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Facebook Admits ‘Mistake’ In Censoring Iconic Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

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Photo via Pixabay images

On Monday, a Facebook spokesperson admitted the platform wrongly called the popular image of Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air after an assassination attempt against him an “altered photo.”

Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever later explained on X it was done in error as the systems were meant to detect a separate version of the image.

“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever wrote.

Lever confirmed the mistake when Fox News Digital reached out for a comment.

The altered image Lever referenced featured the Secret Service members surrounding Trump smiling. USA Today and AFP United States previously fact-checked the images as “altered,” though it confirmed the accuracy of the original image.

“None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air. The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets,” USA Today explained.

USA Today’s fact-check on the altered photo was used as a “third-party fact-checker” when Facebook corrected the photo.

Google has recently come under criticism for omitting search results for Trump’s recent assassination attempt.

Trump Scores Support From Another Billionaire

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Trump is scoring big…

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said she would vote for former President Trump over President Biden in the November presidential election.

Wood took part in an interview with ‘Meet Kevin’ financial analyst and YouTuber Kevin Paffrath, during which she was asked the popular question, “Trump or Biden?”

Wood told the host she has three children with whom she has discussed the upcoming election and its consequences.

“As I’ve said to them, ‘Look, I am going to vote for the person who’s going to do the best job for our economy,’” Wood told Paffrath. “I am a voter when it comes to economics, and on that basis, Trump.”

She further explained that Laffer Associates founder and chairman Art Laffer “describes the first three years of the Trump presidency as the best in U.S. economic history, not the last one because of COVID, and I would agree.”

Watch:

The informal endorsement comes on the heels of several billionaires sending money and support toward Trump’s presidential campaign. (RELATED: Billionaire Makes Massive Political Contribution To Trump)

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, made a $50 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

In a memo following Mellon’s donation, the PAC announced it had reserved $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.

The New York Times continues:

Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.

Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, announced last month he will back Trump in the 2024 race after he previously called for the Republican Party to turn to a “new generation of leaders.”

Trump Returns To Twitter – Now X

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Photo via Pixabay images

Former President Donald Trump’s official X account is back…for now.

The first ad, posted at 2:54 am, included a voiceover from Ronald Reagan and was captioned, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

Another ad was published at 3:00 am and read, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I just happen to be standing in their way and I’m never moving. We will Make America Great Again!”

Musk and Trump will talk live on X at 8 pm ET and Musk has already addressed the technical issues that have plagued past events – including the glitchy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign last spring.

“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on X ahead of the event.

Trump had been banned from Twitter, which Musk bought for a staggering $44 billion and renamed X, after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has only posted once since Musk restored his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, as the former president reserves his social media usage for Truth Social, which he owns. In August of 2023, Trump post his Fulton Country jail mugshot with a link soliciting donations.

Obama Claims New Yorkers ‘Don’t Take Trump Seriously’

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The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During a podcast interview, former President Barack Obama swiped at Donald Trump claiming the former President is not taken “seriously” in the city he called home for years, New York City.

Obama appeared alongside Bill Clinton and President Biden in the newest episode of the “SmartLess” podcast. 

Obama was asked on the “SmartLess” podcast by co-host Jason Bateman whether he was surprised how quickly the “protection and passion for democracy was diluted” in recent years. Obama responded by noting the trend began during former President Clinton’s time in the White House before accelerating during his presidency.

“I have been surprised that there haven’t been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn’t surprise me,” he said, before taking aim at Trump.

“I mean, he comes from New York. There’s nobody in New York who does business with him or lend him money. He’s not considered a serious guy here,” Obama added.

Obama went on to explain how he thought more Republicans would say some of Trump’s behavior went too far.

“But, so I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn’t surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you’d agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can’t go that far. You can’t start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies,” he said.

Trump is currently on trial in New York for falsifying business records to make alleged hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

New Accusations Released About Member of Trump’s Family and Inner Circle

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[Photo Cred: Office of the President of the United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro recently made some potentially damaging accusations about Jared Kushner, former President Trump’s son-in-law and longtime White House adviser.

