The Philip DeFranco Show - Trump’s Alex Pretti ICE Problem Is Getting Worse
Episode Date: January 26, 2026Visit: https://www.mintmobile.com/defranco for a limited time get 50% off an unlimited premium wireless plan. Thank you Mint Mobile for partnering with us on this video! Limited time offer. Upfro...nt payment of: $45 for 3-months, $90 for 6-months, or $180 for 12-month plan required ($15/month equivalent). Taxes & fees extra. Initial plan term only. Over 50GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2VWATCH CRASHING OUT w/ PHILIP & ALEX Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCergKLoy-Yv9zlPk3XQYK7Q?sub_confirmation=1 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DkU87umhGH9mH1z24Bi9w?si=6sSdjhVNQjyVeBQDLiXcyg Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crashing-out-with-philip-defranco-and-alex-pearlman/id1843429519 WATCH/LISTEN TO MY NEW PODCAST w/ MAXINOMICS Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?si=55a6b6049c4841ed Youtube: https://youtube.com/acw?sub_confirmation=1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-good-faith-with-philip-defranco/id1827016835 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco 🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd 🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - The Killing of Alex Pretti 5:12 - Politicians React to Shooting & Condemn Trump Admin.’s Response 11:29 - Sponsored by Mint Mobile 12:45 - Senate Dems Won’t Pass Spending Bill With ICE Funding 20:29 - TikTok Accused of Censorship as U.S. Joint Venture Takes Over THE TEAM Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #AlexPretti #ICE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Alex Prattie was his name and he was executed in broad daylight by Trump's agents of the state.
But the Trump administration and the whole MAGA machine, they're so far from caring about the truth that they're pushing a narrative completely contradicted by all the evidence.
Right, and in the process, they're apparently abandoning whatever convictions they claim to have about the first and second amendment and really the whole constitution for that matter.
The lies and the hypocrisy, it goes beyond Prattie's killing and the consequences. It's more than just one man's life.
And so we're gonna talk about and break down all of this in today's show, including how it could lead to another government shutdown.
But first, even though I think it's clear based off of like if you've even taken a quick look,
the facts matter here.
And we need to talk about exactly what we can all see in all of these videos of the shooting that are going around online.
Right in one clip, about two minutes before the shooting, you see Alex Prattie.
He's a ICU VA nurse.
He's seen filming with his phone while arguing with an agent who pushes him toward the sidewalk.
Then another video shows him continuing to argue with the agent who appears to point his pepper spray at Prattie while two other agents are holding another person down on the ground.
And about a minute later, Prattie's seen standing in the street filming another argument involving at least two
protesters and an agent waving a car through as he does. You see him with a vehicle pass him as he continues to film and the agent shoves one of the protesters. She then moves toward Preti. They're holding on to each other as the agent keeps moving forward and pushes Prattie this time.
The agent then pushes the protesters. She walks over knocking her down into the snow on the side of the road.
Pretty then jumps between the protester and the agent and the agent and the agent pepper sprays. And a big thing to note is that
Prettie's hands are clearly visible. He's holding his phone and one and he puts the other up to try and protect himself from the pepper spray.
Rainy also turns his back to the agent who continues to deploy his pepper spray with Pruddy then appearing to try to help the
person who is knocked down as she slips trying to get up. But then you see several other agents
arriving to the scene. They grab Preddy, they hit him several times, they force him to the ground.
And about eight seconds after he's pinned, agents yell out that he has a gun, with one agent
wearing a gray jacket whose hands had been empty, now removing himself out of the tangle with a gun
in his hand, which has widely been reported to match the profile of the firearm that DHS later said
belonged to Preddy. And then, as it appears that Preddy has been disarmed, all these agents are
on top of him. Another agent pulls out his own firearm, aims at Preddy's back, and appears to
fire one shot at close range, with him then appearing to continue firing at Preti, who collapses
in a third agent on holsters a weapon, and both agents appear to fire additional shots into
Prattie as he lies motionless. And in total, at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within
five seconds. Now, with all that, you know, we don't know every single thing about what happened,
but even less may have been known when you had the Trump administration presenting its own
decisive version of events, with, for example, DHS Chief Christy Noam saying,
An individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun.
The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently.
Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent-fired defensive shots.
Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect also had two magazines with ammunition in them that held double-de-examination.
dozens of rounds. He also had no ID. This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at this scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.
