Experts are issuing stern warnings about business support for Trump – it could backfire badly and endanger democracy From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, a growing number of billionaires, tech titans and venture capitalists are backing Donald Trump’s campaign for president, among them Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity fund, Steve Wynn, the casino tycoon, Bill Ackman, the hedge fund manager, and Marc Andreessen, a leading venture capitalist. But many business school professors and historians are issuing stern warnings about this business support for Trump, saying that backing him could backfire badly for business and endanger America’s democracy. These professors caution that corporate America – along with everyone else – should be hugely concerned about a candidate who has talked of being a dictator on day one, terminating the constitution, and weaponizing the justice department to exact revenge against his critics. Continue reading...

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The Democratic contender tells it like it is about Donald Trump • You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

AI images posted to Truth Social bore the watermark of a tiny Texas non-profit looking to bankroll X users When Donald Trump shared a slew of AI-generated images this week that falsely depicted Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing his campaign for president, the former US president was amplifying the work of a murky non-profit with aspirations to bankroll rightwing media influencers and a history of spreading misinformation. Several of the images Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, which showed digitally rendered young women in “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, were the products of the John Milton Freedom Foundation. Launched last year, the Texas-based non-profit organization frames itself as a press freedom group with the goal of “empowering independent journalists” and “fortifying the bedrock of democracy”. Continue reading...

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Donald Trump’s bizarre conversation with Elon Musk leaves Kamala Harris’s party feeling confident • You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

Apparently size does matter * See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...

It started poorly with a 45-minute delay and rolling technical issues – and was discussed on other platforms * US politics – live Elon Musk has been trying to entice Donald Trump back to X ever since he bought the site (formerly Twitter) in 2022. Until now, Trump has been content to rely on his own social network, Truth Social, to get the word out to his fans and followers, even after his one-time permanent Twitter/X ban was lifted. But as the US election nears, and Musk’s support of Trump becomes more vocal, Trump has returned, making a flurry of posts on X over the course of Monday and ending with a live conversation with Musk over a meandering three hours. Continue reading...

Musk blames cyber-attack as conversation is delayed, resembling glitchy launch of Ron DeSantis’s campaign As a high-profile conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was about to begin, users of X, formerly Twitter, were confronted with the message: “This Space is not available.” Spaces, X’s livestreaming audio feature, was the chosen forum for the dialogue, but it wasn’t working. Clicking on the link to the broadcast, hosted by Trump’s dormant @RealDonaldTrump account, froze the site and rendered it unusable. Tweeters said they couldn’t dial in; some said their browsers had crashed. Continue reading...