President Trump on Friday signed an executive order extending the deadline for TikTok&#8217;s Chinese parent company to sell its United States operations for a second time, saying that the acquisition “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed.”
“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114280893859636366">said</a> on Truth Social.
Had Trump not granted an extension to ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok would have been required to carry out a “qualified divesture” of its United States business per a law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024, with internet service providers and app stores prohibited from hosting the platform.
The app, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2024/09/24/in-an-election-year-more-americans-are-using-tiktok-as-a-news-source/">used</a> by over 170 million Americans, has faced scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle amid growing concerns about China&#8217;s technological influence and data collection capabilities.
Biden’s law went into effect on January 19, with Apple and Google removing TikTok from their respective app stores until Trump extended the deadline by 75 days on January 20 when he took office.
According to CNBC, several major American tech companies have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/04/trumps-extends-tiktok-second-time.html">expressed interest</a> in acquiring TikTok&#8217;s United States operations, including Oracle, AppLovin, and a consortium of private capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone. Amazon has also reportedly made a last-second bid to purchase the social media platform.
Despite interest from American companies, any deal still requires approval from the Chinese Communist Party, adding complexity to negotiations.
The announcement came just days after Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposing a 34% tariff rate on China, which, combined with existing tariffs, creates a total rate of 54% on all imports from one of America’s largest trading partners.
Trump appears wary of the impact tariffs might have on the CCP’s willingness to approve a TikTok deal, insisting that China continue to negotiate in “good faith” despite the hefty tariffs.
“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!).”
The president has also indicated he might consider reducing China&#8217;s tariffs to facilitate a TikTok deal.
“Maybe I’ll give [China] a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” Trump <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/26/trump-says-he-may-reduce-china-tariffs-to-help-close-a-tiktok-deal.html">said</a> in late March, “TikTok is big, but every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok.”

