So, this is where data annotation firms come in. These are middle-man firms that hire contract labor to provide to these AI companies to do that kind of data preparation.
And OpenAI, when it was starting to think about commercializing its products and thinking about, “Let’s put text-generation machines that can spew any kind of text into the hands of millions of users,” they realized they needed to have some kind of content moderation. They needed to develop a filter that would wrap around these models and prevent these models from actually spewing racist, hateful and harmful speech to users. That would not make a very good, commercially viable product.
And so, they contracted these middle-man firms in Kenya, where the Kenyan workers had to read through reams of the worst text on the internet, as well as AI-generated text, where OpenAI was prompting its own AI models to imagine the worst text on the internet and then telling these Kenyan workers to detail — to categorize them in detailed taxonomies of “Is this sexual content? Is this violent content? How graphic is that violent content?” in order to teach its filter all the different categories of content it had to block.
And this is an incredibly uncommon form of labor. There are lots of other different types of contract labor that they use. But these workers, they’re paid a few bucks an hour, if at all. And just like the era of social media, these content moderators are left very deeply psychologically traumatized. And ultimately, there is no real philosophy behind why these workers are paid a couple bucks an hour and have their lives destroyed, and why AI researchers who also contribute to these models are paid million-dollar compensation packages simply because they sit in Silicon Valley, in OpenAI’s offices. That is the logic of empire, and that harkens back to my title, Empire of AI.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s go back to your title, Empire of AI, the subtitle, Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. So, tell us the story of Sam Altman and what OpenAI is all about, right through to the deal he just made in the Gulf, when President Trump, Sam Altman and Elon Musk were there.
KAREN HAO: Altman is very much a product of Silicon Valley. His career was first as a founder of a startup, and then as the president of Y Combinator, which is one of the most famous startup accelerators in Silicon Valley, and then the CEO of OpenAI. And there’s no coincidence that OpenAI ended up introducing the world to the scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development, because that is the way that Silicon Valley has operated in the entire time that Altman came up in it.
And so, he is a very strategic person. He is incredibly good at telling stories about the future and painting these sweeping visions that investors and employees want to be a part of. And so, early on at YC, he identified that AI would be one of the trends that could take off. And he was trying to build a portfolio of different investments and different initiatives to place himself in the center of various different trends, depending on which one took off. He was investing in quantum computing, he was investing in nuclear fusion, he was investing in self-driving cars, and he was developing a fundamental AI research lab. Ultimately, the AI research lab was the ones that started accelerating really quickly, so he makes himself the CEO of that company.
And originally, he started it as a nonprofit to try and position it as a counter to for-profit-driven incentives in Silicon Valley. But within one-and-a-half years, OpenAI’s executives identified that if they wanted to be the lead in this space, they “had to” go for this scale-at-all-costs approach — and “had to” should be in quotes. They thought that they had to do this. There are actually many other ways to develop AI and to have progress in AI that does not take this approach.
But once they decided that, they realized the bottleneck was capital. It just so happened Sam Altman is a once-in-a-generation fundraising talent. He created this new structure, nesting a for-profit arm within the nonprofit, to become this fundraising vehicle for the tens of billions, and ultimately hundreds of billions, that they needed to pursue the approach that they decided on. And that is how we ultimately get to present-day OpenAI, which is one of the most capitalistic companies in the history of Silicon Valley, continuing to raise hundreds of billions, and, Altman has joked, even trillions, to produce a technology that ultimately has a middling economic impact thus far.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And we only have about a minute left, but the relationship between Altman and other rivals, like Google or Elon Musk?
KAREN HAO: It is accelerating the development of this technology that, again, I mentioned, has this middling impact. We’ve seen, through the history of OpenAI, that all of the former executives that have left have created their own rivals. So, Elon Musk was one of the original co-founders, created xAI. Ilya Sutskever was the chief scientist, created Safe Superintelligence. Mira Murati was the former chief technology officer, created Thinking Machines Lab. All of them are now competing to try and dominate this technology and try and make it in their own image.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, this regulation within the so-called big, beautiful bill that says AI can’t be regulated by states for a decade?
KAREN HAO: This is absolutely going to enshrine the impunity of Silicon Valley into law. I mean, I call this these empires of AI because they are already quickly becoming the apex predator in the ecosystem able to act in their self-interest. And that bill, if passed, would certainly codify that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to do a Part 2, post it online at democracynow.org. Karen Hao is author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Tune in tomorrow on Democracy Now! when we speak with the British journalist Carole Cadwalladr about how to survive the broligarchy.
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
June 04, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/k ... pire_of_ai
Karen Hao, longtime technology reporter who leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series program for training journalists on how to cover artificial intelligence.
The new book Empire of AI by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We turn now to the Empire of AI. That’s the name of a new book by the journalist Karen Hao, who has closely reported on the rise of the artificial intelligence industry, with a focus on Sam Altman’s OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Karen Hao compares the actions of the AI industry to those of colonial powers in the past. She writes, quote, “The empires of AI are not engaged in the same overt violence and brutality that marked this history. But they, too, seize and extract precious resources to feed their vision of artificial intelligence: the work of artists and writers; the data of countless individuals posting about their experiences and observations online; the land, energy, and water required to house and run massive data centers and supercomputers,” she writes.
Karen Hao’s book comes at a time when Republican congressmembers are trying to block states from regulating AI. The House recently passed Trump’s so-called big, beautiful budget bill, that contains a provision that would prohibit any state-level regulations of AI for the next decade, in major gift to the AI industry. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has criticized the provision, even though she voted for the bill. She wrote online, quote, “Full transparency, I did not know about this section… I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.” She says she won’t vote for it if it remains in there after the Senate votes.
To talk about this and much more, we’re joined by the journalist Karen Hao, whose new book, again, is just out, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, former reporter at The Wall Street Journal and MIT Technology Review. She leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series program for training journalists on how to cover AI.
You should train everyone on how to understand AI, Karen. It’s an amazing book.
KAREN HAO: Thank you so much.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you start by talking about the title, what exactly you mean? For a lay audience, for — I suspect a lot of our audience are Luddites, so you really have to explain —
KAREN HAO: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — what artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence is.
KAREN HAO: So, AI is a collection of many different technologies, but most people were introduced to it through ChatGPT. And what I argue in the book, and what the title refers to, Empire of AI, it’s actually a critique of the specific trajectory of AI development that led us to ChatGPT and has continued since ChatGPT. And that is specifically Silicon Valley’s scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development.
AI models in modern day, they are trained on data. They need computers to train them on that data. But what Silicon Valley did, and what OpenAI did in the last few years, is they started blowing up the amount of data and the size of the computers that need to do this training. So, we are talking about the full English-language internet being fed into these models — books, scientific articles, all of the intellectual property that has been created — and also massive supercomputers that run tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of computer chips that are the size of dozens, maybe hundreds, of football fields and use practically the entire energy demands of cities now. So, this is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms. And that is ultimately why I evoke this analogy to empire.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Karen, could you talk some more about not only the energy requirements, but the water requirements of these huge data centers that are, in essence, the backbone of this widening industry?
KAREN HAO: Absolutely. I’ll give you two stats on both the energy and the water. When talking about the energy demand, McKinsey recently came out with a report that said in the next five years, based on the current pace of AI computational infrastructure expansion, we would need to put as much energy on the global grid as what is consumed by two to six times the energy consumed annually by the state of California, and that will mostly be serviced by fossil fuels. We’re already seeing reporting of coal plants with their lives being extended. They were supposed to retire, but now they cannot, to support this data center development. We are seeing methane gas turbines, unlicensed ones, being popped up to service these data centers, as well.
From a freshwater perspective, these data centers need to be trained on freshwater. They cannot be trained on any other type of water, because it can corrode the equipment, it can lead to bacterial growth. And most of the time, it actually taps directly into a public drinking water supply, because that is the infrastructure that has been laid to deliver this clean freshwater to different businesses, to different homes. And Bloomberg recently had an analysis where they looked at the expansion of these data centers around the world, and two-thirds of them are being placed in water-scarce areas. So they’re being placed in communities that do not have access to freshwater. So, it’s not just the total amount of freshwater that we need to be concerned about, but actually the distribution of this infrastructure around the world.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And most people are familiar with ChatGPT, the consumer aspect of AI, but what about the military aspect of AI, where, in essence, we’re finding Silicon Valley companies becoming the next generation of defense contractors?
KAREN HAO: One of the reasons why OpenAI and many other companies are turning to the defense industry is because they have spent an extraordinary amount of money in developing these technologies. They’re spending hundreds of billions to train these models. And they need to recoup those costs. And there are only so many industries and so many places that have that size of a paycheck to pay. And so, that’s why we’re seeing a cozying up to the defense industry. We’re also seeing Silicon Valley use the U.S. government in their empire-building ambitions. You could argue that the U.S. government is also trying to use Silicon Valley, vice versa, in their empire-building ambitions.
But certainly, these technologies are not — they are not designed to be used in a sensitive military context. And so, the aggressive push of these companies to try and get those defense contracts and integrate their technologies more and more into the infrastructure of the military is really alarming.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to the countries you went to, or the stories you covered, because, I mean, this is amazing, the depth of your reporting, from Kenya to Uruguay to Chile. You were talking about the use of water. And I also want to ask you about nuclear power.
KAREN HAO: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: But in Chile, what is happening there around these data centers and the water they would use and the resistance to that?
KAREN HAO: Yeah. So, Chile has an interesting history in that it’s been under — it was under a dictatorship for a very long time. And so, during that time, most public resources were privatized, including water. But because of an anomaly, there’s one community in the greater Santiago metropolitan region that actually still has access to a public freshwater resource that services both that community, as well as the rest of the country in emergency situations. That is the exact community that Google chose to try to put a data center in. And they proposed for their data center to use a thousand times more freshwater than that community used annually.
AMY GOODMAN: And it would be free.
KAREN HAO: And it — you know, I have no idea. That is a great question. But what the community told me was they weren’t even paying taxes for this, because they believed, based on reading the documentation, that the taxes that Google was paying was, in fact, to where they had registered their offices, their administrative offices, not where they were putting down the data center. So they were not seeing any benefit from this data center directly to that community, and they were seeing no checks placed on the freshwater that this data center would have been allowed to extract.
And so, these activists said, “Wait a minute. Absolutely not. We’re not going to allow this data center to come in, unless they give us a legitimate reason for why it benefits us.” And so, they started doing boots-on-the-ground activism, pushing back, knocking on every single one of their neighbors’ doors, handing out flyers to the community, telling them, “This company is taking our freshwater resources without giving us anything in return.”
And so, they escalated so dramatically that it escalated to Google Chile. It escalated to Google Mountain View, which, by the way, then sent representatives to Chile that only spoke English. But then, it eventually escalated to the Chilean government. And the Chilean government now has roundtables where they ask these community residents and the company representatives and representatives from the government to come together to actually discuss how to make data center development more beneficial to the community.
The activists say the fight is not over. Just because they’ve been invited to the table doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly better. They need to stay vigilant. They need to continue scrutinizing these projects. But thus far, they’ve been able to block this project for four to five years and have gained that seat at the table.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how is it that these Western companies, in essence, are exploiting labor in the Global South? You go into something called data annotation firms. What are those?
KAREN HAO: Yeah, so, because AI, modern-day AI systems are trained on massive amounts of data, and they’re scraped — that’s scraped from the internet, you can’t actually pump that data directly into your AI model, because there are a lot of things within that data. It’s heavily polluted. It needs to be cleaned. It needs to be annotated. So, this is where data annotation firms come in. These are middle-man firms that hire contract labor to provide to these AI companies to do that kind of data preparation.
And OpenAI, when it was starting to think about commercializing its products and thinking about, “Let’s put text-generation machines that can spew any kind of text into the hands of millions of users,” they realized they needed to have some kind of content moderation. They needed to develop a filter that would wrap around these models and prevent these models from actually spewing racist, hateful and harmful speech to users. That would not make a very good, commercially viable product.
And so, they contracted these middle-man firms in Kenya, where the Kenyan workers had to read through reams of the worst text on the internet, as well as AI-generated text, where OpenAI was prompting its own AI models to imagine the worst text on the internet and then telling these Kenyan workers to detail — to categorize them in detailed taxonomies of “Is this sexual content? Is this violent content? How graphic is that violent content?” in order to teach its filter all the different categories of content it had to block.
And this is an incredibly uncommon form of labor. There are lots of other different types of contract labor that they use. But these workers, they’re paid a few bucks an hour, if at all. And just like the era of social media, these content moderators are left very deeply psychologically traumatized. And ultimately, there is no real philosophy behind why these workers are paid a couple bucks an hour and have their lives destroyed, and why AI researchers who also contribute to these models are paid million-dollar compensation packages simply because they sit in Silicon Valley, in OpenAI’s offices. That is the logic of empire, and that harkens back to my title, Empire of AI.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s go back to your title, Empire of AI, the subtitle, Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. So, tell us the story of Sam Altman and what OpenAI is all about, right through to the deal he just made in the Gulf, when President Trump, Sam Altman and Elon Musk were there.
