TikTok has finalized a deal with Oracle and two other investors that will allow the popular social video platform to continue its business in the U.S.
The deal, expected to close on Jan. 22, will be 50% held by a new investor consortium that includes tech giant Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, a technology fund in the United Arab Emirates, with each holding 15%. TikTok parent ByteDance will own 19.9% of the U.S.-based joint venture, while affiliates of existing ByteDance investors will hold 30.1%, TikTok said in a memo to employees.
“With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been — firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community,” TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew wrote in his memo.
The deal removes a shadow that was cast over the future of TikTok, which has become one of the world’s most dominant social media platforms and has a large presence in Culver City.
The company’s business in the U.S. had been uncertain for many years amid security concerns among legislators about ByteDance’s ties to China. ByteDance had been under pressure to divest its ownership in the app’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban after Congress passed a law that went into effect in January.
President Trump — who years ago led the push to ban TikTok from the U.S. — has allowed TikTok to keep operating in the country and in September signed an executive order outlining the new joint venture.
The venture, which would oversee U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance, would be governed by a seven-member board that is majority American, Chew said in his memo. Oracle will be the security partner responsible for “auditing and validating compliance with the agreed upon National Security Terms,” Chew wrote.
Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and his family also are leading an effort to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
Oracle did not return a request for comment.
Shares in the Texas-based cloud provider jumped on Friday following a period of investor unease over the AI market. Oracle’s share price closed Friday at $191.97, up 7%.
Silver Lake declined to comment. The White House on Thursday referred questions about the deal back to TikTok. In September, Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved the deal.
“These safeguards would protect the American people from the misuse of their data and the influence of a foreign adversary, while also allowing the millions of American viewers, creators, and businesses that rely on the TikTok application to continue using it,” Trump stated in his executive order.
The announcement will also come as a relief to creators and businesses that rely on TikTok to entertain and reach fans and customers.
“I hope it just stays true to the platform and the independence we get from it,” said Yasmine Sahid, who posts comedy videos on TikTok and has 2.4 million followers. “I hope we’re still able to monetize our videos the same way, because without that, I think a lot of people would leave or feel uninspired.”
Many TikTok creators are based in Southern California, close to TikTok’s office in Culver City. Over the years when TikTok’s future appeared uncertain, some of those creators diversified, posting their content to other platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
“It’s a smart way to avoid ownership and data issues,” Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research, said of the deal.
If finalized, the deal would remove a persistent issue in Beijing-Washington relations and signal progress in broader talks. But it would also deprive China’s most valuable private company of total control of an American social media phenomenon.
ByteDance’s coveted algorithms are considered central to TikTok’s business. Under the deal proposed by Washington, ByteDance will license its artificial intelligence recommendation technology to a newly created U.S. TikTok entity, which will use the algorithm to retrain a new system that is secured by Oracle, according to Bloomberg. The algorithm will be retrained on U.S. user data by the U.S. joint venture, according to TikTok.
Some industry observers questioned whether the deal addresses the larger concerns surrounding TikTok in the law Congress passed.
“While these executive orders positively have allowed the platform to operate and maintain the venue for speech, they do not resolve the underlying concerns about the law, which could be applied to other platforms in the future and raise questions about executive power,” Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow in tech policy at Cato Institute, said in a statement.
“Just because TikTok remains available under such orders does not mean that the policy concerns about the underlying law have been resolved,” she wrote.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday relaxing cannabis’ classification in a change that is expected to catalyze investment and spark new innovation in an industry that’s waited decades for the very decision.
Trump’s executive order reschedules cannabis from Schedule I—a status it’s held for decades alongside heroin and LSD—to Schedule III, or substances like ketamine and certain steroids that are recognized for having medical benefits alongside a potential for abuse..
To be clear, the executive order does not legalize cannabis, which remains illegal at the federal level. “I want to emphasize that the order I am about to sign doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape, or form,” Trump said on Thursday. “In no way it sanctions its use as a recreational drug – it has nothing to do with it – just as prescription painkillers may have legitimate uses, but can also do irreversible damage.”
The president also greenlit a program that will reimburse Medicare patients who use products containing CBD, a compound derived from cannabis plants without the psychoactive component responsible for intoxication.
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The move also opens up new opportunities in medical research since it’s far easier to conduct clinical trials on Schedule III substances compared to Schedule I drugs. The decision is also expected to expand cannabis businesses’ access to banking services in states where the substance is legal.
“We’re grateful to President Trump for recognizing the overwhelming majority of Americans who support cannabis rescheduling, opening the door to federal reform, medical research, and normalization for an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of professionals and contributes billions of dollars in taxes and economic activity every year,” says George Archos, the founder and CEO of Verano, a cannabis company.
Cannabis companies will also no longer face a part of the tax code known as Section 280E, which bars companies working with controlled substances from receiving tax credits or deductions. Section 280E specifically applies to Schedule I and Schedule II substances, so cannabis companies could save up to millions in taxes, according to past estimates from Vicente LLP, a law firm.
The Biden administration floated the decision to reclassify cannabis last year, but those efforts ultimately stagnated. And it’s a decision that doesn’t have support among all Republican lawmakers. Still, reclassification is a decision that has grown in popularity amongst Americans, particularly younger ones. A Pew Research study demonstrates that a majority of consumers under 30 back legalizing cannabis for medical and recreational use.
In a break from tradition, President Donald Trump decorated a White House walkway with bronze plaques for each U.S. president. In an even sharper break with tradition, the plaques were written in a style echoing Trump’s Truth Social posts, with misleading or false descriptions of recent Democratic presidents.
Former President Joe Biden, who Trump calls “Sleepy Joe,” is represented not by a portrait but by a photograph of an autopen, the use of which Trump has falsely said invalidates Biden’s pardons.
Biden’s plaque says he took office “as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States.” That’sfalse. Trump and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits contesting the 2020 election results; they lost more than 60. And a group of Republicans, including former federal judges, examined Trump’s statements about fraud and miscounting and found they didn’t present evidence that would invalidate the election results.
The plaque also says Biden oversaw the “highest Inflation ever recorded.” While inflation was the highest in four decades under Biden, the highest ever occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Former President Barack Obama’s plaque calls him “one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” even though his retrospective favorability rating in 2025 is the highest of any of the past five presidents, at 59% favorable, according to Gallup. Trump’s favorable rating in the same poll was 48%.
Obama’s plaque said his Affordable Care Act — which made it easier to obtain health insurance when employers don’t offer it — was “highly ineffective.” The percentage of uninsured Americans dropped from 14.8% in 2012, before the law was fully implemented, to 8.6% in 2016, Obama’s final year in office.
Obama’s plaque says he “spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump,” but multiple independent investigations, including bipartisan Senate reports, found no political influence over the FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Barack and Michelle Obama had plans to see their good friends Rob and Michele Reiner on December 14, the day that the When Harry Met Sally director and his wife were brutally murdered in their Brentwood home. The former First Lady and current author recently recalled learning the tragic news on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “We’ve known them for many, many years, and we were supposed to be seeing them that night. Last night. And we got the news,” she said. “Let me just say this — unlike some people — Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know.”
“They are neither deranged nor insane,” she continued—referring to President Donald Trump’s snide message about the murder on Truth Social, in which he claimed that the director suffered from a “crippling, massive, incurable mental illness known as Trump Derangement Syndrome”.
“What they have always been are passionate people, in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on,” the former first lady continued. “They were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about. And they cared about their family. And they cared about this country. They cared about their families, about this country, about justice and fairness. That’s the truth, I know them well.” She added, “And they cared about fairness and equity. And that is the truth. I do know them.”
Barack also reacted to the deaths of the Reiners, posting a message on X expressing his solidarity and recalling the importance of Rob Reiner’s work in the film and television industry: “Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife, Michele. Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen.”
An outspoken opponent of Donald Trump, Reiner had recently granted an interview to Ali Velshi, warning against current political drift. “Make no mistake; we have a year before this country becomes a full-on autocracy, and democracy completely leaves us,” he declared at the time, deeming the political climate under the second term of the 47th American president to be “worthy of the McCarthy era.”
Nick Reiner, Rob and Michele’s 32-year-old son, was arrested in the murder of his parents and is being represented by famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, who has represented everyone from Harvey Weinstein to Karen Read. Charged on Tuesday December 16 with two counts of first degree murder, Reiner faces the death penalty if convicted, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney.
