Trump Issues Clear Threat to Mark Zuckerberg Ahead of the Election

In his new book, Donald Trump threatens billionaire and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with prison.

Save America, set to be published next week, includes a photograph of Zuckerberg and Trump at the White House. Underneath the photo, Trump wrote that Zuckerberg “would come to the Oval Office to see me” and “bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.”

Trump went on to pin some of his election conspiracies on Zuckerberg, and gave him a serious warning.

“He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump (or perhaps his ghostwriter) wrote.

It’s not the first time Trump has threatened the Meta mogul with prison. In July, he called out “ZUCKERBUCKS,” saying a Trump administration would “pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time.”

Zuckerburg responded by sucking up to Trump, calling him “badass” for raising his fist following the assassination attempt against him at a Pennsylvania rally. And earlier this week, Zuckerburg wrote to Congress expressing regrets over “demoting” ​​the 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, waiting for fact-checkers to review it, drawing a gleeful response from Trump on Truth Social.

“Zuckerberg admits that the White House pushed to SUPPRESS HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY (& much more!). IN OTHER WORDS, THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS RIGGED,” Trump posted on Tuesday.

Needless to say, imprisoning the owner of a social media platform because he’s not doing what you want is a clear First Amendment violation. Trump still angrily insists that the 2020 election was rigged against him, claiming that massive voter fraud coupled with collaboration between the news media and social media fixed the results. And he won’t commit to accepting a 2024 election outcome in which he loses, as his cronies make moves to sabotage November’s election in Republicans’ favor, taking over key election posts in battleground states. Democrats will have to be vigilant as Election Day nears, perhaps looking at Georgia as an example, where even leading Republicans are looking to ensure a fair process.

J.D. Vance failed desperately Wednesday to spin a story about two of Donald Trump’s staffers allegedly pushing an employee at Arlington National Cemetery—and is being absolutely roasted for it.

During his rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, the former U.S. Marine tried to downplay allegations that members of Trump’s team had verbally and physically assaulted a cemetery staff member on Monday.

After a wreath-laying ceremony for those killed three years ago at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan (Vance mistakenly called it Abbey Road), Trump’s team reportedly wanted to take pictures in Section 60, where recent U.S. casualties are laid to rest. Photography is strictly prohibited in that area. When they were met with resistance, campaign staff pushed their way in, according to NPR.

The incident has sparked outrage, but Vance had a different group to blame for the firestorm: the press.

“Well, I-I think first of all, the altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think there is one,” Vance said, claiming that there was “verifiable evidence” that the campaign was permitted to have a photographer with them.

Vance insisted it was all OK because Trump had been invited by the family of a veteran, notably leaving out the part where his team may have potentially violated federal law by bringing a photographer. Video footage from Trump’s time in Section 60 was published to his TikTok Tuesday, overlaid with thoughtful music and audio of Trump blatantly lying about the number of U.S. casualties during his term.

Vance’s move to blame the press is hardly surprising considering he can’t stop denigrating them at practically every single appearance—the Ohio senator openly grinned while a CNN reporter was booed at his rally Wednesday.

It is, however, a notable shift from the Trump team’s other egregious excuse. Trump’s communication director Steven Cheung had claimed that the incident was the fault of the ANC staff member who was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode,” and denied there was an altercation “as described.”

Later on stage, Vance brought the incident up yet again, in service of one of his deflated one-liners.

“Now, yeah, I mean i-it-it is amazing to me, that you have apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody, and they have turned—the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance said.

“You know what I think our veterans care a lot more about? That Kamala Harris’s V.P. nominee lied about his military service,” Vance quipped, trotting out his same tired “stolen valor” attack against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Online, Vance was slammed for his comments, which seemed to incidentally confirm that an “altercation” had in fact taken place, while laughably attempting to downplay it at the same time.

Even when Ohio Senator J.D. Vance thinks he’s winning, he’s losing.

During a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, the Republican vice presidential pick took a moment to pat himself on the back for his ability to speak off the cuff.

“Ma’am, I don’t need a teleprompter, I’ve actually got thoughts in my head, unlike Kamala Harris,” Vance told the crowd.

But the high didn’t last long. Moments later, Vance appeared to need a scripted reminder when he misremembered the name of Abbey Gate, the location of a horrific suicide bombing in 2021, for the location of The Beatles’ London recording studio. Monday marked the three-year anniversary of the terrorist attack just outside of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan, which killed 170 Afghans and 13 American service members.

The unfortunate flub was wrapped into an answer for a genuine scandal plaguing the Trump campaign, which was caught Tuesday violating federal law as staff members filmed Donald Trump laying a wreath in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where recent military casualties are buried. Campaign staffers then launched into a verbal and physical fight with cemetery officials, who reportedly asked the campaign to stop videos. Federal law prohibits politically related activities in the cemetery, including taking photos and videos in support of a political campaign.

“The altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I don’t really think there is one,” Vance told the crowd. “There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there. They were invited to have a photographer there. There is verifiable evidence that the families of these poor people who had their loved ones die three years ago at Abbey Road, excuse me, Abby Gate, those 13 Americans, a lot of them were there with the president.”