As reported by Mediaite, Navarro recently bashed Kushner about his portrayal of several dramatic actions he allegedly took while working at the White House.

“Appearing on Newsmax, Navarro addressed Kushner’s claim in his recently-published book that he was treated for thyroid cancer while serving in the White House.

Host Chris Salcedo flagged the excerpt from the book and stated Kushner “withheld a cancer diagnosis during tense negotiations with communist China.

Navarro addressed Kushner’s book.

“It’s fiction,” he continued. “And the thyroid thing, that came out of nowhere. I saw the guy every day. There’s no sign that he was in any pain or danger or whatever. I think it’s just sympathy to try to sell his book now.”

Salcedo asked if Kushner is “worthy” of Trump’s trust.

“No,” Navarro replied. “Time after time, whether it’s mismanagement of the campaign, mismanagement of the pandemic, taking too much credit for NAFTA, taking too much credit for the Abraham Accords. I mean, the guy was just a one-man wrecking crew, 36 years old I think when he got in there with no training. His only qualification was that he was the boss’s son-in-law.”

Notably, Navarro is dealing with a few of his own issues at the moment. A few days ago he was sued by President Biden’s Justice Department for refusing to hand over emails from his personal accounts which were used to conduct official White House business. Earlier this summer, he was criminally charged for ignoring a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Committee.

Trump’s Truth Social Merger Deal Hits A Pause

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Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

It’s a bad time to be Trump…

New reports indicate the potential merger deal with the former President’s Truth Social platform is dead in the water.

The Daily Beast reports:

The public shell corporation that has been preparing to merge with former President Donald Trump’s technology firm—the parent company of his social media platform, Truth Social—announced Thursday that it was dropping its plans to pursue the merger through a specialized process called a ​​private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction. The company also said it planned to return $533 million it had raised from investors to complete the deal. The merger between Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company, and Trump Media & Technology Group failed to materialize by a September 2022 deadline set by U.S. regulators, giving DWAC the option to back out of the deal. A TMTG spokesperson claimed in a release Thursday that the two companies still planned to merge and said the development was, in fact, a positive step—but declined to comment when pressed by Reuters to say how backing out of the PIPE deal would benefit either party.

This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

D.C. Waitress Fired After Vowing To Refuse Service To Trump Officials

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A Washington, D.C.-based server has been fired after proudly saying in an interview that she planned to refuse service to Trump officials.

The server was previously employed by Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill. She took part in a report by Washingtonian magazine about how the service industry would respond to President-elect Donald Trump’s team if they patronized her place of employment.

Most individuals who were interviewed remained anonymous, but Suzannah Van Rooy provided her real name. 

“I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people,” the server told the outlet, as The Daily Wire previously reported. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”

“People were a lot more motivated the first time around to do those kinds of shows of passion. This time around, there is kind of a sense of defeat and acceptance,” Van Rooy added. “But I hope that people still do stand up to this administration and tell them their thoughts on their misbehavior.”

Beuchert’s Saloon denounced Van Rooy’s comments and confirmed she was no longer employed there, per Fox News Digital. The neighborhood restaurant and bar called her statements “reprehensible” and “unforgivable.”

“Recent comments made by a member of staff who had no authority to speak on behalf of our entire restaurant have been, quite rightly, flagged as inappropriate, hostile, intolerant, and unacceptable. This staff member does NOT speak for us as a restaurant,” Beuchert’s Saloon said in a statement.

Beuchert’s saloon provided a follow-up after the backlash from the employee’s comments.

“Not only do Ms. Van Rooy’s comments clearly violate our zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, but her decision to sign into our social media accounts in the middle of the night to post her own rhetoric in wildly offensive responses to comments is a further breach of conduct and protocol. She has no authority to speak on our behalf, and her comments do not reflect the positions of over twenty other people who make up our staff,” the statement said.