Rob and Nick co-wrote and directed the film Being Charlie, which was inspired by Nick’s history of addiction and resulting complicated relationships with his parents.
WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Rosenberg is still trying to understand why President Trump would free the man who defrauded him out of a quarter of a million dollars.
Rosenberg, a retired wholesale produce distributor living in Nevada, has supported Trump since he entered politics, but the president’s decision in November to commute the sentence of former private equity executive David Gentile has left him angry and confused.
“I just feel I’ve been betrayed,” Rosenberg, 68, said. “I don’t know why he would do this, unless there was some sort of gain somewhere, or some favor being called in. I am very disappointed. I kind of put him above this kind of thing.”
Trump’s decision to release Gentile from prison less than two weeks into his seven-year sentence has drawn scrutiny from securities attorneys and a U.S. senator — all of whom say the White House’s explanation for the act of clemency is not adding up. It’s also drawn the ire of his victims.
“I think it is disgusting,” said CarolAnn Tutera, 70, who invested more than $400,000 with Gentile’s company, GPB Capital. Gentile, she added, “basically pulled a Bernie Madoff and swindled people out of their money, and then he gets to go home to his wife and kids.”
Gentile and his business partner, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted of securities and wire fraud in August 2024 for carrying out what federal prosecutors described as a $1.6-billion Ponzi scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors. After an eight-week trial, it took a jury five hours to return a guilty verdict.
More than 1,000 people attested to their losses after investing with GPB, according to federal prosecutors who described the victims as “hardworking, everyday people.”
When Gentile and Schneider were sentenced in May, Joseph Nocella Jr., the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, and Christopher Raia, a senior official in the Justice Department, called their punishment “well deserved” and a warning to would-be fraudsters.
“May today’s sentencing deter anyone who seeks to greedily profit off their clients through deceitful practices,” Raia said in a statement.
Then, on Nov. 26 — just 12 days after Gentile reported to prison — Trump commuted his sentence with “no further fines, restitution, probation, or other conditions,” according to a grant of clemency signed by Trump. Under those terms, Gentile may not have to pay $15 million that federal prosecutors are seeking in forfeiture.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters this month that prosecutors had failed to tie “supposedly fraudulent” representations to Gentile and that his conviction was a “weaponization of justice” led by the Biden administration — even though the sentences and convictions were lauded by Trump’s own appointees.
The White House declined to say who advised Trump in the decision or whether Trump was considering granting clemency to Schneider, Gentile’s co-defendant. Attorneys for Gentile and Schneider did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Adam Gana, a securities attorney whose firm has represented more than 250 GPB investors, called the White House’s explanation “a word salad of nonsense,” and questioned why Trump granted Gentile a commutation, which lessens a sentence, rather than a pardon, which forgives the offense itself.
“If the government wasn’t able to prove their case, why not pardon David Gentile? And why is his partner still in prison?” Gana said. “It’s left us with more questions than answers.”
‘It hurts a lot’
To Rosenberg, Tutera and two other investors interviewed by The Times, the president’s decision stripped away any sense of closure they felt after Gentile and Schneider were convicted.
Rosenberg has tried not to dwell on the $250,000 he lost in 2016, after a broker “painted a beautiful picture” of steady returns and long-term profits. The investments were supposed to generate income for him during retirement.
“A quarter of a million dollars, it hurts a lot,” Rosenberg said. “It changed a lot of things I do. Little trips that I wanted to take with my grandkids — well, they’re not quite as nice as they were planned on being.”
Jeffrey Rosenberg, a longtime Trump supporter, said he felt “betrayed” after the president granted clemency to convicted fraudster David Gentile.
(Scott Sady / For The Times)
Tutera, who runs a hormone replacement therapy office in Arizona, invested more than $400,000 with GPB at the recommendation of a financial advisor. She hoped the returns would help support her retirement after her husband had died.
“I was on grief brain at the time and just feel I was taken advantage of and really sold a bill of goods,” said Tutera, 70. Now, she says: “I have to keep working to make up for what I was owed.” She has been able to recover only about $40,000.
Tutera said her sister, Julie Ullman, and their 97-year-old mother also fell victim to the scheme. Their mother lost more than $100,000 and now finds herself spending down savings she had planned to leave to her children and not trusting people, she said.
“That’s really sad,” Tutera said. “People, unfortunately, have turned into thieves, liars and cheaters, and I don’t know what’s happened to the world, but we’ve lost our way to be kind.”
Ullman, 58, who manages a medical practice in Arizona, said the financial loss was life-changing.
“I’m going to have to work longer than I thought I would because that was my retirement fund,” Ullman said.
Mei, a 71-year-old licensed acupuncturist who asked to not use her full name out of embarrassment, said a broker introduced her to the GPB investment funds at a lunch meeting targeting divorced women. She eventually invested $500,000 and lost all of it. It was only through lawsuits that she was able to recover roughly $214,000 of her money, she said.
Mei had planned to retire in New York to be close to her children. But the loss of income has forced her to live in China, where the cost of living is much lower, six months out of the year, she said.
Mei fears Trump’s decision to commute Gentile’s sentence will allow these schemes to continue.
“Donald Trump is promoting more white-collar financial criminals, for sure,” Mei said. “How unfair.”
Bob Van De Veire, a securities attorney who has represented more than 100 GPB investors, said he has mostly handled negligence cases against the brokers who touted GPB investments.
“Based on all the red flags that were present, they should have never sold these investments at all,” Van De Veire said.
Gana, the securities attorney, added that he will continue to fight for victims in civil court, noting the clemency only addressed the criminal conviction.
The commutation caught the eye of Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who sent a letter to the White House last week asking several questions: Why, for example, did Gentile receive clemency while Schneider did not? And what were the trial errors cited as a reason for the commutation? He said victims deserve answers.
“They will not forget that when they needed their government to stand with them against the man who stole their futures, their President chose to stand with the criminal instead,” Gallego wrote.
Rosenberg, the retiree from Nevada, said he still supports the president but can’t help but think Trump’s decision makes him “look like another of the swamp” that Trump says he wants to drain.
“I think Trump does a lot of good things,” he said, “but this is a bad one.”
Still, Rosenberg is hopeful Trump may do right by the victims — even if it’s just by admitting he made a mistake.
“I would like to think that he was fed some bad information somewhere along the way,” he said. “If that is the case … at least come forward and say, ‘I regret it.’ ”
The Trump administration is moving to dismantle one of the world’s leading climate and weather research institutions, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., in a decision experts say will undermine U.S. scientific competitiveness and leave millions vulnerable to worsening climate hazards.
Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, made the surprise announcement in a Tuesday evening post on X.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” Vought wrote. “A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
The news sent shock waves through the scientific community. The center’s work is used by governments, universities, emergency planners and the private sector for forecasts and disaster response planning. Its sophisticated Community Earth System Model underpins international climate assessments and much of U.S. policy. The federally funded research center employs about 830 staff members, making it one of the largest consortia of scientists who study weather, climate and Earth systems using advanced models and supercomputers in the world.
“The Trump administration has put a bull’s-eye on one of the United States’ premier weather and climate research and modeling centers, threatening to destroy decades of public investment,” said Carlos Martinez, a former researcher at the center, now a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Deliberately dismantling an institution so central to weather forecasting and climate change prediction would not only undermine scientific research, it would leave people across the nation less prepared for the dangers of a warming world.”
A senior White House official confirmed the plan to The Times, saying the National Science Foundation, which funds the center, will be breaking up the facility to “eliminate Green New Scam research activities.” As the largest federal research program on climate change, the center serves as the “premier research stronghold for left-wing climate lunacy,” the official said.
Officials with the National Science Foundation on Wednesday said the agency is “reviewing the structure of the research and observational capabilities” at the center, and is exploring options to transfer stewardship of its Wyoming Supercomputing Center to “an appropriate operator.” The agency also is looking to divest two aircraft managed by the center and to “redefine the scope” of modeling and forecasting research and operations.
“NSF remains committed to providing world-class infrastructure for weather modeling, space weather research and forecasting and other critical functions,” the agency said. “To do so, NSF will be engaging with partner agencies, the research community, and other interested parties to solicit feedback for rescoping the functions of the work currently performed by NCAR.”
Although the White House official characterized the center’s work as “climate lunacy,” changes in the climate are coming faster than many scientists predicted. The basic science of climate change has been well-established through decades of research.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, said it is hard to overstate the importance of the center. “There is no other institution like NCAR — not just in this country but really anywhere else in the world,” Swain said during a briefing Wednesday morning. He feared that no other global institution can absorb the entirety of its expertise.
