Showing posts with label donalddonaldhowdoesyourgardengrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donalddonaldhowdoesyourgardengrow. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Report: Major Wall Street Firms & A Foreign Central Bank With Business Before Trump Administration Invested Heavily in Trump Media Company Despite Posting $400M In Losses

https://accountable.us/report-major-wall-street-firms-a-foreign-central-bank-with-business-before-trump-administration-invested-heavily-in-trump-media-company-despite-posting-400m-in-losses/ 

Findings Come Amid Bonanza of Bribe-Like Activity Via Trump Family Crypto Ventures

Washington D.C. – A new report from government watchdog Accountable.US details how major U.S. institutional investors and a foreign central bank with interests actively before the Trump administration have dramatically increased their holdings in Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2024 to the tune of millions of dollars – even after TMTG posted $400 million in losses in 2024. Some of these institutional investors may be using their cash infusions in Trump’s personal business as leverage to secure policy wins and even negotiate favorable deals with foreign governments, with one firm signing a tentative deal with the Saudis worth $1 billion. Despite reporting consistent losses, TMTG reportedly plans to buyback $400 million in stock, apparently to entice these investors to continue supporting the President’s unprofitable company.

“Donald Trump’s refusal to divest from his publicly traded company has predictably prompted huge investments from Wall Street insiders and a foreign bank that could just so happen to use a favor from the president,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “These institutional investors with business before the administration have effectively offered a form of tribute by bulk purchasing shares in DJT on the open market, which helps juice the value of Trump’s own shares. Considering Trump Media has been hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, there’s little doubt these special interests are hoping for a different kind of return on their investment. On top of the Trump family’s rapidly escalating crypto schemes, Trump Media is part of the President’s strategy of wearing his corruption on his sleeve and daring his allies in Congress to do something about it.”

KEY FINDINGS:  

  • Citadel Advisors, “the most successful hedge fund of all-time” is led by billionaire GOP donor Ken Griffin and the firm currently holds nearly 275,000 shares of DJT worth approximately ~$6.3 million. The firm has also been openly pushing the government to keep the “carried-interest loophole”, which benefits fabulously wealthy hedge fund executives like Griffin, and which Trump has promised to eliminate. And they appear to be getting their wish, as the House reconciliation bill that Trump has advocated for did not include a provision to close the carried-interest loophole. 

President Trump’s insistence on maintaining a majority ~$2.6 billion stake in TMTG has invited grave concerns about the unprecedented potential for bribery and corruption where investing in TMTG can become an open money funnel to buy influence. The heavy investment activity from Wall Street benefiting the Trump family also comes as the President effectively shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the financial industry has spent millions fighting against since its inception for holding them accountable when they ripped off, discriminated against and deceived consumers.

Meanwhile, President Trump continues to trample over every presidential ethical standard by inviting anonymous foreign, corporate and other special interests with hidden agendas to funnel virtually unlimited money into personal Trump family crypto ventures. This open flood gate to unprecedented presidential corruption has already led to a money-for-access-dinner competition for top $TRUMP coin holders – won by a Chinese crypto billionaire and alleged fraudster who’d already seen a Trump SEC case against him paused after investing $75M in another Trump crypto venture – and the Qatar government gifting the administration a ‘palace in the sky’ jumbo jet which Donald Trump intends to transfer to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation after the end of his term, where it would be available for his own personal benefit. The potential for corruption runs stateside too, with a shipping logistics company dropping $20 million on the $TRUMP coin after admitting it was seeking to sway Trump’s tariff policies in its favor.

The new report follows Accountable.US’ findings that Hancock Prospecting, a foreign firm based in Australia owned by Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has also opened a position worth millions of dollars in TMTG as Australian officials have encouraged the firm to lobby Trump for tariff exemptions for steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. – all raising serious questions of motive.  Separately, Accountable.US found that Carlos De Miguel III, head of a Brazilian mining company owned by Rinehart, gave $250,000 to the Trump-Vance inauguration committee. 