KAREN HAO: Altman is very much a product of Silicon Valley. His career was first as a founder of a startup, and then as the president of Y Combinator, which is one of the most famous startup accelerators in Silicon Valley, and then the CEO of OpenAI. And there’s no coincidence that OpenAI ended up introducing the world to the scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development, because that is the way that Silicon Valley has operated in the entire time that Altman came up in it.
And so, he is a very strategic person. He is incredibly good at telling stories about the future and painting these sweeping visions that investors and employees want to be a part of. And so, early on at YC, he identified that AI would be one of the trends that could take off. And he was trying to build a portfolio of different investments and different initiatives to place himself in the center of various different trends, depending on which one took off. He was investing in quantum computing, he was investing in nuclear fusion, he was investing in self-driving cars, and he was developing a fundamental AI research lab. Ultimately, the AI research lab was the ones that started accelerating really quickly, so he makes himself the CEO of that company.
And originally, he started it as a nonprofit to try and position it as a counter to for-profit-driven incentives in Silicon Valley. But within one-and-a-half years, OpenAI’s executives identified that if they wanted to be the lead in this space, they “had to” go for this scale-at-all-costs approach — and “had to” should be in quotes. They thought that they had to do this. There are actually many other ways to develop AI and to have progress in AI that does not take this approach.
But once they decided that, they realized the bottleneck was capital. It just so happened Sam Altman is a once-in-a-generation fundraising talent. He created this new structure, nesting a for-profit arm within the nonprofit, to become this fundraising vehicle for the tens of billions, and ultimately hundreds of billions, that they needed to pursue the approach that they decided on. And that is how we ultimately get to present-day OpenAI, which is one of the most capitalistic companies in the history of Silicon Valley, continuing to raise hundreds of billions, and, Altman has joked, even trillions, to produce a technology that ultimately has a middling economic impact thus far.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And we only have about a minute left, but the relationship between Altman and other rivals, like Google or Elon Musk?
KAREN HAO: It is accelerating the development of this technology that, again, I mentioned, has this middling impact. We’ve seen, through the history of OpenAI, that all of the former executives that have left have created their own rivals. So, Elon Musk was one of the original co-founders, created xAI. Ilya Sutskever was the chief scientist, created Safe Superintelligence. Mira Murati was the former chief technology officer, created Thinking Machines Lab. All of them are now competing to try and dominate this technology and try and make it in their own image.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, this regulation within the so-called big, beautiful bill that says AI can’t be regulated by states for a decade?
KAREN HAO: This is absolutely going to enshrine the impunity of Silicon Valley into law. I mean, I call this these empires of AI because they are already quickly becoming the apex predator in the ecosystem able to act in their self-interest. And that bill, if passed, would certainly codify that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to do a Part 2, post it online at democracynow.org. Karen Hao is author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Tune in tomorrow on Democracy Now! when we speak with the British journalist Carole Cadwalladr about how to survive the broligarchy.
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Thu Jun 05, 2025 11:38 pm
https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-06- ... ction.html
Trump and Musk confirm fallout with tech mogul tying president to Epstein scandal. The Republican threatened to end ‘Elon’s government contracts’ in response to the magnate’s criticism of his tax bill. The comment was made during the Republican’s meeting with Chancellor Merz at the White House
by Iker Seisdedos
El Pais
Washington - JUN 05, 2025 - 14:36 EDT
In a spat more fitting for a barroom brawl than a conversation between two adults in the world’s most public arena, Elon Musk and Donald Trump clashed this Thursday in an unpleasant exchange that escalated until the president threatened on his platform Truth Social to “terminate Elon’s government subsidies and contracts.”
The world’s richest man fired back on X with a “really big bomb”: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” referring to the list of individuals allegedly involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile network held by authorities. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
It had all started at a meeting at the White House between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. It was the first time the two leaders had met since Merz’s election on May 6, and the encounter unfolded in a cordial tone — set early on by the visitor’s gift: the birth certificate of Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, framed in gold. Trump thanked him for the gesture, joked about giving it a place in the Oval Office, and used the moment to address Musk’s recent criticisms of the Republican tax plan, which had overshadowed the meeting in the media.
Trump said he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” by the criticisms from his former ally regarding the tax bill, which the White House is currently pushing for in Congress. The world’s richest man, concerned about the debt increase the bill would bring — dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” — described it on Tuesday as “a disgusting abomination.” “Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump added Thursday when asked by reporters. “I don’t know if we will anymore.”
The U.S. president also claimed that Musk “knew the inner workings” of the tax bill and had no problem with it. He accused the magnate of changing his mind once he saw that the new version of the over-1,000-page bill would negatively affect his businesses — especially Tesla.
Almost immediately, the South African–born entrepreneur — who last week stepped down from his position heading the Department of Government Efficiency after 130 chaotic days of budget-slashing —responded to Trump on X, the social network he also owns. “False,” Musk wrote. “This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
A little later, Musk went even further, criticizing Trump’s “ingratitude” in another post on X. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate [instead of the current 53-47].”
The billionaire contributed a record-breaking amount of over $260 million to the campaign that brought Trump back to the White House. In a separate post, Musk questioned: “Where has that guy gone?” replying to someone who provided examples of Trump supporting spending cuts.
In another post, Musk wondered, “Where is this guy today?” in response to someone who shared evidence of times when the current president had advocated for spending restraint.
Trump-Merz meeting
Returning to the agenda that had brought them together at midday in the Oval Office, the U.S. and German leaders emphasized the strong ties between their two nations. “The relationship with Germany is very important,” said Trump, who congratulated his guest on his recent election victory and added that the two had spoken “on the phone many times about some of the world’s problems.”
The chancellor, who remained silent for most of the entire time, although at one point he spoke in German, noted that the two countries have “a lot in common,” adding: “We know what we owe” the U.S. for liberating Germany from the Nazis.
On the table were pending issues for Trump, who described Merz as a “difficult” negotiator — both for Germany and the European Union, which the chancellor was also representing. Topics included the trade imbalance between the two partners and the tariff war that Washington is using to try to tilt the scales in its favor, the demand for increased defense spending, and the best approach to ending the war in Ukraine.
Merz recalled that this Friday marks the anniversary of D-Day, the U.S. landings in Normandy. “The Americans once ended a war in Europe,” the German leader said. “America is again in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war,” he said. “We both agree on this war and how terrible this war is, and we are both looking for ways to stop it.”
Trump, for his part, compared the conflict between Russian and Ukraine to a fight between “two children fighting in a park.” “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”
“And I gave that analogy to [Russian President] Putin yesterday,” Trump added. “I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart.’”
It soon became clear that Merz had achieved the first — and perhaps most urgent — of his goals: avoiding becoming the latest world leader to be publicly roasted in front of millions from the Oval Office by Trump and his team. Before traveling to Washington, he had told his country’s public television that he didn’t “need a valerian” to have a calm conversation with the U.S. president.
With or without it, he didn’t suffer the kind of ordeal faced by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who in March ended up shouting at the U.S. president and vice president, who humiliated him, called him ungrateful, and eventually kicked him out of the White House. Nor did he experience the fate of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, whom Trump forced to watch a video stitched together with footage taken out of context — or outright fake — which the Republican claimed was proof of a white genocide in the country.
[x]
Trump and Merz in the Oval Office on Thursday. Evan Vucci (AP)
Merz arrived in Washington with some groundwork already laid: since the February elections, Germany has removed the constitutional debt limit to allow unlimited investment in defense. He also came with a promise: this move will enable Germany to field the strongest conventional army in Europe. Not only that: Merz has expressed willingness to increase German military spending—from around 2% of GDP currently—to as much as 5%, as Trump has previously urged NATO allies to do. NATO leaders are set to meet this June in The Hague.
“I know that you’re spending more money on defense now and quite a bit more money; that’s a positive thing,” said Trump, who joked that General MacArthur would not approve of Germany rearming. “I think it’s a good thing. At least to a certain point,” he added. “There’ll be a point where we say, ‘Please don’t arm, if you don’t mind.’”
Another key topic for Merz, the leader of the EU’s largest economy, was to push forward a trade agreement with the United States that would ease the tariff threats Trump insists on calling “reciprocal,” including tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automobiles. One of Trump’s favorite examples to highlight what he sees as unfair trade imbalances involves Germany: for him, the absence of “American cars” on Munich’s streets proves the global system is rigged against U.S. manufacturers.
Seated to the right on one of the Oval Office sofas was Vice President J.D. Vance, who had harshly criticized European leaders at the Munich Security Conference (which Merz described as “interference”) and who supported the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during its recent campaign.
Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the designation of the AfD as right-win extremist was “tyranny in disguise.”
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
Trump and Musk confirm fallout with tech mogul tying president to Epstein scandal. The Republican threatened to end ‘Elon’s government contracts’ in response to the magnate’s criticism of his tax bill. The comment was made during the Republican’s meeting with Chancellor Merz at the White House
by Iker Seisdedos
El Pais
Washington - JUN 05, 2025 - 14:36 EDT
In a spat more fitting for a barroom brawl than a conversation between two adults in the world’s most public arena, Elon Musk and Donald Trump clashed this Thursday in an unpleasant exchange that escalated until the president threatened on his platform Truth Social to “terminate Elon’s government subsidies and contracts.”
The world’s richest man fired back on X with a “really big bomb”: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” referring to the list of individuals allegedly involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile network held by authorities. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
It had all started at a meeting at the White House between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. It was the first time the two leaders had met since Merz’s election on May 6, and the encounter unfolded in a cordial tone — set early on by the visitor’s gift: the birth certificate of Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, framed in gold. Trump thanked him for the gesture, joked about giving it a place in the Oval Office, and used the moment to address Musk’s recent criticisms of the Republican tax plan, which had overshadowed the meeting in the media.
Trump said he was “very surprised” and “disappointed” by the criticisms from his former ally regarding the tax bill, which the White House is currently pushing for in Congress. The world’s richest man, concerned about the debt increase the bill would bring — dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” — described it on Tuesday as “a disgusting abomination.” “Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump added Thursday when asked by reporters. “I don’t know if we will anymore.”
The U.S. president also claimed that Musk “knew the inner workings” of the tax bill and had no problem with it. He accused the magnate of changing his mind once he saw that the new version of the over-1,000-page bill would negatively affect his businesses — especially Tesla.
Almost immediately, the South African–born entrepreneur — who last week stepped down from his position heading the Department of Government Efficiency after 130 chaotic days of budget-slashing —responded to Trump on X, the social network he also owns. “False,” Musk wrote. “This bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!DogeDesigner
@cb_doge
TRUMP: "I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate"
10:25 AM · Jun 5, 2025
A little later, Musk went even further, criticizing Trump’s “ingratitude” in another post on X. “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate [instead of the current 53-47].”
The billionaire contributed a record-breaking amount of over $260 million to the campaign that brought Trump back to the White House. In a separate post, Musk questioned: “Where has that guy gone?” replying to someone who provided examples of Trump supporting spending cuts.
In another post, Musk wondered, “Where is this guy today?” in response to someone who shared evidence of times when the current president had advocated for spending restraint.
Trump-Merz meeting
Returning to the agenda that had brought them together at midday in the Oval Office, the U.S. and German leaders emphasized the strong ties between their two nations. “The relationship with Germany is very important,” said Trump, who congratulated his guest on his recent election victory and added that the two had spoken “on the phone many times about some of the world’s problems.”
The chancellor, who remained silent for most of the entire time, although at one point he spoke in German, noted that the two countries have “a lot in common,” adding: “We know what we owe” the U.S. for liberating Germany from the Nazis.
On the table were pending issues for Trump, who described Merz as a “difficult” negotiator — both for Germany and the European Union, which the chancellor was also representing. Topics included the trade imbalance between the two partners and the tariff war that Washington is using to try to tilt the scales in its favor, the demand for increased defense spending, and the best approach to ending the war in Ukraine.
Merz recalled that this Friday marks the anniversary of D-Day, the U.S. landings in Normandy. “The Americans once ended a war in Europe,” the German leader said. “America is again in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war,” he said. “We both agree on this war and how terrible this war is, and we are both looking for ways to stop it.”
Trump, for his part, compared the conflict between Russian and Ukraine to a fight between “two children fighting in a park.” “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”
“And I gave that analogy to [Russian President] Putin yesterday,” Trump added. “I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart.’”
It soon became clear that Merz had achieved the first — and perhaps most urgent — of his goals: avoiding becoming the latest world leader to be publicly roasted in front of millions from the Oval Office by Trump and his team. Before traveling to Washington, he had told his country’s public television that he didn’t “need a valerian” to have a calm conversation with the U.S. president.
