Raw Story

Former President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk are "addicted" to chasing adulation on social media, CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan told Anderson Cooper on Friday evening — and the extent to which that obsession is driving misinformation and potentially influencing voters should not be overlooked.

This comes as Musk, who owns Tesla Motors, SpaceX and X, has essentially taken over voter outreach campaign operations from the Trump campaign, in ways that are plagued with glitches and may not be entirely legal.

"It is remarkable the amount of just things that aren't true that [Musk] is pushing out," said Cooper, noting that he has lately been pushing attacks on Dominion Voting Systems, the company that forced a legal settlement from Fox News for conspiracy theories about rigging the 2020 presidential election.

ALSO READ: The menstrual police are coming: Inside the GOP's plan for total control over women

"Exactly," said O'Sullivan. "It's just — but I really think the role that Twitter, now called X, such a pivotal role it's played in both Trump's life, in terms of basically getting him into the White House, giving him that megaphone, and now of course, Musk."

"Both of these guys have gotten — they got addicted, right?" O'Sullivan continued. "They got addicted to the likes and shares and the retweets, and it's manifested in different ways. Musk ended up buying the platform. But yeah, you can really see that, and Musk does this thing all the time ... where something would be totally ridiculous and Musk just responds to it, says 'interesting' and immediately that gets posted, that gets elevated to potentially 200 million of his followers every single day."

"Musk has, obviously, a lot of business interests that rely on U.S. government contracts, connections," added O'Sullivan. "I mean, he's putting a lot of stock in Trump's going to get reelected. It would obviously benefit him hugely."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Donald Trump's campaign has set up a fundraising page for hurricane relief, but it's not clear where the money is actually going.

The Republican nominee's campaign created the fundraising campaign billed “as an official response for MAGA supporters to offer their financial assistance to their fellow Americans impacted by Hurricane Helene,” reported The New Republic. The page lists charities it says would receive the MAGA funds.

Three of the four charities listed are Christian or Evangelical nongovernmental organizations — Samaritan’s Purse, Water Mission, and Mtn2Sea Ministries — while the fourth is listed as the “Clinch Foundation,” which appears to be the Clinch Memorial Hospital’s Foundation in Valdosta, Georgia.

However, the campaign has not said how it would disburse those funds, which stood at about $7.7 million as of Monday, although Mtn2Sea Ministries says it has received $25,000.

“This is the only funds we expect to [receive] from this GoFundMe account and are very grateful for it to help us serve,” a post on the charity's Facebook page read.

ALSO READ: Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

The crowdfunding page doesn't violate any campaign finance laws, but political candidates typically donate campaign money to IRS-approved nonprofits.

“It’s pretty unusual and actually quite odd,” said campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said the former president wanted to “help find a way for his supporters to give as much direct support as they can.”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier revealed Monday there would be "no stipulations" in his upcoming interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.

During a Monday appearance on Fox News, Baier acknowledged a controversy surrounding an interview with Harris that was allegedly edited by CBS News.

"I thought Bill Whitaker did a good job asking matter-of-fact questions and following up," Baier said. "I think the controversy over the edit was a big, big deal for CBS."

"So that's not going to happen with us," he continued.

Baier then shared some details about the interview.

ALSO READ: Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

"It'll be essentially live to tape and no stipulations on the questions, wide open, there's no caveats that are coming to do the interview," he insisted. "So she'll take all and any questions."

Baier's interview with Harris is set to air Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET on Fox News.

Watch the video below from Fox News.

Donald Trump has long openly admired the world's dictators and three weeks before the US presidential election he's taking a page from the authoritarian playbook with escalating threats against the "enemy from within."

One of Trump's hallmarks as president was his constant use of the phrase "enemy of the people" to describe the media -- or at least the media which didn't paint him in a good light.

But as polls show him with a good chance of beating Kamala Harris next month to regain the White House, Trump got attention Sunday when he called for sending the US military to combat a much broader group of Americans.

Asked on Trump-friendly Fox News whether he expected election day would be peaceful, the Republican cited internal enemies.

"We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by -- if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military," he said.

"The enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries," he said.

The only specific "enemy" that Trump identified was senior Democratic congressman and Senate candidate Adam Schiff, whom he described as "a sleazebag" and "major lowlife."

Trump would not yet have authority over the National Guard or the military on election day, even if he were declared the winner.

However, the suggestion of using the army against Americans reinforces the billionaire's increasingly dark emphasis on authoritarian messaging.

- China as policing model? -

Trump's claim on Fox News that "internal" foes are more dangerous than major foreign adversaries like Moscow and Beijing builds on years of admiration for leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Those three are "at the top of their game, they're tough, they're smart, they're vicious, and they're going to protect their country," he said glowingly in August.