TikTok Logo With US Flag

Trump Extends TikTok Sale Deadline By 75 Days As Acquisition Talks Continue

Big Tech

China

Foreign Policy

Global Politics

Politics

Tariffs

Technology

TikTok

On Wednesday, President Trump declared that it was “Liberation Day.” He said this is our economic Declaration of Independence now.
The markets were rocked after the announcement and there’s a reason why, which I will explain.
The president seems to believe that international trade is a zero-sum game. His giant tariff policy is predicated on a few false notions about the American economy. One is that the American economy has been a giant failure for the last 40 years. That is simply not true. This is a myth that is propagated by both parties.
I know, it&#8217;s a fun myth. It&#8217;s something people like to believe, that yesterday was economically better than today.
But then you look at all the stuff around you, the phone in your pocket, the computer, the fact that you can literally order any product at any time from anywhere on earth and it arrives at your doorstep in two days at a price you can afford, and you think to yourself: Would I rather live in 1980 when the only person with a cell phone was Gordon Gekko on a beach holding a shoe box to his head, when central air conditioning was kind of a rarity? When the cars, if you were lucky, had electric windows? Was that better? Were things better simply on an economic level?
Forget about everything else. You can make a case about the descent on the spiritual level. You can make a case about the dissolution of the family. I agree with many of those cases. But we&#8217;re not talking about the life of the spirit within. We&#8217;re talking about economics, which is the distribution of goods and services.
America has done well for decades and has not stopped. A myth that all politicians like to tell is that America has not done well, that America has been hollowed out by deindustrialization and we are not actually manufacturing anymore in this country.
That is not true. In 1997, the United States was producing $1.4 trillion in real manufacturing value added. In 2025, we are producing $2.4 trillion. That is an arithmetic increase.
So, if we are manufacturing more, why aren&#8217;t there more manufacturing jobs? The answer is technology. We manufacture more because we have better robots and they are doing much of the work that people seem to have a very warm and fuzzy feeling about, but then never want to do themselves.
I notice a lot of people say, “Why can&#8217;t I have a factory job just like in 1955 at Ford? Working in a non-air conditioned factory riveting all day?” It’s unlikely that’s your ideal job.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2172-member-exclusive?row=2&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
We&#8217;ve been told the lie that the American middle class has been hollowed out by international trade.
But here is what actually happened to the American middle-class over the course of the last several decades. The American middle-class stayed approximately the same or shrank a little bit. Why did it shrink? Not because people became lower middle-class or poor, but because a huge number of Americans went into the upper middle-class. The number one change in the status of American families in terms of income from just before 1980 to about 2015 was a 16% increase in the upper middle-class.
In other words, people got richer. And by the way, everyone got richer, including the poor, because the stuff you can get as a poor person in America in 2025 is way better than the stuff you could get as a poor person in America in 1980. That&#8217;s just a reality.
How about wages? We keep hearing that wages are stagnant and have been stagnant since 1979. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, there was a steep increase in wages between 1980 and 2025. 
I know this cuts against the conventional political wisdom, which says that the American economy sucks and it&#8217;s because everybody is cheating us. 
One of the things President Trump is predicating his tariff war upon is the idea that trade deficits are inherently bad. A trade deficit is where, in terms of value, we import more stuff than we export. As I have pointed out before, you have a trade deficit with literally every business you do business with unless they&#8217;re buying your product.
So, for example, I have a trade deficit with my local grocery store, a huge trade deficit. They have received pretty much nothing from me. But I have bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of groceries over the years from my local grocery. They’re not taking advantage of me; I&#8217;m getting value for my dollar in the form of food and supplies.
As the great economist Thomas Sowell points out, “If the goods and services available to the American people are greater as a result of international trade, then Americans are wealthier, not poorer, regardless of whether there is a deficit or a surplus in the international balance of trade.”
In fact, I can name a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America&#8217;s balance of trade: the entire Great Depression.
As it turns out, trade deficits have pretty much nothing to do with the health of an economy. They don&#8217;t tell you very much.
19th century French economist Frédéric Bastiat once wrote on this topic, essentially saying, “Look, if you&#8217;re so worried about trade imbalances, then actually what you should do is you should sink ships filled with your own exports before they ever get to the other side.” So if we&#8217;re exporting oranges to Europe and they&#8217;re going to send us apples in return, the best way to ensure that no trade imbalance takes place is we should send our oranges out of the country and sink the ship before it ever gets to Europe so they can&#8217;t send us apples back. Then we’ll have a large export on our ledger and no imports. Great idea. The economy will be stronger.
So, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of trade deficits. This is not about balance of payments, which is a different thing. Balance of payments is about the flow of gold. We&#8217;re no longer in a gold standard, but it&#8217;s about currencies.
Trade deficits are a different thing.
In reality, I think the Trump administration is likely to try and leverage headlines out of various foreign nations suggesting they&#8217;re going to invest in America to the tune of some billions of dollars before lowering the tariff rates again.
I do have faith that President Trump actually responds to headlines and to the news. He lives in the world of reality and won’t simply ignore that the markets hate all of this.
Yesterday, The White House quietly put out a fact sheet that read:
<blockquote>These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated. Today’s IEEPA Order also contains modification authority, allowing President Trump to increase the tariff if trading partners retaliate or decrease the tariffs if trading partners take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements and align with the United States on economic and national security matters.</blockquote>
Now, other countries could say they will invest in the American economy and President Trump gets a huge win. That could happen. I&#8217;m hoping that&#8217;s what Trump is planning on doing.
Is President Trump going to send out surrogates, like the Treasury Secretary, to walk some of this back and to try to point out where an off-ramp is? Or is he just going to keep doubling down on the theory that it&#8217;s short-term pain for long-term gain? If so, he&#8217;s going to have to explain how short-term the pain is and what exactly the long-term gain is, because that has not even been spelled out at this point. Is the idea that other countries are going to reshore to the United States to take advantage of our markets in some way, but we will leave tariffs on stuff that they export to us? They could also form trade blocs themselves and then go make time with the Chinese.
There are real-world implications for this sort of stuff. Trade wars are not good and not easy to win, particularly if you don&#8217;t actually have a plan. You actually have to have a plan.
So, I want somebody to make the case as to why this is actually excellent policy, why this is going to be salutary for the United States, why this is going to benefit the people of the United States en masse. And if you&#8217;re going to call for sacrifice from the American people, the question is, what is the thing on the other side of that sacrifice that is better and good?
What I&#8217;ve heard so far is a lot of casting of various aspersions at foreign countries for engaging in trade with us, regardless of whether they are good or bad, because we&#8217;re treating Canada the same way we&#8217;re treating China.
This is why I think the markets are confused. Investors are confused. Confusion and fear are going to breed sell-off. Less investment, less job growth.
It&#8217;s all avoidable. We need to hear an actual narrative, not a bunch of talking points that are generated from a cork board filled with statistics made up by some sort of AI.

President Trump Holds “Make America Wealthy Again Event” In White House Rose Garden

Liberation Day. What’s The Plan?

