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WASHINGTON —  An impasse between the United States and Colombia over Colombia’s refusal to accept deportation flights ended Monday, following a day in which each side threatened tariffs on the other and then backed down amid rushed negotiations.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro early Sunday turned back two U.S. military flights carrying deportees as part of President Trump’s plan to expel millions of migrants. Petro said he would receive deportees but only under “dignified conditions.”

In response, Trump said he was ordering a 25% tariff on all Colombian exports to the U.S. that would rise to 50% in a week if flights were not resumed. Trump also threatened a raft of visa restrictions and other financial punishment.

Petro responded, saying he too would slap tariffs on U.S. imports and adding to Trump: “Your blockade does not frighten me.”

The two sides rushed into late-night negotiations. Late Sunday, they agreed to a series of conditions and said the flights would resume. The White House said Petro had accepted all of Trump’s terms. Colombia said it had received assurances of the “dignified conditions” that Petro had demanded.

“Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again,” the White House said in a statement.

The flareup seemed unnecessary to many observers. Colombia has long been one of the United States’ most loyal allies in Latin America, and it has also received hundreds of deportation flights in recent years.

For Petro, a leftist, the red line appeared to have been the sudden use of military flights to carry out the expulsions. And he objected to Colombian nationals being treated “like criminals.” It was unclear if the agreement reached would return to the use of civilian aircraft, usually in the form of charters.

For Trump, the episode gave him a chance to show the rest of Latin America the risks they face if they do not fall in line with his deportation plan. Deportation flights have been going to Mexico and Guatemala as well.

Numerous countries in Latin America are attempting to figure out how to deal with the week-old Trump administration, pledging cooperation on some immigration issues but also seeking fair treatment and respect for their own national sovereignty.

“Colombia becomes a testing ground for the threat-forward approach to Latin America,” Will Freeman, an expert on Colombia at the Council on Foreign Relations, said on the X platform Sunday.

Trump’s threats included revoking U.S. visas from Colombian officials and denying visas to tens of thousands of other Colombians. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota said it was suspending all visa issuances.

Resistance to Trump’s immigration crackdown is percolating slowly as advocates and the courts grasp the exact nature of the administration’s plans. He has threatened to expel several million people, including some who are in the United States legally but temporarily.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday announced it had launched raids in Chicago aimed at preserving “public safety and national security” by rounding up immigrants.

ICE teamed up with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and several other federal agencies. Raids were reported in other cities as well.

The first challenge to Trump’s immigration plan came swiftly, when a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to people born in the U.S.. Automatic, or birthright citizenship, is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The judge, a Reagan appointee based in Seattle, granted a stay to block Trump’s plan.

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It is no secret why President Trump forced out FBI Director Christopher Wray, his first-term pick to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer: Soon after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Wray told Congress that the Capitol siege was an act of “domestic terrorism.” And for the next four years, he oversaw the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history to bring the perpetrators to justice — including their instigator and cheerleader, Trump.

Even before Jan. 6, Wray repeatedly warned Congress that the problem of “domestic violent extremists” — DVEs, in bureau parlance — rivals or exceeds that of international terrorism. The threat “has been metastasizing across the country,” Wray testified in 2021, and “it’s not going away anytime soon.”

Trump, by his Day 1 blanket clemency for the Jan. 6 “DVEs,” has helped make sure of that. We’re all less safe as a consequence.

The president will have an ally in excusing right-wing extremism if the Republican-run Senate confirms the president’s choice to succeed Wray: provocateur Kash Patel, spreader of anti-FBI conspiracy theories and apologist for the Jan. 6 rioters. Patel’s confirmation hearing is set for Thursday.

For weeks Trump’s Republican allies have argued that his picks for national security posts in his Cabinet — Patel as well as Pete Hegseth, confirmed Friday for Pentagon chief, and Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence — should have been hustled to confirmation in the wake of the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans and a suicide truck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

Here’s the irony of that argument: Those reminders of the ongoing threat of domestic extremism only underscore why all three Cabinet picks are unfit to be security stewards. They not only lack experience for the jobs Trump wants to entrust them with, they have a record of undermining the essential institutions they would head.

