MAGA backlash as Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy defend visa program for expert staff: Live updates
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Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are bashing two of his top lieutenants, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, after they both defended a visa program for skilled workers.
Ramaswamy, who will lead the outside commission known as the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Musk, blamed a number of 1990s sitcoms for emphasizing the wrong values.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote in a post on X.
“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” Musk wrote on Wednesday on X. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”
The “number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” he later added. “Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.”
That triggered pushback on social media.
“Nobody should come from another country taking American citizens’ jobs,” responded one user, who said they worked in the internet technology field and had witnessed American workers lose status. “This needs more vetting as a policy prior to going ahead with it as it is not America Citizens First.”
Judge rules Georgia Republican can subpoena Fani Willis
Georgia Republicans will be allowed to subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis regarding her relationship with Nathan Wade, a judge has ruled.
Wade is an attorney she hired to take charge of the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump and his associates.
Joe Rogan convinced that Trump knows ‘something’ about UFOs – but won’t say what
Podcast host Joe Rogan said he believes that current and past presidents, such as President-elect Donald Trump, know “something” about extraterrestrial life but won’t reveal what it it.
Rogan told filmmaker James Fox, whose documentaries often focus on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), that he caught that feeling after asking Trump about it.
“When I confronted Mr. Trump, he was very cagey,” Rogan said on Tuesday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “Very cagey.”
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MAGA civil war ramps up as Trump ally Laura Loomer lays into Elon Musk — and loses her blue check
Another volley has been fired in the ongoing MAGA civil war that’s been playing out online between hardcore “America First” acolytes and Trump-backing Silicon Valley oligarchs over an immigrant worker visa program — and now Elon Musk is being accused of personally punishing his critics.
Laura Loomer and other far-right activists who have railed against the X (formerly Twitter) owner and his DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy for supporting H-1B visas and criticizing American work culture allege that Musk removed their X verification badges and ability to monetize their accounts in an act of retribution.
“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,” Loomer posted on Thursday night.
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‘Indications’ Russia took down airliner, White House says
There are “indications” that Russia took down the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, the White House has said.
“We have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters, according to The Washington Post.
He added that the evidence goes beyond the images shared online.
The investigations’ preliminary findings revealed that the plane crashed “due to external physical and technical interference.”
Azerbaijani Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev told his country’s media, “This is evidenced by the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimony.”
“The type of weapon used for the interference will be established by the investigation,” Nabiyev said.
In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families
Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty.
But she’s infuriated by Tennessee’s meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions.
“I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in,” said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. “You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?”
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Kash Patel ‘is the leader America needs at the FBI,’ Mike Johnson says
Former Freedom Caucus chair says he wants to keep ‘options open’ on speaker fight
Former Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry has said that he wants to keep his “options open” before committing to voting for Rep. Mike Johnson for speaker for another term in the House.
“I think that Mike has done an admirable job under tough conditions, but I’m going to keep my options open,” Perry said during a Friday morning appearance on Fox Business. “I want to have a conversation with Mike.”
This comes after the current chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris, said Thursday that the GOP has to consider if the leadership in place is “what we need.”
He added that he’s “undecided” on who should lead the Republicans in the coming year, according to Politico.
“We’ve just got to make sure that we get the best person for the job under the circumstances,” Perry added. “And I’ll tell you the one that might be able to make the difference is, quite honestly, President Trump. Whoever the president backs is likely to be the speaker, regardless.”
Trump congratulates Fox News couple on engagement
President-elect Donald Trump congratulated Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt on their engagement in a post on Truth Social.
“Great news about Sean and Ainsley. They are officially engaged to be married! There are no finer people than these, and there will be no finer couple. Congratulations to both – A deal made in HEAVEN!!!” Trump wrote on Friday morning.
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As Trump returns to the White House, and Putin’s forces advance – what next for Ukraine in 2025?
Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in eastern Europe in 24 hours, seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia, seems to spell the end of the West’s long-held policy of helping Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin’s forces entirely. Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.
This is causing significant stress in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: “The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia.”
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How Elon Musk’s influence has grown both online and offline in 2024
Elon Musk started 2024 as the controversial owner of a social media platform, but ends it as one of the most powerful individuals in the world and a key adviser to the incoming US president.
The debate around the billionaire has moved on dramatically over the last 12 months, from whether the way he was running X, formerly Twitter, would be viable or sustainable in the long-term, to whether Mr Musk’s own influence over global politics through his wealth and social media megaphone made him a threat to democracy.
The biggest story of 2024 around Mr Musk has been has dramatic swing behind the US President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the November election and how Mr Musk effectively reconfigured X into a vehicle to support the Republican candidate, alongside his personal fortune.
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Source: independent.co.uk
