Tag: supporters
Billionaire Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and MAGA businessman Vivek Ramaswamy

Loomer And Bannon Spitting MAGA Vitriol At Musk And Ramaswamy

Billionaire Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and MAGA businessman Vivek Ramaswamy were aggressive supporters of Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential race, and the president-elect has tapped them to head a new advisory commission that he has proposed: the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Although Ramaswamy ran against Trump in the GOP presidential primary, his criticism of him was mild; Ramaswamy was much more forceful in his attacks on former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, another primary candidate. And he ended up dropping out of the race and giving Trump a glowing endorsement.

Musk was a more than generous donor to Trump's campaign. But Musk and Ramaswamy, in late 2024, have been drawing vehement criticism from other MAGA Republicans after voicing their support for the use of immigrant workers in the tech sector.

The Atlantic's Ari Breland, in an article published on December 30, details the rage that MAGA nativists have been expressing against Trump's picks to lead DOGE.

That rage, according to Breland, has been coming from MAGA firebrand Laura Loomer, "War Room" host Steve Bannon and others.

"Elon Musk spent Christmas Day online, in the thick of a particularly venomous culture war — one that would lead him to later make the un-Christmas-like demand of his critics to 'take a big step back and F--K YOURSELF in the face," Breland explains. "Donald Trump had ignited this war by appointing the venture-capitalist Sriram Krishnan to be his senior AI-policy adviser. Encouraged by the MAGA acolyte and expert troll Laura Loomer, parts of the far-right internet melted down, arguing that Krishnan's appointment symbolized a betrayal of the principles of the 'America First' movement."

Breland adds, "Krishnan is an Indian immigrant and a U.S. citizen who, by virtue of his heritage, became a totem for the MAGA right to argue about H-1B visas, which allow certain skilled immigrants to work in the United States."

Meanwhile, Ramaswamy has infuriated nativists by praising the strong work ethic of immigrant tech experts.

"The tech right and nationalist right are separate but overlapping factions that operated in tandem to help get Trump reelected," Breland reports. "Now, they are at odds. For possibly the first time since Trump's victory, the racial animus and nativism that galvanized the nationalist right cannot immediately be reconciled with the tech right's desire to effectively conquer the world — and cosmos, in Musk's case — using any possible advantage. After winning the election together, one side was going to have to lose."

This MAGA "skirmish," according to Breland, "is a preview of how tension between the tech right and the nationalist right may play out once Trump takes office."

"The nationalists will likely get most of what they want," Breland predicts. "Trump has already promised mass deportations, to their delight. But when they butt heads with Silicon Valley, Trump will likely defer to his wealthiest friends."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Harris Campaign Chief Says She's 'Confident' As Undecideds Swing Democratic

Harris Campaign Chief Says She's 'Confident' As Undecideds Swing Democratic

In a rare move seven days before Election Day, the chair of the Harris campaign has released a video in an apparent effort to tamp down nervousness in the Democratic base.

Jen O’Malley Dillon told supporters, “we’re on track to win a very close election,” “we feel really good with what we’re seeing,” but “we still have a lot of work to do.”

The video (below) has gone viral, with nearly 400,000 views on the social media platform X in just 90 minutes.

“I know you’re anxious,” O’Malley Dillon says, “I know you’re worried because you know what the stakes are and it’s okay to be worried, but what we can do for you is help you channel that anxiety into helping us in this campaign.” And she asked supporters to “go knock on doors.”

O’Malley Dillon, who also served as President Joe Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaign manager, and his White House deputy chief of staff, recorded the three-and-a-half-minute “campaign update” to “tell you why you don’t have to feel anxious and you can feel good,” insisting “we have multiple pathways to get to 270 electoral votes.”

Declaring it “truly is a margin of error race,” O’Malley Dillon says, “every single state, the blue wall, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, the sun belt, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina … are in play, and in each of these states, every week we see and we monitor our numbers, we monitor the work that’s happening, and we’re seeing growing enthusiasm and we’re so excited about it.”

And she insists, “we feel really good about what we’re seeing out there.”

She says that Republicans, who historically have not taken advantage of early voting but this year are, at the behest of the RNC and occasionally Donald Trump, are simply “changing their mode of voting.”

“We are seeing Republicans voting early, but these are Republicans that are gonna vote no matter what.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are “voting at the levels we need them to vote in order for us to win,” she adds, and says early Democratic voters “are our lower propensity voters,” meaning voters who do not tend to vote in every election.

She says undecided voters are still out there, but they are moving more toward Harris than Trump, a claim confirmed in recent news reporting.

Last week the Monmouth University Poll reported the number of undecideds who are “motivated … is only 1%.”

Newsweek reported that “Emerson College polling, conducted between October 14 and 16, shows that among undecided voters who chose who they would vote for in the past week or month, 60 percent opted for the Democratic vice president, while 36 percent opted for Republican former President Donald Trump.”

She urged Harris and Walz supporters to go talk to the undecideds.

“They need to have people at their doors, they need to get phone calls, they need to see us wherever they are in any part of their life, so we leave no stone unturned.”