Patel has warred against the FBI for years. Hegseth, aside from his history of alleged sexual assault, falling-down drunkenness and mismanagement, defended accused and convicted war criminals as a Fox News talking head and helped persuade Trump, in his first term, to grant them clemency. Gabbard, who would be in charge of all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, has opposed their past findings about Russia’s Vladimir Putin and since-deposed Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, echoing those murderous dictators’ talking points instead.

But all three Cabinet choices have the one qualification Trump cares about: loyalty to him.

That alone makes Patel, especially, a danger to America’s security. His zeal for attacking Trump’s political enemies would follow him into the FBI director’s office. Among those targets are former President Biden; former Biden, Obama and even Trump administration officials; prosecutors involved in the federal cases against Trump, now dropped, for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and for making off with top secrets, and the witnesses in those cases.

Of course, Trump’s enemies aren’t America’s enemies. They’re not the ones whom Wray as well as numerous other security experts have warned about. Trump and Patel’s fixation on retribution would necessarily distract the bureau from the real threats, domestic and foreign, that endanger the nation.

And now Trump has exacerbated the danger by setting hundreds of Jan. 6 extremists free.

The now-pardoned QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley, quickly exulted on X, in all capital letters, that he was “gonna buy some [expletive] guns!!!”

Fortunately, Daniel Ball, jailed but not tried yet for allegedly assaulting officers and using an explosive on Jan. 6, wasn’t released despite the pardon because of a separate federal gun charge: He has been indicted on a charge of possessing a firearm despite past felony convictions (domestic battery by strangulation and resisting police with violence). Nice guy — and not alone among those pardoned and set free in having a criminal record.

The immediate threat, of course, is less to the American public than to the freed attackers’ families, friends and associates whom they blame for their legal travails.

Jackson Reffitt, who turned in his father, Guy Reffitt, after Jan. 6 and testified during his dad’s trial that Guy threatened to kill him and his sister if they did so, has moved and purchased two guns for protection. “I can’t imagine being safe right now,” the son lamented to MSNBC. “It goes far beyond my dad…. I get death threats by the minute now. ”

The younger Reffitt added that his dad, “an amazing father” before he came under Trump’s influence and became a leader of the anti-government Three Percenters, has been “further radicalized in prison.”

Tasha Adams, the ex-wife of Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes, free after Trump commuted his 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy, and Rhodes’ oldest son, Dakota Adams, say that they fear for their lives at the hands of the man who, according to Tasha’s sworn statement, abused them for years. “He is somebody that had a kill list — always,” Tasha Adams told an interviewer last fall, fretting at the prospect of Trump freeing Rhodes. “And obviously, now I’m on this list and so are some of my kids, I’m sure.”

Rhodes, fresh out of prison, told reporters he hoped that Patel “cleans house” at the FBI. “I feel vindicated and validated,” he said — just as Jackson Reffitt predicted Rhodes and the others would.

Trump likes to claim, falsely, that other countries empty their jails to send criminals to America. Turns out he’s the one who’s sprung violent convicts on the land.

@jackiekcalmes

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WASHINGTON —  He’s served in the California Legislature, in Congress and, most recently, in the Cabinet as President Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services.

And don’t forget his time as California’s attorney general, a post also once held by Vice President Kamala Harris and a springboard for higher office.

So what’s next for Xavier Becerra?

According to Becerra allies, who requested anonymity to discuss his plans candidly, he is “strongly considering” running for governor and is already exploring the possibility with members of the state’s congressional delegation, donor class and potential supporters.

Becerra last week demurred when asked about his plans days after leaving his federal post.

“I’m in the process of transitioning back to California,” he said. “I have lots to think about, including seeing more of my family.“

In an earlier interview held in the formal conference room outside his HHS office, Becerra reflected on his tenure in the Biden administration leading a team of 95,000. It was just three days before President Trump’s inauguration, as staffers took down nameplates from nearby doors.

