How did Elon Musk go from being an Obama supporter to a self-described "dark MAGA" Trump ally? Here's a look at the relationship between two billionaires ahead of the second Trump presidency.
EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma’s 2025 school-year curriculum will look markedly different after major adjustments are made to eschew "woke garbage" while making sure students learn all aspects of complex figures like Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump, and issues like the BLM and Capitol riots.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said Wednesday his state is "taking the lead" on a "direct rejection" of politicizing influences on the curriculum like teachers' unions and activist educators.
"What we are not going to allow is these radical teachers' unions to push lies in the classroom. That's not how we're going to teach."
Walters said school curricula are set every six years, and that he plans to hold schools accountable by withholding accreditation from any institutions that don’t follow suit.
CHINESE INFLUENCE IN SCHOOLS A RISING CONCERN, EDUCATION LEADERS SAY
He suggested the new rules are an extension of Oklahoma’s previous push to return the Bible to the classroom as an "important historical document" that shaped America’s founding – in that it is important to similarly give students a fuller perspective on landmark events and figures throughout the rest of U.S. history.
"We are driving out this woke indoctrination and woke nonsense that has been injected into the classroom by undermining Republican presidents and American exceptionalism," he said.
"So our kids are going to know America is a great country. They're not going to be taught to hate this country. They're going to be taught to love this country and a patriotism to come from the principles that our country was founded in our history."
Giving the example of former President Ronald Reagan in the last generation’s education, and how some curricula focused more on shortcomings during Iran-Contra and Col. Oliver North's hearings, Walters said he will not tolerate educators "maligning" President-elect Trump in the same way.
"You're not going to come in and teach President Trump wanted an insurrection on Jan. 6 [2021]. We're not going to allow it. We will be crystal clear on what President Trump's victories were in the White House," he said.
UNIVERSITY CUTS TIES WITH CONFUCIUS INSTITUTES AMID GOP SCRUTINY ON $17M DOD GRANT
Similarly, the new curriculum will take a broader look at Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the repercussions of coronavirus lockdowns.
He cited a recent clip he saw of a student stating that the only thing they knew about Thomas Jefferson was that he was a slaveholder, and did not know he was a president or the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
"And so we will drive these lies out of the classrooms and get back to an understanding of American greatness throughout our history," he said, noting that Oklahoma will teach "the good with the bad."
Walters was asked how the curriculum would teach COVID-19 lockdown history, given how states like Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii were confident their zero-tolerance edicts were the right response, just as much as Florida believed its less restrictive response was right.
"I don't care to appease the left or make them happy. We're going to teach facts. We're going to stick to accurate history here. And they can be offended by that," Walters said.
"It is not debatable. Rights were taken from individuals during COVID. That's not debatable. It's also not debatable that lockdowns hurt kids. Lockdowns hurt families and businesses," he said, adding that current curriculum often glosses over that argument and offers only a more proverbially-northeastern view of the COVID years.
"We are ultimately going to let [students] come to their own conclusions," Walters said of the curriculum writ-large.
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U.S. history is strewn with successes and failures on all sides, he said, adding that the most responsible way to prepare the next generation to lead the country is to instill in them the widest view of its history and law possible.
"The left wants to browbeat kids into believing to hate their country, while conservatives, we just want history taught, and show that America is the greatest country in the history of the world."
"It will show you what policies work, what policies don't work. A kid should come to their own conclusions. That’s why every state has to look at their [civics curriculum] standards."
Fox News Digital also reached out to union leader Randi Weingarten via the AFT for comment on the general tenor of partially blaming teachers unions for purportedly slanted curricula.
Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images
Former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Tuesday that it was a mistake that more top Wall Street executives didn't pay a price for their role in the 2008 financial crisis.
"Not only was no one held accountable, but the same bankers who engineered the crisis were aggrieved at the suggestion of diminished bonuses and government intervention," Emanuel wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. "It was a mistake not to apply Old Testament justice to the bankers during the Obama administration, as some had called for at the time."
Emanuel, Biden's US ambassador to Japan, is eyeing the potential of returning to politics by running to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee. In his column, Emanuel said the Democratic Party has been "blind to the rising sea of disillusionment."
"When Donald Trump declared, 'I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,' he was channeling a nation's fury," Emanuel wrote. "The online cheerleading for the killer of a health-care insurance CEO in New York City is just more evidence of this seething, populist anger."
In a subtle rebuke of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, Emanuel said the nation is not looking for rosy optimism in a time of great instability.
