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Dems slam Elon Musk, Melania Trump with xenophobic attacks: ‘Go back to South Africa!’

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Dems slam Elon Musk, Melania Trump with xenophobic attacks: ‘Go back to South Africa!’

Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have made xenophobic comments about DOGE chief Elon Musk and first lady Melania Trump.

Some of the party’s leaders have repeatedly complained about Musk’s country of birth being South Africa and told Trump to look into deporting his wife, who was born in the former Yugoslavia.  

Speaking at an anti-DOGE protest in Los Angeles March 22, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., suggested Trump should investigate and potentially deport the first lady.

“When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he’s going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America. If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania,” Waters said on stage at a rally in Los Angeles, various videos posted to social media show. 

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Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have raised concerns about DOGE chief Elon Musk and first lady Melania Trump. (AP; Getty Images)

“We don’t know whether or not her parents were documented. And maybe we better just take a look.” 

The first lady became a U.S. citizen in 2006, according to official government biographies. She is the first U.S. first lady to become a naturalized citizen and the second first lady to be born outside the U.S., following President John Quincy Adams’ wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, who was born in London in 1775. 

Democrats, however, have reserved some of their most vitriolic attacks for Musk, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 and became a citizen in 2002.

Speaking at a congressional Democratic rally protesting musk’s access to the Treasury Department Feb. 4, Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., compared Musk to the British burning the city of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.

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Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has suggested first lady Melania Trump could be deported. (Getty Images)

“They always told us the British had come to storm the city. They always reminded us the British had come, and they burned everything down, and we could never let that happen again. They told us, and here we are, Trump and his billionaire boy band. They are not British this time. This one is South African. But they came back,” said Bynum.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., did not use allegories, but simply called for Musk to “go back to South Africa.”

“It was interesting yesterday. I was watching a video of an interview of Elon Musk with someone where he said that the Italians should stay in Italy and the Chinese should stay in China. My question to Elon Musk is, what the hell are you doing here in America?” Velazquez said while speaking at an event outside the HUD Department.

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Even before Musk took the helm at DOGE, far-left Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, slammed him during a Jan. 20 interview for not being born in the U.S. while suggesting he supported apartheid.

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett touted the Signal app in comments over the weekend.  (Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“[Musk] went from being the dork that was jumping around on stage to allegedly being this amazing genius that’s going to save this entire country, the country he wasn’t born in and a country that maybe he doesn’t agree with, the idea of a Democratic Republic, considering the fact that he may have been more so on the side of apartheid,” said Crockett.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., piled on further, suggesting in a February interview that Musk was reverting to a fascist state of mind due to his South African heritage.

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“I think that’s a leftover from Elon Musk’s South African heritage, and maybe he’s falling too far back on the apartheid system of government that was a fascist form of government,” said Connolly.

“Here in the United States, Mr. Musk,” he added, “we have three branches of government, each of them separate but coequal, and, ultimately, the judicial branch is the deciding factor when there is a dispute between the other two branches of government. That’s how our system works here.”

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Elon Musk with mother Maye Musk. (Reuters/Danny Moloshok)

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., accused Musk’s parents of trying to deny Black people their rights in South Africa, comparing them to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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“Why can’t you understand? The Ukranians [sic] are fighting for the same thing which his parents tried to deny black South Africans,” Cohen wrote in a February X post.  

“Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., also suggested Musk did not care for democracy because he came from South Africa.

“Elon Musk, who grew up in apartheid, Trump who worships dictators around the country, and strong men, are not interested in our constitutional republic,” Omar said.

Despite these claims, a Snopes fact-check found the reason Musk left his birth country in the first place was to avoid military service because he did not want to fight for an apartheid state.

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Trump plans to meet with Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado next week

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Trump plans to meet with Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado next week

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President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Washington next week.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Trump was asked if he intends to meet with Machado after the U.S. struck Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro.

“Well, I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a national flag during a protest called by the opposition on the eve of the presidential inauguration, in Caracas on January 9, 2025. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

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This will be Trump’s first meeting with Machado, who the U.S. president stated “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead.

According to reports, Trump’s refusal to support Machado was linked to her accepting the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump believed he deserved.

But Trump later told NBC News that while he believed Machado should not have won the award, her acceptance of the prize had “nothing to do with my decision” about the prospect of her leading Venezuela.

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California sues Trump administration over ‘baseless and cruel’ freezing of child-care funds

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California sues Trump administration over ‘baseless and cruel’ freezing of child-care funds

California is suing the Trump administration over its “baseless and cruel” decision to freeze $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family assistance allocated to California and four other Democratic-led states, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed jointly by the five states targeted by the freeze — California, New York, Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado — over the Trump administration’s allegations of widespread fraud within their welfare systems. California alone is facing a loss of about $5 billion in funding, including $1.4 billion for child-care programs.

The lawsuit alleges that the freeze is based on unfounded claims of fraud and infringes on Congress’ spending power as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This is just the latest example of Trump’s willingness to throw vulnerable children, vulnerable families and seniors under the bus if he thinks it will advance his vendetta against California and Democratic-led states,” Bonta said at a Thursday evening news conference.

The $10-billion funding freeze follows the administration’s decision to freeze $185 million in child-care funds to Minnesota, where federal officials allege that as much as half of the roughly $18 billion paid to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been fraudulent. Amid the fallout, Gov. Tim Walz has ordered a third-party audit and announced that he will not seek a third term.

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Bonta said that letters sent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announcing the freeze Tuesday provided no evidence to back up claims of widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in California. The freeze applies to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Social Services Block Grant program and the Child Care and Development Fund.

“This is funding that California parents count on to get the safe and reliable child care they need so that they can go to work and provide for their families,” he said. “It’s funding that helps families on the brink of homelessness keep roofs over their heads.”

Bonta also raised concerns regarding Health and Human Services’ request that California turn over all documents associated with the state’s implementation of the three programs. This requires the state to share personally identifiable information about program participants, a move Bonta called “deeply concerning and also deeply questionable.”

“The administration doesn’t have the authority to override the established, lawful process our states have already gone through to submit plans and receive approval for these funds,” Bonta said. “It doesn’t have the authority to override the U.S. Constitution and trample Congress’ power of the purse.”

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan and marked the 53rd suit California had filed against the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration last January. It asks the court to block the funding freeze and the administration’s sweeping demands for documents and data.

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Video: Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela

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Video: Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela

new video loaded: Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela

transcript

transcript

Trump Says ‘Only Time Will Tell’ How Long U.S. Controls Venezuela

President Trump did not say exactly how long the the United states would control Venezuela, but said that it could last years.

“How Long do you think you’ll be running Venezuela?” “Only time will tell. Like three months. six months, a year, longer?” “I would say much longer than that.” “Much longer, and, and —” “We have to rebuild. You have to rebuild the country, and we will rebuild it in a very profitable way. We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil. We’re getting oil prices down, and we’re going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need. I would love to go, yeah. I think at some point, it will be safe.” “What would trigger a decision to send ground troops into Venezuela?” “I wouldn’t want to tell you that because I can’t, I can’t give up information like that to a reporter. As good as you may be, I just can’t talk about that.” “Would you do it if you couldn’t get at the oil? Would you do it —” “If they’re treating us with great respect. As you know, we’re getting along very well with the administration that is there right now.” “Have you spoken to Delcy Rodríguez?” “I don’t want to comment on that, but Marco speaks to her all the time.”

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President Trump did not say exactly how long the the United states would control Venezuela, but said that it could last years.

January 8, 2026

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