Latest news with #MAGA-curious
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
White House Freaks Out at Don Jr. Being Compared to Hunter
Donald Trump's White House accused the German owner of Politico and Business Insider of 'foreign political meddling' after a Business Insider story compared Donald Trump Jr. to Hunter Biden. The story, published on Monday with the headline 'Don Jr. is the new Hunter Biden,' rankled the White House enough for it to directly attack Business Insider's German parent company Axel Springer using extraordinary language which suggested it could take legal action against it for the story. The report detailed Trump Jr.'s work with investment firm 1789 Capital. 1789 aims to invest in U.S.-based 'anti-woke' MAGA businesses. The report, by longtime business writer Bethany McLean, cited multiple people who discussed the potential for a conflict of interest over the president's son benefiting from his father's government office—though it did not allege any illegality—and drew a direct line to Hunter Biden. Don Jr. is a private citizen with no official role in his father's White House, but a White House spokesman told MAGA news site Breitbart, 'Donald Trump Jr is an innovator and visionary who is successfully reimagining the conservative media eco system—and the left is truly petrified. 'Axel Springer, a foreign-based media organization, is brazenly weaponizing its platforms to sow political division and spread disinformation in a manner that may well stretch beyond journalism, into illegal foreign political meddling.' The German-based Axel Springer is run by Mathias Döpfner, who himself has appeared at the very least MAGA-curious. He called Vice President JD Vance's attack on Europe in a speech in February 'inspiring.' During Trump's first term, Döpfner had taken soft approaches to the president's rhetoric, though he has defended his publications after Elon Musk's DOGE alleged the government was subsidizing Politico. Axel Springer lambasted the White House's accusation in a statement. 'Axel Springer is a global media company committed to press freedom,' a spokesperson said. 'Our U.S. newsrooms operate independently without editorial interference, and we stand firmly behind their right to report freely and without intimidation.' A Business Insider spokesperson said, 'Our newsroom operates with full editorial independence, and we stand by our reporting.' The White House has used its power to target some of its enemies, including executive orders aimed at law firms and an attempt to ice out the Associated Press over its coverage, but it has also simply launched verbal attacks at its enemies through statements. Axel Springer may have already seen some fallout from the report; the website Florida Politics reported that MAGA-aligned lobbying firm Ballard Partners dropped Axel Springer as a client over the story. Ballard Partners did not respond to an immediate request for comment, though a federal filing shows it dropped Axel Springer a day after the Business Insider story ran. The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment from the Daily Beast. Trump Jr. attacked the piece in an X post on Tuesday and claimed the difference between he and Biden was that Trump Jr. has 'been a businessman and serial investor my entire adult life. He became a 'businessman' after his dad got elected." He also said he solely planned to invest in U.S. businesses. 'Oh, and he's also a felon crackhead and I'm not,' Trump Jr. wrote. 'Thanks for playing, guys!' An assistant to Trump Jr. did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Hunter was pardoned by former President Joe Biden in December—a development greeted with major outrage by MAGA and particularly by Don Jr. There are biographical parallels between the two. Hunter is a divorced father of five; both are Ivy League graduates and while Hunter now says he is sober after battling crack addiction, Don Jr. has avoided alcohol since he was at college. The attacks on Axel Springer come more than a year after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman attacked Business Insider over a series of stories that showed his wife, scholar Neri Oxman, lifted elements of her 2010 dissertation from other sources without citations. After Ackman threatened to sue the publication, he dined with Döpfner in February. Three months later, editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson announced he would step down from his role—though denied it had anything to do with the stories.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Newsom's MAGA-curious podcast mystifies listeners — and sets Democratic lawmakers on edge