"Campaigns of joy in an era of rage don't win elections," he wrote.
Emanuel's comments reignite one of the longest-running debates of the Obama era: why more top-level executives were not prosecuted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Kareem Serageldin, a former top official at Credit Suisse, was the only top banker to receive a sentence connected with The Great Recession. Progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, have said the lack of prosecutions is a "clear indictment of our broken criminal justice system."
Former Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the DOJ didn't have the needed evidence.
"I think you have to understand, if we could have made those cases, we certainly would have," Holder told NBC late-night host Seth Meyers in 2016. "These are the kind of things that are career-defining. People come to the Justice Department to make these kind of cases. But given the statutes we had to work with and the burdens of proof we had to meet, we were simply unable to do that."
A former mayor of Chicago, Emanuel is a polarizing figure for some in the Democratic Party. He ditched a 2018 reelection campaign for a third term amid signs that his unblemished electoral streak might be squelched. Obama's choice of Emanuel as his first chief of staff surprised some observers who saw the Illinois native as an embodiment of political insiders for a president who ran to shake up the nation's capital. He is widely regarded as a key force behind the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, Obama's singular domestic achievement.
Emanuel's younger brother, Ari, is a Hollywood titan and CEO of Endeavor, which owns World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The race to lead the Democratic Party during Trump's second administration is particularly crowded. Until Emanuel formally enters the field, the three major candidates are former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, and Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, are also in the running.
The next Democratic leader will have a high-profile role, given that Republicans will have complete control over Congress.
President Biden made history last week when he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners and pardoned another 39 people – sparking mixed reactions from lawmakers, including Democrats, who noted that his actions far outpace the clemency actions of any other U.S. president serving his first term in office.
In a statement last week announcing the new clemency actions, Biden said America "was built on the promise of possibility and second chances."
"As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses," Biden said.
Biden's lengthy list sparked mixed reaction from some lawmakers and criminal justice reform advocates, who questioned the administration's decision-making in determining prisoners that were eligible for clemency.
BIDEN CLEMENCY ANNOUNCEMENT GETS MIXED REVIEWS ON CAPITOL HILL: 'WHERE'S THE BAR?'
The Biden administration told CNN that the decisions on who could be included were not made on an individual basis, but rather, was a "uniform" decision granted to people with a record of good behavior while on house arrest.
That includes former Illinois city comptroller Rita Crundwell, who, in 2012, pleaded guilty to a nearly $55 million embezzlement scheme, and former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 for his role in a "Kids-for-Cash" scheme, in which children were sent to for-profit detention centers in return for millions of dollars of kickbacks from the private prisons.
A full list of individuals included in Biden's most recent clemency action can be found on the Justice Department website. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News's request for comment on its decision-making in issuing presidential pardons.
Biden's decision to include Conahan on his list of prisoners granted clemency was sharply criticized Friday by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who had been considered on Vice President Kamala Harris' short-list for running mate earlier this year.
Shapiro said Friday he thinks Biden got it "absolutely wrong" in granting clemency to Conahan, saying the decision has "created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania."
"Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart," Shapiro said of the for-profit detention center scandal.
BIDEN STIRS OUTRAGE IN SCRANTON BY COMMUTING 'KIDS FOR CASH' JUDGE'S SENTENCE
Before leaving office in 2017, President Barack Obama granted clemency to 1,927 individuals during his two terms as president – the highest total of any modern president going back to former president Harry Truman, also a Democrat, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Justice Department data.
Truman, who served as president from 1945 to 1953, granted clemency to 2,044 individuals during his two terms in office – slightly outpacing Obama's list.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected president four times, granted a total of 3,687 pardons, sentence commutations and other acts of clemency during his time in the White House. After Roosevelt died in office during his fourth term, the U.S. Constitution was ratified to limit all future presidents to two terms in office.
Others noted the differences between individuals included on Biden's clemency list and those who saw reduced or pardoned sentences under Obama.
The vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative, a program that ended in 2017 when Trump took office.
But critics have noted the stark differences between the number of individuals selected for clemency under each president – and any relationship to a sitting commander in chief.
The Obama administration, for example, largely focused its commutations and reductions on nonviolent drug offenders, including many who had been sentenced under mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed by Congress in the late 1980s.
These clemency grants came under sharp criticism by some Republicans, who accused Obama of imposing his political will to end certain mandatory minimum sentences – which many argued at the time minimized the "lawmaking authority" of Congress.