Swain also described the administration’s decision as “nakedly politically partisan” in a manner that does not align with public interest. The center’s predictions “aren’t just helpful or convenient — they are life-saving and economy-saving,” he said, adding that shuttering the facility would be “an unbelievable, really genuinely shocking self-inflicted wound to American competitiveness.”
Indeed, the loss of the facility would leave millions of people vulnerable to worsening climate hazards such as wildfires, hurricanes, tropical cyclones and winter storms, Swain and other experts said. Its Wyoming Supercomputing Center provides massive computational resources to national and international scientists for running complex weather and climate models and simulations.
In California, many universities and state agencies use data and modeling from the center for air pollution monitoring, managing water, emergency planning and wildfire risk assessment, among many other uses.
Data and tools from the center also are used directly and indirectly by the private sector.
The aviation, energy and private weather forecasting industries all rely on data and tools developed by the center, including a technology product known as BoltAlert, which is used to predict lightning strikes, and the Maintenance Decision Support System, which alerts snowplow and truck fleets about road conditions.
The $700-billion reinsurance industry also relies on the center’s data, tools and climate models to create financial instruments, such as catastrophe bonds, that are directly tied to weather or natural disaster risks. Such vehicles are dependent upon thorough and precise past data, as well as climate models for forecasting potential risk.
For instance, the reinsurance giant SwissRe credits the work of the center in the development of its proprietary forecasting tool known as the CatNet. In a press statement about the product, the company said its catastrophe experts partnered with the center to create globally validated hail predictions.
Franklin Nutter, spokesman and former president of the Reinsurance Assn. of America — a reinsurance trade group — said his understanding is that NCAR will be broken up and directed to focus on “weather.”
“It is unclear what this means for climate research,” Nutter said in an email. “NCAR has been the world’s leading research hub” in part because of its super computing capabilities, which allow it to analyze weather over time, i.e. the climate.
He said a recent study of 40 years of Midwest hail patterns show that patterns have changed — in frequency, severity and geography. The insurance sector and local and state governments use this information to assess changing risk patterns. He said the center also has “studied the dynamics of wildfires to understand development patterns and intensity.”
The center also provides real time weather data which the insurance, reinsurance and investment sector uses to determine whether a catastrophe bond gets paid out.
“Perhaps most importantly, NCAR is needed to bring together the critical resources [super computing and talent] to provide research and weather-related innovation that provides federal, state and local governments with insights about preparedness and response,” he said, noting that the center’s funding comes from not just the National Science Foundation but also the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Maintaining the U.S. leadership role, developing talent in the natural sciences and innovation has been a hallmark of NCAR,” he said. His trade group “believes it should be maintained and additional resources provided to it.”
The decision to close the facility follows other efforts from the Trump administration to shut down scientific research and change the public view of climate change. That includes laying off hundreds of staffers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration and slashing funding for its scientific research arm. The Trump administration also fired hundreds of scientists working to prepare the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment and removed the website that housed previous assessments.
The announcement came as a surprise to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who said in a statement shortly after Vought’s announcement that the state had “yet to receive information” about the plan.
“If true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked,” Polis said. “Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward, we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”
When asked why the administration is closing the facility, White House officials pointed to so-called “woke” programs at the center that they said “waste taxpayer funds” and “veer from strong or useful science,” such as its Rising Voices Center aimed at joining Indigenous knowledge and Earth science, and an art series that explored the human relationship with water.
They also cited the center’s research into wind turbines that sought to better understand the impact of weather conditions on offshore wind production. Trump has been vocal about his opposition to offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy.
Washington — President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are participating in a solemn dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday to honor two members of the Iowa National Guard who were killed in Syria over the weekend.
The two guardsmen killed in the Syrian desert Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. They were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, a U.S. civilian who was working as an interpreter, was also killed. The Pentagon said an ISIS gunman ambushed the two guardsmen and the interpreter.
The president is meeting with their families ahead of the solemn dignified transfer.
Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George is also scheduled to attend, as is Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Grassley’s office said. First Lady Melania Trump was scheduled to join them, but a White House official said she could no longer attend.
The dignified transfer was scheduled for 1:15 p.m. ET but is running behind schedule.
Photos released by the Iowa National Guard show Sgts. William Nathaniel Howard, left, and Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar.
Iowa National Guard via AP
This is the first dignified transfer Mr. Trump has participated in since taking office in January, although he attended dignified transfer events in his first term.
The solemn dignified transfer of remains at Dover Air Force Base is meant to honor those who have sacrificed their lives in the service of their country. The remains of the fallen military members are transferred from the aircraft to an awaiting vehicle at the base. The remains are then transferred to the mortuary facility at Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at the Dover Air Force Base.
“The dignified transfer is not a ceremony; rather, it is a solemn movement of the transfer case by a carry team composed of military personnel from the fallen member’s respective service,” Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations says. “A dignified transfer is conducted for every U.S. military member who dies in the theater of operation while in the service of their country.”
Washington — U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon denied a motion by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that would have temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s construction of a new ballroom at the White House, but he set out some requirements for the Trump administration moving forward.
Leon said in a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that the nonprofit group had not established enough irreparable harm in order to pause the construction outright, but the judge declared construction crews cannot over the next two weeks build any below-ground structures that would determine how and where the final ballroom structure will exist. Leon said any breaking of that order would result in the White House being “forced to take it down.”
The judge is requiring the government to submit construction plans to the National Capital Planning Commission by the end of the year, and the Justice Department said that the government has made “initial outreach” to set up meetings on that front.
Last week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the first major lawsuit against President Trump and his administration in an effort to block construction of the ballroom, claiming no president is allowed to tear down parts of the White House “without any review whatsoever,” or construct a ballroom on public property “without giving the public an opportunity to weigh in.”
The National Park Service expects the project to be completed in summer 2028, not long before Mr. Trump leaves office.
The historic preservation group argues that the lawsuit isn’t about the need for a ballroom, but about the need to follow the law, repeatedly arguing in court Tuesday that five laws have been broken by the demolition and build project. Plaintiffs also argued the environmental impact statement submitted by the administration was “woefully inadequate.” Much of the East Wing has been demolished as a part of the project.
“These are things that they can do…as long as they follow the rules,” an attorney for the group argued Tuesday.
The government contends that it has no obligation to file plans with the National Capital Planning Commission, an independent government agency, for demolition or below ground work, and insists it has not violated any laws because no plan for the ballroom has been finalized.
“There is nothing final about this building,” Justice Department attorney Adam Gustafson argued in court.
The government also argued that the construction and planning are all coming from the Executive Office of the President, and because it’s executive action, federal courts have limited power to review it. The National Park Service, however, was named repeatedly in court filings by the Justice Department and wrote a memo in support of the project.
The government said it is “committed” to hear input from the Commission of Fine Arts, which presently does not have a quorum because Trump removed most members, and said the lawsuit was filed too late, because demolition was completed a week before the complaint was filed.
There will be a preliminary injunction hearing the second week of January for further arguments.
Mr. Trump celebrated the court ruling later Tuesday, saying “we just won the case” and “we didn’t want to be held up.” He also said the donor-funded ballroom could cost as much as $400 million, up from his previous $300 million estimate, though he added that he expects to get the project done for less.
“Who else but in our country would sue to stop a $400 million beautiful ballroom that people have been after for the White House?” the president said at a Hanukkah event.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s chief of staff is defending herself after granting an extraordinarily candid series of interviews with Vanity Fair in which she offers stinging judgments of the president and blunt assessments about his administration’s shortcomings.
The profile of Susie Wiles, Trump’s reserved, influential top aide since he resumed office, caused a scandal in Washington and prompted a crisis response from the White House that involved nearly every single figure in Trump’s orbit issuing a public defense.
In 11 interviews conducted over lunches and meetings in the West Wing, Wiles described early failures and drug use by billionaire Elon Musk during his time in government and mistakes by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi in her public handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Wiles also acknowledged that Trump had launched a retribution campaign against his perceived political enemies.
“I don’t think he wakes up thinking about retribution,” Wiles told Chris Whipple, the Vanity Fair writer who has written extensively on past chiefs of staff, “but when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”
Wiles also cited missteps in the administration’s immigration crackdown, contradicted a claim Trump makes about financier and convicted sex offender Epstein and former President Clinton and described Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist.”