Ben Shapiro

Economics

Economy

European Union

Money

Opinion

President Trump

Trade War

President Donald Trump secured a $1.4 trillion commitment from the United Arab Emirates earlier this week to invest in American energy, manufacturing, and technology over the next decade.
“This new framework will substantially increase the UAE’s existing investments in the U.S. economy in AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy, and American manufacturing,” the White House said in a Friday statement announcing the framework, per Bloomberg.
The investment framework resulted from Tuesday&#8217;s Oval Office meeting between Trump and the UAE’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, combined with Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet members negotiating with a UAE delegation over dinner, a White House official with knowledge of the matter <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/after-trump-meeting-uae-commits-10-year-14-trillion-investment-framework-us-2025-03-21/">told</a> Reuters. The UAE delegation included leaders of several major national sovereign wealth funds and companies.
Bin Zayed <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/uae-to-pledge-1-4-trillion-us-investment-after-trump-meeting">said</a> the UAE is committed to “strengthening its economic ties with the U.S. by accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, advanced technology, infrastructure, energy, and healthcare.&#8221;
As part of the framework, according to Reuters, UAE investment fund ADQ and U.S. partner Energy Capital Partners announced a $25 billion initiative targeting American energy infrastructure and data centers, while XRG, the international investment arm of UAE state oil company ADNOC, committed to supporting U.S. natural gas production through an investment in the NextDecade liquefied natural gas export facility in Texas.
The companies involved in these negotiations reportedly have additional plans to make substantial investments in additional U.S. assets, such as gas, chemicals, and energy infrastructure, beyond what the framework already lays out.
Trump had previously highlighted the importance of foreign investment during his campaign, arguing that bringing significant capital back to American shores would help revitalize manufacturing and create new jobs in technology sectors.

President Trump Signs Executive Orders At The White House

Trump Secures $1.4 Trillion UAE Investment Deal For American Industries

America First

Executive

Middle East

Trump Administration

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The Trump administration is pausing aid to Ukraine after a tense clash between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
The pause comes after a Friday confrontation at the White House when a proposed mineral deal between Ukraine and the United States fell through as Zelensky argued with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in front of the media. While Trump has said that he is looking to bring the war to a swift close through a peace settlement, Zelensky has predicted that the end is “still very, very far away.” 
“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” the White House said Monday evening. 
The White House noted that the aid may resume at some point, but only if Ukraine is committed to working toward peace. 
“This is not permanent termination of aid, it&#8217;s a pause,&#8221; one White House official <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pauses-aid-ukraine-fiery-meeting-zelenskyy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News. &#8220;The orders are going out right now.&#8221;
Under previous President Joe Biden, the United States sent Ukraine tens of billions of dollars worth of military supplies and committed to indefinitely supporting Ukraine. In contrast, Trump campaigned on bringing peace between Ukraine and Russia and has said that Zelensky doesn’t seem to want the war to end. 
Zelensky on Monday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zelensky-warns-deal-with-russia-is-very-very-far-away-but-says-he-still-expects-american-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that a peace deal with Russia was “very, very far away” but that he expected the United States to continue to support his efforts. 
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-explodes-on-zelensky-for-making-the-worst-statement-on-the-ukraine-russia-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> by saying that it was the “worst statement” that Zelensky could have made. 
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?” he posted on Truth Social. 
That came after the heated Oval Office meeting on Friday when Zelensky argued that giving Russian President Vladimir Putin room to negotiate was effectively giving the Russian leader a win. During the meeting, Trump said that Zelensky was “gambling with World War III” by not doing more to seek peace with Russia after the Ukrainian president suggested the United States &#8220;will feel&#8221; the consequences of Putin&#8217;s aggression &#8220;in the future.&#8221;

US-UKRAINE-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-ZELENSKY

Trump Admin Pausing Aid To Ukraine After Clash With Zelensky

Donald Trump

Russia

Ukraine

Ukraine-Russia War

Volodymyr Zelensky

Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham accepted the award for Best Documentary Feature for his movie “No Other Land” at the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.
During Abraham’s <a href="https://x.com/THR/status/1896384917967085849">anti-Israel acceptance speech,</a> he took a swipe at U.S. foreign policy and blamed the United States for the lack of resolution in the conflict.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together, our voices are stronger. We see each other, the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed,” Abraham said.
“When I look at Basel [Adra, co-director], I see my brother—but we are unequal,” he claimed. “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control, there is a different path. There is a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I&#8217;m here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.&#8221;
“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basil’s people are truly free and safe?” Abraham continued, claiming there is “another way, it’s not too late for life for the living.” 
The comments from Abraham were met with thunderous applause and cheers from the stars in the room.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The team behind <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoOtherLand?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoOtherLand</a> accepts the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscar</a> for best documentary and speaks about the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict <a href="https://t.co/3ilRwmdkzf">pic.twitter.com/3ilRwmdkzf</a>
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) <a href="https://twitter.com/THR/status/1896384917967085849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
“No Other Land” won Best Documentary this year despite having less cultural influence and fewer viewers than the hit DailyWire+ documentary, “Am I Racist?”
The past two winners in the category include “20 Days in Mariupol” and “Navalny,” which were both critical of Russia. This year’s winning selection was made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four activists seeking to paint Israel as the aggressor in the ongoing conflict by highlighting the destruction of a West Bank village.
Producers had to self-distribute the film in the United States after no major studios picked it up. “No Other Land” was the highest grossing documentary of all the nominees yet <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/news/box-office/no-other-land-box-office-oscars-1235099277/">earned</a> only $420,000 at the domestic box office.
Amanda Harding contributed to this piece.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shocker-barely-anyone-went-to-see-anti-israel-oscar-winner-for-best-doc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SHOCKER: Barely Anyone Went To See Anti-Israel Oscar Winner For Best Doc</a>

Oscar Statuettes For The 76th Academy Awards Displayed In Hollywood

Best Documentary Winner Gives Anti-Israel Speech, Slams U.S. Foreign Policy

Academy Awards

anti-Israel

Entertainment

Hollywood

Israel

Movies

Oscars

U.S.

