Life under the Trump 2 Dictatorship

[China]

The Proud Boys are the latest MAGA cultists to break up with Trump

Donald Trump campaigned on anti-immigration rhetoric and keeping America out of foreign conflicts, but has veered sharply from his isolationist promises during his second term. After a failed attempt to mediate between Israel and Palestine during the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the former reality TV star's latest international move was even more dramatic: ordering strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend. While he technically didn't declare war (only Congress has that power), launching unauthorized bombing runs in foreign airspace remains an impeachable offense.

Everyone seems to be pissed off with Donny right now. Lawmakers from both parties are demanding accountability. Even his staunchest supporters — the ones who helped him undermine American democratic principles — are distancing themselves. After the bombing, when the President posted a celebratory message on Truth Social, the response in the Proud Boys' public Telegram channel was notably hostile:

If the United States gets directly involved in the Israel-Iran conflict, the voters that voted for Trump because there was a hope that Trump was America First can no longer support Trump. America First does not mean war for Israel. Donald Trump, focus on the health of our nation, period. We are crumbling. We are crippled with debt with no plan for a solution. Be the President you ran as.

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[China]

And the grift goes on...

Want FTC to approve a merger? Just advertise on Trump's Truth Social

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing a merger between two giant advertising agencies, Omnicom and Interpublic. Normally, this deal would be the sort of thing that wouldn’t generate a ton of attention outside of industry watchers. But we live in the Trump era—where every action by a federal agency is dictated by Donald Trump’s personal and political whims. So now, this merger might come with an absolutely wild and unconstitutional provision: The combined company cannot refuse to place a client’s ads based on media platforms’ political content.

The FTC frames this as preventing the ad agencies from “boycotting” platforms, but that’s stretching the legal definition of “boycott” beyond recognition. Companies are forbidden from colluding with each other to exclude competitors from their market, to fix prices, or to require the use of a particular provider. “Boycott” does not mean a company deciding not to do business with another company, but the FTC really, really wants it to mean that, so it can force advertisers to spend money on Truth Social, X, and whatever other Nazi hellholes pop up online.

The proposed order, already approved by the FTC commissioners, essentially allows the organization to control not just where Omnicom—the name of the merged company—places ads on behalf of companies working with them, but also to control which advertisers they choose to work with. The merged company also could not refuse to work with an advertiser because of their political or ideological viewpoints. So, when Stormfront comes knocking, gotta work with them. Terrific.

In other words, this isn’t a one-time agreement that Omnicom just has to sign and implement, though that would be bad enough. It’s an agreement for ongoing oversight, and the government gets to choose their clients and social media platforms. It bears a striking resemblance to the “deals” Trump made with major law firms, which appear to grant the administration control over which clients the firm chooses to work with. This will probably work out just as well for Omnicom as it did for those law firms, which are now bleeding clients and losing top attorneys.

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