“It is amazing to me that you have, apparently, somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody and the media has turned this into a national news story,” Vance continued. “You know what I think our veterans care more about? That Kamala Harris’s V.P. lied about his military service.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz served as an enlisted soldier in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, ultimately attaining the rank of command sergeant major. He enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard at the age of 17 and transferred to the Minnesota National Guard 15 years later in 1996. As part of the job, he responded to natural disasters, served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan, and was stationed around Europe to train with NATO militaries. He received several Army medals and retired as a master sergeant shortly before running for Congress in 2006. Walz has repeatedly said he left the military in order to run for office, not out of cowardice as Vance has suggested.

Vance’s boss, meanwhile, received a conveniently timed bone spur diagnosis that helped him skirt the Vietnam War draft in 1968. He’s also managed to recently upset veterans with his anti-military rhetoric, including for claiming that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.

Elon Musk is making a serious dive into politics, hiring a longtime Republican political adviser.

Chris Young, who has worked as a field organizer for former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the field director for the Republican National Committee, and most recently, a political official at a pharmaceutical trade association, will be helping with Musk’s political initiatives, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing three anonymous sources.

Part of Young’s job will be to help Musk with the pro-Trump America super PAC he founded. Young, who has experience leading Republicans’ voter registration efforts, is also expected to help with field organizing.

The hire is a big step for the billionaire and world’s richest person, whose political involvement has been limited and flaky in the past. Republicans have lamented Musk backing out of grand promises and spending pledges, seeing him as a potential meal ticket and inspiration that doesn’t follow through.

For example, The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Musk planned to donate $45 million per month to the America PAC in support of Donald Trump, raising the hopes of many in the GOP. But the tech mogul later denied that report, saying he’d actually be giving at “at a much lower level.” Musk has engaged in different ways, though, secretly lobbying Trump along with Tucker Carlson to choose J.D. Vance as his running mate, and allowing misinformation to run rife on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), that benefits Trump.

Musk’s super PAC has also been collecting voters’ personal information under the guise of inviting them to register to vote, drawing the ire of state governments and putting the PAC under investigation. And although it’s not $45 million, the PAC has begun spending money, $5.8 million as of two weeks ago, to help Trump’s election efforts. X has been pushing Trump’s advertisements on the social media platform, coinciding with Trump’s buggy interview with Musk on the website.

The new hire suggests that Musk will be making more moves in politics, possibly getting his super PAC involved in political contests besides the presidency, and maybe taking advantage of Young’s field experience and trying to push Trump on a more local level. Either way, a billionaire engaging more in politics and spending a lot of money does not bode well for our democracy, particularly when it’s on behalf of a convicted felon who repeatedly attacks the electoral process.

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed a company run by the daughter of Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush-money case, over faulty allegations of political bias.

Loren Merchan, the president of Authentic Campaigns, a political consulting group that has worked with Democrats, became a focal point of Trump’s attacks against New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. The justice is expected to dole out the former president’s sentence for his hush-money trial on September 18.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the House Judiciary demanded that Authentic Campaigns provide any evidence regarding whether Loren Merchan’s company worked for Trump’s “political adversaries,” and whether she might’ve financially benefited from Trump’s trial and subsequent conviction.

House Republicans have been attempting to get their hands on documents from Authentic Campaigns for the past month, which they hope will prove Trump’s claims that Merchan’s company worked with Trump’s enemies, and therefore her father could be dismissed from the case for bias.

Mike Nellis, the founder of Authentic Campaigns, publicly shared his company’s response to Republicans’ first request for information earlier this month, criticizing the committee for wrongly “villainizing” his colleague.

“Authentic had no role, involvement, or influence whatsoever in those judicial proceedings,” Nellis wrote, claiming that his company had no contracts with Biden for President, Harris for President, or the Democratic National Committee since January 1, 2023.

Authentic Campaigns’ list of clients includes both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaigns, according to its website. In 2019, Harris’s campaign doled out $7.5 million to the firm for digital advertising and creative consulting, and more than $2.1 million in 2020, per CNN. Authentic has also touted Representative Adam Schiff as one of its biggest clients.

Nellis called Trump’s claims that Loren Merchan had raised tens of millions off of Trump’s trial “unequivocally false.” He also lambasted the committee for “using valuable time and taxpayer dollars to perpetuate a false right-wing conspiracy theory,” calling it a “disgraceful misuse of power.”

What started as a long-shot bid to oust Justice Merchan during Trump’s trial has become a quest by his staunchest defenders, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, to see his conviction vacated. Trump claimed that Merchan was “totally compromised” because of his daughter’s work for Democrats, and escalated his rhetoric by naming her directly.

Trump’s personal attacks against Merchan’s daughter led to a political firestorm, causing crazed MAGA fanatics to harass and even send death threats to Loren and her colleagues, according to Nellis.

After Merchan placed a gag order on Trump, prohibiting him from making rampant, baseless accusations against the judge, courtroom staff, and family members, Fox News took up the task of claiming Loren’s work was grounds for her father’s dismissal from Trump’s trial.

Earlier this month, Trump’s team had once again requested to delay Trump’s sentencing, suggesting it would mitigate the “appearances of impropriety” created by Loren Merchan’s prior work for Harris, and Nellis’s donations to the Harris-Walz campaign.