And with that Noam and other Trump officials, they've gone even further, actually claiming that Prattie not only planned to, but did actually attack the agents.
Noam even arguing that he had committed an act of domestic terrorism. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino claiming it looked like Prattie wanted to massacre law enforcement and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller labeling Prattie an assassin who tried to murder federal
agents, which is a post that was shared by Vice President J.D. Vance.
But of course, all these videos that are out there, they do not show an attack.
In the Trump administration, they provided no evidence that Prady had plans to kill or massacre anyone.
And Prattie actually spent his time, his life, saving lives, as a nurse in the intensive care unit of a Veterans Affairs Hospital.
Also, notably, he had a permit to carry a firearm, although if it's true that he wasn't carrying his ID,
that would be a petty misdemeanor that comes with a maximum $25 fine for a first offense, not a fucking death penalty.
And on the note of punishment, when it comes to holding the agents who shot him,
dead while he was on his knees accountable? It is very hard to be optimistic there, as you have the
DHS, again, taking over the investigation, blocking local investigators from reviewing evidence,
just like they did with the killing of Renee Good. But I'll say notably, you did have a federal
judge in Minnesota issuing a temporary restraining order, barring federal officials from destroying or
altering evidence in this case. But then with that, since they're not letting anyone else access
the evidence, you've got to wonder how likely they are to comply. Though that said, Trump may be
He wanted to try to cut down on the backlash with him, saying today that he's sending
Borders, Tom Homan to Minnesota, and that he'll be working with Governor Tim Walls,
who, according to Trump, called the White House to find some solution to the chaos happening
in Minnesota right now.
With Trump saying that Walls was very respectful and claiming they're on a similar wavelength,
but even if Trump does walk it back, everything that's already been said, it's been shaping
the way that this story is being told on one side of the internet.
So for example, you've got pro-Trump influencer, Nick Sorter, wrongly identifying Prattie
who was an American citizen as an unauthorized immigrant.
So Jack Posobiak falsely describing Prady as having run up on police and drawn a gun.
And with that, you've got various accounts also sharing images from the shooting and claiming that they clearly show Prattie reaching for his gun, including some posting a screenshot where Prattie's hands behind his back.
Notably, that is a fucking frame from after he got shot.
It's his body reacting to multiple bullets.
Some have also shared the close-up of the agent carrying what appeared to be Prattie's gun away from the scene to prove that Pruddy was actually brandishing the weapon.
And then others, they've just posted AI altered images to make it look like Prady had drawn his gun.
But also, you know, it's not just the two of us.
seeing the wild difference between Team Trump's claims and with a video of Alex
Prattie's death shows. You have witnesses, Alex's family, countless people online as well as
both current and former political leaders from the state and local level in Minnesota all the way
up to former presidents, Colin Bullshit. And starting with the witnesses, you had sworn statements
being submitted in court over the weekend as a part of a lawsuit challenging federal
agents interactions with protesters. One of those witnesses was a doctor who said they
saw the interactions between Alex and the agent from their nearby apartment. And they
described seeing a man being shoved to the ground and then shot several times and adding that
They went outside to help, but they were initially turned away.
Though this time, unlike with Renee Good, eventually after a pat-down, the doctor said that the agents allowed them to examine Prudy,
and they started CPR just before first responders showed up.
Saying, normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man,
especially since none of the agents were helping it.
Also, another witness in that suit echoed that the official Trump trooper narrative doesn't match what they actually saw.
Saying, the man did not approach the agents with a gun, he approached them with a camera, he was just trying to help a woman get up, and they took him to the ground.
saying I didn't see him touch any of them. He wasn't even turned toward them.
It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up.
I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground.
Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him.
They shot him so many times.
Between those accounts and you're just using your own eyes to look at the video,
it becomes pretty obvious to most people that Trump and his bootlickers,
they're maliciously distorting reality here.
Or to use the words from Alex Preddy's family,
they said that the Trump administration is telling quote,
sickening lies about Alex that are reprehensible and disgusting and daddy.
Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.
And you're seeing Minnesota officials echoing that sentiment as well with, for example, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
calling Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Nome's defense of the agents, quote,
flat out insane in a complete break with what we consider to be reasonable.
And adding, I think that reasonable people watching the video could conclude that Prattie had a gun and a holster
that it was taken off him in plain view on the video and that after that he was shot.
I think that a person who saw those things would not be hallucinated.