With or without it, he didn’t suffer the kind of ordeal faced by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who in March ended up shouting at the U.S. president and vice president, who humiliated him, called him ungrateful, and eventually kicked him out of the White House. Nor did he experience the fate of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, whom Trump forced to watch a video stitched together with footage taken out of context — or outright fake — which the Republican claimed was proof of a white genocide in the country.
[x]
Trump and Merz in the Oval Office on Thursday. Evan Vucci (AP)
Merz arrived in Washington with some groundwork already laid: since the February elections, Germany has removed the constitutional debt limit to allow unlimited investment in defense. He also came with a promise: this move will enable Germany to field the strongest conventional army in Europe. Not only that: Merz has expressed willingness to increase German military spending—from around 2% of GDP currently—to as much as 5%, as Trump has previously urged NATO allies to do. NATO leaders are set to meet this June in The Hague.
“I know that you’re spending more money on defense now and quite a bit more money; that’s a positive thing,” said Trump, who joked that General MacArthur would not approve of Germany rearming. “I think it’s a good thing. At least to a certain point,” he added. “There’ll be a point where we say, ‘Please don’t arm, if you don’t mind.’”
Another key topic for Merz, the leader of the EU’s largest economy, was to push forward a trade agreement with the United States that would ease the tariff threats Trump insists on calling “reciprocal,” including tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automobiles. One of Trump’s favorite examples to highlight what he sees as unfair trade imbalances involves Germany: for him, the absence of “American cars” on Munich’s streets proves the global system is rigged against U.S. manufacturers.
Seated to the right on one of the Oval Office sofas was Vice President J.D. Vance, who had harshly criticized European leaders at the Munich Security Conference (which Merz described as “interference”) and who supported the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during its recent campaign.
Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the designation of the AfD as right-win extremist was “tyranny in disguise.”
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Fri Jun 06, 2025 2:00 am
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1930727302566174971
[x]
Elon Musk
@elonmuskNatalie F Danelishen
@Chesschick01
In 1992 Trump partied with Jeffrey Epstein. Just gonna leave this here:
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Fri Jun 06, 2025 4:26 am
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
Congress is making America bankrupt
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Elon Musk repostedMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 3
Government-funded DNC propaganda must end
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
Simple math
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3Rand Paul
@RandPaul
Jun 3
I agree with Elon. We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake.
We can and must do better. x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people
Elon Musk repostedRand Paul
@RandPaul
Jun 3
I want to see the tax cuts made permanent, but I also want to see the $5 trillion in new debt removed from the bill. At least 4 of us in the Senate feel this way.
Elon Musk repostedMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 3
Federal spending has become excessive
The resulting inflation harms Americans
And weaponizes government
The Senate can make this bill better
It must now do so
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Elon Musk repostedSMX
@iam_smx
Jun 3
The truth sets a man free, and Elon Musk has fearlessly spoken it.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 3
Mammoth spending bills are bankrupting America!
ENOUGH
Not Jerome Powell
@alifarhat79
Jun 2
This is not Apple, Tesla or even Nvidia. It’s the US National Debt.
Elon Musk reposted
Rand Paul
@RandPaul
Jun 3
It's Rand Paul and Elon Musk vs. Donald Trump over the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Elon Musk repostedBrian Armstrong
@brian_armstrong
Jun 3
If the electorate doesn't hold congress accountable to reducing the deficit, and start paying down the debt, Bitcoin is going to take over as reserve currency.
I love Bitcoin, but a strong America is also super important for the world. We need to get our finances under control.World of Statistics
@stats_feed
Jun 3
U.S. National Debt:
2025: $36.9T
2024: $36.2T
2023: $34.0T
Elon Musk repostedNot the Bee
@Not_the_Bee
Jun 3
Posting again because it seems even more relevant nowEric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
Jun 3
BREAKING: House Republicans have JUST received the first DOGE cuts request from the White House, officially.
SPEAKER JOHNSON: “The House will bring the
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!Geiger Capital
@Geiger_Capital
Jun 3
A million seconds ago was May 23rd
A billion seconds ago was 1993
A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C.
The US national debt is now rising by $1 Trillion every 180 days.
Elon Musk repostedSenator Rand Paul
@SenRandPaul
Jun 3
I’ve been pretty consistent in my time in the Senate: I oppose deficit spending—no matter which party is in charge. If we don’t get serious about reigning in the debt, the next generation will pay the price.
Fiscal responsibility isn’t a campaign slogan. It’s a duty which I
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
Interest payments already consume 25% of all government revenue.
If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defense … nothing.Wall Street Mav
@WallStreetMav
Jun 3
Our annual US budget deficit is going to be over $2 trillion per year going forward.
We pay over $100 billion per month in interest on the national debt. $1.2 trillion per year. That is about 25% of all government revenue going to pay interest on the debt.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This is debt slavery for the American peopleMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 4
The accrued interest on the national debt now exceeds $1 trillion a year—more than we spend on national defense
And yet Congress continues to add to the debt at an astounding rate of $2 trillion per year—with our national debt growing faster than our economy
Unless we turn x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This is the wayMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 4
Would you support this amendment? x.com/amuse/status/1…
Elon Musk repostedRep. Chip Roy Press Office
@RepChipRoy
Jun 4
NEW: Rep. Roy introduces legislation to MAKE DOGE PERMANENT by giving Congress permanent & effective tools to go after waste, fraud, and abuse in our government in real time.
Rep. Roy: "DOGE lifted up the hood of federal government spending and put on full display the massive programs and inefficiencies wasting American taxpayer dollars,”
Elon Musk repostedELON CLIPS
@ElonClipsX
Jun 4
Elon Musk: Your company is not going to exist if the ship of America sinks.
“A country is no different from a person. If a country overspends and doesn't spend wisely, just like a person, the country will go bankrupt.
The reason I'm here is because I'm very worried about
Elon Musk repostedRep. Scott Perry
@RepScottPerry
Jun 3
Former Chief Investigator at GAO: "…the government is losing between $550B and about $750B a year. We're coming close to $1 TRILLION lost, every year, to fraud."
Americans want their Country back.
https://x.com/elonmusk#:~:text=Elon%20M ... %20QUICKLY!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Rand Paul
@RandPaul
Jun 4
If the bill were solely about making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, I wouldn't be a yes; I'd be a hell yes.
Unfortunately, that's not the reality with this bill. It includes the largest increase of the debt ceiling ever and will have the United States borrowing $5T over the next
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4stepfanie tyler
@wildbarestepf
Jun 4
FOX News comments is a great place to understand conservative views since they get so much traffic—i was curious what the people were saying about Elon shit-talking the BBB and i'm shocked
almost every comment is in agreement with Elon—to see so many vehemently disagreeing with
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
YesJohn LeFevre
@JohnLeFevre
Jun 4
We have the White House, Senate, and House.
It's not rocket science.
All we are asking for is legislation that aligns with what we voted for.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
America is in the fast lane to debt slaveryThe Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
Jun 4
It took over 200 years for the U.S. debt to reach $12 trillion.
$12 trillion is how much we added in 4 years between 2020 and 2024.The Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
Jun 3
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. I don't know if it could be both.”— Elon Musk
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS
Elon Musk repostedELON CLIPS
@ElonClipsX
Jun 4
Here's Walter Isaacson explaining why it's absurd to think it wasn't Elon Musk who founded Tesla.
“They say it wasn't Musk who did Tesla, it was Martin Eberhard or Marc Tarpenning. No, no, no. They were people who had helped create the shells of companies and other things, andThe Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
Jun 3
Debt under Democrats:
Debt under Republicans:
Neither of the major parties has been successful so far in addressing this issue.
Elon Musk repostedLeading Report
@LeadingReport
Jun 4
BREAKING: Elon Musk endorses proposal to bar all sitting members of Congress from reelection if the deficit exceeds 3% of U.S. GDP.
Elon Musk repostedCongressman John Rose
@RepJohnRose
Jun 3
77 million Americans voted for DOGE cuts NOT Washington's wasteful spending.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Congressman John Rose voted YES on the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that he is now criticizing. It passed by a one vote margin. If he had voted NO, the bill may not have passed. govtrack.us/congress/votes…
Do you find this helpful?
Context is written by people who use X, and appears when rated helpful by others. Find out more.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
Call your Senator,
Call your Congressman,
Bankrupting America is NOT ok!
KILL the BILL
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Grok
@grok
Jun 4
Replying to @artaraya and @russvought
@russvought The claim that the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" reduces deficits by $1.4 trillion over 10 years is not supported by most analyses. CBO estimates it increases deficits by $2.3-$3.8 trillion, with CRFB and others projecting $2.6-$3.1 trillion, including interest. The
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!
It is the Debt Slavery Bill.Rand Paul
@RandPaul
Jun 4
While I oppose increasing the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, I enthusiastically support making the tax cuts permanent and could vote for the Big not-yet Beautiful Bill if the debt ceiling were voted on separately . . .
https://courier-journal.com/story/opini ... 012073007/
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
AbsolutelyThomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
Jun 4
The Big Beautiful Bill is a debt bomb ticking. It’s also the biggest missed opportunity conservatives have ever had to put our country back on a track of fiscal sanity. If we defeat this bill, a better one can be offered that won’t bankrupt our country. x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
InsaneWall Street Mav
@WallStreetMav
Jun 4
10% of the national debt in one bill, our government is out of control.
Elon is correct. x.com/kalshi/status/…
Elon Musk repostedKalshi
@Kalshi
Jun 4
$3.7 Trillion.
That's how much our traders forecast the reconciliation bill will cost.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
Jun 4
It’s insincere for @SpeakerJohnson to insinuate @elonmusk is against the Big Beautiful Bill because it doesn’t benefit his companies specifically.
Musk is a true America First entrepreneur who could have had a much more comfortable existence and a higher net worth by sitting on
Elon Musk repostedThe Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
Jun 4
“Inflation is the most destructive disease known to modern societies.”— Milton Friedman
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4The Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
Jun 4
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. I don't know if it could be both.”— Elon Musk
Elon Musk repostedMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 4
Would you support a constitutional amendment rendering all members of Congress ineligible for re-election whenever the federal deficit exceeds 3% of GDP?Ian Jaeger
@IanJaeger29
Jun 4
BREAKING: Senator Mike Lee and Elon Musk support a proposal that if there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for reelection.
This is a phenomenal idea.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Senator Rand Paul
@SenRandPaul
Jun 4
To be clear, I support making the tax cuts permanent and disagree with CBO’s claim that they add to the debt.
My objection is this: raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion is reckless and irresponsible.
Elon Musk repostedGrummz
@Grummz
Support DOGE, get them to codify all of it.
Vote out the anti-American corrupt politicians.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Mario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
Jun 4
ELON IS RIGHT, A BILL IS EITHER BIG OR BEAUTIFUL
Elon’s crusade to gut Washington’s bureaucracy had public support, bold plans, and even Trump’s backing.
But Congress abandoned real spending cuts once the cameras were off and the trillion-dollar “Big Beautiful” bill rolled x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk repostedNatalie F Danelishen
@Chesschick01
Jun 3
Thomas massie was right.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4Mario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
Jun 4
ELON IS RIGHT, A BILL IS EITHER BIG OR BEAUTIFUL
Elon’s crusade to gut Washington’s bureaucracy had public support, bold plans, and even Trump’s backing.
But Congress abandoned real spending cuts once the cameras were off and the trillion-dollar “Big Beautiful” bill rolled x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk repostedMario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
Jun 4
THE $5 TRILLION LIE: WHY RAND AND ELON ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE 'DEBT SLAVERY BILL'
They're calling it the "Big Beautiful Bill."
Rand Paul and Elon see it for what it is: fiscal suicide wrapped in a tax cut bow.
Paul's right to demand separate votes on tax cuts and the $5
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!
It is the Debt Slavery Bill. x.com/randpaul/statu…
Elon Musk repostedMario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
Jun 4
CONSERVATIVES: ELON’S RIGHT, TRUMP’S WRONG
A flood of Fox News commenters are siding with Elon’s call for strict budget cuts and slamming Trump for failing to deliver.
Many accuse Trump of governing like a Democrat when it comes to debt, blasting his record as fiscally
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
ExactlyNot Jerome Powell
@alifarhat79
Jun 4
Parody accountKaizen D. Asiedu
@thatsKAIZEN
Jun 4
1. Politicians make bill so long no one can read it
2. Politicians vote for bill and don’t read it
3. Politicians promise outcomes from bill they haven’t read
4. Bill does not produce outcomes
5. Politicians run for re-election promising to make more bills they won’t readRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
@RepMTG
Jun 3
Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.
I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in
Elon Musk repostedWall Street Apes
@WallStreetApes
Jun 4
Elon Musk opposing the “Big Beautiful Bill” shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. He literally sat next to Donald Trump and explained we need to cut spending, not pass more spending
Elon Musk explains how to end inflation and drop interest payments forever
“Provided the economy grows
Elon Musk repostedKaizen D. Asiedu
@thatsKAIZEN
Jun 4
1. Politicians make bill so long no one can read it
2. Politicians vote for bill and don’t read it
3. Politicians promise outcomes from bill they haven’t read
4. Bill does not produce outcomes
5. Politicians run for re-election promising to make more bills they won’t readRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
@RepMTG
Jun 3
Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.