The Biden-appointed federal judge who is attempting to halt President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid has a long history of engaging in far-left, anti-Trump activism, working for an organization that pushed for prosecutors to drop charges against leftist rioters and accusing the president of harboring religious hatred, The Daily Wire has learned.
Judge <a href="https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-amir-h-ali">Amir Ali</a> of the Washington, D.C. District Court recently ordered the Trump administration to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-unfreeze-foreign-aid-6da9608d">unfreeze foreign aid</a> and disburse millions of dollars through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), despite the President’s decision to halt the funding.
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-administration-says-it-cannot-meet-court-deadline-foreign-aid-payments-2025-02-26/">paused Ali’s order</a> through an administrative stay, allowing Trump to freeze foreign aid while it considers the president’s request to block the federal judge’s ruling. But Ali’s history of leftwing activism, donations to Democrats, and involvement with explicitly anti-Trump organizations, threatens to throw the Canadian-born judge’s impartiality into question.
Ali has donated to Democratic candidates, giving <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Amir+Ali&amp;contributor_occupation=Attorney">$2,000</a> to former President Joe Biden when he ran against Trump in 2020 and another <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?committee_id=C00696153&amp;contributor_name=Amir+Ali">$580 to Democrat Jaime Harrison</a>, a former United States Senate candidate in South Carolina who chaired the DNC from 2021-2025.
The federal judge opposed Trump well before the 2020 election, however. Ali’s anti-Trump agenda extends back to the early days of the president&#8217;s first term, when he articulated how federal courts could <a href="https://takecareblog.com/blog/the-ninth-circuit-can-doom-trump-s-travel-ban">“doom”</a> the president’s travel ban, which critics called the &#8220;Muslim ban,&#8221; and pointed to a legal approach that could “be a huge weapon for those challenging the ban.”
“By continuing to block the entry ban, but allowing the government to conduct its 90-day review, the Ninth Circuit can give the challengers back this powerful argument to put an end to Trump’s Muslim ban,” he also wrote, using inaccurate leftwing rhetoric to describe Trump’s policy.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/27/us-supreme-court-muslim-ban-protection-discrimination">He also wrote</a> in The Guardian that Trump’s travel ban was rooted in a “campaign of animus against people of the Muslim faith.” Ali stated in an <a href="https://hulr.org/fall-2022-1/fighting-for-dignity-and-justice-in-the-nations-highest-courts-a-conversation-with-amir-ali">interview</a> that he had hoped to inform the Supreme Court, which was ruling on the travel ban at the time, of “the full record of President Trump’s history of animus and hatred towards Muslim people.”
He went on to charge that the legal profession should be diversified. “Within the Supreme Court bar in Washington, D.C., I am one of few people of North African or Middle Eastern descent, one of few immigrants to the country, and one of few Muslim Americans,” Ali said during the interview. “That’s true of many other backgrounds as well, and it is a problem.” He touted his work with the Appellate Project, which Ali stated “is breaking down the barriers to the representation of people of color and other minorities in the appellate profession.”
Ali became formally involved in leftwing activism when he <a href="https://www.macarthurjustice.org/celebrating-amir-ali/">joined</a> the MacArthur Justice Center, a far-left organization that pushed to defund the police, allied with the Black Lives Matter movement, and advocated for prosecutors to drop felony charges against Black Lives Matter rioters. Ali would go on to become its director in 2021.
The group <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-judicial-nominee-leads-left-wing-group-that-wants-to-defund-police/">posted</a> “#DefundPolice” in 2020, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/macarthurjusticecenter/posts/3971225506225093">lobbied</a> the New Orleans City Council to commit to defunding the police, and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wJ9WAenSfHrQdwhuQZC6JtRI8JMJU1TG/view?fbclid=IwAR310SnOEMea6XeTf9-MjY68WsO5WaJ8I2YtJpPf_Te8HhaAn1JesRjFMog&amp;pli=1">allied</a> with the Illinois BLM Uprising Defense in “calling for prosecutors to drop felony charges against rioters at Black Lives Matter protests in Chicago.”
“These protests occurred because our criminal legal system has continuously devalued and disregarded, brutalized, tortured and killed Black people,” a letter from the organizations read as it attempted to justify the rioting.
Under Ali’s leadership, the organization <a href="https://archive.ph/OGRUG">filed</a> a brief arguing that asking potential jurors about whether or not they support the Black Lives Matter movement “undermines judicial principles of equity and the public’s confidence.”
The judge’s activism extends beyond his role with the MacArthur Justice Center. Ali documented his role as the director of another leftwing organization on his <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ali_sjq.pdf">questionnaire</a> for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Called Mosaic Theater, the organization celebrated the Black Lives Matter riots, <a href="https://mosaictheater.org/mission-values">writing</a> on its website that “a summer of Black-led uprisings against state violence have made clear that this country requires fundamental changes, both systemic and institutional” and listing “equity and anti-racism” as its values.
“We believe that anti-racism, promoting racial and gender equity, working against abuse, and reducing harm are imperative to the art we make and how we make it,” the organization states. The theater also hosted a pride festival in 2022 that celebrated a <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2022/06/09/celebrate-pride-month-in-d-c-with-theater/">playwright</a> behind a play called “Alma,” a “poetic riposte against Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric.”
Ali’s activism won him the support of various other far-left organizations and activists. The federal judge was honored with a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-judicial-nominee-honored-by-anti-israel-group-whose-board-member-cheers-hamas/">“Justice Tribute” award</a> from the Arab American Civil Rights League in 2023. The organization not only supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel, but even counts on its board a member who openly supported both Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Whether it&#8217;s called Hamas, whether it&#8217;s called Hezbollah, we stand with everybody who stands against the Israeli occupation,” said board member Amer Zahr, who was in attendance at the event in which Ali received his award.
Ali was also lauded by the Michigan branch of the NAACP, led by Rev. Wendell Anthony, who claimed that the United States was “choking the life out of black America.”