“Looking back, it’s been a momentous four years,” the 66-year-old Becerra said. “I think most people would tell you that we have delivered on mission. We were very focused. We took over at a time of very difficult circumstances. We climbed our way out.”

Asked what his first priorities were when he took the oath of office in March 2021, Becerra replied, “COVID. COVID. COVID. There was nothing else.”

Among the administration’s top accomplishments, he said, was getting 700 million COVID vaccination shots into the arms of Americans, and people could get their shots just about anywhere — from large-scale distribution centers to barbershops to pharmacies. “We realized we had to get to where people were,” he said.

He also cited providing more than 300 million people access to healthcare, with 46 million Americans getting health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. He also touted the launch of the 988 hotline that provides round-the-clock suicide and crisis counseling.

“We’ve never had an administration be this direct and determined on mental health — to the point where the resources can’t be matched,” Becerra said. “It’s historically the largest investment in mental health.”

Asked whether he was concerned about the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Senate and House rolling back these gains, he said his agency had worked to protect them.

For instance, Becerra, who was the first Health and Human Services secretary to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic, pointed to the administration’s work on reproductive care, such as going to the Supreme Court to protect access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used to medically end pregnancy.

“We’ve clearly played strong defense,” he said.

He also said he was optimistic now that Americans are more familiar with the protections they received under the Affordable Care Act, such as coverage for preexisting conditions, which will make it politically more difficult for Republicans to accomplish policy goals such as repealing Obamacare.

“Too many people know now. Before, they weren’t familiar with it. Today, they know what they’ve got,” Becerra said. “You could be complacent. You don’t have to worry because right now you’ve got your care. But come November, December, if the typical scenario is playing out in Congress where they’ve got a budget showdown and those tax credits are getting ready to expire, I think people are going to rise up and say, ‘Wait a minute, that’s my healthcare.’”

Under Biden the enrollment period for ACA had been extended in most states — a factor contributing to the program’s growth — but just days after Becerra’s interview, Trump signed an executive order ending that extension.

Though Becerra’s possible successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other members of Trump’s circle are openly skeptical about or dismissive of prevailing scientific theories and practices, Becerra said he believes that, ultimately, science and fact will prevail.

“I’m the son of immigrants. So optimism runs in my DNA,” Becerra said.

Now that his tenure is over, he said he looks forward to returning to California and being able to be unshaven and wear jeans when he sees his family.

“I love California because of its energy. I think of California the way I think of my family: The glass is half full for us,” Becerra said, noting that he was the first in his family to go to college and all three of his daughters went to college. “We’re still going. We’re still on the up. We haven’t seen the best days yet.”

Are those the words of a potential gubernatorial candidate? Perhaps.

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WASHINGTON —  Facing another early challenge to his immigration policies, President Trump on Sunday ordered a 25% tariff on exports from Colombia and a travel ban on Colombian officials and “their supporters” as punishment for the country’s refusal to accept military deportation flights from the U.S.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump declared on social media.

Colombia’s action came as numerous countries in Latin America are attempting to figure out how to deal with the week-old Trump administration, pledging cooperation on some immigration issues but also seeking fair treatment and respect for their own national sovereignty.

Media reports in the U.S. quoted Pentagon officials as saying Mexico also denied landing permission to a deportation flight late last week. While Mexico did not explicitly confirm or deny the action, its Foreign Ministry emphasized its spirit of continued cooperation with the U.S. President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would address the matter Monday.

Nevertheless, tensions are high in Mexico, the country that is the largest source of U.S.-bound migrants and where tens of thousands are becoming stranded as Trump ends amnesty and other legal-entry programs.

Both Colombia and Mexico in the past accepted some deportation flights but may be reacting now to Trump’s threats to increase the number exponentially and include more third-country migrants. Some in the region are also unnerved by the switch from civilian aircraft to U.S. military planes in the deportations.

Trump said he would raise the tariffs on all Colombian goods coming to the U.S. to 50% after one week if flights are not allowed. While Colombia is not high on the list of the region’s traders with the U.S., exporting only about $16 billion in goods, coffee is among its top commodities. It also exports roses and other fresh-cut flowers, used widely in the U.S. on holidays like Valentines Day.