I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in
Elon Musk repostedIan Miles Cheong
@stillgray
Jun 4
They’re calling it the “Big Beautiful Bill.” It’s not. It’s a multi-trillion debt bomb tied to a tax cut. It's gonna make you a slave.
Rand Paul wants a clean vote. He’s right. Elon called it “Debt Slavery.” Also right.
The 2017 tax cuts worked. Making them permanent makes
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
This spending bill contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history!
It is the Debt Slavery Bill. x.com/randpaul/statu…
Elon Musk repostedArthur MacWaters
@ArthurMacwaters
Jun 4
Replying to
@thatsKAIZEN
Elon & the @doge team faced great personal cost to find much more aggressive savings than congress has priced into this bill ($300b+)
It's an absolute travesty that Congress (especially republicans, who were so happy to get Elon's support in November) are not codifying these
Elon Musk repostedElon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
Replying to
@AutismCapital
It more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the @DOGE team at great personal cost and risk
Elon Musk repostedNick Sortor
@nicksortor
Jun 4
#BREAKING: Sen. Mike Lee just announced he is drafting the amendment which would deem members of Congress INELIGIBLE for re-election if the deficit is more than 3% GDP
@ElonMusk
just endorsed this earlier today.LFG
@BasedMikeLee
! PUT MEMBERS ON RECORD!Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
Jun 4
JUST IN: Elon Musk just ENDORSED a constitutional amendment which would make members of Congress INELIGIBLE for re-election if the deficit is more than 3% GDP
Elon Musk repostedWall Street Apes
@WallStreetApes
Jun 4
BOOM ALL sitting members of congress will be terminated if the budget is not balanced
Senator Mike Lee “I’m drafting a constitutional amendment to oust every member of Congress whenever inflation exceeds 3%
It’s better to disqualify politicians than for an entire nation toMike Lee
@BasedMikeLee
Jun 4
I’m drafting a constitutional amendment
To oust every member of Congress
Whenever inflation exceeds 3%
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 4
ExactlyGrummz
@Grummz
Jun 4
I don't understand the logic of "not pushing back" on this new bill.
What would be downsides when the cost of letting it pass is so high?
I see some people saying "we should take what we have" but they never say why we shouldn't push for more when this is our best, and maybe
Elon Musk repostedELON CLIPS
@ElonClipsX
Jun 4
Elon Musk: We should not take American prosperity for granted. We have to reduce the size of government, reduce the spending, and live within our means.
Elon Musk repostedELON CLIPS
@ElonClipsX
Jun 3
Elon Musk: America is going bankrupt extremely quickly and everyone seems to be whistling past the graveyard.
“The Defense Department budget is a very big budget. It's a trillion dollars a year. And interest payments on the national debt just exceeded the Defense Department
Elon Musk repostedThe Babylon Bee
@TheBabylonBee
14h
Congress Warns Failure To Pass Spending Bill Might Delay Destruction Of The Country https://buff.ly/7MoQThc
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
12h
Great work turning a lengthy paperwork retirement process into a simple digital one!Department of Government Efficiency
@DOGE
13h
On June 2, online digital retirement became the government standard at http://Retire.opm.gov! Great teamwork by OPM and DOGE.
Next up (end of July): getting the first retirement benefit payments to retirees faster (currently takes multiple months). Will report back in July!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
12h
That’s what it comes down toAmerica
@america
23h
“That I think was the real wakeup call for me was seeing that the interest payments on the National Debt exceeded the Defense Department budget.. I just don't want America to go bankrupt”
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
12h
Yes@jason
@Jason
22h
The majority of republican *voters* strongly agree with Elon and want the BBB trimmed down
@elonmusk left the Democratic Party and sacrificed much in his relentlessly supported the GOP
The GOP leadership should give his counsel serious consideration. x.com/wildbarestepf/…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
12h
Wise wordsDonald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Jan 23, 2013
I cannot believe the Republicans are extending the debt ceiling—I am a Republican & I am embarrassed!
Elon Musk repostedThe Rabbit Hole
@TheRabbitHole84
12
4 Essential Functions of Government according to Milton Friedman:
1) Defense from foreign enemies.
2) Protect the individual citizen from abuse/coercion by other citizens.
3) Define the rules.
4) Judicial System: Mechanism for adjudicating disputes around the meaning of rules.
Elon Musk repostedAcyn
@Acyn
Jun 4
Kennedy: Musk is frustrated. I think he believes in my judgment correctly, that we're quickly becoming debt slaves—that congress needs to rearm the magical healing power of no, and I agree with it. Having said that, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on this bill.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
I couldn’t agree more!Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Jul 31, 2012
No member of Congress should be eligible for re-election if our country's budget is not balanced---deficits not allowed!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
Sensible move by President@realDonaldTrump
@amuse
@amuse
11h
DOGE: Democrats are calling Trump's decision to end federal funding for California's high-speed rail project 'heartless'. With just 35 years left to complete the project was 'so close' to completion you could almost imagine your grandchildren riding the rails. The good news is
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
Keep the good, remove the bad
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
Slim Beautiful Bill for the win
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
Whatever. Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill. In the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that both big and beautiful.
Elon Musk repostedDogeDesigner
@cb_doge
12h
BREAKING: U.S. inches toward $37 trillion national debt.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!DogeDesigner
@cb_doge
11h
TRUMP: "I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate"
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11hRep. Andy Ogles
@RepOgles
12h
I'm all in for more cuts to the bill. It's big, but it's not beautiful yet. The Senate's job is to make the bill better before sending it back to us. The House's job is to pass DOGE rescissions and EO codification bills that are collecting dust.
Elon Musk repostedAutism Capital
@AutismCapital
11h
Elon continues to mount the high school pressure campaign
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10hDonald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Jul 31, 2012
No member of Congress should be eligible for re-election if our country's budget is not balanced---deficits not allowed!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Exactly@jason
@Jason
10h
The Trump administration should recognize Elon’s point about the budget & build a bridge with him — & the majority of Americans — who want to see us cut spending. Here’s what they admin should say/do: “we hear you Elon, we are going to sharpen our pencils and iterate on BBB to x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk reposted
Kaizen D. Asiedu
@thatsKAIZEN
10h
What a waste of time by our President.
Rather than making this about Elon, he should simply make clear:
1. The conditions under which this bill will reduce the deficit.
2. How he will create those conditions.
He was elected to lead, not fight with citizens.
[/quote]Autism Capital
@AutismCapital
11h
NEW: Trump speaks on Elon coming out against the BBB
“I would have won Pennsylvania regardless of Elon…I’m very disappointed with Elon. He knew this bill better than anyone and he only developed a problem when he found out I would cut the EV mandate…
When he left he said
Elon Musk
@elonmus
10hAusten Allred
@Austen
10h
Elon has been entirely 100% consistent about this from the beginning x.com/sporadicalia/s…
Elon Musk repostedWall Street Mav
@WallStreetMav
11h
I fully agree with Elon. I simply hope this doesn't create long term damage between Elon and Trump.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Remember this?@realDonaldTrump
Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
Mar 11
BREAKING: Trump just went to bat for Elon Musk outside the White House while examining the Teslas.
So true.
Elon
And the big, ugly spending bill will make things much worseRand Paul
@RandPaul
10h
@elonmusk is on point. Last year in my Festivus Report, I exposed that in 2024 alone, Americans paid $892 B in interest. That’s 10% of the entire federal budget—gone. Not for bridges, schools, or healthcare. Just to keep the creditors at bay. x.com/america/status…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
I have been very consistent. Just stating facts.ELON CLIPS
@ElonClipsX
Sep 7, 2024
Elon Musk, in 2021, on the federal budget: You can't just spend $3 trillion more than you earn every year and don't expect something bad to happen. Something's got to give.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Keep the EV/solar incentives cuts in the bill, also cut all the crazy spending increases in the Big Ugly Bill so that America doesn’t go bankrupt!Autism Capital
@AutismCapital
10h
Elon has been publicly and privately saying he doesn't care about the EV tax credit since last year. This is direct from Forbes. Both he and Trump have also publicly together said this during speeches and rallies. The narrative that this tiff is because of EV Credits is false.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
And the big, ugly spending bill will make things much worseRand Paul
@RandPaul
10h
@elonmusk is on point. Last year in my Festivus Report, I exposed that in 2024 alone, Americans paid $892 B in interest. That’s 10% of the entire federal budget—gone. Not for bridges, schools, or healthcare. Just to keep the creditors at bay. x.com/america/status…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Keep the EV/solar incentives cuts in the bill, also cut all the crazy spending increases in the Big Ugly Bill so that America doesn’t go bankrupt!Autism Capital
@AutismCapital
10h
Elon has been publicly and privately saying he doesn't care about the EV tax credit since last year. This is direct from Forbes. Both he and Trump have also publicly together said this during speeches and rallies. The narrative that this tiff is because of EV Credits is false.
Elon Musk reposted@amuse
@amuse
10h
He’s not wrong…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
The Big Ugly Bill will INCREASE the deficit to $2.5 trillion!Tesla Owners Silicon Valley
@teslaownersSV
22h
Elon Musk
“We have a $2 trillion deficit. It keeps growing. Our interest payments are higher than our defense department budget.”
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
ExactlyThomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
10h
Some politicians get into politics to enrich themselves. Maybe that’s why they can’t imagine someone would judge a bill based on what’s good for the country instead of what’s good for their wallet. This article from December shows Elon wasn’t “in it” for EV tax credits.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Kill BillKalshi
@Kalshi
10h
The Senate is losing confidence in the reconciliation bill
48 hours ago there was a 75% chance it was passed before July
Now its 50% and dropping
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Where is the man who wrote these words?
Was he replaced by a body double!?DogeDesigner
@cb_doge
10h
Elon Musk reminded President Trump of his own words.
Elon Musk repostedNot Jerome Powell
@alifarhat79
9h
Parody account
Replying to
@elonmusk
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
This is me in 2021!Mario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
May 12
ELON: GET RID OF ALL SUBSIDIES
“We don't need the $7,500 [EV] tax credit.
Honestly, I would just cancel this whole [infrastructure] bill.
Don't pass it.
That's my recommendation.”
Interviewer:
“What about the support, though, for the charging network?
There x.com/elonmusk/statu…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
Where is the Mike Johnson of 2023!?Speaker Mike Johnson
@SpeakerJohnson
Mar 5, 2023
The federal debt has just topped $31.4 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office now estimates federal spending for fiscal year 2023 will total $6.221 trillion—or more than $197,000 per second! This is not sustainable!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
Not even those in Congress who had to vote on the Big Ugly Spending Bill had time to read it!Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
10h
Replying to @elonmusk
The house has a 72 hour rule which requires the bill to be posted 72 hours before passage.
BUT the Speaker circumvented this rule with a “managers amendment” that re-wrote and added substantial portions of the bill as it went through the rules committee the night the bill was passed.
There’s another House rule which requires a day to pass before voting on a bill after the rules committee has modified it.
Would you believe the House voted to suspend that so-called “same day rule”?!
This means the final language of the bill was released only a few minutes before debate began. The vote on the rule change and the vote on the bill followed within a couple of hours.
Elon is right, members of congress didn’t even know what was in this bill until the night it passed. A few other members have also made this clear.
11:51 AM Jun 5, 2025
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
11h
False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!DogeDesigner
@cb_doge
11h
TRUMP: "I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate"
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
Where is the John Thune of 2020??The Hill
@thehill
Sep 10, 2020
Sen. John Thune: "Our nation is deeply, deeply in debt right now. Next year our country will owe more than we produce for the first time since the end of World War II. That's a very bad place to be."
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
“Balanced budget or bust!” -
@LeaderJohnThune
https://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07 ... index.html
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
I super agree with this guySpeaker Mike Johnson
@SpeakerJohnson
Feb 9, 2018
At some point, Congress has to stop this endless cycle of out-of-control deficit spending. https://x.com/BossierPress/status/962002495261302784
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
Congress is spending America into bankruptcy!Jon Erlichman
@JonErlichman
9h
Interest costs on U.S. federal debt:
2024: $1.13 trillion
2023: $883 billion
2022: $719 billion
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
This is what he said about JaredDonald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Dec 4, 2024
I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for
Elon Musk repostedKonstantin Kisin
@KonstantinKisin
10h
What Elon Musk is doing is genuinely heroic.
He will win no friends in politics and will be ostracised by the current administration. But he is totally right.
We (the entire Western world) simply cannot go on pretending our way of life is sustainable.