Judge Amir Ali

Federal Judge Who Stonewalled Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Has A Long History Of Liberal Activism

Court

Supreme Court

Trump

Several states are working to ban foreign funding of ballot issue campaigns after a dark money group poured cash from foreign billionaires into ballot initiatives last year.
As of October, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a nonprofit that has funneled more than $1 billion dollars in dark money to liberal causes, had <a href="https://americansforpublictrust.org/uncategorized/late-october-2024-update-foreign-backed-spending-in-state-ballot-issue-campaigns/">spent</a> over $37 million on state ballot initiatives. The fund is fueled, in large part, by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who has given the group $243 million. Wyss has said he has “never felt the need to become an American” but wants to “(re)interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics.”
That may be easier said than done.
In June, Ohio became the first state to ban both direct and indirect foreign funding of state ballot issues. Since then, at least eight other states have begun trying to ban foreign nationals from funneling cash into American ballot initiatives. Last week, the Mississippi Senate as well as the Kentucky and Wyoming Houses passed legislation to ban foreign nationals from funding ballot issue campaigns.
The Indiana House of Representatives passed similar legislation this week, as did the Kansas House last week. committees in Indiana and Utah voted to advance similar legislation, and similar bills have been introduced in Tennessee and Missouri.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Kansas HB 2106 — a crucial bill to stop foreign nationals from funding state ballot issue campaigns — has cleared the House Committee on Elections.
The bill now heads to the House floor for a full vote. Kansas lawmakers must act to protect Kansas elections! <a href="https://t.co/RAvUZCRBdv">pic.twitter.com/RAvUZCRBdv</a>
&mdash; Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) <a href="https://twitter.com/apublictrust/status/1889437490295324801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Federal lawmakers have taken note as well.
In December, the House committee that oversees federal elections <a href="https://cha.house.gov/2024/12/top-takeaways-from-full-committee-hearing-on-prohibiting-foreign-interference-in-american-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held</a> a hearing discussing loopholes that allow foreign nationals to contribute to political campaigns.
In the recent election cycle, the Sixteen Thirty Fund funded ballot initiatives in several swing states or states with a close Senate election, Americans for Public Trust found.
In Arizona, the group gave $1.25 million to support an abortion ballot initiative that passed, enshrining a right to abortion in the state constitution. Nevada approved a similar abortion initiative on the ballot this November, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $500,000 to that effort. Democrats <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/abortion-rights-amendment-one-step-closer-appearing-arizona-ballot-rcna159753" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hoped</a> that putting abortion on the ballot would boost Democratic voter turnout in these states.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund also funded ballot initiatives in Ohio, Florida, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, and Alaska.
Since 2014, the Sixteen Thirty Fund has spent nearly $130 million on ballot initiatives in 25 states — <a href="https://americansforpublictrust.org/uncategorized/late-october-2024-update-foreign-backed-spending-in-state-ballot-issue-campaigns/">including</a> $34 million in Michigan, $21 million in Ohio, $17 million in Florida, $13 million in Missouri, $11 million in Colorado, $7 million in Nevada, around $3.5 million in North Carolina, and around $1.5 million in Arizona.
States that ban foreign nationals from funding ballot issue campaigns would no longer see these influxes of foreign cash flowing into their ballot initiatives.
“It’s clear that Americans across the country are sick and tired of foreign funds influencing our politics and want their election officials to take action,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust.
&#8220;We are encouraged by the momentum happening in the states, and look forward to Congress building on their work from last session to pass a bill that bans foreign nationals from influencing ballot initiatives nationwide,&#8221; Sutherland said.
&#8220;Closing the foreign election influence loophole is crucial to promoting election integrity,&#8221; said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project. &#8220;Fortunately, states are beginning to take action to prevent foreign nationals from impacting American elections.”