Within hours of the Vanity Fair tell-all’s publication Tuesday, Wiles and key members of Trump’s inner circle mounted a robust defense of her tenure, calling the story a “hit piece” that left out exculpatory context.
“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,” Wiles said in a post on X, her first in more than a year. “Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story.”
The profile was reported with the knowledge and participation of other senior staff, and illustrated with a photograph of Wiles and some of Trump’s closest aides, including Vance, Bondi and advisor Stephen Miller.
The profile revealed much about a chief of staff who has kept a discreet profile in the West Wing, continuing her management philosophy carried through the 2024 election when she served as Trump’s last campaign manager: She let Trump be Trump. “Sir, remember that I am the chief of staff, not the chief of you,” she recalled telling the president.
Trump has publicly emphasized how much he values Wiles as a trusted aide. He did so at a rally last week where he referred to her as “Susie Trump.” In an interview with Whipple, she talked about having difficult conversations with Trump on a daily basis, but that she picks her battles.
“So no, I’m not an enabler. I’m also not a bitch. I try to be thoughtful about what I even engage in,” Wiles said. “I guess time will tell whether I’ve been effective.”
Despite her passive style, Wiles shared concern over Trump’s initial approach to tariff policy, calling the levies “more painful than I had expected.” She had urged him, unsuccessfully, to get his retribution campaign out of the way within his first 90 days in office, in order to enable the administration to move on to more important matters. And she had opposed Trump’s blanket pardon of Jan. 6 defendants, including those convicted of violent crimes.
Wiles also acknowledged the administration needs to “look harder at our process for deportation,” adding that in at least one instance mistakes were made when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested and deported two mothers and their American children to Honduras. One of the children was being treated for Stage 4 cancer.
“I can’t understand how you make that mistake, but somebody did,” she said.
In foreign policy, Wiles defended the administration’s attack on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and said the president “wants to keep on blowing up boats up until [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro cries uncle,” suggesting the goal is to seek a change of governments.
As Trump has talked about potential land strikes in Venezuela, Wiles acknowledged that such a move would require congressional authorization.
“If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress,” she said.
In one exchange with Whipple, she characterized Trump, who abstains from liquor, as having an “alcoholic’s personality,” explaining that “high-functioning alcoholics, or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink.”
He “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing,” she said.
But Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, defended Wiles and her comments, saying that he would indeed be an alcoholic if he drank alcohol.
“She’s done a fantastic job,” Trump said. “I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer — purposely misguided.”
Wiles also blamed the persistence of the Epstein saga on members of Trump’s Cabinet, noting that the president’s chosen FBI director, Kash Patel, had advocated for the release of all Justice Department files related to the investigation for many years. Despite Trump’s claims that Clinton visited Epstein’s private island, Wiles acknowledged, Trump is “wrong about that.”
Wiles added that Bondi had “completely whiffed” on how she handled the Epstein files, an issue that has created a rift within MAGA.
“First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk,” Wiles said.
Wiles added that she has read the investigative files about Epstein and acknowledged that Trump is mentioned in them, but said “he’s not in the file doing anything awful.”
Vance, who she said had been a “conspiracy theorist for a decade,” said he had joked with Wiles about conspiracies in private before offering her praise.
“I’ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the president and then go and counteract him or subvert his will behind the scenes. And that’s what you want in a staffer,” Vance told reporters. “I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States and that makes her the best White House chief of staff that the president could ask for.”
Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget whom Wiles described to Whipple as a “right-wing absolute zealot,” said in a social media post that she is an “exceptional chief of staff.” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the “entire administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”
Wiles told Vanity Fair that she would be happy to stay in the role for as long as the president wanted her to stay, noting that she has time to devote to the job, being divorced and with her kids out of the house.
Trump had a troubled relationship with his chiefs of staff in his first term, cycling through four in four years. His longest-serving chief of staff, former Gen. John F. Kelly, served a year and a half.
People close to President Donald Trump rejected a CNN chyron in real time on Tuesday, according to network host Dana Bash, who revealed that they were texting her during the show to let her know that they weren’t “reeling” over White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ interview with Vanity Fair.
CNN’s chyron during Bash’s show on Tuesday read, “White House reeling over Susie Wiles interview.”
“You probably saw me looking down while you were talking because I was getting texts from people inside Trump world who say, ‘No, they’re not reeling,’ as our chyron says,” Bash told CNN’s political director David Chalian during a segment on “Inside Politics.”
“So here we go. Susie Wiles is unfiltered, we’re going to be unfiltered too. And they say that that is not what’s happening. And that is an exaggeration of what’s going on inside. So that’s out there. And we’re going to be transparent about what they’re saying right now,” Bash said.
CNN’s Dana Bash revealed that people in Donald Trump’s orbit texted her during her show on Tuesday to reject the network’s chyron about Susie Wiles.(CNN/InsidePolitics)
Chalian said the White House was “circling the wagons” in defense of Wiles.
“I have not met anybody who does not — in Trump world, and frankly, even some Democrats who deal with the White House — who does not adore Susie Wiles,” Bash later said. “They just think she’s a straight shooter, and she’s solid and that she is, you know, the person who needs to be there right now for this president at this time.”
Vanity Fair published a two-part interview with Wiles, which included some candid remarks about Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top admininistration officials.
Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality” and “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing,” Wiles told the magazine.
“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities,” she told Vanity Fair.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles speaks during the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025, in Glendale, Arizona. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Vanity Fair also reported that Wiles said Vice President JD Vance had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and that Vance’s support for Trump — after previously criticizing him — was “sort of political.”
President Donald Trump, and Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff, during an Invest America roundtable in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 9, 2025.(Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
As the father of the groom looked on in the background, Don Jr. took the microphone, thanking Anderson, standing to his right in a strapless red dress with a stone twinkling on her ring finger, for “that one word: yes.”
“When you’re down there and you’re gonna go, and you’re trying to ask, and you’re not sure what the answer’s gonna be, it’s always a little bit rough,” he said of the proposal. “But she said yes, so that’s a big win for the end of the year.”
This is the third time Don Jr. has gotten engaged, which explains that “always” he dropped. Trump was previously engaged, then married to Vanessa Trump, who has been romantically linked to golf star Tiger Woods since early this year, and before Anderson, was engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose relationship with Trump ended about the same time as her ambassadorship to Greece was announced and Anderson and Trump’s relationship became public. Are those last things connected? Who could even begin to say!
The engagement could be seen as a belated birthday present to Anderson, who turned 39 on December 1, or one heck of an early Christmas stocking stuffer.
The White House, when contacted by Vanity Fair for comment on the presidential offspring’s latest betrothal, referred us to Don Jr.’s representative. As of the publication of this article, that spokesperson did not respond to the request for comment.
Anderson also said a few words to the assembled well-wishers at the White House Monday, where her experience as a benefit host, welcoming and thanking attendees and sponsors, was apparent.
“Wow, what a privilege it is to be here in the White House, Mr. President,” she said. “To our first lady—these decorations! Am I right? Are they unbelievable? This has really been the most unforgettable weekend of my life and I get to marry the love of my life, and I feel just like the luckiest girl in the world.”
A series of national polls show President Donald Trump facing sustained disapproval over his handling of the U.S. economy, with warning signs even emerging among core Republican voters.
The White House maintains that Trump “inherited the worst inflation crisis in a generation from Joe Biden’s incompetence” and points to how the administration “rapidly cooled inflation to a 2.5 percent annualized rate.”
A spokesman previously told Newsweek: “Turning the Biden economic disaster around has informed nearly every action the Trump administration has taken since Day One.”
Newsweek contacted the White House via email outside of regular business hours for further comment.
Why It Matters
The findings highlight the erosion of public satisfaction in the handling of a key pillar of Trump’s political identity—economic stewardship—at a pivotal moment before the 2026 midterm elections. As inflation and the rising cost of living persist, the administration’s capacity to maintain party unity and voter confidence could shape both legislative battles in Congress and the broader fight for control over the House and Senate.
1. AP-NORC: Worst Economic Approval Rating From First or Second Term
An Associated Press-NORC poll conducted December 4—8, 2025 found that only 31 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, down from 40 percent in March, marking the lowest economic approval rating measured of his first or second term with this particular pollster.
The poll, involving 1,146 adults and a four-point margin of error, reported a significant drop in support among Republicans: approval fell from 78 percent in March to 69 percent in December.