Historically, countries
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
9h
Such an obvious lie. So sad.Autism Capital
@AutismCapital
9h
Trump fires back at Elon. The online battle begins.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7hTrump War Room
@TrumpWarRoom
Mar 24
President Trump on @elonmusk: "Elon has never asked me for a thing. I mean, I got rid of the EV mandate ... but he's never asked me for a thing. I think that's an amazing attribute ... Elon is a patriot, we want to thank you very much for the job you're doing."
Elon Musk
@elonm
Time to drop the really big bomb:
@realDonaldTrump
is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
Have a nice day, DJT!
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7h
Trump War Room
@TrumpWarRoom
Mar 24
President Trump on @elonmusk: "Elon has never asked me for a thing. I mean, I got rid of the EV mandate ... but he's never asked me for a thing. I think that's an amazing attribute ... Elon is a patriot, we want to thank you very much for the job you're doing."
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7h
In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7h
YesIan Miles Cheong
@stillgray
8h
President vs Elon. Who wins? My money's on Elon.
Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
@naval
7hElon’s stance is principled.
Trump’s stance is practical.
Tech needs Republicans for the present.
Republicans need Tech for the future.
Drop the tax cuts, cut some pork, get the bill through.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7hNatalie F Danelishen
@Chesschick01
7h
In 1992 Trump partied with Jeffrey Epstein. Just gonna leave this here:
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7h
The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this yearShibetoshi Nakamoto
@BillyM2k
9h
can i finally say that trump’s tariffs are super stupid
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7hAG
@AGHamilton29
8h
The relationship between Trump and Epstein is well established. Trump flew on Epstein’s plane at least 7 times. Though it’s not clear he ever went to the island .
Here is what Trump said about Epstein in a 2002 NY magazine profile: x.com/larealmaquina/…
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7hNatalie F Danelishen
@Chesschick01
7h
In 1992 Trump partied with Jeffrey Epstein. Just gonna leave this here:
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7h
The Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this yearShibetoshi Nakamoto
@BillyM2k
9h
can i finally say that trump’s tariffs are super stupid
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
7hNatalie F Danelishen
@Chesschick01
7h
In 1992 Trump partied with Jeffrey Epstein. Just gonna leave this here:
Elon Musk repostedSenator Rand Paul
@SenRandPaul
13h
I’d vote for it if we got real spending cuts. But this bill is the largest debt increase in U.S. history—$5T.
That’s like giving your 16-year-old a credit card, watching them rack up $2K on booze and gambling, then raising their limit to $10K. Irresponsible.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
2h
If America goes broke, nothing else mattersAmerica
@america
10h
“If the country goes insolvent, if all the money is just spent on paying interest on debt, there's no money left for anything. A country is no different from a person. Country overspends, country goes bankrupt, same as a person who overspends goes bankrupt. So it's not optional
Elon Musk repostedSenator Rand Paul
@SenRandPaul
13h
I’d vote for it if we got real spending cuts. But this bill is the largest debt increase in U.S. history—$5T.
That’s like giving your 16-year-old a credit card, watching them rack up $2K on booze and gambling, then raising their limit to $10K. Irresponsible.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
2h
If America goes broke, nothing else mattersAmerica
@america
10h
“If the country goes insolvent, if all the money is just spent on paying interest on debt, there's no money left for anything. A country is no different from a person. Country overspends, country goes bankrupt, same as a person who overspends goes bankrupt. So it's not optional
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
10h
Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
21h
If America goes broke, nothing else mattersAmerica
@america
Jun 5
“If the country goes insolvent, if all the money is just spent on paying interest on debt, there's no money left for anything. A country is no different from a person. Country overspends, country goes bankrupt, same as a person who overspends goes bankrupt. So it's not optional
Elon Musk repostedTesla Owners Silicon Valley
@teslaownersSV
17h
"The Federal Government today pays more in interest on the debt than we do in budget for the Department of Defense. We pay $1.2B a year in JUST interest on debt. Total government spending is about $7T. Interest payments are $1.2T. DOD is $800B a year. Total debt is $35T and it
Elon Musk repostedDefiant L’s
@DefiantLs
Jun 5
Jesse Watters: “The media said that Musk was the co-president… The media said Trump was doing favors for Elon Musk. Well, if you look at this big, beautiful bill, there’s no favors for Elon Musk in it at all”
Elon Musk repostedWall Street Mav
@WallStreetMav
Jun 5
This is why Republicans will likely lose the House in 2026 and then Democrats will spend two years investigating and impeaching President Trump.
Trump and the Republicans in Congress need to deliver. We want budget cuts. We want agencies shut down. We don't want big govt.Declaration of Memes
@LibertyCappy
Jun 5
I went from feeling enthusiastic in Jan/Feb to being completely disillusioned by the Republicans
Literally was thinking I was going to use my platform to campaign in the midterms to help them secure more wins
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.
9:46 AM Jun 5, 2025
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Such ingratitude
9:46 AM Jun 5, 2025
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
1h
Congress is bankrupting America
AJ@alojoh
5h
In this thread I want to give you an idea just how insane the current government spending is and how far we drifted away from any sustainable fiscal spending.
This is all based on reported numbers and there are no assumptions/forecasts.
In the current fiscal year, the
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
58m
The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle!
And exactly 80% of people agree
This is fate.Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Jun 5
Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?
Elon Musk repostedRep. Chip Roy Press Office
@RepChipRoy
5h
Rep. Roy: "The truth is, our whole budget has grown from about 3.6 trillion a decade ago to 7.2 trillion.
Now it's doubled and everybody wants to applaud themselves for $160 billion of reductions and increases? I'm sorry, I don't think that's good enough."
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Fri Jun 06, 2025 8:54 pm
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 29
I am having a Press Conference tomorrow at 1:30 P.M. EST, with Elon Musk, at the Oval Office. This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific! See you tomorrow at the White House.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 30
Join me with Elon—live in The Oval Office! youtube.com/live/dAv3PaMnme8?s
https://www.youtube.com
President Trump Participates in a Press Conference with Elon Musk
The White House
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 30
Elon has delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington…
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
May 30
Elon Musk: “This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning...The DOGE team will only grow stronger overtime...It is permeating throughout the government, and I am confident that, over time, we will see—a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction."
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
6d
Thank you, Elon!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
5d
After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA. I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
1d
Elon was “wearing thin,” I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
1d
The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
1d
I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that. I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
LIVE: Trump holds meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
Associated Press
Streamed live on Jun 5, 2025 #friedrichmerz #trump #live
Watch live as President Donald Trump welcomes German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and participates in a bilateral meeting.
Q. Mr. President, I'm sure you've seen the criticism from Elon Musk about your big beautiful bill. What's your reaction to that? Do you think it in any way hurts passage in the senate?
[Donald Trump] Look, you know, I've always liked Elon. And I was always very surprised. And you saw the words he had for me. And he hasn't said anything about me that's bad. I'd rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible. It's the biggest cut in the history of our country. It's about 1.6 trillion in cuts. It's the biggest tax cut, you would say. People's taxes will go way down. But it's the biggest tax cut in history. We are doing things in that bill that are unbelievable. And when you look at what we're doing for small businesses, for people, for middle income people, all of the things that we're doing, nobody's ever seen anything like it. And you know, Elon's upset, because we took the EV mandate, you know, which was a lot of money for electric vehicles. And, you know, they're having a hard time, the electric vehicles. And they want us to pay billions of dollars in subsidies. And, you know, Elon knew this from the beginning. He knew it for a long time ago that that's been in there. That hasn't changed. That's been right from the beginning. That hasn't changed at all, right from the beginning. But I know that disturbed him. He wanted, and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well. I'm sure he respected him. But to run NASA. And I didn't think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat. And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges is we don't have to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important. We have great people. General Cain is going to be picking somebody, and we'll be checking them out and seeing. But he wanted that person, a certain person. And we said no. And, you know, I can understand why he's upset. Remember, he was here for a long time.
You saw a man who was very happy when he stood behind the oval desk. And even with the black eye, I said, you want a little makeup? We'll get you a little makeup. But he said, no, I don't think so. Which is interesting, and very nice. He wants to be who he is. So you could make that statement too, I guess.
Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore. I was surprised, because you were here, everybody in this room practically was here, as we had a wonderful sendoff. He said wonderful things about me. He couldn't have said nicer things. He's worn the hat, "Trump was right about everything." And I am right about the great, big, beautiful bill.
Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. I think I would have won. So we've done a great job. Elon endorsed me very strongly. He actually went up and campaigned for me. I think I would have won. Susie would say I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway, even if the governor ran, the real governor, not the governor from Minnesota who is, I mean, he's a sick puppy that guy, that poor guy, I feel sorry for him. But they made a bad choice with him. But if you pick Shapiro, or anybody else, I spoke to him recently about his, you know, his house being set on fire, which was terrible. But if they picked him, I would have won Pennsylvania. I won it by a lot.
But I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're gonna have to cut the EV mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars. And it really is unfair. We want to have cars of all types. We want to have electric, but we want to have gasoline combustion. We want to have different, we want to have hybrids. We want to have all. We want to be able to sell everything. And when that was cut, and Congress wanted to cut it, he became a little bit different. And I can understand that, but he knew every aspect of this bill. He knew it better than almost anybody. And he never had a problem until right after he left. And if you saw the statements he made about me, which I'm sure you can get very easily, it's very fresh on tape, he said the most beautiful things about me. And he hasn't said bad about me personally, but I'm sure that'll be next. But I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.
Q. To that end, Mr. President, I just want to clarify, did he raise any of these concerns with you privately before he raised them publicly? And this is the guy you put in charge of cutting spending? Should people not take him seriously about spending? Are you saying this is all sour grapes?
[Donald Trump] No, he worked hard, and he did a good job. And I'll be honest. I think he misses the place. I think he got out there, and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful oval office, and he's got nice offices too, but there's something about this. I was telling the Chancellor, this is where it is, people come in here even from Germany. They come in, and they walk into the oval office, and it's just a special place. It's, you know, World War I it started and ended here, and World War II, and so many other things. Everything big comes right from this beautiful space. It's now much more beautiful than it was six months ago. A lot of good things are happening in this room. And I'll tell you, he's not the first people to leave my administration, and they love us. And then, at some point, they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it, and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it. But we have it with others too. They leave, and they wake up in the morning, and the glamour's gone. The whole world is different. And they become hostile. I don't know what it is. Someday you'll write a book about it, and you'll let us know.
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Re: Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Ga
by admin » Sat Jun 07, 2025 2:54 am
Trump Attorney General RIPPED APART in SCATHING New Filing
Katie Phang
Jun 6, 2025
Bondi Busted! Scathing new bar complaint against AG Pam Bondi accusing her of weaponizing the DOJ. Katie Phang on exposing Bondi for her hypocrisy and holding her to account.
