Business
Trump And RFK Jr. To Save The Day For TikTok?
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Of the many, many Biden-era policies that the new Trump administration is expected to reverse, it appears that the pending TikTok ban is high on the list.
After promising to save TikTok on the campaign trail, his spokeswoman last week confirmed that Trump’s plans to deliver. Since almost everyone — including Trump himself — as well as many companies utilize the technology, reeling in the ban is good politics and smart policy. Coincidentally, it is also consistent with the stance taken by President-elect Donald Trump’s pal and nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose populist and libertarian views will likely help shape Trump 2.0 even beyond the department.
Much like what has come to be known as Barack Obama’s “Facebook election” in 2008, the 2024 cycle might well be known as the “TikTok election.” Trump joined with Vice President Kamala Harris and candidates from federal to local levels in embracing the app unequivocally and successfully, quickly gaining millions of followers almost overnight. From rowdy rallies to ebullient encouragement from supporters in every part of the country and soundbites hitting at opponents and detractors, to the now-iconic dance moves, the Trump campaign made its way into the history books with a good deal of help from his TikTok content.
This was no accident. The president-elect and his campaign knew that connecting with young voters, especially those Gen-Z voters going to the polls for the first time, would be a critical part of the coalition that could return him to the White House. An NBC News poll taken last week showed that among first time voters, Trump’s support grew a whopping 22% from 2020 to 2024. As the Trump team recognized, these voters get their news and information largely from social media, and many from TikTok in particular, and little if any from traditional media outlets.
Back to RFK, Jr. As a key advisor and voice in Trump world, he has been a similarly strong advocate for protecting TikTok and undoing the legislation that now threatens to ban the app. Last Spring, Kennedy, with more than three million followers of his own, came out publicly against a ban and committed to filing a lawsuit to fight it.
In a post on X, Kennedy wrote: “Don’t be fooled — the TikTok ban is not about China harvesting your data. That’s a smoke screen. Intelligence agencies from lots of countries, especially ours, are harvesting your data from everywhere all the time. TikTok isn’t even majority Chinese-owned, and the company agreed to put its data behind a U.S. firewall. The Biden administration rejected that deal. Congress and the administration don’t understand that TikTok is an entrepreneurial platform for thousands of American young people. They want to screw them over just so they can pretend to be tough on China.”
The initial misinformation and propaganda against TikTok when the ban was first proposed came in heavy and hard, and many people initially bought it. Myself included. I thought, without having even logged on, TikTok was garbage (wrong) and admittedly I can be pretty gullible when it comes to suggestions of Chinese chicanery. Nobody’s perfect. But I digress.
The power of populism at this uniquely American moment is golden — an opportunity to give voices to the voiceless and an ear to those previously unheard. It is a good thing that both Trump and Kennedy understand that banning social media which is now a fact of American life, no matter what the app or the platform, is an attack on free speech and the populist power now driving American politics. Any politician still advocating for a TikTok ban is going against that populist sentiment and may want to re-think it — as even I have — lest they soon be looking for a new line of work.
Christian Josi is the founder and managing director of C. Josi & Company, a global communications and public affairs resource organization.
From the Fraser Institute
By Ben Eisen and Milagros Palacios
Hiring by the federal government in excess of population growth cost taxpayers $7.5 billion in 2022/23.
The federal workforce has grown more rapidly than the Canadian population starting in 2015/16, imposing significant costs on taxpayers, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think tank.
Federal government employment has grown significantly faster than the Canadian population starting in 2015/16, and we’re already seeing the consequences,” said Ben Eisen, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of Growing Government Workforce Puts Pressure on Federal Finances, the first in a series of studies on federal reform.
The study finds that between 2015/16 and 2022/23, the latest year of data available, the number of full-time federal workers has increased by 26.1 per cent compared to growth in the overall Canadian population of 9.1 per cent.
“Growth in federal employment has almost tripled the rate of population growth since 2015/16, which is simply unsustainable” commented Eisen.
How much will this growth in government cost Canadian taxpayers?
According to the study, if federal hiring had simply kept pace with the rate of Canada’s population growth taxpayers would have saved $7.5 billion.