The survey also revealed that two-thirds of Americans rated the economy as “poor,” a sentiment unchanged since Biden’s final year in office.
It also showed that financial strain is forcing nearly half (48 percent) of Americans to cut back on nonessential holiday spending, with 87 percent saying grocery prices are higher than usual. Lower-income households are especially hard hit, with increased numbers delaying major purchases or cutting back on essentials.
2. Fox News: Trump Rated Worse Than Biden on Economy
Separate polling from Fox News, conducted November 14-17 among 1,005 registered voters, found that 76 percent rate the U.S. economy negatively under Trump, up from 70 percent at the end of the Biden administration.
Voters blamed Trump for the economic situation at a two-to-one ratio over Biden (62 percent versus 32 percent).
3. NBC News: MAGA Base Shows Cracks
An NBC News Decision Desk poll, conducted by SurveyMonkey with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, shows Trump’s overall approval at 42 percent, with 58 percent disapproval.
While 70 percent of MAGA Republicans still strongly approve, that’s an eight-point drop since April.
Economic concerns dominate in the poll, which surveyed 20,252 adults online from November 20 to December 8, with respondents citing inflation and cost-of-living pressures as top worries, despite Trump’s insistence that affordability is a “hoax.”
4. Reuters/Ipsos: Affordability Still Hurts
An online Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,434 nationwide respondents, with a margin of error of two percentage points in either direction, shows Trump’s overall approval at 41 percent, up slightly from November.
But his rating on cost-of-living issues remains weak at 31 percent, despite climbing from the previous month of 26 percent.
The poll, conducted between December 3 and 8, highlights that affordability is the dominant concern for voters, even as Trump touts tariff rollbacks and tax cuts.
5. The Economist/YouGov: Net Negative on Economy
The Economist’s tracker places Trump’s net approval at -16 percent, with Americans “especially dissatisfied” on inflation and economic management.
Ratings that were briefly positive after his inauguration have collapsed into strongly negative territory following tariff hikes and affordability woes.
Inflation/prices (23 percent), and jobs and the economy (15 percent) were also rated as voters’ top concerns, signaling how important it is for Trump to score well on these issues.
While this poll, which was conducted online within the United States on December 2-4, 2025, among 2,204 registered voters, shows Trump’s overall approval rebounding to 47 percent post-shutdown, his weakest issue remains inflation, where he scores just 40 percent approval.
A majority of voters (59 percent) say affordability is their top economic worry, suggesting that even perceived gains aren’t translating into confidence.
What People Are Saying
White House spokesman Kush Desaitold Newsweek last week: “President Trump and every member of his Administration are clear-eyed about the fact that Americans continue to reel from the lingering effects of Joe Biden’s generational economic crisis.
“Turning the Biden economic disaster around has informed nearly every action the Trump administration has taken since Day One, from unleashing American energy to cut gas prices to signing historic drug pricing deals to cut costs for American patients.
“Much work remains, and every member of the Trump administration continues to focus on recreating the historic job, wage, and economic growth that Americans enjoyed during President Trump’s first term.”
Desai also previously told Newsweek: “President Trump inherited the worst inflation crisis in a generation from Joe Biden’s incompetence, and his Administration has rapidly cooled inflation to a 2.5 percent annualized rate. Americans can count on inflation continuing to fall and real wages continuing to rise.”
Trump said in a Truth Social post: “When will I get credit for having created, with No Inflation, perhaps the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country?…When will Polls reflect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago?”
Larry Reynolds, a 74-year-old Republican retiree from Wadsworth, Ohio, said: “I still back Trump’s approach in principle but believe the president’s escalating tariffs have become self-defeating…I don’t think it’ll be anything really soon. I think it’s just going to take time.”
Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer, said in a statement to Newsweek: “Donald Trump’s train wreck of an economy is catching up to him, and it’s no wonder voters are pissed. Trump promised to ‘lower costs on Day One,’ but prices are soaring, and good-paying jobs are out of reach for everyday Americans. Trump’s plan of action so far has been to call affordability a ‘hoax’ and tell Americans not to ‘be dramatic.’ Meanwhile, working families are skipping meals, forgoing critical medical care, and depleting their savings as Trump doubles down on his disastrous economic policies. While Trump twiddles his thumbs, Democrats are working tirelessly to bring down prices and lower the cost-of-living.”
What Happens Next
Expanding discontent over the economy poses risks for Republican prospects in the 2026 midterms, opening opportunities for primary challenges and Democratic gains in key swing districts.
The White House has launched a national tour seeking to shore up public confidence, while also deploying new policy measures and messaging that target ongoing inflation and the cost of living.
Trump’s team was divided on whether Putin’s goal was anything less than a complete Russian takeover of Ukraine. “The experts think that if he could get the rest of Donetsk, then he would be happy,” Wiles told me in August. But privately, Trump wasn’t buying it—he didn’t believe Putin wanted peace. “Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country,” Wiles told me.
In October I asked Rubio if that was true. “There are offers on the table right now to basically stop this war at its current lines of contact, okay?” he said. “Which include substantial parts of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which they’ve controlled since 2014. And the Russians continue to turn it down. And so…you do start to wonder, well, maybe what this guy wants is the entire country.” (In Wiles’s office is a photograph of Trump and Putin standing together, signed by Trump: “TO SUSIE YOU ARE THE GREATEST! DONALD.”)
I asked Wiles about the remarkable 180-degree conversion of the secretary of state and the vice president from fierce Trump critics to high-ranking acolytes—and heirs apparent. Trump has floated a Vance-Rubio GOP presidential ticket in 2028. Rubio’s transformation was ideological and principled, she said: “Marco was not the sort of person that would violate his principles. He just won’t. And so he had to get there.” By contrast, she suggested, Vance had other motivations. “His conversion came when he was running for the Senate. And I think his conversion was a little bit more, sort of political.” During another visit to the White House on November 13, when I asked Vance about his conversion to Trump loyalist, he said: “I realized that I actually liked him, I thought he was doing a lot of good things. And I thought that he was fundamentally the right person to save the country.”
Will Rubio challenge Vance for the top spot on the 2028 GOP presidential ticket? His answer: “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”
Wiles is known for having an open-door policy. Trump sometimes comes in unannounced (“he apparently never did in the first administration”). During lunch, no one interrupted us, and Wiles checked her phone only once. She was enjoying a rare moment of downtime. “They don’t know what I’m doing,” she said, motioning toward the Oval, and laughed out loud. After an hour, as I got up to go, I told her about how President Barack Obama’s chief Rahm Emanuel used to complain to visitors about how thankless his job was: “This is nice,” he said, pointing to the wood-burning fireplace, “and this is nice,” gesturing toward the outdoor patio. “And everything in between sucks.” Wiles replied: “I don’t feel that way at all.”
To the left of the fireplace was a freestanding video monitor: a live feed of Trump’s Truth Social posts.
The average tenure for a modern White House chief of staff is a year and a half. George W. Bush’s Andrew Card holds the record at five years and three months. Wiles may yet eclipse Trump’s so-far longest-lasting chief, John Kelly, at 17 months. If she chose to quit, Wiles could make a fortune running the campaign of any number of would-be GOP nominees; though Wiles says she earned around $350,000 for her role managing Trump’s 2024 campaign, she was reported to have made millions more through her consulting firm (Wiles had not replied when asked about this by the time this article went to print). When reports emerged that Biden aide Mike Donilon stood to make $8 million if his boss had stayed in the race and won, Wiles said her co–campaign chair Chris LaCivita sent her a note that said, “Boy, am I stupid. Why was [I] so cheap?
Wiles says she’d originally planned to serve as chief for six months. “I have not had a day I would describe as overwhelming, though there’s plenty of frustration here. But you go to bed at night, you say your prayers, and you get up and do it again.” I asked her about her health and the president’s. “Mine is good,” she said. “His is great. My kids are grown. I’m divorced. This is what I do if I stay four years.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland plans to introduce legislation Tuesday that would subject White House renovations like President Trump’s ballroom project to the same reviews as other federal projects. Currently, the White House is exempt from certain oversight under the National Historic Preservation Act.
Raskin’s bill, called the “People’s White House Historic Preservation Act,” would require White House renovations to undergo a so-called “Section 106 review,” a pre-ground breaking assessment that addresses the impact of renovations on historic buildings and allows the public to weigh in.