Transcript
Confirmed i will fight every day to
restore confidence and integrity to the
Department of Justice and each of its
components the partisanship the
weaponization will be gone america will
have one
tier of justice for all that will not be
the case if I am attorney general i will
not politicize that office i will not
target people simply because of their
political affiliation justice will be
administered
evenhandedly throughout this country
senator we've got to bring this country
back together we've got to move forward
or we're going to lose our country yeah
i think the concern is
that weaponization of the Justice
Department may well occur under your
tenure and we want to make sure that
that's not the case that was then
nominee for attorney general of the
United States Pam Bondi sworn to tell
the truth under oath testifying at her
Senate confirmation hearing as to why
she's not only qualified to serve as the
attorney general of the United States
but also her sworn answers to inquiries
by Senator Sheldon White House and
Senator Coons as to whether or not she
would weaponize the DOJ and whether or
not she would honor her oath as a
prosecutor
and you heard her in her own words she
said "No I wouldn't." She also said she
wouldn't weaponize or politicize the DOJ
and she also said that she would not
continue in her role if if she were to
get a directive to do something illegal
or unethical and yet as we see it here
today on June 6
2025 Pam Bonnie remains the attorney
general of the United States but I'm
going to cut out the phrase of the
United States i'm going to say the
attorney um general for convicted felon
Donald Trump because everything that
she's been doing has not been for the
benefit of the people of the United
States of America in fact she like other
attorney generals that have served under
felon Trump they have sworn an oath of
loyalty to him instead of to the country
uh she is not the personal attorney for
Donald Trump she is the attorney for the
people of the United States and she
certainly has forgotten that role and
the people that have stepped up to
remind her of that are some fantastic
people like Norm Eisen with whom I'm
very lucky to work um at the Democracy
Defenders Fund he alongside the lawyers
defending American democracy lawyers for
the rule of law and a group of about 70
prominent attorneys law professors and
former judges have filed a scathing
multi-page bar complaint in the state of
Florida against Pam Bondi um to be clear
although Pam Bondi is the attorney
general of the United States you have to
be an attorney and um she is a barred
and licensed attorney in the state of
Florida so when we talk about a bar we
talk about the the um
organization in a state that issues the
license to you it's a professional
license it's called your bar license and
it allows you to practice law you must
be an attorney or a lawyer in good
standing in a jurisdiction to be able to
practice law in that jurisdiction so if
I don't have a license to practice in
the state of Wisconsin for example I
cannot practice there unless I am
admitted based upon someone's
recommendation and their guarantee that
they will monitor the work that I do and
that it'll be appropriate and competent
and professional and so Pam Bondi has a
Florida bar license and so I want to
also kind of clarify some concepts right
here before we continue on our
conversation you have the Florida Bar
that is the governing body it is a
nonpartisan governing body um you must
be a member of the Florida Bar in good
standing to practice law in the state of
Florida this is in the state courts let
me be clear state court is different
than federal court so the Florida bar
deals with state bar licenses um it is
the governing body over your continuing
legal education you have to satisfy a
certain minimum number of those credits
to be able to continue to have a license
in good standing in Florida and a bar
association is different we sometimes
hear them being used interchangeably and
that is incorrect a state bar will deal
with your license a bar association is
just a collection of attorneys they can
be state federal criminal civil whatever
but that is just a collection of
attorneys that's a voluntary
organization you can choose to be a part
of your local bar association or not a
bar association of course also has its
own concept of ethics as well but they
take that from the overarching state bar
and the reason why I give you this kind
of mini education and how that is
structured and most specifically in the
state of Florida is I want you to
understand the import of having this bar
complaint filed um bar complaints can be
frivolous people they can be
bar complaints but when you see one like
this and the reason why I wanted to
share this with you is because it is so
meaty and it is just so significant i
just as I told you it is a multi-page
bar complaint it is a total
of 19 pages and it is
scathing scathing in its allegations
against Pam Bondi and it makes it
perfectly clear that she and her role as
attorney general of the United States
has been compelling coercing and forcing
Department of Justice lawyers to have to
violate their quote ethical obligations
under the guise of zealous advocacy
she issued a memorandum people on her
first day in office let's take a look at
it because I want you to see exactly how
absurd it is that on her first day of
office as the attorney general this is
the type of memorandum she issues to all
of the department employees and let me
be clear it wasn't just one memo right
it was multiple memos some of the memos
included the elimination of diversity
equity and inclusion how they're going
to investigate as a part of the
Department of Justice the elimination of
DEI and how the pursuit of the
enforcement of immigration actions from
this administration etc but I want to
focus on this one memo it's called
zealous advocacy on behalf of the United
States and the technical title was quote
general policy regarding zealous
advocacy on behalf of the United States
and it pretty much says quote the
discretion afforded department attorneys
entrusted with those responsibilities
that means the enforcement of criminal
and civil laws enacted by Congress but
it also includes vigorously defending
presidential policies and actions
against legal challenges on behalf of
the United States so Bondi tells the
attorneys and the people in the DOJ that
are working there that the discretion
afforded to the attorneys entrusted with
those responsibilities does not include
latitude to substitute personal
political views or judgments for those
that prevailed in the election when
Department of Justice attorneys for
example refuse to advance goodfaith
arguments by declining to appear in
court or to sign briefs it undermines
the constitutional order and deprivives
the president of the benefit of his
lawyers let's be clear people DOJ
lawyers are not President Trump's
lawyers they're not the fact that Bondie
would put this into writing is a huge
reason why she's looking at multiple bar
complaints but I digress for just a
second there
the policy of the Department of Justice
is any attorney who refuses to advance
goodfaith arguments on behalf of the
administration well there you go they
have to be good faith or otherwise
delays or impedes the department's
mission will be subject to discipline
and potentially termination consistent
with applicable law i mean it ain't
subtle right she made it pretty clear if
you don't go lock step with what she
wants which is pretty much what Trump
wants her to do then you could look at
termination you could look at other
disciplinary action etc so let's get
back to that bar complaint because again
it's very
important so the bar complaint says that
not only has Bondi tried to coersse
these lawyers under the guise of zealous
advocacy but that that memorandum I just
read to you a portion of it that I read
to you it threatens lawyers with
discipline or possible termination for
falling short even though the rules of
professional conduct that govern all
attorneys say that you can be zealous
but only to a certain point right you
can't ignore your ethics and the laws
and your professional responsibility
codes you can't do that just in your
pursuit of representing a client right
you can't do that and this bar complaint
makes it clear that bonding has far
exceeded the limits of acceptability
when it comes to this kind of stuff the
bar complaint focuses on three specific
cases within which department lawyers
were terminated or forced to resign as a
result of demands that they act
unethically those demands being made by
Pam Bondi or members of her senior
management team like I don't know Todd
Blanch I don't know Emil Bo you know the
guy that's being nominated to the third
circuit court of appeals by Donald
Trump so I want to also let you know
that there are retired Supreme Court of
Florida justices that have signed off on
this bar complaint that includes Barbara
Piente that also includes James Perry
and Peggy Quint these are people that I
know uh that some of my cases have been
in front of and they have signed off on
this and the reason why I bring it up to
you is there's also for example one of
my former professors from the University
of Miami Tony Alieri he is the ethics
guru and he has signed off on this
letter former United States District
Court Judge from Massachusetts Nancy
Girtner i mean these are real heavy
hitters when it comes to the law these
are real people that have either served
as judges prosecutors lawyers criminal
defense attorneys i mean if you look at
the signees on this bar complaint
against Pam Bonnie it runs the gamut
professors as well i mean it is not just
a very discreet group of people it is
more than 70 more than 70 attorneys
professors scholars uh retired judges
former judges that are saying that Pam
Bonnie has acted unethically they have
signed their names to a bar complaint
people this is not just some open letter
that's been sent to the newspaper um to
complain about Pam Bondi this is a bar
complaint this is a very serious thing
when you bring a bar complaint you
better be able to back it up because
there's an investigation that sometimes
follows and we'll clarify that in just a
minute guys but let's talk about this
the Justice Department chief of staff
when he was kind of asked to comment on
this and this is according to the Hill
uh in a statement he said his name is
Chad Meiselle remember that name he said
quote the Florida bar has twice rejected
performative attempts by these
outofstate lawyers to weaponize the bar
complaint process against AG Bondi he
then goes on to say this third vexacious
attempt will fail to do anything other
than prove that the signitories have
less intelligence and independent
thought than sheep
Remember I just told you that there are
former Florida Supreme Court justices
there's federal judges and other state
court judges that have signed on this
bar complaint it's interesting huh how
bold you are Chad Meiselle to be able to
say this but I'm going to remind the
viewers right now Chad of the following
reality because at the Katy Fang News
Channel we speak in truths and facts and
evidence so Chad Meiselle's wife is a
federal judge in the middle district of
Florida her name is Katherine Meiselle
maybe you've heard of her maybe you
haven't guys but guess what katherryn
Meiselle was appointed by Donald Trump
and the American Bar Association during
her appointment process said the
following she's not qualified to serve
as a federal
judge remember how we covered this also
a few days ago that Pam Bani has
announced that the American Bar
Association will not be a part of the
judicial nomination and confirmation
process anymore because I don't know
Emil Bo has been nominated by Donald
Trump well yeah there's another reason
why because the ABA says stuff like Chad
Meiselle the Department of Justice Chief
of Staff his wife isn't even qualified
to be a judge h So let's talk about
three of the examples that have been
brought up in these bar complaints so
you understand why they are critical and
very powerful examples of Bondi
exceeding her ethical um obligations and
such a veteran prosecutor resigned after
refusing to investigate a Joe Biden era
contract without evidence without
evidence she appropriately said "I am
not going to investigate
it." Arez Reali was terminated after
publicly objecting to the deportation
and imprisonment in El Salvador of a man
despite a court order prohibiting the
action we all know what that case was
about and of course those numerous
federal prosecutors again that we
covered here at the Katy Fang News
Channel that resigned at the US
Attorney's Office in the Southern
District of New York instead of
dismissing or dropping the charges
against Mayor Eric Adams those those
illegal indicted charges against um uh
um uh Eric Adams instead of following
the directive from Emil Bo and Todd
Blanch to drop those charges they
resigned in protest because I don't know
those were corruption charges against
Eric Adams
there have been other bar complaints
that have been brought against Pam Bondi
early May 2025 two California US
representatives David Min and Mike
Leaven penned a letter to the bar urging
a probe of Bondi's conduct um including
her legally questionable positions and
tactics in a case involving the
deportation of Venezuelan nationals and
public statements that appear designed
to undermine the judiciary and
potentially endanger judges
last month progressive watchdog group
Fact Pack launched a public campaign
demanding the disparment of Bondi quote
due to potential violations of legal
ethics and professional responsibilities
they included in that um urging of a
disparment the fact that she failed to
disclose her lobbying work for uh Cutter
when she was working on Trump's legal
team her efforts to overturn the 2020
election results remember she's an
election denier people she worked on his
legal team Trump's and her $25,000
contribution that was made by Donald
Trump excuse me it was Trump's $25,000
contribution to her political committee
that she took from the Donald Trump
Foundation in 2013 before her office
when she was the attorney general of
Florida declined to join a lawsuit
against Trump
University the Florida Bar has rejected
um other EPIS complaints saying that it
quote does not investigate or prosecute
sitting officers who are appointed under
the US Constitution now that is a
sherking of responsibility there is it
not to which those Florida Supreme Court
justices Parente Perry and Quint you
know what they said they said that
explanation is bunk and it is quote
unsupported by history or president i
wanted to bring this to your attention
because there was a lot of Trump Musk
drama yesterday and look was it
enjoyable to watch was it a little
satisfying to see it happen sure it was
but was it a raging distraction from the
rest of everything else that's going on
the answer is yes while all of that is
going on the world continues to burn
courtesy of Donald Trump and of course
courtesy of his billionaire buddy who is
now getting divorced from Elon Musk but
this bar complaint that was filed
yesterday it is significant in its heft
significant in its merits significant in
the number of signitories and the the
significance of the people that are the
signitories i'm going to link that bar
complaint so you guys can check it out i
want you to read it because is it is
written with a level of urgency as well
we are just 19 weeks approximately into
the second term of the Trump
administration we have another three and
something years to go people we cannot
allow We cannot allow the Department of
Justice to be led by a lackey of Donald
Trump there is a phrase in Spanish no
mangua there's no hair on my tongue i am
speaking to you Pam Bondi i'm speaking
to you because you are a member of the
Florida Bar you have an obligation to
follow your ethics to follow not only
your internal moral compass but you also
have a code of professional
responsibility that you have sworn to
protect and to um you know preserve the
integrity of that's not happening that's
not happening when members of the DOJ
that work there feel like they have to
resign or else when the memos that are
issued threaten them with disciplinary
proceedings investigations andor firing
if they don't do a directive that is uh
that's the type of you see in a
dictatorship right in an autocracy
that's the type of you see so folks
check it out because what's going to
happen now is once the Florida Bar gets
a complaint it does kind of an immediate
review of whether or not it's going to
proceed with an investigation against uh
the person uh that is uh being
complained against against whom the
complaint is being filed excuse me the
Florida Bar does have some discretion in
making that decision i just read to you
that prior bar complaints that the
Florida Bar said that they don't think
it's within their purview to do this but
you just heard three Supreme Court
justices from the Florida Supreme Court
retired now say that's BS they call BS
and they say yes you can Florida Bar so
Florida Bar can do this will they do it
we will follow along and watch it
closely but if the Florida Bar does
decide to pursue an investigation into
this bar complaint into Attorney General
Pam Bondi then it can assign a
prosecutor that will look into it and
will prosecute the claims and will do an
investigation i used to be the chair of
a Florida bar grievance committee there
are committees that are set up all over
the state of Florida it's led by a chair
it's also led by members of the
grievance committee they are appointed
and we would take the bar complaints
that were sent to us by the Florida Bar
and they would be assigned to us and we
would investigate them we had subpoena
power we had investigatory power as
members of the Florida Bar we not only
have to self-report violations but we
also have to make sure that we are
reporting violations as we see them
occur these are not out of state
complaintants anymore Chad Meiselle
these are people within the state of
Florida there are people that have a
vested interest across the United States
though outside of the confines of the
state of Florida that care about justice
and they care about whether or not the
Department of Justice is led by somebody
who will be fair and
impartial so that's why the Florida Bar
must not should it must investigate
Attorney General Pam Bondi these
allegations they have now been made
public we have seen very publicly
resignation letters statements made
publicly by former federal prosecutors
feeling pressured to be able to do a
directive that they find to be unethical
there's evidence there should be pursued
people be mad be outraged demand
accountability because that's what I'm
doing here i am mad i am outraged i
demand accountability every single
freaking day on my behalf and on your
behalf i'll see you on the other side
katie Fang here the truth matters now
more than ever so hit that subscribe
button so you don't miss a thing
Katie Phang
Jun 6, 2025
Bondi Busted! Scathing new bar complaint against AG Pam Bondi accusing her of weaponizing the DOJ. Katie Phang on exposing Bondi for her hypocrisy and holding her to account.