And on the note of, you know, these videos being taken, you had Minnesota Governor Tim Wall saying,
what I think a lot of people were thinking.
Thank God. Thank God. We have video because according to DHS, these seven heroic guys
took an onslaught of a battalion against them or something. It's nonsense, people.
It is nonsense and it's lies. You can also add former President Obama giving a statement
saying that Trump and his cronies, quote, seem eager to escalate the situation while
offering public explanations that aren't informed by any serious investigation and
that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.
With all that, adding, this has to stop, I would hope that after this most recent tragedy,
administration officials will reconsider their approach.
But also, you know, for others, this situation is more than just a mishandled tragedy
with, for example, Representative AOC telling CNN that she thinks that this is the MAGA playbook.
What do you think is the strategy if there is one?
Because if you can keep people divided, if you can keep the American electorate deeply divided,
then you can continue to loot the economy,
enrich yourself, you can continue to pass corrupt laws. I mean, it's no mistake here. It's no
coincidence here. This is what they are trying to do in dividing us because they know that they are
on their back feet. The Trump administration knows that they are failing, that their support is
shrinking among the American people, that people are sick of their lives getting worse and worse,
and they need to create flashpoints to distract and divide us so that we don't have the power to
organized to make our own lives better. That is the agenda. And then, you know, alongside these big
names on the left, we're also seeing some Republicans jumping in, including Marjorie Taylor Green,
who defended Peretti and said that both sides need to, quote, take off their political blinders and
added. You are all being incited into civil war, yet none of it solves any of the real problems
that we all face, and tragically, people are dying. And you're seeing that as there's also a
growing number of Republicans calling for a deeper investigation into what just happened here and maybe
even a reconsideration about ISIS presence in Minnesota. And in fact, one Republican candidate for Minnesota
a governor dropped out of the race saying that he no longer wants to be associated with the current
Republican Party. But also, you know, of course, there are still Trump's tried and true loyalists
pushing their chosen narrative, including FBI director Cash Patel. No one who wants to be peaceful
shows up at a protest with a firearm that is loaded with two full magazines. That is not a peaceful
protest and you do not get to touch law enforcement. You do that anywhere. This FBI is going to be
following the, leading the charge to arrest those. But that then was met with nearly immediate
pushback, perhaps most notably from the minute.
gun owners caucus who responded to Patel's Fox News clip by saying that he was completely off base and that there is quote no prohibition on a permit holder to carry a firearm at a rally or protest loaded or otherwise with them adding in a press release every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms including while attending protests acting as observers or exercising their First Amendment rights these rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed and they must be respected and protected at all times and that's really just a small taste of the much wider debate regarding Alex Prattie's possession of a gun at the time of his
death, which again, he had a license for and was carrying legally.
Reteen Trump, they really harped on this idea that because Prattie had a gun,
the agents were justified in shooting him, setting aside the fact that he was disarmed
before he was shot.
And that includes many of their big names like assistant US attorney, Bill Assaley,
Christie Noem, obviously, and Treasury Secretary Scott Besson.
But now, many prominent guns rights groups, including the NRA, they took a break
from gargling the Trump administration's balls to take serious issue with that.
Or with a statement from the NRA saying, this sentiment is dangerous and wrong.
Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not
making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.
With that said, I do have to add, one of the things I've been blown away by
are all the commentators and personalities that, you know, they say,
don't tread on me, Second Amendment-loving creators.
How quickly they just abandoned their principles.
How quickly they became bootlickers.
How quickly they went from cheering on Kyle Rittenhouse showing up armed to
Alex Pretty apparently had it coming for having a weapon but never going for it.
I just have to say to these frauds, like if you only defend rights when it is convenient
and benefits your side, you don't actually believe in them.
And all these clowns saying it was his fault,
he shouldn't have shown up to protest,
he wasn't listening to law enforcement.
If not listening to law enforcement,
which is just reason to use deadly force,
January 6 would have been a fucking bloodbatch.
Alex Prattie was murdered by a mob of government agents,
Trump sanction thugs executing an American in the street
for having the audacity to use the First Amendment to film
and also legal carry.
It's just a few things I wanted to add.
And then there's more we're gonna dive into in just a minute,
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But then, jumping back into the news and the fallout from Alex Prettie shooting, you know,
it looks very likely that we're going to have another government shutdown because of this.