US-VOTE-POLITICS-PENNSYLVANIA

These States Are Fighting To Keep Foreign Leftist Billionaires Out Of American Elections

Bans On Foreign Election Funding Gain Momentum Across The Country

Election Laws

Elections

A federal judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause, ruling that the administration did not have a compelling reason to implement the freeze. 
U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Judge Amir Ali sided on Thursday with several government-funded global health nonprofits that had sued the Trump administration seeking to stop the foreign aid funding pause. The suit was filed over President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive order initiating a 90-day pause on foreign funding to evaluate whether the programs were in America’s national interest. 
Ali <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277333/gov.uscourts.dcd.277333.17.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that the Trump administration had “not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
The judge, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said that his order did not block the Trump administration’s “comprehensive internal review of government programs,” only “the implementation of the blanket suspension of foreign aid funding.”
Ali said he was blocking the administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing the obligation or disbursement of appropriated foreign-assistance funds in connection with any contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, loans, or other federal foreign assistance award.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said Friday that federal judges should not be able to dictate foreign policy. 
“No district court judge has the power to run the foreign policy of the United States,” he <a href="https://x.com/StephenM/status/1890378678778937816" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X. “To even suggest as much is to lay waste to our constitutional heritage.”
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Trump’s day one <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> said that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.” Waivers for “life-saving humanitarian assistance” were granted by the State Department as part of the pause.
This agenda has included massively shrinking the role of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and moving it under the role of the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The agency drew the scrutiny of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency project, which argued that the agency has funded ideological programs around the world. 
Rubio has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/XQYd2J3cOps">said</a> that the U.S. would continue to provide foreign aid but slash programs that don’t align with the national interest. 
“The goal of our endeavor has always been to identify programs that work and continue them,” he told reporters in the Dominican Republic. “And to identify programs that are not aligned with our national interest, identify those, and address them.”