He also said he was revoking U.S. visas from various members of the Colombian government, putting visa restrictions on tens of thousands of other Colombians, enhancing customs and border inspections on people and cargo from Colombia and imposing a raft of unspecified financial and banking sanctions.

Trump’s wrath came in response to actions by Gustavo Petro, the left-leaning president of Colombia, who is dealing with his own immigration crisis: the arrival of massive numbers of people fleeing neighbor Venezuela.

“I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia,” Trump wrote. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”

The two military C-17 aircraft departed San Diego with about 80 migrants and headed for Colombia before being turned around, officials said.

With Trump’s return to office, Petro made a brief attempt at avoiding confrontation, but that seems to have vanished.

Also writing on social media, Petro earlier Sunday did not rule out allowing the repatriation of Colombian nationals but said the process had to be “dignified.”

“The U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals,” Petro wrote. “I am denying the entry of United States airplanes with Colombian migrants to our territory. The U.S. must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”

He later said he would offer his presidential plane to pick up Colombian deportees to avoid them being left stranded and stateless. He also said he would play a tit-for-tat with Trump, suggesting he would impose a 25% tariff on U.S. exports.

The defiance from Latin America comes ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s trip later this week to the region, his first as Trump’s top diplomat. Neither Colombia nor Mexico are on his itinerary, although immigration will be on his agenda, especially in Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador.

He is expected to press the countries to accept deportees. In Panama, the topic of Trump’s desire to seize the Panama Canal will also dominate discussions. (The other countries he will visit are Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.)

Throughout the region, Rubio is also hoping to begin to counter China’s growing economic and diplomatic influence.

Guatemala on Friday allowed three U.S. flights — two military and one charter — to land there carrying 265 expelled migrants. And Brazil allowed two flights last week but complained that returning migrants were shackled.

“President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of,” Rubio said in a terse statement reacting to Petro’s position on the flights. He said it was the responsibility of nations to take back their citizens who are in the United States without legal authorization.

But, he said, “Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air.”

Rubio later said he had suspended the issuing of all visas to Colombians at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

Resistance to Trump’s immigration crackdown in which he has threatened to expel several million people, including some who are in the United States legally but temporarily, is percolating slowly as advocates and the courts grasp the exact nature of the administration’s plans.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday announced it had launched long-anticipated raids in Chicago aimed at preserving “public safety and national security” by rounding up immigrants and “keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.” ICE teamed up with the FBI, U.S. Marshals and several other federal agencies.

The first challenge to Trump’s immigration plan came swiftly, when a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to people born in the U.S. to noncitizens. Automatic, or birthright citizenship, is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The judge, a Reagan appointee based in Seattle, granted a stay in Trump officials’ attempt to enact the change in law.

Trump has portrayed the illegal entry of migrants over the southern U.S. border as an invasion. Although illegal crossings did rise early in the Biden administration, they fell sharply over the last year, with current levels the lowest they’ve been since Trump left office.

The White House made a big splash of the start of the deportation flights, although thousands of such deportations took place under Biden, albeit not with military participation.

Will Freeman, an expert on Colombia at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Petro will eventually be forced to back down but seems to want the fight for now.

“I can’t think of many *worse* strategic blunders for the U.S., as it competes w/ China, than going nuclear against its oldest strategic ally & last big country in S. America where it enjoys a trade advantage,” Freeman said on social media.

“Colombia becomes a testing ground for the threat-forward approach to Latin America,” he added. “Colombians lose out, & so will the U.S. vis-a-vis China.”

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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You can rest assured that Donald Trump’s order (no doubt approved by Shadow President Elon Musk) will do nothing to help struggling Americans with the price of groceries, housing or health care. But I’ll bet you four year’s worth of soaring egg prices that it will help Trump’s bottom – uh, line.

From NBC News:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered an immediate stop to the flow of almost all U.S. foreign assistance Friday pending a review, according to an internal State Department cable obtained by NBC News.