Which, you know, given the facts, it makes sense, but also it feels crazy because the last one
was just a few months ago, and it was the longest ever in U.S. history lasting 43 days.
And if Democrats and Republicans, they do not reach a deal by midnight this Friday, here we go again.
Though, I will say this time it would only be a partial shutdown since Trump has already signed six of the 12 spending bills
Funding the Departments of Justice, Commerce, and the Interior as well as the EPA, NASA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Plus, an even earlier measure funded the Department of Agriculture, so a shutdown, it shouldn't impact food stamps this time, though I guess anything is possible with his administration.
So now, the remaining six bills, which would provide funding through September, it would cover the departments of defense, state, labor, health, education, transportation, the Treasury, housing, and urban development.
And the big one, Homeland Security.
Right, in that specific bill, it gives $64.4 billion to the entire department, including $10 billion for ICE in particular.
And last week, before a Friday shooting, you had the GOP-led House passing those, packaging them all together into a single measure, and then sending them off to the Senate.
But obviously, one, the circumstances have changed, and two, unlike with the simple majority needed in the House, the Senate needs 60 votes to bypass a filibuster.
So that means that Republicans need seven votes from the other side to get anything passed.
And even before the shooting, you know, Democrats, they were iffy about supporting the DHS funding bill, though it seemed passable at the time.
But now that's just been chucked out the window with Schumer announcing.
Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill
if the DHS funding bill is included.
And adding, Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill,
but because of Republicans' refusal to stand up to President Trump,
the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.
I will vote no.
Within Democrats who are expected to vote for this bill, now changing their minds,
including Patty Murray, a key negotiator on the funding package who wrote,
federal agents cannot murder in broad daylight and face zero consequences.
I will not support the DHS bill as it stand.
You can also add independent Angus King saying,
I hate shutdowns.
I'm one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last,
the end of the last shutdown,
but I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding out of these circumstances.
And the list of names that you're seeing backtrack here,
they're notable because most of those names
broke with their party to end the last shutdown.
And in the case of King and Cortez Mastow in particular,
they never even supported the shutdown in the first place.
And so it's pretty clear that the dam broke open this weekend,
and there's been conflicting rumors about how Senate Republicans
might respond. Or you have the New York Times reporting that they immediately began examining
whether they could split off the DHS bill, negotiate it more, and pass everything else in the
meantime. But also you have the Wall Street Journal reporting that actually they plan to stick
with the current funding package rather than split it up. And all of that is you're seeing
reports that Republicans in the White House have reached out to Democrats, but they have yet
raised any realistic solutions. Now thanks to the snowstorm, the Senate's not scheduled to return
to session until Tuesday. And Schumer reportedly told the party that the vote wouldn't come
until Thursday. But then, even if the Senate does pass something, it'll have to go back to
the House for approval if there's any changes. On the House, they're on recess for the whole week.
So based off of everything that we're seeing, there's very likely going to be a partial shutdown,
though, how long of a partial shutdown is an open question. But then, a big thing with this is,
while many of the government services that I mentioned before might shudder, the one that
almost certainly won't is ICE. Because they still have this very comfy $75 billion war chest
from Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill. But also for many, that's just one more reason why
handing them another $10 billion would be plainly stupid. And so now you're seeing some cheering
and the Democrats have finally grown a spine and they're standing up to a fascist regime.
Then also you have some saying no, actually, the Dems are still weak as hell because if you look at what they're demanding, it's just minor reforms.
Right, and in looking at that, reportedly Schumer told his caucus that the message had to be restrained, reform, and restrict ICE.
And you've got the likes of Senator Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees Homeland Security funding,
adding that he can't support this version of ICE.
But that is also not the universal take, right?
You have the party's further left wing arguing that we don't just need to reform ICE, we need to defund it at least, abolish it at most, and
impeach Christy Noon.
And actually, Zora and Mumdani's been leading the charge in that direction
even before the Pretty shooting radicalized more of his fellow Democrats.
You know, I am in support of abolishing ICE, and I'll tell you why.
Because what we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist.
We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law,
but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people, no matter their immigration status,
no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case.
But you also have those from the moderate wing arguing that obviously abolishing ICE as a
non-starter for negotiation with the Republicans.
We're saying that if you want to meaningfully rein the agency in, you've got to meet them
halfway and if we just refuse to fund it no matter what, then it'll just keep doing what it's been
doing. But then also in this back and forth you're saying you have people arguing that
the concessions made by Republicans so far have been very, very small, and that is also
assuming that the administration even follows the law.