The legislation comes three months after construction crews began work on a privately-financed, 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition that will cost about $300 million. A construction crane hangs over the site where the East Wing once stood. It was demolished in late October, even though President Trump had previously said the new construction would be “near it but not touching it — and pays total respect to the existing building.”
Mr. Trump has reveled in how easy it’s been to fast track the project. In October, Mr. Trump recounted being told, “Sir, this is the White House, you’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want.”
“It’s kings who treat public property as private property,” Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told CBS News in a phone interview. “It’s not his house; it’s our house. And if there is going to be construction and renovation expansion or changes, that should go through a regular public process.”
The White House asserts Mr. Trump has “full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House.”
Aside from renderings Mr. Trump has shown at various events, ballroom schematics have faced little formal scrutiny — but that may soon change.
In a court filing late Monday, the administration said consultations “will soon be underway” with the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, two independent advisory boards overseeing federal projects in the Washington area. The administration added that it was not legally bound to confer with either board and that above-ground ballroom construction would begin in April at the earliest.
Raskin’s bill would mandate consultations with both commissions prior to ground breaking.
At its monthly meeting in early December, NCPC chairman Will Scharf, who is also a White House staffer, said the White House was not required to submit demolition plans because the commission only oversees new construction.
“We simply do not have jurisdiction over demolition and site preparation work; that what we’re really concerned about here is visible architecture — is above-ground build,” Scharf said, adding that NCPC would play a “constructive role” when the time comes.
File: Demolition of East Wing of White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, DC, on Dec. 9, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Raskin argues that leveling the East Wing without a review process was a violation of destruction of federal property laws, though he acknowledges the president cannot be prosecuted under those statutes.
Currently, Raskin’s legislation has 27 Democratic co-sponsors. With Republicans in control of the House, the measure faces long odds.
“I hope that there are enough champions of the public-private distinction in the Republican caucus that we can bring some over,” Raskin said.
Last week, National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit seeking to halt ballroom construction. “No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, not anyone else,” the Trust’s suit said. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
In response, the administration said the Trust’s complaint was moot “because the demolition has already occurred and cannot be undone.”
An initial hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Washington.
The track record for California Democrats and the presidency is not a good one. In the nearly 250 years of these United States, not one Left Coast Democrat has ever been elected president. Kamala Harris is just the latest to fail. (Twice.)
Faithful readers of this column — both of you — certainly know how I feel.
Garry South disagrees.
The veteran Democratic campaign strategist, who has been described as possessing “a pile-driving personality and blast furnace of a mouth” — by me, actually — has never lacked for strong and colorful opinions. Here, in an email exchange, we hash out our differences.
Barabak: You once worked for Newsom, did you not?
South: Indeed I did. I was a senior strategist in his first campaign for governor. It lasted 15 months in 2008 and 2009. He exited the race when we couldn’t figure out how to beat Jerry Brown in a closed Democratic primary.
I happen to be the one who wrote the catchy punch line for Newsom’s speech to the state Democratic convention in 2009, that the race was a choice between “a stroll down memory lane vs. a sprint into the future.”
We ended up on memory lane.
Barabak: Do you still advise Newsom, or members of his political team?
South: No, though he and I are in regular contact and have been since his days as lieutenant governor. I know many of his staff and consultants, but don’t work with them in any paid capacity. Also, the governor’s sister and I are friends.
Barabak: You observed Newsom up close in that 2010 race. What are his strengths as a campaigner?
South: Newsom is a masterful communicator, has great stage presence, cuts a commanding figure and can hold an audience in the palm of his hand when he’s really on. He has a mind like a steel trap and never forgets anything he is told or reads.
I’ve always attributed his amazing recall to the struggle he has reading, due to his lifelong struggle with severe dyslexia. Because it’s such an arduous effort for Newsom to read, what he does read is emblazoned on his mind in seeming perpetuity.
Barabak: Demerits, or weaknesses?
South: Given his remarkable command of facts and data and mastery of the English language, he can sometimes run on too long. During that first gubernatorial campaign, when he was still mayor of San Francisco, he once gave a seven-hour State of the City address.
South: It wasn’t as bad as sounds: It was broken into 10 “Webisodes” on his YouTube channel. But still …
Barabak: So let’s get to it. I think Newsom’s chances of being elected president are somewhere between slim and none — and slim was last seen alongside I-5, in San Ysidro, thumbing a ride to Mexico.
You don’t agree.
South: I don’t agree at all. I think you’re underestimating the Trumpian changes wrought (rot?) upon our political system over the past 10 years.
The election of Trump, a convicted felon, not once but twice, has really blown to hell the conventional paradigms we’ve had for decades in terms of how we assess the viability of presidential candidates — what state they’re from, their age, if they have glitches in their personal or professional life.
Not to mention, oh, their criminal record, if they have one.
The American people actually elected for a second term a guy who fomented a rebellion against his own country when he was president the first time, including an armed assault on our own national capitol in which a woman was killed and for which he was rightly impeached. It’s foolish not to conclude that the old rules, the old conventional wisdom about what voters will accept and what they will not, are out the window for good.
It also doesn’t surprise me that you pooh-pooh Newsom’s prospects. It’s typical of the home-state reporting corps to guffaw when their own governor is touted as a presidential candidate.
One, familiarity breeds contempt. Two, a prophet is without honor in his own country.
I also remember those old Clairol hair-color ads: “The closer he gets … the better you look!” (Google it, kids). It’s precisely the opposite when it comes to presidential hopefuls and the reporters who cover them day-in, day-out.
And you’re certainly correct, the nature of what constitutes scandal, or disqualifies a presidential candidate, has drastically changed in the Trump era.
All of that said, certain fundamentals remain the same. Harking back to that 1992 Clinton campaign, it’s still the economy, stupid. Or, put another way, it’s about folks’ lived experience, their economic security, or lack thereof, and personal well-being.
Newsom is, for the moment, a favorite among the chattering political class and online activists because a) those are the folks who are already engaged in the 2028 race and b) many of them thrill to his Trumpian takedowns of the president on social media.
When the focus turns to matters affecting voters’ ability to pay for housing, healthcare, groceries, utility bills and to just get by, Newsom’s opponents will have a heyday trashing him and California’s steep prices, homelessness and shrinking middle class.
Kamala Harris twice bid unsuccessfully for the White House. Her losses kept alive an unbroken string of losses by Left Coast Democrats.
(Kent Nishimura / Getty Images)
South: It’s not just the chattering class.
Newsom’s now the leading candidate among rank-and-file Democrats. They had been pleading — begging — for years that some Democratic leader step out of the box, step up to the plate, and fight back, giving Trump a dose of his own medicine. Newsom has been meeting that demand with wit, skill and doggedness — not just on social media, but through passage of Proposition 50, the Democratic gerrymandering measure.
And Democrats recognize and appreciate it
Barabak: Hmmm. Perhaps I’m somewhat lacking in imagination, but I just can’t picture a world where Democrats say, “Hey, the solution to our soul-crushing defeat in 2024 is to nominate another well-coiffed, left-leaning product of that bastion of homespun Americana, San Francisco.”
South: Uh, Americans twice now have elected a president not just from New York City, but who lived in an ivory tower in Manhattan, in a penthouse with a 24-carat-gold front door (and, allegedly, gold-plated toilet seats). You think Manhattan is a soupçon more representative of middle America than San Francisco?
Like I said, state of origin is less important now after the Trump precedent.
Barabak: Trump was a larger-than-life — or at least larger-than-Manhattan — celebrity. Geography wasn’t an impediment because he had — and has — a remarkable ability, far beyond my reckoning, to present himself as a tribune of the working class, the downtrodden and economically struggling Americans, even as he spreads gold leaf around himself like a kid with a can of Silly String.
Speaking of Kamala Harris, she hasn’t ruled out a third try at the White House in 2028. Where would you place your money in a Newsom-Harris throwdown for the Democratic nomination? How about Harris in the general election, against whomever Republicans choose?
South: Harris running again in 2028 would be like Michael Dukakis making a second try for president in 1992. My God, she not only lost every swing state, and the electoral college by nearly 100 votes, Harris also lost the popular vote — the first Democrat to do so in 20 years.
If she doesn’t want to embarrass herself, she should listen to her home-state voters, who in the latest CBS News/YouGov poll said she shouldn’t run again — by a margin of 69-31. (Even 52% of Democrats said no). She’s yesterday’s news.