The directive sent to all consular and diplomatic posts follows President Donald Trump’s executive order Monday pausing new obligations and disbursements of foreign aid pending reviews “for programmatic efficiency and consistency” with U.S. foreign policy, within 90 days of the order.

Speaking of “consistency,” did I mention that the order is likely illegal? NBC put it this way: “It is not immediately clear if Rubio’s directive will hold up under U.S. law.”

The directive calls for the development of “appropriate review standards” for foreign aid, NBC News further reported. I think we all know that “appropriate review standards” under a Musk/Trump administration will have nothing to do with protecting and enriching anyone but Musk and Trump as well as their lickspittles and stooges. NBC noted that the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance says its request is less than 1% of the total federal budget. So, while implementing new “efficiency and consistency” will do little to reduce overall spending, there could still be a nice chunk of change or other financial benefits to Presidents Musk and Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump’s buddy in corruption and autocracy, Benjamin Netanyahu, got a “waiver for foreign military financing,” as did Egypt. NBC News suggests both waivers have a legit foreign policy purpose because those two countries are “among the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid.”

But NBC left out the part about Egypt’s very suspicious generosity to Trump, which he returned with policy favors in his first term. Last summer, I wrote about what looked a heckuva lot like a $10 million bribe from Egypt to Trump, just when he was running low on cash near the end of his 2016 campaign. That was followed by a promise the U.S. would be a “loyal friend” to Egypt’s “fantastic” president – who just happened to be Trump’s first guest at the White House, despite a U.S. policy of distancing itself from him. The reporting came from a blockbuster Washington Post investigation we may never see the likes of in the next four years, unless it involves Democrats.

So how are the Democrats responding to this? NBC reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in response, “To impound these funds would be unconstitutional. Absolutely.” There was nothing in the report about Schumer or any other Democrat saying or doing anything more.

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Three Fox News hosts clashed on Sunday after one called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) a “smart Democrat.”

During a segment on Fox & Friends, host Charlie Hurt complimented the political awareness of Ocasio-Cortez.

“And smart Democrats realize that they have a real problem,” he said. And I think one of those smart Democrats is AOC.”

“Wait a sec! Wait a sec!” co-host Jason Chaffetz exclaimed.

“I’m with Charlie on this,” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy interrupted. “I think you don’t underestimate that woman!”

“Yeah, I think that we make fun of a lot of the stupid things she says. And she does say some stupid things,” Hurt argued. “But she is a lot more in tune with where people are than you would think she was based on some of the stupid things she says.”

Hurt pointed to Ocasio-Cortez’s warning that President Donald Trump was more dangerous than ever because he had become “normalized.”

Campos-Duffy pointed out that Trump was not treated like a “normal human” during his first term.

“And now they can’t stop it,” she said. “It’s happened.”

“AOC, in my opinion, is an idiot,” Chaffetz quipped.

“Say what you will about her,” Campos-Duffy replied. “She’s, for a woman, especially who has a degree in economics, she’s economically ignorant.”

“But she understands the culture,” she added. “And that’s why she’s worried.”

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TikTok users are sidestepping the censorship to talk about ICE, posting and sharing videos ostensibly about “cute winter boots.” Via Usermag:

“I see a lot of people on this app right now making plans to buy cute winter boots,” one TikToker posted on Thursday, “…but there’s a lot of things that you guys are missing.”

“Here’s some safety tips for going out in your cute winter boots,” another user posted, “you’re going to memorize your first amendment rights, because those are the rights you’re exercising when you’re out in your cute winter boots.”

The phrase “cute winter boots” is not about footwear. It’s a code phrase being used to discuss resistance to Trump and how to fight back against the draconian immigration policies his administration is enacting. Users talking about “cute winter boots” keeping people safe from “ice,” are referencing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Cute winter boots” is just the latest example of algospeak, coded phrases and words aimed at subverting algorithmic filters.

As the U.S. government seeks to enact stricter controls over speech online, TikTok users are adopting more coded language specifically aimed at criticizing the government and alerting others to government surveillance of online spaces. For instance, the phrase “Senator, I’m Singaporean,” a quote uttered by TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew in response to Sen. Tom Cotton’s racist line of questioning implying that Chew was a Chinese government agent, is now frequently posted in the comments of videos by users seeking to warn others about the content they’re posting. The phrase “Senator, I’m Singaporean,” has come to mean that a video is not something that the government wants, or that they’re going to show this type of video to congress, a creator explained.