“For these reasons as well as the sheer dismay and disgust we feel at her unforgivable behavior, Ms. Van Rooy has been dismissed immediately. Our staff and families (many of whom are personally offended by Ms. Van Rooy’s comments about them) are still reeling from what Ms. Van Rooy said and did, and we as a restaurant are simply horrified to be associated with base prejudice.”

New York Launches Probe Into Trump Judge

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has launched an investigation into a New York attorney’s claim that he advised Judge Arthur Engoron in the case against former President Donald Trump.

Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told WNBC-TV that he had a courthouse conversation with Engoron three weeks before the judge would slap Trump with a $454 million penalty for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.

New York judges are barred from considering outside opinions in such a way when litigating a case, yet Bailey said he discussed the legal questions at length with the judge.

Judge Engoron’s ruling ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million, Donald Jr. and Eric to each pay $4 million, and ex-Trump Org chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to pay $1 million. The order also barred Trump from serving as a corporate officer or a director of a company in New York for three years, and barred his sons for two years. The Trumps did avoid the so-called “corporate death penalty;”

“I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago,” Bailey said in an interview with the station on Feb. 16, just hours before the judge issued his ruling.

“I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse], and I told my client, ‘I need to go,’” he recounted.

“And I walked over, and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why … I really want him to get it right,” the attorney continued.

He said he “explained to” Engoron that ruling against Trump would have far-reaching implications beyond destroying the former president, including damaging New York’s economy.

If Trump were forced to pay a hefty fine and shut down his business, it would make other companies concerned about similarly being targeted at any time, even when there were no actual damages or victims, as in this case.

Trump’s legal team raised the same points, which Engoron ignored in his verdict.

In a later interview with WNBC, Bailey walked back his claims slightly, saying they “didn’t even mention the word ‘Donald Trump’” during their conversation.

However, the attorney admitted that it was understood exactly what they were discussing.

“Well, obviously, we weren’t talking about the Mets,” Bailey said.

According to the New York State Rules of Judicial Conduct, “a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers.”

Al Baker, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration, denied that the judge had broken those rules.

“The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” Baker said in a statement, according to WNBC.

Trump To Nominate New Commerce Secretary

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce his nomination for Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick is the chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and is also currently serving as co-chair of the Trump transition. He has notably publicly embraced Trump’s tariff plans, which will be a major part of the job leading Commerce.

The CEO was considered a front-runner to serve as Trump’s Treasury secretary along with Scott Bessent, who served as economic adviser on the Trump campaign.

Trump just released a statement:

I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.

Lutnick beat out Linda McMahon for the role leading Commerce who was considered a front runner and previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

McMahon is also a co-chair of his transition effort.

This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

Report: Trump Set To Become One Of World’s Most Wealthy People

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Former President Donald Trump will become one of the 500 richest people in the world after his media company begins public trading on Tuesday, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

The Daily Caller has more:

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, established the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in February of 2021 to develop an alternative social media website, following his removal from Twitter after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, with the new website “Truth Social” being unveiled in 2022. On Monday, TMTG completed a merging process with DWAC, a special-purpose acquisition corporation, that would allow the company to be publicly traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations stock exchange, also known as the “Nasdaq” exchange, with Trump’s 58% stake in the company being valued at $3.9 billion, according to Bloomberg News. 

The share price of DWAC increased by 35.22% to close at $49.95 on Monday when the closing of the deal was announced, with the new company retaining the TMTG name and changing its stock ticker to Trump’s initials, “DJT.” The process will increase Trump’s net worth to $6.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Trump’s net worth, which until recently has primarily comprised real property of The Trump Organization, has been subject to varying estimates. The Australian Financial Review estimated his net worth to be $9.8 billion following the TMTG acquisition process, while Forbes maintains his net worth at $2.6 billion as of Monday — making him the 1,265th richest person in the world — with its highest-ever estimate for his net worth being $4.5 billion in 2016.

Truth Social has reported many losses since its creation, with Trump being the primary user of the platform with the largest number of followers. He often announces major legal and campaign decisions on the platform, similar to his use of Twitter during his presidency.

Trump will not be able to sell his stake in TMTG for at least six months following the commencement of trading