Tik tok

New York justice Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump this morning for his conviction in the so-called “hush-money” case that saw a jury convict him last year of thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. As was predicted, Judge Merchan handed down an “unconditional discharge” sentencing, meaning Trump will not go to jail, be forced to pay fines or be punished in any way. Trump will remain, however, a convicted felon.The hush-money case, we’ll recall, centered around allegations porn star Stormy Daniels made that Trump paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair between the pair. Trump’s conviction had him facing up to four years in prison and steep fines.

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday gave his first rally speech since winning the 2024 presidential election, delivering the keynote address at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference for young conservatives. The former and future president spoke for more than an hour and made plenty of headlines with his suggestion that the United States take back control of the Panama Canal, a rejection of the Democrat attack that he is a shadow puppet of billionaire Elon Musk, and a renewed promise of his second-term priorities.

As Americans, we aren’t exactly famous for our love of the government. But how is the reelection of Donald Trump affecting our attitudes?In what they are touting as the first such poll released since the presidential election, GW’s Graduation School of Political Management and Schoen Cooperman Research are revealing “shocking findings about the state of Americans’ trust in the government and media” — namely, that nearly 40 percent of the public says they trust the government less going forward.

TikTok’s days may be numbered in America after all. Following a presidential campaign in which both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris promoted themselves heavily on the platform, despite bipartisan national security concerns over its ownership’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a federal appeals court today ruled that the app must break ties with the Beijing-based ByteDance within a few weeks or be banned in the United States.Until the decision, everything was looking up for TikTok. Trump trounced Harris on the platform, and his campaign and top surrogates were active all over the popular social media app.

Former president Donald Trump survived a second assassination attempt on Sunday, this one at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump reportedly decided yesterday morning to play a round of golf at the Trump International Golf Club and, as the president arriving on the fifth hole, Secret Service officers noticed a gun muzzle sticking out through a chain-link fence between 300 and 500 yards away. Secret Service exchanged fire with the suspect, who fled in a black Nissan and was later captured and charged. He left behind a scoped AK-47 and a GoPro camera.

It seems every MSNBC host is trembling for his or her life these days. First, Rachel Maddow feared Donald Trump would throw her in an internment camp if reelected and now, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Donald Trump’s immunity, Joy Reid thinks her rights as a woman and a black American will be revoked. But that’s not the only thing upsetting Reid. The commentator took to TikTok to explain how Monday’s decision has made Trump America's first king.  “The Leonard Leo six on the court just declared, days before this nation celebrates its independence presumably from the British king, that the president of the United States and a former president... that they are a king,” Reid said in a lengthy TikTok video.

After offering explanations for why TikTok presents a danger to US security, Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted Friday that his college-aged daughter uses the controversial app.At a “signature event” held by the Economic Club at the capital’s Marriott Marquis Hotel, the club’s president, David Rubenstein, sat for a lengthy conversation with the secretary. On immigration, Rubenstein pressed him, asking about asylum policy, increasing encounters and whether having a physical barrier would have helped curb illegal crossings. This reporter asked Mayorkas if the administration was preparing for any policy changes given they recently hired two new senior-level officials.

Welcome to Thunderdome. There’s really no question now that Israel will be a major issue driving protests at the summer conventions, particularly at the DNC in Chicago. The scene that’s played out on Ivy League campuses over the past several weeks can easily be transported to the outskirts of the Chicago convention, where media presence alone will be beneficial for protesters and sympathetic Democratic politicians could provide aid and comfort. As someone who enjoyed getting teargassed in Minneapolis in 2008, and was profoundly disappointed at the Rage Against the Machine non-protests in 2016, I’m eager for the test. Tim Stanley shares his thoughts: One: Biden owns the Middle East conflict even as he denounces the casualties.

President Joe Biden signed the foreign aid package, which features $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, on Wednesday after the bill swiftly moved through Congress. The breakdown of aid is as follows: $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan.Speaker Mike Johnson infuriated some of his Republican colleagues by even negotiating on the legislation, let alone bringing it to the House floor for a vote; he previously said he would not move any foreign aid until Democrats agreed to give additional funds for border security. Instead, after the Senate rejected the border security bill HR-2 and Johnson rejected the Senate-negotiated immigration package, the speaker made moves to go ahead with sending money abroad anyway.