The Trump Administration Will Somehow Make $10 Billion Off the TikTok Deal
Source: Mother Jones · Bias: Left
Summary
The yearslong battle over TikTok’s ownership has concluded in a $10 billion windfall for the Trump administration. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that investors in the recently completed deal to create a US-controlled TikTok will pay the government the exorbitant sum for its role in helping broker the transaction. The fee is about […]
The Trump Administration Will Somehow Make $10 Billion Off the TikTok Deal
Left
The yearslong battle over TikTok’s ownership has concluded in a $10 billion windfall for the Trump administration. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that investors in the recently completed deal to create a US-controlled TikTok will pay the government the exorbitant sum for its role in helping broker the transaction. The fee is about […]
A reporter braving a blistering heat wave at President Donald Trump's Great American State Fair described chaos at the event as paramedics raced to save attendees, with seven said to be on "advanced life support" in the hospital.Julian Andreone of Drop Site News was on the ground Friday at the fair detailing what he called a "hectic" scene."It really is hectic. It's chaotic. It's a total disaster," Andreone said. "They haven't planned for this at all."As Andreone recorded the conditions, multiple people ran past carrying cold water to help their loved ones who had fainted. During one 71-second clip, Andreone recorded two people racing past him and an ambulance arriving separately with a siren blaring."People are profusely sweating and need water," he said.Andreone reported in an X update that "7 people are on advanced life support in the hospital."In another clip from the event, Andreone points to another person lying down in the back of an EMS truck making its way across the lawn. The event had already been temporarily shut down earlier in the day as the record heat gripped Washington, with organizers planning to reopen at 5 p.m.Washington Post meteorologist Ben Noll noted on X that Washington, D.C., would be warmer than "99 percent of the planet on Friday.""Only parts of Africa's Sahara Desert, the Middle East, China's Gobi Desert and a few spots in the Desert Southwest will be hotter," Noll noted.The conditions have driven attendees to desperate measures, with one Trump supporter earlier dunking herself in a baptismal pool to escape the heat.The post caught Andreone's eye."Great time for a poorly planned and shoddily constructed fair in a wide open field with no shade," he quipped.His account matched what reporters found on the ground: a largely deserted fairground baking in triple-digit heat.Update: 7 people are on advanced life support in the hospital. Here’s a brief snippet of some of our Drop Site reporting from the ground, showing medical staff rushing to get people water and EMS crews driving around, one with a patient in the back on a gurney. https://t.co/PWu358OlbW pic.twitter.com/ItPx4W6yqE— Julian Andreone (@JulianAndreone) July 3, 2026
Kylie Jane Kremer, the activist listed as the permit holder for the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack, has floated a new theory about Washington's summer heat: it's sabotage.In a post on X, Kremer claimed someone with an "extreme case" of Trump derangement syndrome "geoengineered" the weather in D.C. She pointed to the cold at Trump's inauguration as proof of the same plot."I’m telling y’all that someone with an extreme case of TDS geoengineered this weather in DC. Same way they geoengineered Trump’s inauguration to be one of the coldest in U.S. history. People with TDS hate Trump more than they love America," she wrote on X.Her post came in response to Washington Post meteorologist and reporter Ben Noll, who noted the nation's capital would be "hotter than 99 percent of the planet on Friday.""Only parts of Africa's Sahara Desert, the Middle East, China's Gobi Desert and a few spots in the Desert Southwest will be hotter," he wrote on X.Forecasters called the inauguration D.C.'s coldest in decades, and the ceremony was moved indoors. But whether progressives with weather machines were responsible is another matter. And the internet didn't spare her. Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote that people pushing the theory are "not mentally well," while internet commentator Damin Toell reminded followers that Kremer was also a key figure in the 2020 "stop the steal" movement. Writer Joe Flood noted that a woman who helped host the Jan. 6 rally now believes liberals control the weather.Julian Andreone of Drop Site News leaned into the joke, sarcastically agreeing that July heat in D.C. is "very suspicious." Climate advocate Benji Backer flagged the contradiction."Climate change can’t be real but this can be. Got it. Trying to catch up," he joked.The claim echoes a pattern among MAGA figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene's flood conspiracy theory and her bill to ban "weather modification" after the deadly Texas floods. Even fellow Republicans have stepped in to debunk the weather-control claims. Meteorologists have said cloud seeding cannot produce disasters.