Transcript
Confirmed i will fight every day to
restore confidence and integrity to the
Department of Justice and each of its
components the partisanship the
weaponization will be gone america will
have one
tier of justice for all that will not be
the case if I am attorney general i will
not politicize that office i will not
target people simply because of their
political affiliation justice will be
administered
evenhandedly throughout this country
senator we've got to bring this country
back together we've got to move forward
or we're going to lose our country yeah
i think the concern is
that weaponization of the Justice
Department may well occur under your
tenure and we want to make sure that
that's not the case that was then
nominee for attorney general of the
United States Pam Bondi sworn to tell
the truth under oath testifying at her
Senate confirmation hearing as to why
she's not only qualified to serve as the
attorney general of the United States
but also her sworn answers to inquiries
by Senator Sheldon White House and
Senator Coons as to whether or not she
would weaponize the DOJ and whether or
not she would honor her oath as a
prosecutor
and you heard her in her own words she
said "No I wouldn't." She also said she
wouldn't weaponize or politicize the DOJ
and she also said that she would not
continue in her role if if she were to
get a directive to do something illegal
or unethical and yet as we see it here
today on June 6
2025 Pam Bonnie remains the attorney
general of the United States but I'm
going to cut out the phrase of the
United States i'm going to say the
attorney um general for convicted felon
Donald Trump because everything that
she's been doing has not been for the
benefit of the people of the United
States of America in fact she like other
attorney generals that have served under
felon Trump they have sworn an oath of
loyalty to him instead of to the country
uh she is not the personal attorney for
Donald Trump she is the attorney for the
people of the United States and she
certainly has forgotten that role and
the people that have stepped up to
remind her of that are some fantastic
people like Norm Eisen with whom I'm
very lucky to work um at the Democracy
Defenders Fund he alongside the lawyers
defending American democracy lawyers for
the rule of law and a group of about 70
prominent attorneys law professors and
former judges have filed a scathing
multi-page bar complaint in the state of
Florida against Pam Bondi um to be clear
although Pam Bondi is the attorney
general of the United States you have to
be an attorney and um she is a barred
and licensed attorney in the state of
Florida so when we talk about a bar we
talk about the the um
organization in a state that issues the
license to you it's a professional
license it's called your bar license and
it allows you to practice law you must
be an attorney or a lawyer in good
standing in a jurisdiction to be able to
practice law in that jurisdiction so if
I don't have a license to practice in
the state of Wisconsin for example I
cannot practice there unless I am
admitted based upon someone's
recommendation and their guarantee that
they will monitor the work that I do and
that it'll be appropriate and competent
and professional and so Pam Bondi has a
Florida bar license and so I want to
also kind of clarify some concepts right
here before we continue on our
conversation you have the Florida Bar
that is the governing body it is a
nonpartisan governing body um you must
be a member of the Florida Bar in good
standing to practice law in the state of
Florida this is in the state courts let
me be clear state court is different
than federal court so the Florida bar
deals with state bar licenses um it is
the governing body over your continuing
legal education you have to satisfy a
certain minimum number of those credits
to be able to continue to have a license
in good standing in Florida and a bar
association is different we sometimes
hear them being used interchangeably and
that is incorrect a state bar will deal
with your license a bar association is
just a collection of attorneys they can
be state federal criminal civil whatever
but that is just a collection of
attorneys that's a voluntary
organization you can choose to be a part
of your local bar association or not a
bar association of course also has its
own concept of ethics as well but they
take that from the overarching state bar
and the reason why I give you this kind
of mini education and how that is
structured and most specifically in the
state of Florida is I want you to
understand the import of having this bar
complaint filed um bar complaints can be
frivolous people they can be
bar complaints but when you see one like
this and the reason why I wanted to
share this with you is because it is so
meaty and it is just so significant i
just as I told you it is a multi-page
bar complaint it is a total
of 19 pages and it is
scathing scathing in its allegations
against Pam Bondi and it makes it
perfectly clear that she and her role as
attorney general of the United States
has been compelling coercing and forcing
Department of Justice lawyers to have to
violate their quote ethical obligations
under the guise of zealous advocacy
she issued a memorandum people on her
first day in office let's take a look at
it because I want you to see exactly how
absurd it is that on her first day of
office as the attorney general this is
the type of memorandum she issues to all
of the department employees and let me
be clear it wasn't just one memo right
it was multiple memos some of the memos
included the elimination of diversity
equity and inclusion how they're going
to investigate as a part of the
Department of Justice the elimination of
DEI and how the pursuit of the
enforcement of immigration actions from
this administration etc but I want to
focus on this one memo it's called
zealous advocacy on behalf of the United
States and the technical title was quote
general policy regarding zealous
advocacy on behalf of the United States
and it pretty much says quote the
discretion afforded department attorneys
entrusted with those responsibilities
that means the enforcement of criminal
and civil laws enacted by Congress but
it also includes vigorously defending
presidential policies and actions
against legal challenges on behalf of
the United States so Bondi tells the
attorneys and the people in the DOJ that
are working there that the discretion
afforded to the attorneys entrusted with
those responsibilities does not include
latitude to substitute personal
political views or judgments for those
that prevailed in the election when
Department of Justice attorneys for
example refuse to advance goodfaith
arguments by declining to appear in
court or to sign briefs it undermines
the constitutional order and deprivives
the president of the benefit of his
lawyers let's be clear people DOJ
lawyers are not President Trump's
lawyers they're not the fact that Bondie
would put this into writing is a huge
reason why she's looking at multiple bar
complaints but I digress for just a
second there
the policy of the Department of Justice
is any attorney who refuses to advance
goodfaith arguments on behalf of the
administration well there you go they
have to be good faith or otherwise
delays or impedes the department's
mission will be subject to discipline
and potentially termination consistent
with applicable law i mean it ain't
subtle right she made it pretty clear if
you don't go lock step with what she
wants which is pretty much what Trump
wants her to do then you could look at
termination you could look at other
disciplinary action etc so let's get
back to that bar complaint because again
it's very
important so the bar complaint says that
not only has Bondi tried to coersse
these lawyers under the guise of zealous
advocacy but that that memorandum I just
read to you a portion of it that I read
to you it threatens lawyers with
discipline or possible termination for
falling short even though the rules of
professional conduct that govern all
attorneys say that you can be zealous
but only to a certain point right you
can't ignore your ethics and the laws
and your professional responsibility
codes you can't do that just in your
pursuit of representing a client right
you can't do that and this bar complaint
makes it clear that bonding has far
exceeded the limits of acceptability
when it comes to this kind of stuff the
bar complaint focuses on three specific
cases within which department lawyers
were terminated or forced to resign as a
result of demands that they act
unethically those demands being made by
Pam Bondi or members of her senior
management team like I don't know Todd
Blanch I don't know Emil Bo you know the
guy that's being nominated to the third
circuit court of appeals by Donald
Trump so I want to also let you know
that there are retired Supreme Court of
Florida justices that have signed off on
this bar complaint that includes Barbara
Piente that also includes James Perry
and Peggy Quint these are people that I
know uh that some of my cases have been
in front of and they have signed off on
this and the reason why I bring it up to
you is there's also for example one of
my former professors from the University
of Miami Tony Alieri he is the ethics
guru and he has signed off on this
letter former United States District
Court Judge from Massachusetts Nancy
Girtner i mean these are real heavy
hitters when it comes to the law these
are real people that have either served
as judges prosecutors lawyers criminal
defense attorneys i mean if you look at
the signees on this bar complaint
against Pam Bonnie it runs the gamut
professors as well i mean it is not just
a very discreet group of people it is
more than 70 more than 70 attorneys
professors scholars uh retired judges
former judges that are saying that Pam
Bonnie has acted unethically they have
signed their names to a bar complaint
people this is not just some open letter
that's been sent to the newspaper um to
complain about Pam Bondi this is a bar
complaint this is a very serious thing
when you bring a bar complaint you
better be able to back it up because
there's an investigation that sometimes
follows and we'll clarify that in just a
minute guys but let's talk about this
the Justice Department chief of staff
when he was kind of asked to comment on
this and this is according to the Hill
uh in a statement he said his name is
Chad Meiselle remember that name he said
quote the Florida bar has twice rejected
performative attempts by these
outofstate lawyers to weaponize the bar
complaint process against AG Bondi he
then goes on to say this third vexacious
attempt will fail to do anything other
than prove that the signitories have
less intelligence and independent
thought than sheep
Remember I just told you that there are
former Florida Supreme Court justices
there's federal judges and other state
court judges that have signed on this
bar complaint it's interesting huh how
bold you are Chad Meiselle to be able to
say this but I'm going to remind the
viewers right now Chad of the following
reality because at the Katy Fang News
Channel we speak in truths and facts and
evidence so Chad Meiselle's wife is a
federal judge in the middle district of
Florida her name is Katherine Meiselle
maybe you've heard of her maybe you
haven't guys but guess what katherryn
Meiselle was appointed by Donald Trump
and the American Bar Association during
her appointment process said the
following she's not qualified to serve
as a federal
judge remember how we covered this also
a few days ago that Pam Bani has
announced that the American Bar
Association will not be a part of the
judicial nomination and confirmation
process anymore because I don't know
Emil Bo has been nominated by Donald
Trump well yeah there's another reason
why because the ABA says stuff like Chad
Meiselle the Department of Justice Chief
of Staff his wife isn't even qualified
to be a judge h So let's talk about
three of the examples that have been
brought up in these bar complaints so
you understand why they are critical and
very powerful examples of Bondi
exceeding her ethical um obligations and
such a veteran prosecutor resigned after
refusing to investigate a Joe Biden era
contract without evidence without
evidence she appropriately said "I am
not going to investigate
it." Arez Reali was terminated after
publicly objecting to the deportation
and imprisonment in El Salvador of a man
despite a court order prohibiting the
action we all know what that case was
about and of course those numerous
federal prosecutors again that we
covered here at the Katy Fang News
Channel that resigned at the US
Attorney's Office in the Southern
District of New York instead of
dismissing or dropping the charges
against Mayor Eric Adams those those
illegal indicted charges against um uh
um uh Eric Adams instead of following
the directive from Emil Bo and Todd
Blanch to drop those charges they
resigned in protest because I don't know
those were corruption charges against
Eric Adams
there have been other bar complaints
that have been brought against Pam Bondi
early May 2025 two California US
representatives David Min and Mike
Leaven penned a letter to the bar urging
a probe of Bondi's conduct um including
her legally questionable positions and
tactics in a case involving the
deportation of Venezuelan nationals and
public statements that appear designed
to undermine the judiciary and
potentially endanger judges
last month progressive watchdog group
Fact Pack launched a public campaign
demanding the disparment of Bondi quote
due to potential violations of legal
ethics and professional responsibilities
they included in that um urging of a
disparment the fact that she failed to
disclose her lobbying work for uh Cutter
when she was working on Trump's legal
team her efforts to overturn the 2020
election results remember she's an
election denier people she worked on his
legal team Trump's and her $25,000
contribution that was made by Donald
Trump excuse me it was Trump's $25,000
contribution to her political committee
that she took from the Donald Trump
Foundation in 2013 before her office
when she was the attorney general of
Florida declined to join a lawsuit
against Trump
University the Florida Bar has rejected
um other EPIS complaints saying that it
quote does not investigate or prosecute
sitting officers who are appointed under
the US Constitution now that is a
sherking of responsibility there is it
not to which those Florida Supreme Court
justices Parente Perry and Quint you
know what they said they said that
explanation is bunk and it is quote
unsupported by history or president i
wanted to bring this to your attention
because there was a lot of Trump Musk
drama yesterday and look was it
enjoyable to watch was it a little
satisfying to see it happen sure it was
but was it a raging distraction from the
rest of everything else that's going on
the answer is yes while all of that is
going on the world continues to burn
courtesy of Donald Trump and of course
courtesy of his billionaire buddy who is
now getting divorced from Elon Musk but
this bar complaint that was filed
yesterday it is significant in its heft
significant in its merits significant in
the number of signitories and the the
significance of the people that are the
signitories i'm going to link that bar
complaint so you guys can check it out i
want you to read it because is it is
written with a level of urgency as well
we are just 19 weeks approximately into
the second term of the Trump
administration we have another three and
something years to go people we cannot
allow We cannot allow the Department of
Justice to be led by a lackey of Donald
Trump there is a phrase in Spanish no
mangua there's no hair on my tongue i am
speaking to you Pam Bondi i'm speaking
to you because you are a member of the
Florida Bar you have an obligation to
follow your ethics to follow not only
your internal moral compass but you also
have a code of professional
responsibility that you have sworn to
protect and to um you know preserve the
integrity of that's not happening that's
not happening when members of the DOJ
that work there feel like they have to
resign or else when the memos that are
issued threaten them with disciplinary
proceedings investigations andor firing
if they don't do a directive that is uh
that's the type of you see in a
dictatorship right in an autocracy
that's the type of you see so folks
check it out because what's going to
happen now is once the Florida Bar gets
a complaint it does kind of an immediate
review of whether or not it's going to
proceed with an investigation against uh
the person uh that is uh being
complained against against whom the
complaint is being filed excuse me the
Florida Bar does have some discretion in
making that decision i just read to you
that prior bar complaints that the
Florida Bar said that they don't think
it's within their purview to do this but
you just heard three Supreme Court
justices from the Florida Supreme Court
retired now say that's BS they call BS
and they say yes you can Florida Bar so
Florida Bar can do this will they do it
we will follow along and watch it
closely but if the Florida Bar does
decide to pursue an investigation into
this bar complaint into Attorney General
Pam Bondi then it can assign a
prosecutor that will look into it and
will prosecute the claims and will do an
investigation i used to be the chair of
a Florida bar grievance committee there
are committees that are set up all over
the state of Florida it's led by a chair
it's also led by members of the
grievance committee they are appointed
and we would take the bar complaints
that were sent to us by the Florida Bar
and they would be assigned to us and we
would investigate them we had subpoena
power we had investigatory power as
members of the Florida Bar we not only
have to self-report violations but we
also have to make sure that we are
reporting violations as we see them
occur these are not out of state
complaintants anymore Chad Meiselle
these are people within the state of
Florida there are people that have a
vested interest across the United States
though outside of the confines of the
state of Florida that care about justice
and they care about whether or not the
Department of Justice is led by somebody
who will be fair and
impartial so that's why the Florida Bar
must not should it must investigate
Attorney General Pam Bondi these
allegations they have now been made
public we have seen very publicly
resignation letters statements made
publicly by former federal prosecutors
feeling pressured to be able to do a
directive that they find to be unethical
there's evidence there should be pursued
people be mad be outraged demand
accountability because that's what I'm
doing here i am mad i am outraged i
demand accountability every single
freaking day on my behalf and on your
behalf i'll see you on the other side
katie Fang here the truth matters now
more than ever so hit that subscribe
button so you don't miss a thing
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SECRETS of Trump’s PRIVATE CELL PHONE Revealed in EXPOSÉ
by Dina Doll
MeidasTouch
Jun 6, 2025 MissTrial
New reporting by the Atlantic details the secret history of Trump’s private cell phone. Dina Doll reports on Trump’s reckless and dangerous practice of keeping an unsecured private cell phone whose number is widely circulated.