USAID Signage Is Covered Up At Their Washington Headquarters

Judge Says Trump Admin Can’t Put ‘Blanket’ Pause On Foreign Aid

Courts

Marco Rubio

State Department

USAID

In the midst of swirling controversy over a potential U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shutdown, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdw31c6HPCI" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> exposed</a> some of the agency’s “insane priorities,” ranging from $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia, $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia, and $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru. It’s clearly time for a reckoning.
Putting an end to this kind of egregious waste of American taxpayer funds would not only benefit America, it also would be a tremendous boon for the recipient countries that have long suffered ideological coercion under the guise of U.S. foreign assistance.
As convincingly <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1886059275174506850">put</a> by the president of El Salvador, “Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up … At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need … Cutting this so-called aid isn’t just beneficial for the United States; it’s also a big win for the rest of the world.”
News of high-stakes financial mismanagement from USAID fits a horrifying pattern of foreign aid abuse. Having worked inside the United Nations for a decade, I saw firsthand how vast quantities of what’s labeled “foreign aid” backs programs that are pointless at best and extremely harmful at their worst.
Take, for example, abortion. The U.S. in 2023 became the largest donor to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/donor/united-states-america?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$130 million</a> for its abortion-centric work in developing countries. This is the same agency that openly pushed abortion <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/united-nations-using-coronavirus-funding-promote-abortion-opinion-1502710" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legalization</a> as a condition for COVID relief. Recipients included Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, and Ethiopia, alongside a host of others with laws that protect unborn life. High levels of conflict and poverty render these governments particularly vulnerable to the strings that come attached to foreign aid.
In 2020, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/united-nations-commission-holds-up-coronavirus-aid-over-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ecuador</a> was singled out for an $8 million U.N. COVID assistance package with the requirement that Ecuador implement “safe legal abortion.” At the time, USAID <a href="https://srhrindex.srhrforall.org/uploads/2022/06/2020_Acting-Administrator-John-Barsa-Letter-to-UN-Secretary-General-Guterres_18-May-2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a strongly worded letter insisting that the U.N. cease using the pandemic as an excuse for abortion coercion. 
The letter cites USAID’s 2019 funding to the tune of $3.5 billion to the U.N., including $45.3 million specifically for pandemic relief. The point is, even though the first Trump administration rejected the funding of abortion internationally as a general legal principle, USAID was still sending billions to the U.N., which was going right back around to fund abortion around the world.
Now, as the Trump administration overhauls its foreign aid architecture, it should recall the lessons learned from the U.N. COVID abortion fiasco. Shutting down our own foreign aid offenders is only part of the puzzle. The administration will want to ensure enormous sums of taxpayer dollars aren’t supporting the promotion of nefarious agendas at the hands of the U.N. and other international institutions too.
Fortunately, the Trump administration has brought back the expanded Mexico City Policy, preventing federal funds from going to abortion- promoting NGOs abroad. This is squarely in line with a 2022 <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-knights-of-columbusmarist-poll-a-majority-of-americans-support-legal-limits-on-abortion-and-oppose-taxpayer-funding-301465042.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a>, which found that 73% of Americans oppose using tax dollars to support abortion abroad. Surely, most Americans reject the idea of their money funding “transgender operas” too.
While it may be compelling for the Trump administration to lead with an “America first” approach to foreign aid overhaul, keep in mind that foreign aid accountability is not just in the best interest of America. It’s also in the best interest of recipient countries. Instead of pushing DEI, “transgender operas,” or abortion, any U.S. aid should support the dignity of people in need in their own cultural and legal context, rather than treating them as pawns in ideological battles.
As the Trump administration undertakes a foreign aid overhaul, the guiding principle should be strict accountability. Every dollar spent should be traceable. Americans deserve to know what their money is going toward and to have assurance that taxpayer money is not used to promote coercive agendas.
The problem with USAID wasn’t that it used foreign aid to advance American interests. Every Western country does that. The problem is the extent to which so much of this aid was used to promote disturbing ideological agendas. The great irony here lies in the blind pride of wokeism. USAID failed to see how billions for ideologically driven initiatives does nothing to boost U.S. influence—it just makes America a laughingstock. If the agency’s job was to boost American influence, it should have gone another route than DEI and transgender promotion.
* * *
Elyssa Koren is an international human rights lawyer and director of legal communications for <a href="https://www.adfinternational.org/">ADF International</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Trump And Musk’s USAID ‘Shut Down’ Threat Opens Door For China

Where Do The Dollars Go? Here’s One Major Way USAID Spends Money

Abortion

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Federal Government

Karoline Leavitt

United Nations

Vice President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jd-vance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JD Vance</a> said Wednesday that religious freedom would be a top focus of the Trump administration at home and abroad, saying there was “much more to do” to secure religious liberty.
Vance made the comments during a speech at the International Religious Freedom Summit at the Washington Hilton, where he highlighted actions taken during the first Trump administration to advocate for religious freedom, saying the second administration would expand that focus. 
“We remain the world’s largest majority-Christian country and the right to religious freedom is protected by the people for everybody whether you&#8217;re a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or no faith at all,” Vance said. “But religious liberty is not simply, as we all know, about legal safeguards, it is also about fostering a culture in which faith can thrive, so that men and women can fully appreciate and respect the God-given rights of their fellow citizens.”
He said that religion helps people better connect to “the particular,” helping them be more committed to their neighbors and communities.
The conference was attended by 1,500 religious liberty advocates and sponsored by several companies and organizations, including Meta, The Washington Times Foundation, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, and Samaritan’s Purse.
“In China, across Europe, and throughout Africa, and the Middle East, the first Trump administration took critical steps to protect the rights of the faithful, whether that was by rescuing pastors who were persecuted by foreign regimes or bringing relief to Yazidis, Christians, and other faith communities facing genocidal terror from ISIS,” Vance said. 
He then pointed to actions already taken by Trump during his first few weeks in office, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-should-not-have-been-prosecuted-trump-pardons-23-pro-lifers-targeted-by-biden-doj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issuing pardons</a> to 23 peaceful pro-life protesters who were targeted by the Biden administration. 
“The president has issued orders to end the weaponization of the federal government against religious Americans, pardon pro-life protesters who were unjustly imprisoned under the last administration, and, importantly, stop the federal censorship used to prevent Americans from speaking their conscience and speaking their mind whether it&#8217;s in their communities or online,” Vance said. 
The VP also praised Trump’s choice to nominate his former senate colleague, Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State, saying he was a “champion” of religious liberty. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-welcomes-secretary-rubios-confirmation-calls-religious-freedom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> Rubio’s confirmation, saying he would be stronger than his predecessor.

Sean Duffy Sworn In Transportation Secretary

Vance Says Securing Religious Freedom Will Be Top Priority Of Trump Admin

Christianity

JD Vance

Religion

Religious Freedom

Religious Liberty

Washington D.C.