What's newer is growing emphasis on emulating authoritarians' domestic crackdowns on US soil.

Last month, Trump claimed the country was awash in crime -- something refuted by official statistics -- then told a rally that the solution would be to allow police to impose a violent crackdown.

"If you had one really violent day," he mused. "One rough hour -- and I mean real rough -- the word would get out and it would end immediately."

It was the kind of language that echoed another of Trump's favorite lines -- that Xi runs China with an "iron hand."

"He controls 1.4 billion people ruthlessly. Ruthlessly. No games," Trump lauded in January this year, calling Xi a "brilliant man."

Democrats -- and a long list of former senior Trump presidential staff -- have sounded dire warnings about a second term. But Trump himself makes little effort to push back.

Asked last December on Fox whether he had any aims to create a dictatorship, he answered: "No, other than day one."

- 'Revenge' -

Trump has run for years on accusations that a shadowy "deep state" is the truly anti-democratic force in the United States and that he is there to defend ordinary voters.

However, he upended democratic norms in 2020 when he refused to recognize his election loss to Joe Biden. He now continues to cast doubt on whether November's election will be fair -- raising fears of unrest similar to the January 6, 2021 assault by his supporters on the Capitol.

As election day approaches, Trump has repeatedly suggested that in his second term the Justice Department would imprison election cheats -- despite no evidence to back his claims that any cheating has taken place.

"WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again," Trump posted in September.

As Trump said in an interview with TV host "Dr. Phil" in June, "sometimes, revenge can be justified."

© Agence France-Presse

More than 90 percent of voters in Brantley County, Georgia, backed Donald Trump in 2020, making it the most reliably pro-Trump county in the six battleground states — and likely the country, CNN reported Monday.

But that's not to say there aren't some holdouts who refuse to vote for the Republican nominee. They spoke to CNN during a visit to report on the staunchly conservative county in southeast Georgia.

“I ain’t going to vote for a criminal,” said Corbet Wilson, an independent.

He said the Jan. 6 insurrection should have been a disqualifier, and his friend Donald Lewis agreed.

“He’s anti-American," Lewis said. "He’s trying to overthrow our government."

The pair joined their Trump-backing friends and neighbors at the Gold House diner in Nahunta, and while the talk was amicable they were mystified by the level of support the Republican nominee enjoyed.

"People would kill for him, I think,” Wilson said. “I don’t understand it. I don’t even try.”

“They can vote any way they want to vote,” Wilson said, and conservative pal David Herrin chimed in: “And we’ll still eat breakfast again.”

ALSO READ: Busted: Armed man arrested at rally tied to Trump's 'secretary of retribution'

The Trump fans weren't impressed by Kamala Harris' proposals for improving the economy, especially her plan to change the tax code so wealthier people would pay more to go toward education and health care, and they were suspicious of the big jobs report last month.

"Government numbers,” said Bill Middleton, a retired union boilermaker.

Herrin didn't believe President Joe Biden or anyone in his administration deserves credit for the improved economy.

“You can’t take that and give credit to Washington, D.C.," Herrin said. "You give credit for that to the American people that go to work every day, even when they down, even when it’s against them, even when it then when it’s going uphill. We get up and we continue to work, we continue to fight, and we’ve made this country better. Ain’t nobody in Washington got a right to take credit for what the American people have done.”

Fox News host Martha MacCallum questioned Alina Habba, an aide and attorney for Donald Trump, after she claimed there were "babies floating in the water" under the vice presidency of Kamala Harris.

While appearing on Fox News, MacCallum told Habba that Trump had been criticized for allegedly spreading misinformation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

"You know, there's been criticism about former President Trump, ... and what he has said about the ability for the administration to respond to this issue," the Fox News host said.

"Let's talk about facts," Habba ranted. " ... Let's talk about information that is undisputable. While Helene was happening, Kamala decided it was more important to go on a podcast about sex, Call Her Daddy."

"So I'm talking facts," she continued. "This is not the time to politicize. This is not the time to try and get a point ahead of your other opponent. It's the time to get dirty and go help people."

Habba insisted that Trump "hasn't tried to make phony phone calls to look good to the media."

"And western North Carolina got hit really hard," she opined. "They need help. They need water. There are still people missing.

"There are babies floating in the water. And we're on podcasts. That's what the Harris team is doing."

ALSO READ: Voter exhaustion is part of Trump's grift

MacCallum seemed unconvinced, making the lawyer pause to explain.

"Where did you see that report of a baby floating in the water?" she asked.

"We have absolutely heard there are children floating," Habba repeated. "There's missing bodies, dead bodies."

Watch the video below from Fox News.