But Biden’s clemency grants also far outpace his predecessor, Donald Trump, during his first term in office.
Between 2017 and 2021, Trump granted just 143 pardons and 93 sentence commutations – amounting to just 2% of the clemency applications that his administration received, according to available Justice Department data.
Some noted that the individuals selected for clemency during Trump's first term also appear to bear a very different list of criteria compared to former presidents.
An analysis conducted by Lawfare found that 29 of the 34 pardons granted by Trump were not based on recommendations of the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Such recommendations are not necessary for clemency, but presidents in recent memory have relied on the DOJ for input into worthy recipients for pardons and commutations.
Judge Pauline Newman, the oldest federal judge in America at age 97, is continuing to fight against a suspension from the bench by her colleagues who found her mentally not fit enough to serve. Newman is appealing her suspension and has also filed a motion to unseal documents related to an investigation which ultimately led to her being temporarily removed from the bench.
Newman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, was barred from serving in September 2023 for a year by the Federal Circuit's Judicial Council after the panel said she refused to cooperate with an investigation into "reasonable concerns" surrounding her mental fitness. The suspension was extended for another year by the panel in September.
The Committee on Judicial Conduct conducted more than 20 interviews with court staff pointing to her "significant mental deterioration including memory loss, confusion, lack of comprehension, paranoia, anger, hostility and severe agitation," per court documents.
The suspension order also said Newman was slower than her colleagues in issuing opinions and had "amassed a troubling backlog of cases," which her team has said is not accurate.
The Federal Circuit Court on which Newman has served for nearly 40 years deals frequently with patent, intellectual property and copyright cases. Newman is considered a leading intellectual property jurist.
The investigation into Newman led her to file a federal lawsuit against her fellow judges.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, a President Obama appointee, threw out most of Newman’s lawsuit in February, then dismissed the entire case on the pleadings in July, per Law & Crime.
In his 15-page ruling, Cooper rejected the legal challenges Newman had raised to the Judicial Conduct & Disability Act and did not focus on the factual allegations against Newman.
Newman appealed the ruling Monday and argued via counsel to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that although advanced in age, she "retains her sharp intellect," and both lay and expert witnesses have described her as an "unusually cognitively intact … woman" whose cognitive and physical abilities make her appear "20 or more years younger than her stated age," per Law & Crime.
She says she is physically and mentally fit enough to continue doing her job, and has obtained independent evaluations from doctors issuing the same opinion, court documents revealed.
REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE, NOW 95, FACES PROBE INTO WHETHER SHE CAN STILL DO THE JOB
In the appellate brief, cited by Law & Crime, Newman’s counsel said she was in sound mental and physical health, and argued that the only reason Newman was late in submitting written opinions is that "she takes extraordinary pains to ensure that her opinions fully reflect her views and remain consistent from case to case and year to year."
Newman is being represented in the lawsuit by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonprofit civil rights group that says it views the "administrative state" as an especially serious threat to constitutional freedoms.
The group says that the suspension is illegal and that Newman was removed without due process.
"Judge Newman’s indefinite, complete suspension is unprecedented in American judicial history, exceeding sanctions imposed on judges who committed serious misconduct and improprieties," the group said in a statement. "Suspending an Article III judge from all judicial functions of her office is unconstitutional."
The group said that world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Aaron G. Filler recently directed a cutting-edge Perfusion Computed Tomography (PCT) scan of Newman’s brain and administered a full neurological examination that turned up "no relevant deficits, confirming that she is fully fit to perform the duties of the office."
On Thursday, Greg Dolin, who has represented Newman throughout the case, said via a statement that the entire disciplinary process against Judge Newman was "always factually baseless and legally meritless."
"But the issues are more important than Judge Newman," said Dolin, a senior litigation counsel for the NCLA. "At stake is the very independence of American judiciary and our system of checks and balances. The D.C. Circuit should put a stop to the Federal Circuit Judicial Council’s unconstitutional and ultra vires actions against Judge Newman."
Newman also filed a motion to unseal documents related to the committee’s investigation and findings that are subject to a Dec. 4 gag order, per Law & Crime.
Newman’s legal team said that Newman’s judicial colleagues have refused to abide by rules of judicial conduct and have "threatened Judge Newman and her counsel with unspecified sanctions" for making documents public.
Her team also accused the defendants of seeking to "direct the process within their own forum" in an "entirely inappropriate effort" to contradict the law.
