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Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, a roundup of the past week’s top stories at the intersection of technology and politics.
Trump admin goes to bat for Andrew Tate
Donald Trump’s special envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, restated his support for self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, who are currently facing human trafficking charges and a money laundering investigation in Romania, according to a recent report by the Financial Times (the Tate brothers have denied any wrongdoing). The FT reports that Trump administration officials, including Grennell, have pressured Romania to lift travel restrictions on the pair. Grenell told the FT he had had “no substantive conversation” with Romania’s foreign minister and said, “I support the Tate brothers as evident by my publicly available tweets.”
Read more at the Financial Times.
Tom Homan blows his top
Tom Homan, whom Trump has tapped to lead his mass deportation efforts, fumed at New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week for hosting a “know your rights” webinar that helped teach online viewers about their rights when encountering immigration enforcement officials. As I note in my piece, “If your so-called law enforcement activity is hampered by people actually knowing the law, that’s not a good sign.”
Read my blog here.
Jesse Watters explains the right’s ‘warfare’
Fox News host Jesse Watters gave a perfect summation of the conservative movement’s propaganda machine during a recent episode of “The Five.” Watch the clip below to hear him explain how conservative propaganda often begins on social media and travels from influencers like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan before ultimately being picked up by Fox News and peddled to millions of viewers.
DHS launches digital ad campaign
The Department of Homeland Security launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, including targeted online ads, to discourage immigration by warning undocumented immigrants they are “not welcome” in the United States.
Read more at ABC News.
Team Trump makes another big error
The Trump administration haphazardly fired hundreds of staffers tasked with overseeing the U.S.’s nuclear weapons programs … and now they’re desperately trying to hire some of them back.
Read more on the Maddowblog.
Lost signal
Elon Musk’s social media platform X appears to be blocking links to Signal, an app that supports encrypted messaging that has been used by federal employees hoping to blow the whistle on government misconduct. The blocked links come at a time when Musk and the crew at the quasi-governmental agency are seeking to gain access to millions of Americans’ private data.
Read more at TechCrunch.
On Bended Knee
R&B group Boyz II Men faced backlash online last week after Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson posted a cheery photo with the group to X.
The singers were on Capitol Hill to advocate for a bill that seeks to ensure fairer pay for musicians whose songs are played on the radio. The opportunistic photo op resembles one Johnson had with rapper 50 Cent last year.
Read more at The Grio.
A billionaire Musk ally joins his ‘department’
AirBnB co-founder Joe Gebbia, a Tesla board member and ally of Elon Musk, is reportedly joining Musk’s haphazard and legally dubious effort to slash and burn massive parts of the U.S. government.
Read more at The New York Times.
U.S. Army seeks autonomous builder bots
The Army is looking to purchase autonomous robots it says will help build physical bridges in combat scenarios.
Read more at Business Insider.