And so, for example, on the current version of the DHS funding bill, you've got stuff like
de-escalation training, but critics say that that assumed that the
the problem is poor training and not deliberate malignance.
Right, and with that, you have people pointing that,
yes, the Alex Preti shooting,
you see all the agents on top of them,
but also, from another camera angle,
as these Trump troopers are just shooting Alex Prattie
while he's on the ground,
you have one clapping like a fascist seal.
Also in the current version of this bill,
there's the added authority
for the agencies inspector general
to investigate disputed accounts of ice activities,
but that also doesn't mean anyone's actually
going to be held accountable.
And then there's $20 million for purchasing ice body cameras,
though actually wearing them is not mandatory.
But also, you know, the supporters of reform,
they argue that after
the Preti shooting, Democrats' demands have gotten more ambitious. So they include things like an
independent federal state investigation, including Minnesota officials into ICE murders and tactics,
mandatory body cameras, a ban on face masks, a ban on roving ICE patrols, a ban on administrative
warrants that violate the Fourth Amendment and an end to arrest quotas. Right, and that is you have
others saying that the immediate departure of ICE and Border Patrol from Minneapolis and other
cities should be a non-negotiable. Because they say this isn't just about Alex Preddy,
it's about a rogue secret police relentlessly terrorizing American communities with impunity. And that was captured,
nowhere more perfectly than the front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune the other day.
With a featuring this shocking photo of federal agents pinning a man to the ground while a border
patrol agent squirts pepper spray virtually point blank into his face. Tim Walls reposting that,
giving it a simple caption, Trump's America. But both before and since then, we've just seen
case after case after case way too many to count of ICE and Border Patrol, not just
brutalizing people, but clearly breaking the law. With, for example, political reporter Kyle
Cheney writing, since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE
has illegally detained people without bond or due process.
With them then giving example after example it,
judges freeing people who were detained despite being here
for decades and committing no crimes
or having active refugee status
or having court orders explicitly barring ICE from doing so
or having chronic illnesses or taking care of infants and on and on.
And one judge, he slammed the administration
for what he called an undeniable move to defy court orders
or at least to stretch the legal process to the breaking point
in an attempt to deny non-citizens their due process rights.
Right, but easily one of the most high profile recent cases
is that of Liam Ryan.
the five-year-old Minnesota boy who has allegedly used his bait to lure his family out of their home and then sent to Texas.
And actually on Saturday, the family detention facility where he's apparently still being held erupted in total chaos.
With this incident reportedly starting when the guards abruptly ordered the attorneys to leave,
but as one walked toward his car, he says that he heard what sounded to be the collective roar of hundreds of children,
all shouting high-pitched and urgent.
And then he says that they came streaming from the dorms behind a chain link fence and they chanted Libertad and let us out.
And he claims that when the kids heard about the general strike and other protests on Friday,
they wanted to join him, so that's what they did.
Day after the Renee good shooting,
I shut off the internet at the facility without explanation.
Now we know the reason why.
With some also pointing out that the detainees
appear to be wearing color-coated jackets,
comparing that to the Handmaid's Tale or Nazi Germany,
though it's unclear whether that's true.
But also, regardless, the attorney says that day-to-day conditions
inside the facility, they're horrible saying that
the drinking water is putrid and often undrinkable
and that meals have contained bugs, dirt, and debris.
With one mom who's being held there telling the AP,
the message we want to send is for them to treat
us with dignity and according to the law. We're immigrants with children, not criminals.
But then also with this, we should talk about how, you know, as people are trying to talk
about everything that's happening on social media, you're also seeing claims that TikTok is censoring
content about ICE, Minneapolis, and Alex Pready. There are people saying that when they've
tried to post about it, they get no views or the content stays under review instead of getting
uploaded. And that's also something I can confirm that's what happened with us as well. But for
their part, you've got TikTok claiming that they've been dealing with a power outage that's
impacting their services, including their algorithm. With that, you've got some reports,
noting that people posting any kind of content no matter the social.
