MAGA backlash as Musk, Ramaswamy defend visa program for skilled workers: Live

A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.

Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander.

In an early morning post on Friday, Trump suggested the Microsoft co-founder had asked to come to Mar-a-Lago. The 78-year-old Republican encouraged him to visit.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

Perhaps in an attempt to change the subject as the MAGA visa rift continues, here’s what Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning:

Are the Democrats allowed to pay $11,000,000, $2,000,000, and $500,000 to get the ENDORSEMENT of Beyoncé, Oprah, and Reverend Al? I don’t think so! Beyoncé didn’t sing, Oprah didn’t do much of anything (she called it “expenses”), and Al is just a third rate Con Man. So what is going on here??? Totally against the law, and I have heard there are many others!!!

The MAGA rift over H1-B visas continued apace overnight with this memorable retort from Elon Musk when criticized on X about his support for the skilled worker program.

The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.

Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.

It doesn’t sound like this issue is going away. Donald Trump takes office in 23 days.

More people experienced homelessness in the United States in 2024 than at any other point within the last two decades since the federal government began tracking the crisis.

The crisis has been fueled by the compounded effects of a lack of affordable housing, inflation, stagnant wages, high costs of living, discrimination, natural disasters, public health crises and safety nets that fail to meet rising demands for support, according to the report.

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary praised President-elect Donald Trump’s continued fascination with annexing Canada as an American state, saying there was “something great” about it because it would form “the most powerful country on earth.”

Having spent the past few weeks taunting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by offering to make him a “governor” of “the 51st state,” the incoming president upped the ante with a Christmas message to the United States’ neighbor to the north. Besides recommending that hockey great Wayne Gretzky run to be “the Governor of Canada,” Trump also claimed that Canadians’ taxes would massively drop if they joined the American union.

“But if Canada was to become our 51st state, their taxes would be cut by more than 60 percent,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Their businesses would immediately double in size and they would be militarily protected like no other country anywhere in the world.”

Podcast host Joe Rogan said he believes that current and past presidents, such as President-elect Donald Trump, know “something” about extraterrestrial life but won’t reveal what it it.

Rogan told filmmaker James Fox, whose documentaries often focus on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), that he caught that feeling after asking Trump about it.

“When I confronted Mr. Trump, he was very cagey,” Rogan said on Tuesday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “Very cagey.”

Another volley has been fired in the ongoing MAGA civil war that’s been playing out online between hardcore “America First” acolytes and Trump-backing Silicon Valley oligarchs over an immigrant worker visa program — and now Elon Musk is being accused of personally punishing his critics.

Laura Loomer and other far-right activists who have railed against the X (formerly Twitter) owner and his DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy for supporting H-1B visas and criticizing American work culture allege that Musk removed their X verification badges and ability to monetize their accounts in an act of retribution.

“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,” Loomer posted on Thursday night.

There are “indications” that Russia took down the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, the White House has said.

“We have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters, according to The Washington Post.

He added that the evidence goes beyond the images shared online.

The investigations’ preliminary findings revealed that the plane crashed “due to external physical and technical interference.”

Azerbaijani Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev told his country’s media, “This is evidenced by the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimony.”

“The type of weapon used for the interference will be established by the investigation,” Nabiyev said.

Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty.

But she’s infuriated by Tennessee’s meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions.

“I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in,” said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. “You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?”