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> said Sunday that he would cut off funding to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Africa</a> pending a probe over a new law that allows the government to seize land when it is “equitable” to do so. 
Trump posted on Truth Social that funding to South Africa had been suspended pending an investigation into the country’s land seizure policies. The move comes after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg9w4n6gp5o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a law earlier this month allowing the government to take possession of a person’s land when deemed &#8220;just and equitable and in the public interest.&#8221;
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
Ramaphosa <a href="https://x.com/cyrilramaphosa/status/1886319401101910311" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> that the country was not “confiscating” any land but acknowledged that its law allowed land to be taken under certain conditions without compensation. 
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” he wrote on X. “South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.”
Before the Expropriation Act, South Africa had a &#8220;willing seller, willing buyer&#8221; law in place requiring the government to provide compensation for land, according to the BBC. The new law was passed because of complaints over the amount of land that white South Africans owned. 
Elon Musk, a top Trump ally originally from South Africa, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886321811937189902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">replied</a> to Ramaphosa&#8217;s defense of the law by asking, &#8220;Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?&#8221;
Reporters at Joint Base Andrews asked Trump on Sunday night if he planned to cut aid to other African countries. Trump replied that the current suspension of funds only applied to South Africa because “the leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things.”
“They’re confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are, perhaps, far worse than that,” he added, saying the situation was under investigation. During his first term, Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-africa-cut-funding-aid-musk-92529403c0902bacd9d5cc5985d429cb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> for an investigation into a number of murders of white farmers in the country. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump Explains Why He Is Cutting U.S. Aid To South Africa" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wp4TQEO6Lzw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Says He’ll Cut Off Aid To South Africa Over Land Seizure Policies

South Africa

Donald Trump’s return to office is not just a referendum on Joe Biden. It is a referendum on Donald Trump.
An election is typically a referendum on one or the other candidate. But this election was possibly the only election in my lifetime which was a referendum on both, because Trump has been the candidate before.
The American people didn&#8217;t come up with somebody brand-new. The American people were not interested in something brand-new. They went back to Trump. 
The election was a justification of President Trump&#8217;s first term. It was an understanding by the American people that Trump&#8217;s policies have been and will be the best for the country.
The philosopher George Hegel once famously suggested that in politics, in philosophy, in history, a thesis — a proposition — is often put forth, and then an antithesis, its opposite, is as well. Those two go to war and create a synthesis, an in-between.
That didn&#8217;t happen this time.
This time, Trump was the thesis, and Biden was the anti-Trump antithesis. And the American people said, we are going back to the thesis. It was an utter and complete repudiation of everything Biden touched and a justification of President Trump&#8217;s policies. It was an absolute endorsement of President Trump&#8217;s policies by the American people.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2121-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Trump’s inaugural address was amazingly good. He started by suggesting the American people had spoken and the new Golden Age was here.
“I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881396281568043266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a>. 
That was the message Trump spread throughout his inaugural address. The speech was aspirational and uplifting. It included many pragmatic suggestions about what he&#8217;s going to do. It additionally maintained a positive American can-do attitude that&#8217;s been missing for my entire adult lifetime in American politics.
American politicians have not talked in totally aspirational terms about what America is capable of doing for a very, very long time. I was a child when Ronald Reagan left office, and that was probably the last time this sort of optimism has been present in the United States.
Trump spoke of the assassination attempt in which his head was almost blown to pieces, <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881391855440625704" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>, “I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Absolutely correct. That is his job.
He spoke of America&#8217;s manifest destiny, <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881395738141454759" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>, “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
He talked about the possibility of taking back control of the Panama Canal, saying we did not build that canal so the Chinese could control it.
He <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881394738823368999" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he would be a peacemaker and a unifier, which would involve peace through strength — the credible threat of force that establishes peace in the world — along with diplomacy that is the softer side, the velvet glove in which lies the iron fist.
He <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881393801534799965" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke</a> at length about bringing back free speech. It is astonishing that the President of the United States must talk about a return of free speech, but that was made necessary by the Left and by Joe Biden.
“I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fECKwMw_ldc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a>. “We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based as of today. It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
That line was probably the line that received the longest applause of the entire inaugural speech, which demonstrates how far the Left has gone completely off the rails.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a></h3>
He talked about the border, <a href="https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1881392976318071080" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stating</a> he would “declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release and I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
Even people who did not vote for Trump understand that what we just went through over the past four years was a historically terrible presidency.
As President Trump escorted former President Joe Biden to the helicopter, the minute that Biden walked up the Marine One stairs for the final time, you could feel the burden being lifted from American hearts.
Later, when President Trump walked into the Oval Office, the press asked him, “How do you feel today?”
He responded, “It&#8217;s one of the better feelings I&#8217;ve ever had.”
All of us who are rooting for him experienced that same feeling.

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