subject, they've been dealing with outages and glitches as well. But still, you have many,
including politicians, taking these censorship claims seriously because it comes the same weekend
that TikTok announced new U.S. ownership of the app. And people, they're already skeptical of these
companies and their ties to Trump. Right under the newly announced U.S. joint venture, the three
new managing investors include the private equity fund Silver Lake tech company, Oracle and
investment firm MGX, which each hold a 15% share, and Fight Dan still gets to hold onto a share of just
under 20%. Also, as for how security concerns are being addressed, U.S. user data will now be
stored and Oracle's user cloud, and the algorithm will also be retrained, tested and updated based on
US user data and algorithm recommendations will, again, be secured by Oracle. And so with all that,
you have TikTok saying that this new deal will, quote, safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem through
robust trust and safety policies and content moderation. But, you know, many people, they're not
thrilled to hear that these companies have any say in the content moderation on the app. Because
among other things, Oracle, as you may know, is co-founded by Trump ally Larry Ellison, who's lobbied
for the president. And his son, David Ellison, is the new CEO of Paramount Skydance, which is now overseas
seeing CBS News' rightward shift, becoming essentially Fox Newslight.
And so many, they're afraid that the Ellison's are gonna do to TikTok,
what they did to CBS, or maybe what Elon Musk did to Twitter.
But also, that's not even where the Trump ties end.
I understand why it's getting so much attention, but the MGX firm, right,
that is at 15% stake, it's UAE-based, and they've done deals with the Trump crypto business.
And with all this, you have Trump giving himself major credit for this deal,
saying that he's happy to have helped save TikTok and adding.
It will now be owned by a group of great American patriots and investors the biggest in the world and will be an important voice.
Along with other factors, it was responsible for my doing so well with the youth vote in the 2024 presidential election.
I only hope that long into the future, I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok.
And I mean, yeah, he will probably be remembered by TikTok users, but also that's not necessarily a good thing.
Where the why people are remembered, that usually matters too.
And with that, you had a Georgetown professor saying, you know, this deal allows for, quote, more theoretical room for one side's views to get a greater airing.
And adding, my worry all along is that we may have traded fears of foreign propaganda for the reality of domestic propaganda.
And if you look into some corners of TikTok, people share those concerns.
It will safeguard the US content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation.
I don't think that we're scared enough.
For this to happen right now is really, really bad.
And also I should note there was other outrage regarding the app over the weekend, regarding its new privacy policy.
Or with many thinking that it's now tracking immigration status, but also it doesn't appear quite like it sounds.
And I'll explain, right?
So the policy it says that the app can collect sensitive personal information like,
sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or non-binary, citizenship, or immigration status.
So you have tons of people saying they're going to be deleting the app because of this and that it's gone way too far.
But here's a big thing with that. A version of that was already in TikTok's policies before the United States ownership was announced and it's not new to the U.S. deal.
And you've got outlets like TechCrunch explaining that this language is primarily there to comply with state privacy laws like California's Consumer Privacy Act.
Now because TikTok collects data from user content, you'd technically have to discuss that information yourself, either in a video or a comment for it to be processed by TikTok.
In the app, it just legally has to tell you that it's processing that in accordance with the law.
So it is nothing super new, but it is, again, understandable that it's raised so many red flags for so many people in this political climate.
Especially as there are also other actual policy changes in these new terms.
And so, for example, TikTok expanded some of its capabilities for targeted advertising and precise location tracking for people whose settings enable this.
And in general, it feels like, you know, there's just a lot going on with TikTok right now.
And it's going to be very interesting to see how this handoff works.
As far as my personal take, I don't trust it.
But I also don't trust any of the other social media companies.
None of them are on our side.
Like, I wouldn't make a list of best social media companies.
I would make a list of least worst.
Which is also why, whether you're a consumer or a creator,
I constantly recommend that people follow and create for every platform
in any way they can get information out.
Because you really never know if any of these platforms are going to push the psycho
button like we saw with Elon Musk and Twitter.
Like, if you're not expecting X-Feeds to look drastically different near the midterms,
you're crazy.
So that's why, one, yes, I constantly recommend people, you know,
follow me on all these social media platforms right here,
but also text me at 813-213-4423 to jump on the text line
and go to the Daily Dip website and get your daily emails,
especially as you're openly seeing all these billionaire CEOs of these platforms
kind of just like bending the need of Trump, giving him money.
And whether it's this video or anything I post, again,
you can go to the description, find all my things everywhere.
But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards,
is where your Monday, Philip DeFranco Show,
dive into the news is going to end.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you for subscribing, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
Thank you.