Barabak: Seems as though you feel one walk down memory lane was quite enough. We’ll see if Harris — and, more pertinently, Democratic primary voters — agree.
California’s potential to lead a national Democratic comeback was on full display as party leaders from across the country recently gathered in downtown Los Angeles.
But is the party ready to bet on the Golden State?
Appearances at the Democratic National Committee meeting by the state’s most prominent Democrats, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom, crystallized the peril and promise of California’s appeal. Harris failed to beat a politically wounded Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race and Newsom, now among President Trump’s most celebrated critics, is considered a top Democratic contender to replace the Republican president in the White House in 2028.
California policies on divisive issues such as providing expanded access to government-sponsored healthcare, aiding undocumented immigrants and supporting LGBTQ+ rights continually serve as a Rorschach test for the nation’s polarized electorate, providing comfort to progressives and ammunition for Republican attack ads.
“California is like your cool cousin that comes for the holidays who is intriguing and glamorous, but who might not fit in with the family year-round,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked for former Govs. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harris when she was the state’s attorney general.
Newsom, in particular, is quick to boast about California being home to the world’s fourth-largest economy, a billion-dollar agricultural industry and economic and cultural powerhouses in Hollywood and the Silicon Valley. Critics, Trump chief among them, paint the state as a dystopian hellhole — littered with homeless encampments and lawlessness, and plagued by high taxes and an even higher cost of living.
Only two Californians have been elected president, Republicans Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. But that was generations ago, and Harris and Newsom are considering bids to end the decades-long drought in 2028. Both seized the moment by courting party leaders and activists during the three-day winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee that ended Saturday.
Harris, speaking to committee members and guests Friday, said the party’s victories in state elections across the nation in November reflect voters’ agitation about the impacts of Trump’s policies, notably affordability and healthcare costs. But she argued that “both parties have failed to hold the public’s trust.”
“So as we plan for what comes after this administration, we cannot afford to be nostalgic for what was, in fact, a flawed status quo, and a system that failed so many of you,” said Harris, who was criticized after her presidential campaign for not focusing enough on kitchen table issues, including the increasing financial strains faced by Americans.
While Harris, who ruled out running for governor earlier this year, did not address whether she would make another bid for the White House in 2028, she argued that the party needed to be introspective about its future.
“We need to answer the question, what comes next for our party and our democracy, and in so doing, we must be honest that for so many, the American dream has become more of a myth than a reality,” she said.
Many of the party leaders who spoke at the gathering focused on California’s possible role in determining control of Congress after voters in November approved Proposition 50, a rare mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts in an effort to boost the number of Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation in the 2026 election.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass rallied the crowd by reminding them that Democrats took back the U.S. House of Representatives during Trump’s first term and predicted the state would be critical in next year’s midterm elections.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Newsom, who championed Proposition 50, basked in that victory when he strode through the hotel’s corridors at the DNC meeting the day before, stopping every few feet to talk to committee members, shake their hands and take selfies.
“There’s just a sense of optimism here,” Newsom said.
Democratic candidates in New Jersey and Virginia also won races by a significant margin last month which, party leaders say, were all telltale signs of growing voter dissatisfaction with Trump and Washington’s Republican leadership.
“The party, more broadly, got their sea legs back, and they’re winning,” Newsom said. “And winning solves a lot of problems.”
Louisiana committee member Katie Darling teared up as she watched fellow Democrats flock to Newsom.
“He really is trying to bring people together during a very difficult time,” said Darling, who grew up in Sacramento in a Republican household. “He gets a lot of pushback for talking to and working with Republicans, but when he does that, I see him talking to my mom and dad who I love, who I vehemently disagree with politically. … I do think that we need to talk to each other to move the country forward.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom looks on during an election night gathering at the California Democratic Party headquarters on November 04, 2025 in Sacramento.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
Darling said she listens to Newsom’s podcast, where his choice of guests, including the late Charlie Kirk, and his comments on the show that transgender athletes taking part in women’s sports is “deeply unfair” have drawn outrage from some on the left.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, another potential 2028 presidential candidate whose family has historically supported Newsom, was also reportedly on site Thursday, holding closed-door meetings. And former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, also a possible White House contender, was in Los Angeles on Thursday, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show and holding meetings.
Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, cast the DNC meetings in L.A. as “anti-Trump sessions” and pointed to the homeless encampments on Skid Row, just blocks from where committee members gathered.
“We need accountability and solutions that actually get people off the streets, make communities safer and life more affordable,” Rankin said.
Elected officials from across the nation are drawn to California because of its wellspring of wealthy political donors. The state was the largest source of contributions to the campaign committees of Trump and Harris during the 2024 presidential contest, contributing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Open Secrets, which tracks electoral finances.
While the DNC gathering focused mostly on mundane internal business, the gathering of party leaders attracted liberal groups seeking to raise money and draw attention to their causes.
Actor Jane Fonda and comedian Nikki Glaser headlined an event aimed at increasing the minimum wage at the Three Clubs cocktail bar in Hollywood. California already has among the highest minimum wages in the nation; one of the organizers of the event is campaigning to increase the rate to $30 per hour in some California counties.
“The affordability crisis is pushing millions of Americans to the edge, and no democracy can survive when people who work full time cannot afford basic necessities,” Fonda said prior to the event. “Raising wages is one of the most powerful ways to give families stability and hope.”
But California’s liberal policies have been viewed as a liability for Democrats elsewhere, where issues such as transgender rights and providing healthcare for undocumented immigrants have not been warmly received by some blue-collar workers who once formed the party’s base.
Trump capitalized on that disconnect in the closing months of the 2024 presidential contest, when his campaign aired ads that highlighted Harris’ support of transgender rights, including taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates.
“Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you,” the commercial stated. The ad aired more than 30,000 times in swing states in the fall, notably during football games and NASCAR races.
“Kamala had 99 problems. California wasn’t one of them,” said John Podesta, a veteran Democratic strategist who served a senior advisor to former President Biden, counselor to former President Obama and White House chief of staff for former President Clinton.
He disputed the argument that California, whether through its policies or candidates, will impact Democrats’ chances, arguing there’s a broader disconnect between the party and its voters.
“This sense that Democrats lost touch with the middle class and the poor in favor of the cultural elite is a real problem,” said Podesta. “My shorthand is, we used to be the party of the factory floor, and now we’re the party of the faculty lounge. That’s not a California problem. It’s an elitist problem.”
While Podesta isn’t backing anyone yet in the 2028 presidential contest, he praised Newsom for his efforts to not only buck Trump but the “leftist extremists” in the Democratic party.
The narrative of Californians being out of touch with many Americans has been exacerbated this year during the state’s battles with the Trump administration over immigration, climate change, water and artificial intelligence policy. But Newsom and committee members argued that the state has been at the vanguard of where the nation will eventually head.
“I am very proud of California. It’s a state that’s not just about growth, it’s about inclusion,” the governor said, before ticking off a list of California initiatives, including low-priced insulin and higher minimum wages. “So much of the policy that’s coming out of the state of California promotes not just promise, but policy direction that I think is really important for the party.”
Democrats serving on the House Oversight Committee released dozens of photos on Friday from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some of President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Some of the photos show Trump alongside women whose faces were blacked out. No additional context for the redactions was provided in the initial press release. “These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Democrats are “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”Trump told reporters Friday that he had not seen the photos and downplayed their significance.“He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him, so that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it,” Trump said. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s known victims.Garcia didn’t specifically say whether the women whose faces were redacted in the photos were victims of abuse. He told reporters, “Our commitment from day one has been to redact any photo, any information that could lead to any sort of harm to any of the victims.”Garcia said that the photos were released in the interest of transparency. He said the panel is in the process of reviewing the rest of the 95,000 photos received from Epstein’s estate on Thursday evening, and the public should expect more pictures to come out. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee defended Trump and took aim at the Clintons. Rep. James Comer, who chairs the committee, issued a statement warning that they will initiate proceedings to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress if they fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January. Comer said it has been more than four months since they were subpoenaed as part of the committee’s Epstein probe. Friday’s developments are renewing focus on the yearslong controversy ahead of next week’s Dec. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to release another trove of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation and his death behind bars in 2019. The release of those files was required by Congress in a near-unanimous vote last month. The DOJ has promised maximum transparency, but some fear the documents will be overly redacted.More from the Washington Bureau:
WASHINGTON —
Democrats serving on the House Oversight Committee released dozens of photos on Friday from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some of President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.