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. When Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his new podcast last month, he touted it as an opportunity to understand the MAGA movement's motivations and figure out a path forward for Democrats after the party's bruising losses in the 2024 election. But the early response has predominantly been bewilderment — from supporters, critics and the public alike — as listeners struggle to make sense of Newsom's intentions, his political evolution and what the show signals for his leadership of California. The governor's about-face from leading critic of President Donald Trump to MAGA-curious pundit comes at a critical moment for the state, as California launches legal battles against Trump administration policies and faces potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding cuts. Republicans have dismissed Newsom's concerted shift to the center on some issues as disingenuous and roasted him for diverting his attention away from solving the state's problems. Even many allies who applaud Newsom for reaching across the ideological aisle were troubled by his early guests and how the governor boosted their ultraconservative views. And in Sacramento, legislators and advocates are scratching their heads. If the podcast is, as insiders widely suspect, Newsom's attempt to redefine himself ahead of a long-anticipated presidential bid, then what does a renewed focus on the national stage mean for the remaining two years of his governorship? 'Quite frankly, we're all asking those questions,' said state Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat. Allen pushed for a limit on single-use plastics in California that Newsom signed into law in 2022 — before scrapping rules to put the law into effect right before the final deadline this month, citing cost concerns, and telling regulators to start over. Environmentalists fumed that the governor was bowing to industry pressure after an election in which affordability was at the forefront of voters' minds. 'I think people are trying to figure out what's going on,' Allen said. More: Katie Porter vows to stand up to Trump as she enters race for California governor Newsom gave nearly all his attention in the first part of the year to the response and recovery from the devastating wildfires that burned through Los Angeles County in early January. Despite initially proclaiming last fall that he would again lead the resistance to Trump, national politics took a backseat as the governor navigated their complex relationship to lobby for federal disaster aid, which California has not yet secured. But Newsom seemed to flip a switch in late February with the podcast launch. Since then, the governor has not held any public events or press conferences, allowing the four episodes of his show released so far to drive his messaging almost completely, though he has also waded back into denouncing federal Republicans on social media. That has created a conundrum for those trying to understand how what Newsom says in these casual conversations may translate to his day job running the biggest state in the country. When his remarks generate headlines — as they did during the controversial first episode featuring the Trump-aligned activist Charlie Kirk, where Newsom called it 'deeply unfair' for transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports — his office refuses to clarify his positions. Speaking to far-right former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on the third episode last week about the president's foreign trade strategy, Newsom said he was 'not an absolutist as it relates to being against tariffs,' just days after the governor put out a statement that 'tariffs are nothing more than a tax on hardworking American families.' Spokesperson Izzy Gardon would not explain when Newsom supported the use of tariffs, directing CalMatters back to his comments on the podcast. Cornered by reporters at the Capitol this week, Newsom dodged questions about whether he supported Republican-led legislation that would ban transgender women and girls from competitive sports in California. 'I haven't seen any bills,' he repeatedly said. The shifting tone and positions without explanation has undermined Democrats' trust, said Anthony Rendon, who was Assembly speaker when Newsom took office during Trump's first term promising to make California a bulwark against the president. Rendon, who termed out of the Legislature last year, said he talks to former colleagues who now wonder whether they should strategically shift their priorities so that they don't waste time on measures that Newsom will simply veto. 'They're mystified,' he said. ''WTF' is the most common text message I get.' Many lawmakers, not wanting to damage their relationships with the man who ultimately decides the fate of their agendas, are loath to speak publicly about the governor's podcast. Those who will can be painstakingly diplomatic, emphasizing that they remain committed to their own work. 'We just have to remain focused. The outside noise to me is neither here nor there,' said Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach Democrat who serves as the Senate majority leader. 'Sometimes words are just words, and I'm hoping that that's where it stays.' Some of the most progressive lawmakers at the Capitol have spoken out against Newsom's choice of guests and his comments about transgender athletes, but they have largely separated those complaints from the governor himself, whom they characterize as an ally. Assemblymember Ash Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, said there is too much focus on what the governor is doing as the Trump administration challenges democracy itself. He said it was not helpful for Democrats to go after each other when they should be fighting the Republicans in Washington, D.C. 