Daily Kos

@Daily Kos Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the head of right-wing pressure group Turning Point USA, endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president on Thursday night. Turning Point’s history of racist activism falls directly in line with Vance’s bigoted rhetoric in recent years. Speaking to activists in Phoenix about the 2028 election, Kirk said, “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected.” The surprise endorsement comes just a few weeks after Kirk and Vance shared a lingering hug at a Turning Point event that started rumors about the pair. Vice President JD Vance takes the stage during a Turning Point USA event. Charlie Kirk was a bigot who openly promoted racist rhetoric and ideas. During his time leading Turning Point, which he founded, Kirk went after civil rights icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who he called “awful.” Kirk called the 1964 Civil Rights Act an “anti-white weapon” and said Black History Month “deepens” racial wounds. The history of Turning Point is littered with racist incidents: a field director for the group sent texts saying “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE;” a chapter held an “affirmative action bake sale;” conference attendees discussed what Adolph Hitler got “right;” another chapter sent around “racist memes and rape jokes;” and so on. The Kirk-Turning Point support of hate meshes well with Vance, who serves in one of the most racist administrations in U.S. history. During the 2024 campaign, Vance repeated and amplified President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric accusing Haitian immigrants of eating domestic pets. Vance did this despite being aware that there was no truth to Trump’s accusation. When a DOGE staffer’s racist writings were exposed and he was pushed out, Vance said in February he should be re-hired. “JD Vance on Halloween” by Pedro Molina More recently, in October, Kirk defended a Young Republican group after their chats pushing racist and antisemitic ideas were exposed. The chats made jokes about gas chambers, called Black people monkeys, and posted pro-Nazi commentary. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching,” Vance wrote in response to the disclosure. That same month, Vance falsely claimed that hospital benefits were being given to undocumented immigrants and complained that they were “very often a person who can't even speak English.” Vance’s bigoted rhetoric makes it clear why Trump put him in charge of purging Smithsonian museums of exhibits that tell the truth about American racism. To be sure, it is far too early to predict the outcome of the 2028 presidential race but a recent poll pitting Vance against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may give Erika Kirk second thoughts. The poll from The Argument/Verasight showed Vance losing to Ocasio-Cortez by a margin of 51% to 49%.

Daily Kos

Wife of murdered bigot endorses Vance for 2028

Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the head of right-wing pressure group Turning Point USA, endorsed Vice President JD Van...

@Daily Kos President Donald Trump's name is being affixed to the outside of the Kennedy Center just one day after its board—which he stacked with his allies—voted to add Dear Leader’s name to the cultural center. And they’re doing it in violation of federal law. Tarps are installed in front of the sign on the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19. Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said in a post on X that if work was indeed taking place to “physically change the sign on the Kennedy Center,” then it “needs to stop as it’s illegal to change without Congress.” Photos taken of the building on Friday clearly show Trump’s name being added. That’s proof positive that the board’s so-called vote was basically fixed and that Trump’s lackeys planned to put his name on the building, no matter what. The vote was merely a way for them to make their illegal move appear legitimate. Trump himself played dumb on Thursday, saying he had no idea the name change was happening but that it is a huge honor—even though he had mused about the name change earlier this month. YouTube Video Of course, this is far from the first time the Trump administration has ignored the law to do whatever it wants. Trump infamously had the White House’s East Wing bulldozed to make way for his hideously ostentatious $400 million ballroom—which will dwarf the size of the White House itself. Trump also unilaterally tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico and the Department of Defense. However, the name change for the Department of Defense is not official, since it would take an act of Congress to do that. And he can’t force other countries to adopt his “Gulf of America” rebrand. Meanwhile, Trump’s name was also affixed to the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent organization that Trump effectively—and illegally—shuttered. And his administration is illegally trying to mint $1 coins bearing Trump's face, even though federal law states that a living individual cannot appear on American currency. At the end of the day, though, Trump is an egomaniac who—rather than focus on making the economy work better for everyday people—is more concerned with plastering his face and name all over the country like a dictator. “What's next, the Trump-Washington monument? The Trump-Lincoln Memorial? Every building in D.C.? Are there any self-respecting Republicans willing to stand up to their Dear Leader? Completely insane,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote in a post on X.

Daily Kos

Kennedy Center already defiled with Trump's name

President Donald Trump

@Daily Kos What do President Donald Trump and a nuclear fusion company have in common? Unfortunately, more than many Americans like to see. The download screen for Donald Trump’s Truth Social app is seen on a laptop computer on March 20, 2024, in New York. On Thursday, Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind the president’s Truth Social echo chamber website, announced that it signed a $6 billion stock-funded merger with TAE Technologies. “As our country positions itself to achieve global technology dominance in AI, quantum computing, and other groundbreaking innovations, we’re merging with @TAE to build the engine we believe will power America’s technology revolution,” the California-based company said in a press release. Trump Media’s new business partner TAE intends to build the country’s first nuclear fusion reactor used to create commercial energy in a presently energy-starved economy. Of course, the whole reason we’re energy-starved is because of the artificial intelligence race that the U.S. has dived into headfirst. AI data centers require a tremendous amount of energy, and it sure does seem like the president, taking a page from his cash grabs at cryptocurrencies, is setting himself up to profit—again. But it’s not just this odd merger that’s positioning Trump and his family for a big potential payout down the road. The president has a lot of sway when it comes to how quickly TAE Technologies can grow. Should the company choose to pursue them, grants or other government support could certainly come more easily with the president’s name attached. Related | The dark reality of making US the ‘AI capital of the world’ TMTG intends to supply $300 million up front to TAE Technologies, which is ultimately a small number compared to the fusion power company’s other big-time investors, including Google. TAE’s CEO Michl Binderbauer told CNN that this futuristic, unestablished technology would be a “multi-billion dollar undertaking.” “The velocity you can get the capital is differentiating. If I raise $2 billion over five years I can’t build the plant sufficiently fast,” he said. Nuclear fusion is a clean energy idea that has yet to reach commercial use. It’s unclear if this will be a successful venture, but having the president and his Cabinet of loyalists greasing the wheels could certainly help. The president and his sons Don Jr. and Eric have used his time in office to sink their claws into lucrative side hustles. Truth Social, the social media app used by Trump as a bully pulpit, has branched out into the financial sector with Truth.Fi, cell phones with Trump Mobile, and streaming with Truth+. But the Trump family also launched its own crypto trading platform, World Liberty Financial, shortly before the start of Donald’s second term. He notably made some crypto-friendly policy decisions soon after taking office. It’s unclear if this merger will pay off sooner rather than later for the Trump family, though. TAE is scheduled to break ground on a power plant in 2026 at an undetermined location but, according to Binderbaur, it will take “five-ish” years to start producing power. Related | Inside the Trump administration's deranged push to power AI with dirty energy

Daily Kos

Why is Trump Media going nuclear?

What do President Donald Trump and a nuclear fusion company have in common? Unfortunately, more than many Americans like to see.