Some of the photos show Trump alongside women whose faces were blacked out. No additional context for the redactions was provided in the initial press release.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Democrats are “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”
Trump told reporters Friday that he had not seen the photos and downplayed their significance.
“He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody. I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him, so that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it,” Trump said.
Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s known victims.
Garcia didn’t specifically say whether the women whose faces were redacted in the photos were victims of abuse. He told reporters, “Our commitment from day one has been to redact any photo, any information that could lead to any sort of harm to any of the victims.”
Garcia said that the photos were released in the interest of transparency. He said the panel is in the process of reviewing the rest of the 95,000 photos received from Epstein’s estate on Thursday evening, and the public should expect more pictures to come out.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee defended Trump and took aim at the Clintons.
Rep. James Comer, who chairs the committee, issued a statement warning that they will initiate proceedings to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress if they fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January. Comer said it has been more than four months since they were subpoenaed as part of the committee’s Epstein probe.
Friday’s developments are renewing focus on the yearslong controversy ahead of next week’s Dec. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to release another trove of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation and his death behind bars in 2019. The release of those files was required by Congress in a near-unanimous vote last month. The DOJ has promised maximum transparency, but some fear the documents will be overly redacted.
The battle between California and the White House escalated as President Trump signed an executive order to block state laws regulating artificial intelligence.
The president’s power move to try to take over control of the regulation of the technology behind ChatGPT through an executive order Thursday was applauded by his allies in Silicon Valley, who have been warning that many layers of heavy-handed rules and regulations were holding them back and could put the U.S. behind in the battle to benefit most from AI.
The order directs the attorney general to create a task force to challenge some state AI laws. States with “onerous AI laws” could lose federal funding from a broadband deployment program and other grants, the order said.
The Trump administration said the order will help U.S. companies win the AI race against countries such as China by removing “cumbersome regulation.” It also pushes for a “minimally burdensome” national standard rather than a patchwork of laws across 50 states that the administration said makes compliance challenging, especially for startups.
“You have to have a central source of approval when they need approval. So things have to come to one source. They can’t go to California, New York and various other places,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against the order, stating it “advances corruption, not innovation.”
“They’re running a con. And every day, they push the limits to see how far they can take it,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is working on behalf of Americans by building the strongest innovation economy in the nation while implementing commonsense safeguards and leading the way forward.”
The dueling remarks between Newsom and Trump underscore how the tech industry’s influence over regulation has increased tensions between the federal government and state lawmakers trying to place more guardrails around AI.
While AI chatbots can help people quickly find answers to questions and generate text, code, and images, the increasing role the technology plays in people’s daily lives has also sparked greater anxiety about job displacement, equity, and mental health harms.
The order heavily impacts California, home to some of the world’s largest tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, Nvidia and Meta. It also jeopardizes the $1.8 billion in federal funding California has received to expand high-speed internet throughout the state.
Some analysts said Trump’s order is a win for tech giants that have vowed to invest trillions of dollars to build data centers and in research and development.
“We believe that more organizations are expected to head down the AI roadmap through strategic deployments over time, but this executive order takes away more questions around future AI buildouts and removes a major overhang moving forward,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a statement.
Facing lobbying from tech companies, Newsom has vetoed some AI legislation while signing others into law this year.
One new law requires platforms to display labels for minors that warn about social media’s mental health harms. Another aims to make AI developers more transparent about safety risks and offers more whistleblower protections.
He also signed a bill that requires chatbot operators to have procedures to prevent the production of suicide or self-harm content, though child safety groups removed support for that legislation because they said the tech industry successfully pushed for changes that weakened protections.
States and consumer advocacy groups are expected to legally challenge Trump’s order.
“Trump is not our king, and he cannot simply wave a pen to unilaterally invalidate state law,” state Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista), who introduced the chatbot safety legislation that Newsom signed into law, said in a statement.
In addition to California, three other states — Colorado, Texas and Utah — have passed laws that set some rules for AI across the private sector, according to the International Assn. of Privacy Professionals. Those laws include limiting the collection of certain personal information and requiring more transparency from companies.
The more ambitious AI regulation proposals from states require private companies to provide transparency and assess the possible risks of discrimination from their AI programs. Many have regulated parts of AI: barring the use of deepfakes in elections and to create nonconsensual porn, for example, or putting rules in place around the government’s own use of AI.
The order drew both praise and criticism from the tech industry.
Collin McCune, the head of government affairs at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said on social media site X that the executive order is an “incredibly important first step.”
“But the vacuum for federal AI legislation remains,” he wrote. “Congress needs to come together to create a clear set of rules that protect the millions of Americans using AI and the Little Tech builders driving it forward.”
Omidyar Network Chief Executive Mike Kubzansky said in a statement that he is aware of the risks posed by poorly drafted rules, but the solution isn’t to preempt state and local laws.
“Americans are rightly concerned about AI’s impact on kids, jobs, and the costs imposed on consumers and communities by the rapid development of data centers,” he said. “Ignoring these issues through a blanket moratorium is an abdication of what elected officials owe their constituents — which is why we strongly oppose the Administration’s recent executive action.”
Investors seemed unimpressed by the possible boost the sector could get from the White House.
The stock market fell sharply on Friday, led by AI shares.
Bloomberg and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clashed with reporters over inflation during Thursday’s briefing, accusing CNN’s Kaitlan Collins of trying to “push narratives.”
Collins pressed Leavitt to explain President Donald Trump‘s apparent mixed messaging regarding the economy, saying at one time that it was booming while at other times recommending parents pare back on Christmas gifts.
“Inflation is down from where it was. As measured by the overall CPI, it has slowed to an average 2.5% pace,” Leavitt said as Collins began to try to interject.
“This is down from what the president inherited. The president inherited 2.9% in January. Today, it’s at about 2.5%, so we’re trending in the right direction,” Leavitt continued. “And I would remind you, when President Trump left office in his first term, inflation was 1.7%, and the previous administration jacked it up to a record-high 9%.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 20, 2025. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
“In 10 months, the president has clawed us out of this hole, he’s kept it low at 2.5%, and we believe that number is going to continue to decline,” Leavitt added.
“Nobody is saying it wasn’t high under Biden,” Collins argued. “They’re just saying virtually [unchanged].”
“Nobody reported it on being high under Biden. My predecessor was standing up here at this podium, but now you want to ask me a lot of questions about it, which I’m happy to answer, but I will just add, there’s a lot more scrutiny on this issue from this press corps than there was,” Leavitt said.
“My predecessor stood up at this podium and she said inflation doesn’t exist. She said the border was secure,” Leavitt continued incredulously. “And people like you just took her at her word, and those were two utter lies. Everything I’m telling you is the truth backed by real factual data, and you just don’t want to report on it because you want to push untrue narratives about the president.”
Affordability has become a flashpoint heading into next year’s midterms, with Republicans now fine-tuning their messaging on the economy after a slew of Democrats won elections in 2025 running on a platform focused on lowering costs.
President Donald Trump has insisted that the economy is going in the right direction.(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump told Politico in an interview earlier this week that he would give his economy an “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” grade, but a November Fox News national survey found that some 76% of voters reported they view the economy negatively, up from the 67% who reported the same in July, and up from the 70% who said the same at the end of former President Joe Biden‘s term.
Fox News’ Alex Schemmel contributed to this report.
Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on X: @Hagstrom_Anders.
The singer reacted on Twitter after the White House used “Big Boy,” originally aired as part of an SNL sketch in December 2022, in a social media post earlier this week. “White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw tactics,” she wrote. “Evil n Boring.”
The White House used the viral tune to promote the actions of ICE, tweeting a video that showed agents arresting immigrants. “We heard it’s cuffing szn,” posted the White House, a reference to the song’s lyrics. “Bad news for criminal illegal aliens. Great news for America.”
SZA‘s manager Punch also seemed to address the White House post, writing on X, “Trying to provoke [artists] to respond in order to help spread propaganda and political agendas is nasty business. Knock it off.”
A representative for the White House did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
SZA joins a growing list of artists who have spoken out against the White House for repurposing their songs for posts. Last week, Sabrina Carpenter slammed Donald Trump’s administration for using her hit song “Juno” in a video montage depicting ICE raids. “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda,” she wrote on social media.
Shortly after deleting the initial X post, the White House posted another clip of Carpenter doing an SNL commercial with the audio overdubbed so that it appears to be calling cast member Marcello Hernández “illegal” instead of “hot.”