'I do think that every Democrat right now should be ringing the alarm as to the constitutional crisis that we're having, and anything that detracts from that I think minimizes the dangerous place we're in as a nation,' Kalra said. Like many Democrats, Allen complimented Newsom for 'talking to people from different perspectives in different parts of the country' as the party tries to make sense of Trump's victory in November. But Allen said he didn't want Democrats to take the wrong lessons from the 2024 election and be afraid to assert their values. 'I do think that some of the people who have been on his show have been a little fringe,' Allen said. 'I worry that they may be anchoring the conversation in a way that's counterproductive.' Listeners have been equally perplexed. Voter data expert Paul Mitchell surveyed 1,000 Californians before and after the first episode of the podcast dropped and found a tangle of conflicting responses. Asked to watch three snippets of Newsom's conversation with Kirk, nearly a quarter of respondents said they viewed the governor as more moderate, but twice as many people said the podcast harmed their perception of Newsom as improved it. 'In the short-term, wow, Republicans are not convinced and Democrats are not pleased,' Mitchell said, pointing to hundreds of open-ended comments from the survey in which conservatives largely expressed suspicion of Newsom's intentions and liberals felt betrayed. Mitchell also tracked a drop in the governor's approval rating, from 52% to 47%. But since the launch, positive and negative sentiments about the podcast have dropped while neutral sentiment has nearly doubled — with political independents seeming more receptive. 'That could be voters kind of cracking the door open,' Mitchell said. 'If he's trying to get away from the Gavin Newsom caricature, then that might be something he's doing.' Yet a true political reinvention, one that could reshape the arc of his career, is a long-term project, for better or worse. Liberal donors and activists who backed Newsom in the past were shaken by the early episodes, which also saw the governor brush past comments that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump without any debate as he cozied up to figures who have been accused of antisemitism and doing a Nazi salute. Movie star Jane Fonda compared Newsom to the former UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, known for appeasing Adolf Hilter's early territorial annexations to avoid war. Ludovic Blain, executive director of the progressive donor network California Donor Table, slammed Newsom for 'capitulating to authoritarians,' even as he expressed hope that the governor would grow a stronger backbone and defend civil rights as the podcast continues. 'He's turning the Democratic Party into one that stands for nothing,' Blain said. 'We do expect Gavin to be better.' And if Newsom is going to persuade the public that he's got bipartisan appeal and is electable in purple states, that day still looked far away at the recent California Republican Party convention in Sacramento. Attendees — even the young men whose drift to Trump in 2024 has convinced Democrats that podcasts are the future — were not buying the governor's transformation. 'He hasn't done anything to build any trust. And I don't think this podcast is gonna help him,' said Topher Hall, a 25-year-old college student from El Dorado County wearing a Make America Great Again Again sweatshirt. Hall said he had watched clips from the podcast on Kirk's social media and felt that Newsom was merely trying to use the large established audiences of his conservative guests to build his own platform. After growing up apolitical in the liberal Bay Area, Hall said he was drawn to the Republican Party in recent years by its stances in favor of gun rights and against transgender athletes. But Newsom's comments about the latter had struck him as opportunistic flip-flopping. 'He's kind of a slick politician. I think he's like the used car salesman of politics. I think he's just Hollywood,' Hall said. 'He's just a sellout.' Jessica Rutan, a 60-year-old retired educator from Fullerton, said Newsom lost her completely with his dictatorial lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. But she listened to his conversations with Kirk and Bannon, curious what they would say to him — and whether the governor would actually take their advice. She was frustrated that he had not, calling Newsom's engagement with the conservative activists 'so disingenuous' and the 'wrong priority' following the Los Angeles fires. 'Your place is the governor. You have a job to do and now you just want to sit on a chair and act like you're buddies with people?' said Rutan, who sported a bedazzled red-white-and-blue elephant pin. 'You have people in the state you need to take care of. Why aren't you doing your job? And that's what I'm most annoyed with.' This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Newsom podcast MAGA curious