Transcript
[Dina Doll] There's a new bombshell report from the
Atlantic detailing the secret history of
Trump's private cell phone and yet
another indication of how Trump is
making us less safe my name is Dina Doll
with the Midas Touch Network let's break
this down now evidently the Atlantic
called Trump's private cell phone trump
has a cell phone that evidently many
people have the number to which he kept
this cell phone despite the fact that on
on October 25th just days before the
November 2024 election new reporting
came out
that Chinese hackers had basically been
able to hack into our federal or
national communication systems and was
able to eavesdrop on communications
between Trump and JD Vans and then also
communications related to the Harris
campaign now because of that many people
in the campaigns um did away with their
cell phones right they started using
different numbers or burner cell phones
because they didn't want their
communications to be listened to by a
foreign country especially a foreign
country that Trump says is so dangerous
and as our main adversary right he says
over and over and over but Trump knew
that Chinese hackers could listen in on
his phone calls and he didn't do
anything about it he didn't change his
phone number or act any differently
according to The Atlantic many many
people know this phone number and Trump
answers it all the time even when he
doesn't know who's even calling even
when he doesn't recognize the phone
number this is what led to him answering
the phone when the Atlantic reporter
called him and how he answers the phone
is who's calling a very clear indication
that the president of the United States
had no idea who was calling him on this
private cell phone that is not secure
and he knew it was not secure because of
the fact that hackers had already been
able to listen in on his conversations
this is how little he actually cares
about foreign adversaries this is what
he little he actually cares about
keeping our country safe according to
the reporting he just loves having his
cell phone he loves being able to have
received phone calls especially from
foreign leaders it makes him feel good
and makes him feel important and in fact
he has been known to hang up because he
says "Looks like a foreign leader is
calling me." Basically because the
number comes from an international
number and so according to the the news
article somebody said that yes he hung
up the phone from them saying "Oh it
looks like a foreign leader is calling
me." Not like he knew who the foreign
leader was but just because he was a
foreign leader it is about his ego he
likes this feeling important he likes
people calling him now if you remember
what happened when Obama tried to keep
his
Blackberry the what he went through to
keep his Blackberry the outcry of
whether or not it was going to be secure
and he wanted to keep his Blackberry and
so they had to work to make sure it was
secure and how they ended up going about
it was that few people would have his
email address and there was no phone
number associated with it so nobody
could call him on this Blackberry that's
how restricted it is so yet another of
example i mean we've heard Obama come
out about hey I couldn't be doing half
of these things well this is yet another
example of something he certainly could
not be doing obama could not be having a
phone number that so many people knew
and he just calls people and answers
people so this is kind of similar to
Signal Gate in some way right signal
Gate we saw them being so unprotective
of our national security interest that
they used this uh casual method of
communication and looped in an Atlantic
reporter there and divulged a military
operation but they also did use
signalgate because it had an autodelete
feature and because people couldn't do a
freedom of information request to ever
get information around the conversations
of certain military strikes or other
government functions as is required by
law trump's personal cell phone kind of
does the same operation because he saw
what happened during his first term when
he uses an official phone line to talk
to foreign leaders we saw how he made a
phone call using an official phone line
and basically threatened to
withhold support to Ukraine if they
didn't give him you know or come up with
dirt with Biden so Trump saw that the
first time around when he used a a
method that was official with
communication how we could have
transparency in government and know what
a president is saying to foreign leaders
around the world so certainly I am sure
that is one reason why he is using an
unofficial personal cell phone to the
extent that he is this time around
As this is also happening the
Wall Street Journal also just reported
that authorities are investigating
somebody they don't know who who is
impersonating the White House chief of
staff Susie Wilds in calls and texts so
not only does Trump not recognize the
number and he picks it up but there are
people going around
impersonating
official within the White House in order
to try to gain information do we really
trust that somebody like Trump is going
to care if somebody's
impersonating somebody maybe even
impersonating his good friend Putin in
order to get some information
and yet Trump is still using his private
cell phone when you despite all of this
evidence and reporting of how unsecure
that actually is he's not even vetting
the phone number or the person through
somebody official like even if he's
going to use a private cell phone he's
not even vetting who is actually calling
him
so a former um deputy national security
adviser under Obama telling the Atlantic
that quote "It's an obvious massive risk
especially given what we know about
Chinese penetration of phones in recent
years clearly Trump is making us less
safe."
The White House communications director
Steve Chung when asked by The Atlantic
about this situation this was their
response that this because he's so easy
to reach that quote that makes this
administration the most transparent and
accessible president in American history
well let's just point out here there may
be many people who have that phone
number but the everyday American doesn't
have that phone number so that does not
make him the most accessible president
in American history it may make him the
most accessible president among his
fellow oligarchs and people who are
trying to use that cell phone for means
or bad means but that does not mean that
he is accessible to the mass majority of
people that voted for him certainly the
people who voted for him and the people
who didn't vote for him care a lot more
about the security of our country than
whether or not he can pick up an unknown
number at will that's not transparency
and accessibility that's just stupid my
name is Dena Dah with the Midas Touch
Network if you haven't subscribed yet
free subscribe so you get all of the
very important updates that's coming out
of the Trump regime
by Dina Doll
MeidasTouch
Jun 6, 2025 MissTrial
New reporting by the Atlantic details the secret history of Trump’s private cell phone. Dina Doll reports on Trump’s reckless and dangerous practice of keeping an unsecured private cell phone whose number is widely circulated.
Transcript
[Dina Doll] There's a new bombshell report from the
Atlantic detailing the secret history of
Trump's private cell phone and yet
another indication of how Trump is
making us less safe my name is Dina Doll
with the Midas Touch Network let's break
this down now evidently the Atlantic
called Trump's private cell phone trump
has a cell phone that evidently many
people have the number to which he kept
this cell phone despite the fact that on
on October 25th just days before the
November 2024 election new reporting
came out
that Chinese hackers had basically been
able to hack into our federal or
national communication systems and was
able to eavesdrop on communications
between Trump and JD Vans and then also
communications related to the Harris
campaign now because of that many people
in the campaigns um did away with their
cell phones right they started using
different numbers or burner cell phones
because they didn't want their
communications to be listened to by a
foreign country especially a foreign
country that Trump says is so dangerous
and as our main adversary right he says
over and over and over but Trump knew
that Chinese hackers could listen in on
his phone calls and he didn't do
anything about it he didn't change his
phone number or act any differently
according to The Atlantic many many
people know this phone number and Trump
answers it all the time even when he
doesn't know who's even calling even
when he doesn't recognize the phone
number this is what led to him answering
the phone when the Atlantic reporter
called him and how he answers the phone
is who's calling a very clear indication
that the president of the United States
had no idea who was calling him on this
private cell phone that is not secure
and he knew it was not secure because of
the fact that hackers had already been
able to listen in on his conversations
this is how little he actually cares
about foreign adversaries this is what
he little he actually cares about
keeping our country safe according to
the reporting he just loves having his
cell phone he loves being able to have
received phone calls especially from
foreign leaders it makes him feel good
and makes him feel important and in fact
he has been known to hang up because he
says "Looks like a foreign leader is
calling me." Basically because the
number comes from an international
number and so according to the the news
article somebody said that yes he hung
up the phone from them saying "Oh it
looks like a foreign leader is calling
me." Not like he knew who the foreign
leader was but just because he was a
foreign leader it is about his ego he
likes this feeling important he likes
people calling him now if you remember
what happened when Obama tried to keep
his
Blackberry the what he went through to
keep his Blackberry the outcry of
whether or not it was going to be secure
and he wanted to keep his Blackberry and
so they had to work to make sure it was
secure and how they ended up going about
it was that few people would have his
email address and there was no phone
number associated with it so nobody
could call him on this Blackberry that's
how restricted it is so yet another of
example i mean we've heard Obama come
out about hey I couldn't be doing half
of these things well this is yet another
example of something he certainly could
not be doing obama could not be having a
phone number that so many people knew
and he just calls people and answers
people so this is kind of similar to
Signal Gate in some way right signal
Gate we saw them being so unprotective
of our national security interest that
they used this uh casual method of
communication and looped in an Atlantic
reporter there and divulged a military
operation but they also did use
signalgate because it had an autodelete
feature and because people couldn't do a
freedom of information request to ever
get information around the conversations
of certain military strikes or other
government functions as is required by
law trump's personal cell phone kind of
does the same operation because he saw
what happened during his first term when
he uses an official phone line to talk
to foreign leaders we saw how he made a
phone call using an official phone line
and basically threatened to
withhold support to Ukraine if they
didn't give him you know or come up with
dirt with Biden so Trump saw that the
first time around when he used a a
method that was official with
communication how we could have
transparency in government and know what
a president is saying to foreign leaders
around the world so certainly I am sure
that is one reason why he is using an
unofficial personal cell phone to the
extent that he is this time around
As this is also happening the
Wall Street Journal also just reported
that authorities are investigating
somebody they don't know who who is
impersonating the White House chief of
staff Susie Wilds in calls and texts so
not only does Trump not recognize the
number and he picks it up but there are
people going around
impersonating
official within the White House in order
to try to gain information do we really
trust that somebody like Trump is going
to care if somebody's
impersonating somebody maybe even
impersonating his good friend Putin in
order to get some information
and yet Trump is still using his private
cell phone when you despite all of this
evidence and reporting of how unsecure
that actually is he's not even vetting
the phone number or the person through
somebody official like even if he's
going to use a private cell phone he's
not even vetting who is actually calling
him
so a former um deputy national security
adviser under Obama telling the Atlantic
that quote "It's an obvious massive risk
especially given what we know about
Chinese penetration of phones in recent
years clearly Trump is making us less
safe."
The White House communications director
Steve Chung when asked by The Atlantic
about this situation this was their
response that this because he's so easy
to reach that quote that makes this
administration the most transparent and
accessible president in American history
well let's just point out here there may
be many people who have that phone
number but the everyday American doesn't
have that phone number so that does not
make him the most accessible president
in American history it may make him the
most accessible president among his
fellow oligarchs and people who are
trying to use that cell phone for means
or bad means but that does not mean that
he is accessible to the mass majority of
people that voted for him certainly the
people who voted for him and the people
who didn't vote for him care a lot more
about the security of our country than
whether or not he can pick up an unknown
number at will that's not transparency
and accessibility that's just stupid my
name is Dena Dah with the Midas Touch
Network if you haven't subscribed yet
free subscribe so you get all of the
very important updates that's coming out
of the Trump regime
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