###

 

 

Saturday, June 21, 2025

Friday, June 6, 2025

Rep. Jasmine Crockett: Elon’s Still Lurking—and So Is Trump’s Data Grab

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwANY5-rRyY

 Jun 5, 2025

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett isn’t letting Elon Musk off the hook—and she’s sounding the alarm on what the Trump administration is really doing with your data. From AI surveillance to Social Security snooping, Crockett calls out the GOP’s failure to provide real oversight and exposes the privacy nightmare brewing under Trump’s DOGE program. She’s asking the questions Republicans won’t—and warning that what starts with students and nonprofits might end with all of us.

 

Transcript

thank you so much Madam Chair um you
know it's interesting because um I don't
know what all has taken place thus far
in this hearing but I do recall when I
left we were talking about Elon and so I
want to make sure uh that we don't
forget him i know that some people want
us to forget Elon and act like he never
existed but we're not going to do that
um we are talking about AI today and I
can tell you what real people in my
district care about i had a few town
halls and I talked to some seniors and
they were concerned about their data and
their information and how it was being
used and they wanted me to answer
questions that I just didn't have the
answers to about what has Elon done with
their tax information their social
security information their health
information banking information
information about their credit histories
and instead of demanding answers
Republicans just blocked our motion to
subpoena him to testify before this
committee and I'd ask at this point for
unanimous consent to enter into the
record um a picture of who all was in
the room when we took the vote madam
Chair no objection um as well as since
our clerk was ready and she knew who was
in the room uh the actual record of who
was in the room at that time no
objection thank you so much
five months into the 119th Congress and
no one from the administration or Doge
has appeared before this committee to
explain why they're invading the privacy
of Americans and the irony of it all is
during a 2023 hearing i remember
Chairman Comr stating that quote "We've
witnessed big tech autocrats will their
unchecked power to promote their
preferred political opinions and now he
and committee Republicans are here
helping the world's richest man to do
just that they're letting him spy on
companies competing for government
grants but worse they're letting him spy
on you the American people look we can
all agree that incorporating emerging
technologies like artificial
intelligence into government operations
can be effective however these
technologies shouldn't be used to
weaponize the government against the
public so I'm going to ask Mr schneider
really quickly is it true that when it
comes to any technologies AI or
otherwise that they can be a
double-edged sword
i think of technology as power and the
more the technology enhances your power
and whether your power is for good or
for bad depends on you depends on how
you're perceived so yes I mean techn
technology has affordances and we know
that modern technologies have kind of
built for surveillance make surveillance
easy i mean this is the most complex
effective surveillance device we've ever
invented and we all willingly put it in
our pockets every morning so so yes
technologies can be used for both good
and evil but think of of the people
behind it as as the wielders yes I I
absolutely agree and I appreciate your
answer that's my concern my concern is
that these technologies will be used to
weaponize the government against the
public because everything that we have
seen out of this particular
administration has been nothing short
but weaponization so let's talk about
some of the things that this
administration is doing they've
announced they're going to use AI to
scam the social media accounts of
students who disagree with their
policies they've threatened nonprofits
and universities that are tax they're
threatening their tax exempt status
they've threatened journalists for
reporting stories that are critical of
the president they are literally in
court arguing to end birthright
citizenship and a lot of y'all think
only immigrants are going to be affected
by this but this administration has
already deported American citizens in
fact in an interview with Time magazine
Trump said quote "I would love to do
that we're looking into it." Um Madam
Chair I'd ask unanimous consent to enter
into the record um an article published
by ABC News titled quote "Trump wants to
send US citizens to foreign prisons."
Legal experts no objection thank you it
won't be long before more Americans are
targets of this administration this
administration has refused to follow the
law and the Republicans are failing to
do actual oversight we don't know what
they're going to do with their health
records and social security information
in fact we don't know what they're doing
i don't I don't think anybody does
except we know that they're breaking the
law and it is frustrating to me because
I am somebody that actually believes in
science i believe that we should be
investing in our young people i believe
that we should not be taking research
dollars away i believe that we should be
trying to come up with new technologies
and that we should be leading the world
but unfortunately I can't trust these
guys to do good things because as it's
already been said by Mr schneider it is
about who it is that is on the side that
is asking for this to be done and
frankly this feels like some bad
um movie that we are all in and that the
villains are doing bad so uh with that I
will yield