“Maybe you can make phone calls,” she asked, “or send texts from your home or maybe you can do something that only you can do, which is talk to people in your own lives. The people that you see every day. Maybe you work with them, maybe there are people in your life that you don’t always want to talk politics about because I know talking about politics is hard, but we need you to have those conversations. And if you even just have one of those hard conversations, that is gonna make a difference in this race.”

The Daily Beast reports Tuesday morning, O’Malley Dillon told reporters, “We’re confident we’re going to win.”

“And it’s not because we’re running away with it. It’s because we’re confident we’re on a path to win a very close election,” she said.

“She added that the Harris campaign has seen a ‘growth of support’ since Trump’s Sunday rally, where a comedian’s insulting joke about Puerto Rico offended many Latino voters.”

Watch O’Malley Dillon’s video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Joe Biden

Democrats Can Recover From A Bad Debate (If They Make The Effort)

Bad debates happen, as Joe Biden's supporters say. But that wasn't a debate. Biden stood there in an apparent cloud of fatigue, while Donald Trump lied his way throughout, ignoring the uncomfortable questions, of which there were several.

Biden says he's staying in the race, and for Democrats, that should be that. Here's what his campaign should do:

Let the ads do the talking. Biden has the money to run a marathon of ads touting his achievements and highlighting Trump's lack of same.

Compare Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill to Trump's plodding parade of infrastructure weeks that the former president couldn't get into first gear. Let's see the bridges under repair, lead pipes being replaced, high-speed internet being expanded and airports getting dragged into this century.

We don't just elect a president; we elect an administration. For example, Biden's super competent Commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, is overseeing the CHIPS Act, putting America on track to excel in the semiconductor race with China.

On a related topic, Biden has presided over the creation of 15 million jobs. The U.S. added 272,000 jobs in May alone, according to J.P. Morgan, "sharply beating expectations."

Stock prices under Biden are hitting records never seen in Trump's term. The numbers don't lie.

As for national security, Trump ran through five secretaries of Defense. One of them, Gen. James Mattis, said "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."

Flatter veterans as he tries, Trump can't hide his contempt for Americans who serve in the military. Asked in the debate about the crude things he's said on this subject, Trump lied about not having said them.

It's true that Trump didn't want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, saying, "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers." And it's true that he referred to the 1,800 U.S. Marines killed in World War I's Battle of Belleau Wood as "suckers" and "losers."

The source of that quote? A retired four-star general.

Trump went to Arlington Cemetery with his secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly, to see the gravesite of Kelly's son, Robert, who was killed in Afghanistan. Trump surveyed the field of buried U.S. servicemen and told Kelly, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

As president, Trump called former President George H.W. Bush a "loser" for being shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II. And his denigration of war hero John McCain, mocking the sacrifices he made was, simply put, disgusting.

Kelly, himself a retired four-star Marine Corps general, said this about Trump: "The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life."

Biden's ads could write themselves.

On the subject of aging, Democrats should fight fire with a firestorm. Trump is already running ads of Biden looking feeble. Run ads of Trump not only sounding utterly incoherent, but also old. There are lots of videos showing Trump barely able to walk on stage without help.

There's no sugar-coating Biden's dismal debate performance. And there's no denying that he has slowed down with age. But there's also no doubt that his accomplishments put Trump's in the shade. The Democrats should both fight and explain.

Americans love stories of defeat turned into victory. Bill Clinton did fine as "The Comeback Kid." Right? Let's call Biden "The Comeback Elder."

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Trump Complains As His 'Few Dozen' Supporters Rally In New York

Trump Complains As His 'Few Dozen' Supporters Rally In New York

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday detailed Donald Trump’s frustration with courthouse security as “a few dozen” supporters “are kept cornered off a bit of a distance” from the former president’s Manhattan “hush money” trial.

Opening statements in the Manhattan district attorney’s 34 felony count case against Trump began Monday morning as prosecutors alleged the former president lied “over and over and over” in an “illegal” conspiracy to hide hush money payments to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, the New York Times reports.

According to Collins, Trump is growing increasingly frustrated as he views “this all through the lens of the campaign trail.”

“I think big picture, when you look at what Trump has been saying, his mindset going into this, he’s complaining about the gag order incessantly,” Collins told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. "I’m told privately the idea that he can't directly attack the judges family, the prosecutors in this case — he can go after [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg— but not other members of the team … it has been a big thing of his.”

“The other thing: there's a lot of security outside the courthouse,” Collins noted. “Understandably, we saw what happened last week. It is a former president who is going on trial.”


Collins appeared to be referencing the death of Max Azzarello, who succumbed to his injuries on Saturday after setting himself on fire across the street from the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on Friday.

Collins continued, “Trump has been complaining that his supporters — when there's only a few dozen, it's not a huge group because we've been live outside the courthouse for several weeks now — that they can't come closer to the courthouse.”


“Because he is viewing this all through the lens of the campaign trail and what that means going into it and the fact that they are kept cordoned off a bit of a distance so people can get in and out of the courthouse has been driving him crazy,” Collins concluded.

Watch the video below, via CNN, or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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