đŸ”” ICE Mass Deportations

Author

Citizen Frank
January 18, 2025

Good evening. It’s Friday, January 17.

Important note: cf.org is rebranding to thefrank.com. Soon you’ll find us under our new name.

 

The incoming Trump administration is eyeing immigration arrests of illegal immigrants across the country as soon as day one, as top officials say they are ready to “take the handcuffs off” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration is planning a large-scale raid in Chicago on Tuesday, targeting those with criminal backgrounds in particular.

Incoming border czar Tom Homan was asked by Fox News’ Jesse Watters about the media reports of a “big raid” on Tuesday in Chicago, but Homan said ICE will be working across the country.

Paramount Global executives have held internal discussions about settling a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over a CBS News interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to people familiar with the situation, a sign of larger efforts to dial down tensions with the incoming president.

Paramount, owner of CBS, its namesake studio and several cable channels, has a major piece of business in front of the new administration: its planned merger with Skydance Media. It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to offer concessions to win approval, people familiar with the situation said.

Incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr gave Paramount executives a warning to that effect at a reception late last year following the taping of the Kennedy Center honors in Washington, according to people familiar with the exchange, and he has echoed the message in public remarks.

Add Bill Gates to growing the list of billionaires dining with President-elect Donald Trump before he returns to the White House.

The Microsoft co-founder said he recently spent more than three hours with Trump and spoke to him about global health challenges.

“I had a chance, about two weeks ago, to go have a long and actually quite intriguing dinner with him,” Gates said during an interview with Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, plans to launch a bid for Ohio governor, multiple sources confirm to Fox News Digital.

The sources add that Ramaswamy, who along with Elon Musk is co-leader of President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, is expected to make an announcement on a gubernatorial run “shortly.”

“Vivek’s base plan remains [the] same: to get accomplishments at DOGE and then announce a run for governor shortly,” said an Ohio operative familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News on Friday.

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, cruised through a confirmation hearing Friday on Capitol Hill, just three days before the inauguration in Washington.

Noem is expected to be on track for a forthcoming Senate confirmation vote after surviving a fairly quiet hearing that lasted less than three hours. She faced a minimal amount of pushback from Deomcrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the committee chairman, said he expects the panel to move on Noem’s nomination on Monday following the inauguration ceremony.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, sparred with Sen. Elizabeth (D-MA) on Thursday during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

The exchange happened when Warren asked him to follow up on a question Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) had asked him about taxing billionaires.

“It was Senator Warnock who asked you about, is there any billionaire rich enough who you wouldn’t support a tax cut for going forward,” Warren said.

Philip Rucker, The Washington Post’s high-profile national editor, has indicated to people that he is exiting the newspaper, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mike Semel, a deputy managing editor at the newspaper, is expected to fill the role on an interim basis, according to the people.

Rucker’s expected exit comes amid a larger talent exodus that has seen some of the storied newspaper’s most prized journalists flee the Jeff Bezos-owned and Will Lewis-led institution.

The unfortunate saga of Pakistani state persecution against former Prime Minister Imran Khan continues, as a Pakistani court on Friday sentenced Khan and this wife to 14 and seven years in prison after finding them guilty of corruption.

He had already been held in jail for a couple years, despite many months of huge protests in various places by supporters demanding his release, after he and his wife were accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money, amid many additional pending graft investigations.

Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reject the allegations, and the former prime minister had pled non-guilty in the case.

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