Severe weather threatened to put a damper on Friday on President Donald Trump's plans to speak near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, prompting amusement from internet critics who said it seemingly indicated "god is angry."Trump was flying to South Dakota as part of a broader July 4 and America-250 trip, planning to visit the iconic American landmark for an Independence Day fireworks celebration. But Mother Nature, it seems, had other plans. A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect until 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time for the area, with quarter size hail that could damage vehicles reported by the National Weather Service. "Seek shelter inside a well-built structure and stay away from windows. This storm is capable of producing large hail," an alert on the weather service read.The weather alert forced Fox News to scramble, with host Bret Baier telling viewers they had breaking news."They just said there is severe weather on the way. In fact, they said hail could be coming, and they are urging everybody to get inside," said Baier, adding: "We're going to get to shelter."The setback prompted mockery from onlookers, with Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the progressive MeidasTouch news outlet, quipping on X, "God is angry."Dan Koh, a Massachusetts Democrat running for Congress, chimed in on X, "Considering Trump wants to cut the National Park Service budget by 40% and Mount Rushmore has a $57m repair backlog, you better run."The progressive influencer account known as Polly Sigh added: "Calamitous weather seems to follow Trump around these days. Mother Nature is so over him."Writer Joe Flood joked, "damn antifa!"Trump has had mixed luck with weather in recent weeks, with scorching temperatures and rain derailing his Great American State Fair.Fox at Mount Rushmore: They just said there is severe weather on the way. In fact, they said hail could be coming and they are urging everybody to get inside. We're going to get to shelter. pic.twitter.com/hyfc0nPghU— Acyn (@Acyn) July 3, 2026
Racism is an act of self-destruction, warns podcaster Wajahat Ali and independent reporter Joy Ann-Reid. But that destruction extends to everything around them when they manage to grab the levers of power.“I mean there's a big hole in the White House. The lawn where they built that ugly UFC ring is now brown. They've destroyed the Jackie Kennedy garden. [President] Donald Trump is supposed to be a builder but he physically destroyed D.C.,” said Reid. “And then that the poor pathetic little fair that he had, his little world's fair with the fake arch made of plastic. And they painted it. America right now is a laughingstock. I think we created 57,000 jobs last month. That is sad. It's a sad birthday.”But this is the mess that comes of a nation that “refused to acknowledge and uproot its dark sin of white supremacy,” said Ali. “We whitewashed our history books, made heroes of racist traitors, and decided to elect the most incompetent, corrupt vulgarian after electing the first Black president.”“Refusing to learn our lesson, we re-elected Trump, even though we could have had a competent Black woman as President. Now? America is turning into a s——hole,” Ali lamented. “Just look at the Reflecting Pool as a tragic example of our downfall. Take a trip to Washington, D.C., and see the absolute mess that is the White House. Our infrastructure is collapsing, our economy is ailing, and our public health is deteriorating. Measles, death, gun violence, and suicide are on the rise. But it doesn’t matter. White supremacy will destroy everything, including itself, instead of sharing power. It will burn everything down.”“The right wing is not satisfied with just having physically destroyed the country,” said Reid. “[They] destroyed the morale of the country on our birthday where we're sad and pathetic and can't even pull off a world's fair.”The Supreme Court, meanwhile, barely protected birthright citizenship with a six-to-three vote when all the justices had to do was read the Constitution and see that if you're born here, you're a citizen, said Ali.With the war on birthright citizenship and MAGA cries to sterilize brown immigrants, Reid said MAGA and Trump are laboring for a very specific kind of America.“If they were successful at removing everyone who looks like you and me — all the Blacks, all the browns, all the Muslims all the AAPI, all the Latinos — if they got their way, you know what America would look like? It would look like Trump’s pathetic American state fair,” said Reid. “That was a place where there were no Blacks. There were no gays. There were no brown people. It was just MAGA white folks. The one’s who weren’t broken by [Trump’s] economy, who could afford to get on a plane or drive to DC with these gas prices. It was an estimate that the first day was like a 1,000 people — only tens of MAGA could even afford to go there. … [because] they are the poor. They are broke. They're bored. And they're boring.”“There was no musical entertainment,” Reid raged. “That cultural anti-phenomenon that we saw at that pathetic Trump celebration supposedly of America’s birthday and Donald Trump — that is what's left when you get rid of all of us. If you really get rid of people of color then American culture is like sad Europe.”“Like a crusty, crusty mayo sandwich that has been left in the sun for two days,” added Ali.“One-hundred percent,” confirmed Reid. “You'd get no Janet Jackson, no Michael Jackson, no Prince, no Whitney Houston, no Aretha Franklin, no jazz, no gospel, no hip-hop. What do you actually have? What is your culture? What is this white culture that you're trying to preserve at all costs, at the cost of your own economy?”Ali added that even MAGA doesn’t like MAGA America.“When they move to the Southern states where do they move to when they move to Texas? Austin! When they move to Tennessee, they move to Nashville,” said Ali. “Even MAGA influencer] Nick Fuentes was like ‘yeah, I don't want to really move to a red state. So, they know that their mayo sandwich is s——. They know their potato salad sucks. They know their chicken is dry and has no spice. They know that they're bland and pasty and that they have no culture and no rhythm.”
President Donald Trump welcomes Second Lady Usha Vance into the Oval Office for a reading of Presidents Play, a storybook of Presidents’ activities while serving in the office. . Posted in Big Government, Celebrations, Education, Freedom 250, President Trump
The post President Trump Reads “Presidents Play” appeared first on The Last Refuge.
First lady Melania Trump gave Congress a private deadline to pass her signature foster care bill, and she is pursuing it largely outside the usual White House channels, according to a new report in Politico. At a bipartisan roundtable with the House Ways and Means Committee in April, the first lady publicly called foster care legislation a "moral imperative." Then, behind closed doors, she set a target, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) told the outlet: "I want this on Donald's desk by the August recess." The Fostering the Future Act, which expands housing, education and workforce help for young people aging out of foster care, passed the House unanimously.The Senate has not moved it out of committee, and lawmakers are set to leave Washington around Aug. 10. At a White House picnic the day the House passed the bill, both Trumps urged the Senate to hurry. "Hopefully, it will quickly pass in the Senate," the president said. He has not publicly pressed senators since.The deadline reflects a first lady who increasingly operates on her own track. Her office, not the State Department, has led her effort to reunite children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war, negotiating directly with Moscow and Kyiv, the White House said. She has also shown a willingness to diverge from the administration's message. She broke with the White House on Epstein, calling for survivors to testify as the president's team tried to move past the scandal, and last week put her own spin on a Supreme Court ruling her husband celebrated, voicing support for the LGBTQIA+ community.A recent book recounted how she resisted Trump's overhaul of the White House grounds and lost.
