US Politics
Trump unloads in late-night rants threatening to prosecute news networks, Beyonce, Oprah and Kamala Harris
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Despite the lateness of the hour in Scotland, Donald Trump remained vocal on social media Saturday, unleashing a late-night rant in which he threatened to prosecute Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce while lashing out at news networks whose “licenses could, and should, be revoked.”
The president, who is spending the weekend golfing in the UK, wrote at 7.45 p.m. ET (12.45 a.m. local BST) that he was reviewing the large amount of money spent by his Democratic opponents “probably illegally” during the 2024 election.
Trump claimed Beyonce was paid $11 million to endorse Harris, and that she “never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!” He also claimed that Democrats paid $3 million in “expenses” to Oprah and $600,000 to civil rights activist and TV personality Reverend Al Sharpton.
There is no evidence that any of the people named in Trump’s rant were paid for their endorsement by the Democratic campaign.
“YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PAY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT. IT IS TOTALLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them. All hell would break out!”
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“Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted!” he added.
Oprah previously said she “was not paid a dime” to appear alongside Harris, whose campaign covered $1 million in production costs for a live-streamed event.
“The people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story,” Oprah said at the time.
The Harris campaign also has denied ever paying Beyonce for her endorsement.
The campaign similarly paid her production company Parkwood Production Media LLC $165,000, according to Federal Elections Commission records. Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles previously said the accusation that her daughter was paid for her endorsement is a “lie” and that Beyonce also paid for the flights for herself and her team to and from the event.
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It’s not the first time that Trump has targeted Beyonce and other celebrities over their alleged “illegal campaign donations” late at night.
The president lashed out at the Lemonade singer as well as Bruce Springsteen and Bono in a 2 a.m. Truth Social post on May 19.
In another pair of posts shortly after 1 a.m. while still in Scotland, Trump threatened NBC and ABC, and suggested that networks he believes are “political pawns for the Democrat Party” should be stripped of their licenses to broadcast.
“It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA,” he wrote
Trump has also routinely used threats of legal action to threaten media outlets, publishers and journalists over what he perceives as antagonistic coverage.
Following lawsuits against the networks during his campaign, Trump reached massive financial settlements with both ABC News and CBS News, sparking fears among press freedom advocates.
Such fears have not been allayed, after the president this week filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, The Wall Street Journal and its parent companies, as well as two journalists, following the newspaper’s publication of the president’s alleged birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
That suit came fresh of the back of a $16 million settlement with Paramount for a lawsuit concerning the editing of an episode of 60 Minutes interview with Harris, which the president claimed was unfair to his campaign.
