Tag Archives: Politics

Trump Has Some Surprising Words Of Praise For Starmer Despite Musk Row

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Donald Trump has offered some surprising praise up to Keir Starmer despite not calling the UK PM during his first five days back in office.

The US president, who was inaugurated on Monday, is yet to follow tradition and speak to the UK prime minister since his second term.

But Trump seemed to defy concerns that he might be holding a grudge against the Labour leader when speaking to the BBC on board Air Force One on Saturday.

“I get along with him well. I like him a lot,” the president said.

“He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far.

“He’s represented his country in terms of philosophy.

“I may not agree with his philosophy, but I have a very good relationship with him.”

And when asked where he might go for his first international trip since returning to the White House, Trump said: “It could be Saudi Arabia, it could be UK. Traditionally it could be UK.

“Last time I went to Saudi Arabia because they agreed to buy $450 billion of American United States merchandise.”

Trump also promised he would be talking to Starmer “over the next 24 hours”.

He has met the UK leader on multiple occasions, including when the Labour leader flew to Trump Tower in New York before the presidential election.

However, the delicate friendship they struck up at the time was quickly overshadowed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Now Trump’s informal adviser, Musk has initiated a war of words against Starmer ever since the PM was elected, calling the Labour leader “evil” and questioning his record as the director of public prosecutions over grooming gangs.

Even so, foreign secretary David Lammy said Starmer would be going to visit Trump in the US “within the next few weeks” last Sunday.

There are fears they could clash, as Trump wants to impose tariffs – which could weigh down an already embattled UK economy – and reduce the amount of military aid the US sends to the UK.

Labour’s plan to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is expected to cause further friction, because there is a UK-US military base on the archipelago, and Starmer’s pick for Washington ambassador – Peter Mandelson – has raised some eyebrows among Trump’s inner circle.

There’s also the Labour cabinet’s own very public criticisms of Trump over the years when they were in opposition which ministers have been trying to overlook.

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Trump Wants Canada As ’51st State,’ But Canadians Say No Thanks

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Donald Trump once again suggested Canada give up being a sovereign nation and become America’s 51st state, and, once again, Canadians are saying no thanks — or in some cases, “eff off, eh.”

Although Canadian politicians have repeatedly called Trump’s suggestion “a joke,” the president insisted on Friday that Canadians would actually love to be part of the US because, he claims, the taxes would be lower.

He added that Canadians “wouldn’t have to worry about military, you wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things, you’d have better health coverage, you would have much better health coverage.”

You can watch Trump make his case to Canada below.

But based on the social media reactions, it doesn’t appear as if Trump is winning the hearts and minds of Canadian citizens.

Many people especially laughed at the notion that Canadians would want to give up socialised medicine for the US model of health care.

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Question Time Guest Takes Social Media CEOs Apart For ‘Promoting Extreme Content’

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Social media CEOs were torn apart on BBC Question Time last night as a panellist slammed the platforms for “promoting extreme content”.

After 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana – who murdered three little girls in Southport in July and injured 10 others – was sentenced on Thursday, the public has started to question how the UK can prevent such horrific attacks again in the future.

Green industrialist Dale Vince said social media was a major contributing factor that needs to be addressed.

Speaking to the Question Time audience, he explained: “I think this guy was radicalised to a considerable extent by content on social media. He got his Al Qaeda from social media, he got his recipe for ricin, he watched violent videos on social media.

“One of the biggest things we can do to prevent this happening in the future is to control social media properly – we don’t do that at the moment.”

Vince then focused in on particular websites, such as X (formerly Twitter) run by Elon Musk, as well as Facebook and Instagram, run by Mark Zuckerberg.

He said: “The platforms run by Musk and Zuckerberg for example are promoting extreme content, extreme views, Musk is trying to interfere in our democracy now through his platform X.”

Musk has repeatedly tried to influence government policy through his posts on X and has even come to blows with PM Keir Starmer over it.

Vince added: “Of course, [Rudakbana] got his murder weapon from Jeff Bezos [CEO of Amazon].”

The Southport killer ordered the knife he used in his attack on the shopping site when he was 17, even though it is illegal to sell to under-18s.

Vince continued: “We’ve got the three tech giants of the world, and we don’t control social media well enough. We talked earlier about how we’ve got to keep pace with AI, we haven’t kept social media.

“It’s a supernatural force, it’s outside the boundaries of our nation but it has a really big impact, and after the event – the terrible event – Musk stoked the riots with content on social media. We shouldn’t allow that.

“He in effect aided and abetted the crimes that took place. That’s where we should go.”

Vince later said that the best way to control the social media giants was to “make them responsible for their content”.

Musk, now US president Donald Trump’s informal adviser, used X to promote the right-wing conspiracy theory known as “two-tier policing” at the time of the riots which occurred after the Southport attack.

He also claimed “civil war is inevitable” over the thuggery which erupted in the summer.

The X boss – who is also the richest person in the world – joined other tech magnates such as Zuckeberg and Bezos at Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

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“One of the biggest things we can do to prevent this happening in the future is to control social media properly”

Entrepreneur Dale Vince says tech giants are “promoting extreme content” and had a role in influencing the Southport attacker and the following riots#bbcqt pic.twitter.com/k4qivB6wZW

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) January 23, 2025

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“One of the biggest things we can do to prevent this happening in the future is to control social media properly”

Entrepreneur Dale Vince says tech giants are “promoting extreme content” and had a role in influencing the Southport attacker and the following riots#bbcqt pic.twitter.com/k4qivB6wZW

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) January 23, 2025

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