The videos discussing “cute winter boots” leverage the TikTok algorithm’s preference for product-focused content to amplify their reach. “What the algorithm likes is products,” said Diana, the admin of @/citiesbydiana, a TikTok account about urban planning. “It’s a way to talk about resisting the federal government in a way that will actually reach people.”

https://bsky.app/profile/kelede.bsky.social/post/3lggf5467t22z

https://bsky.app/profile/aquelehagar.bsky.social/post/3lglfi3riyk2m

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested Republican lawmakers would do nothing after admitting that President Donald Trump violated the law when he fired over a dozen inspectors general.

In the late-night purge, the White House declined to give Congress 30 days’ notice as required by law when firing the departmental watchdogs.

“On Friday night, President Trump removed, as you know, 18 independent inspectors general,” NBC host Kristen Welker told Graham on Sunday. “What do you say to those who believe that President Trump is going to replace these watchdogs with loyalists?”

“It’s not the first time people have come in and put their team in place,” Graham replied dismissively. “So I’m not really worried about that.”

“The law says he’s supposed to do a 30 days’ notice,” Welker pressed. “He didn’t do that. Do you think he violated the law?”

“Technically, yeah, but he has the authority to do it,” Graham opined. “So I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out.”

“I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start.”

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I don’t know about you, but there’s something off-putting about Elon Musk addressing a far-right German political party that’s been accused of promoting extremism, and telling them not to feel guilty about their Nazi past. Something about that doesn’t sit right with me. Especially after last week’s Nazi salute by Musk. And there is also the not-so-small matter of Musk’s past when his maternal grandparents were documented Nazi sympathizers. And then there of the accusations of Musk’s own antisemitism that he’s recently tried to downplay.

Source: NBC

The chairman of Israel’s official Holocaust memorial has accused Elon Musk of insulting the victims of Nazism and endangering Germany’s democratic future after the billionaire addressed a rally for Germany’s far-right party on Saturday.

Musk, the world’s richest man, made a surprise virtual appearance at a campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on Saturday, doubling down on his support for the group he has said can “save Germany” ahead of snap elections in February.

In an apparent reference to Germany’s Nazi history, the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, whose smiling face was projected onto a vast screen, told a roaring crowd that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents.”

“There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that,” he added at the rally in the eastern German city of Halle.

Musk’s remarks, which came the same week that he faced criticism for a gesture during a speech in Washington that many people said resembled a Nazi salute, came two days before world leaders are due to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

One of the co-leaders of the AfD posted Musk’s address to Twitter.

Led by Donkeys and PoliticalBeauty shared a different message at Tesla’s Berlin factory.

The world’s richest man @elonmusk is promoting the far right in Europe. Don’t buy a @Tesla.
Location: Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin.
(In collaboration with @politicalbeauty) pic.twitter.com/xaacsX4Qw4

— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) January 23, 2025

Errol Musk, Elon’s equally crazy father, speaking about his former in-laws.

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CBS host Margaret Brennan challenged J.D. Vance on President Donald Trump’s failure to lower prices despite making scores of executive actions during his first days in office.

“You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers,” Brennan noted in a Sunday interview on Face the Nation. “We’ve seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?”

“Well, first of all, we have done a lot, and there have been a number of executive orders that have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices,” Vance opined.

Vance argued that Trump’s executive actions would “raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need.”

“So, grocery prices aren’t going to come down?” Brennan pressed.

“No, Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time, right?” Vance insisted. “The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he’s accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years.”

“But the price of eggs,” Brennan shot back. “The things that people see… you were talking about bacon on the campaign trail. Those things- when do consumers actually get to touch and feel a difference in their lives?”

“The flurry of executive orders, most of them weren’t about the economy,” she added.

“Many of them were, though, Margaret,” Vance said.