The reduced spending on federal employees would lower the federal deficit, which is expected to exceed $35.3 billion in 2022/23.
“The growth in the number of federal employees has been a major contributor to the growth in federal government spending and the size of deficits in recent years,” Eisen said.
- The Canadian federal government workforce has grown more rapidly than the Canadian population starting in 2015/16, imposing significant costs on taxpayers.
- In fact, between 2015/16 and 2022/23, the latest year of data available, the number of full-time federal government workers has increased by 26.1 per cent, compared to growth in the overall Canadian population of 9.1 per cent.
- If federal hiring had simply kept pace with the rate of Canada’s population growth taxpayers would have saved $7.5 billion.
- The reduced spending on federal employees would lower the federal deficit, which is expected to exceed $35.3 billion in 2022/23.
Ben Eisen
Milagros Palacios
After years of mocking Trump and betting on a woke Washington, Trudeau now finds himself groveling to save Canada’s economy from MAGA’s hardball tactics.
Justin Trudeau has spent years mocking and deriding the MAGA movement, banking on a continuation of woke, progressive leadership in Washington. He bet everything on a Kamala Harris presidency, believing the days of Donald Trump’s America-first agenda were a distant memory. Now, with Trump back in office, Trudeau finds himself groveling at Mar-a-Lago, trying to salvage what’s left of Canada’s crumbling economic future.
This is the same Justin Trudeau who painted MAGA as a dangerous fringe movement, aligning himself with global elites and lecturing Americans on their supposed moral failings. He openly scoffed at Trump’s tariffs, his immigration policies, and his tough-on-China stance. Trudeau’s bet? That a Democrat-controlled America would reward his sycophantic pandering with favorable trade deals and continued subsidies for his progressive fantasies.
But Trudeau’s gamble failed. Trump is back, and Trudeau’s entire house of cards is collapsing. Canada’s economy, propped up by unfair trade advantages and U.S. energy consumption, is suddenly exposed. The 25% tariff threat on Canadian imports has Trudeau scrambling, not with bold leadership, but with empty promises and nervous laughter at Mar-a-Lago.
In a moment of pure irony, Trudeau, who once lectured Trump about values, now finds himself kneeling to kiss the ring. MAGA, what? Gone is the smug defiance, replaced by desperate platitudes about border security and economic cooperation. But let’s be clear: Trudeau isn’t there to protect Canadian interests; he’s there to save face. His government is woefully unprepared for Trump’s hardball tactics, and the Prime Minister’s office knows it.
During a recent dinner at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump reportedly suggested that Canada could become the 51st U.S. state if it couldn’t handle the economic impact of proposed tariffs. This remark came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed concerns that a 25% tariff on Canadian imports would “kill” Canada’s economy.
Trump’s comment underscores the significant economic interdependence between the two nations. In 2022, trade between the U.S. and Canada exceeded $900 billion, with the U.S. accounting for 63.4% of Canada’s global trade. This deep economic integration means that shifts in U.S. trade policy can have profound effects on Canada’s economy.
Trump’s quip about Canada becoming the “51st state” wasn’t just a joke; it was a power move, a reminder of who holds the cards in this relationship. While Trudeau nervously laughed, the message was clear: Canada needs the U.S. far more than the U.S. needs Canada. Trudeau’s weakness has brought us here. Instead of securing energy independence, he’s strangled Alberta’s oil industry with crippling regulations. Instead of standing up to China, he’s kowtowed to Beijing while relying on U.S. trade to keep his agenda afloat.
And now, Trudeau is at the mercy of a man he spent years mocking. Trump’s tariffs are a direct consequence of Trudeau’s inability to lead. His failure to address illegal immigration and the fentanyl crisis has made Canada not just a bad neighbor, but a liability.
Trudeau’s Liberals have always been more concerned with appearances than action, more focused on virtue signaling than real governance. But now, the bill has come due. And the man holding the ledger is none other than Donald J. Trump.
So here we are: Justin Trudeau, the woke globalist, reduced to pleading for mercy at Mar-a-Lago. His smugness replaced by desperation, his rhetoric exposed as hollow. MAGA what, indeed.
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