Former senior U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown, was the oldest person to serve as a federal judge in the history of the United States, actively hearing cases until approximately one month before his death at age 104, according to the U.S. Courts.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy and Elizabeth Pritchet contributed to this report.
In his first appearance in court for corruption charges, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid bare his stark disagreements with former President Barack Obama over Iran and a Palestinian state.
"Obama made it clear to me that U.S. policy was going to take a sharp turn against the ideas I believed in," Netanyahu recounted of his interactions with the U.S. in the early days of the Obama administration.
"He saw Iran not as a threat but as an opportunity and saw a vital need for us to return to the '67 lines and establish a Palestinian state here."
Netanyahu took the stand for about four hours Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv District Court. The trial was moved from Jerusalem for undisclosed security reasons and convened in an underground courtroom, according to Reuters. He recalled his rocky relationship with Obama – how they failed to see eye to eye on an appropriate course of action for Palestinians.
"I had to face great pressure to create a Palestinian state," Netanyahu said. "[Obama] demanded it during the first meeting, he said: 'Not even one brick will you build over the Green Line.' I responded: 'Half of Jerusalem is over the Green Line; for instance, the Gilo neighborhood.' Obama said: 'Gilo too.' He demanded a total construction freeze, massive pressure. I had to deal with this, I had to deflect it, and it was no small matter."
NETANYAHU TO TESTIFY IN CORRUPTION TRIAL AMID MULTIPLE CONFLICTS
Netanyahu called to mind a disagreement with then-Secretary of State John Kerry, who was urging Israeli forces to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.
"Kerry explained to me that my fear of placing security in Judea and Samaria in Palestinian forces' hands was unfounded because the Americans were training Palestinian forces and we could withdraw."
He also said Obama had recommended Israel take notes from the U.S. policy in Afghanistan, and Netanyahu predicted it would not age well.
"Obama suggested I make a secret visit to Afghanistan to see how American forces were training local forces. I told him the moment you leave Afghanistan, these forces will collapse under Islamist forces, and that's exactly what happened."
The corruption trial, which stems from a 2019 indictment for alleged breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud, takes place against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas. Netanyahu must attend court three times a week while it is ongoing.
Netanyahu, 75, is the first sitting prime minister to be charged with a crime.
The charges include: accepting gifts from Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan in exchange for advancing his interests, failing to report a bribery attempt from newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" publisher Arnon Mozes, who wanted Netanyahu to allow a bill outlawing free newspapers to pass and offered him favorable coverage in exchange, and accepting an offer in which Shaul Elovitch, the owner of Israeli telecom conglomerate Bezeq, would grant Netanyahu favorable media coverage in exchange for favorable regulatory changes.
ICC REJECTS ISRAELI APPEALS, ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, YOAV GALLANT
Netanyahu said he is not in office for personal gain, and directly responded to allegations he asked for a constant supply of luxury items like champagne and cigars.
"Absolute lies," he said. "I work 17-18 hours a day... It's around-the-clock work into the early hours of the night. There's almost no time to see family. I didn't see the children, and that's a hefty price to pay," Netanyahu said, adding that his rare leisure time is spent reading history or economics books.
The prime minister argued that if he had been concerned about better media coverage, he could have just moved toward granting Palestinians statehood.
"Had I wanted good coverage, all I would have had to have done would be to signal toward a two-state solution… Had I moved two steps to the left I would have been hailed," he said.
The court had been granting Netanyahu delays in his testimony throughout the 14-month-long war in Gaza, but last week ruled he must start testifying. In the lead-up to his court date, Netanyahu classified the charges against him as a witch hunt and railed against law enforcement and the media.
"The real threat to democracy in Israel is not posed by the public’s elected representatives, but by some among the law enforcement authorities who refuse to accept the voters’ choice and are trying to carry out a coup with rabid political investigations that are unacceptable in any democracy," he said in a statement on Thursday.
"Netanyahu is on trial for allegedly using his political power to improve his media coverage. His defense: the coverage was not positive but hostile, and I did not attempt to change it for the benefit of Netanyahu the citizen but for the benefit of the State of Israel in response to Obama’s hostile stance," Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Israel's Channel 12, told Fox News Digital of the prime minister's testimony.
Conservatives on social media blasted former President Obama after his first speech since the presidential election in which he lamented polarization in politics.
During a speech Thursday at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum, Obama made the case that if "one side" attempts to cement "a permanent grip on power" through "suppressing votes," "politicizing" the military or weaponizing the judiciary and criminal justice system to target opponents, "a line has been crossed."
"Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya,’" Obama said. "It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough. It is about recognizing that, in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke, but the waking.
"Purity tests are not a recipe for long-term success."
‘DEPORTER-IN-CHIEF’ OBAMA SURPASSED DEPORTATIONS UNDER TRUMP’S FIRST TERM
Obama’s speech quickly drew strong criticism from conservatives.
"It’s over for Obama," journalist Miranda Devine posted on X. "The spell is broken. Donald Trump vanquished him, Biden, Harris, the Bushes, the Cheneys. All of them, with a spring in his step."
"Ever since his last minute desperate smear of Trump with the ‘very fine people on both sides’ lie, Barack Obama has been slowing realizing his status as false prophet of the Democrat party is no more," conservative radio host Buck Sexton posted on X.
"Obama turned our politics into ‘if you disagree with me, you are a bad person,’" Republican communicator Matt Whitlock posted on X. "Few people did more to pave the way for Trump. So he can take a seat."
"By voting in a democratic election, millions of people proved they hate democracy," author Jon Gabriel posted on X. "Yes, this Obama fellow is quite the intellect."
"Setting aside the unbelievable hypocrisy here, this is also the guy who’s launching a project to lessen our political divisions. Being the problem — way up on his high horse, looking down disappointedly at the unwashed masses — while publicly lamenting the problem is peak Obama," Fox News contributor Guy Benson posted on X.
Obama, in his remarks, insisted he is "convinced that if we want democracy as we understand it to survive," people must work for a renewed dedication to pluralist principles.
"Because the alternative is what we've seen here in the United States and in many democracies around the globe. Not just more gridlock. Not just public cynicism. But an increasing willingness" among "politicians and their followers to violate democratic norms. To do anything they can to get their way. To use the power of the state to target critics and journalists and political rivals and to even resort to violence" to obtain and retain power.
Fox News Digital's Alex Nitberg contributed to this report
Former President Obama declared that if "one side" attempts to cement "a permanent grip on power" through "suppressing votes," "politicizing" the military or weaponizing the judiciary and criminal justice system to target opponents, "a line has been crossed."
His comments came even as many Americans believe that President-elect Trump has been unfairly targeted in unwarranted politically motivated cases.
Obama made the comments during a speech on Thursday during the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum. The speech marked his first public remarks following the 2024 election.
"You see, it's easy to give democracy lip service when it delivers the outcomes we want. It's when we don't get what we want that our commitment to democracy is tested," he said.
‘DEPORTER-IN-CHIEF’ OBAMA SURPASSED DEPORTATIONS UNDER TRUMP'S FIRST TERM
During his first term in office, Trump was acquitted in the Senate after two separate but ultimately unsuccessful impeachment efforts, and in the wake of his White House tenure, he has been slapped with multiple indictments, which many viewed as lawfare against the Republican figure.
While some Republicans have advocated for President Biden to be impeached, the GOP has not done so, even with control of the House chamber.
During the speech, Obama also advocated for "pluralism."
"It means that in a democracy we all have to find a way to live alongside individuals and groups who are different than us," he said.
Obama's remarks came after Biden made a comment earlier this year that many perceived as him referring to Trump supporters as "garbage." In a post on X, Biden distanced himself from the remarks and claimed he was referring to the "hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage" instead.
Democrats have consistently launched invective against Trump — including Biden, who said that the Republican was a "genuine danger to American security" — but it was Trump who was the target of several assassination attempts in the run-up to the 2024 election.
Obama, in his remarks, insisted that he is "convinced that if we want democracy as we understand it to survive," people must work for a renewed dedication to pluralist principles.
"Because the alternative is what we've seen here in the United States and in many democracies around the globe: Not just more gridlock, not just public cynicism, but an increasing willingness" among "politicians and their followers to violate democratic norms, to do anything they can to get their way, to use the power of the state to target critics, and journalists, and political rivals, and to even resort to violence" to obtain and retain power.
OBAMA RELEASES ELECTION DAY VIDEO SAYING ‘THIS IS GOING TO BE CLOSE’
The former president added that bridge building represents the "best tool" to create "lasting change."
"Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya.’ It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough. It is about recognizing that in a democracy power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke but also for the waking," he said.
Obama served two consecutive terms spanning from early 2009 through early 2017, when he was succeeded by Trump.
Erika Goldring/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" book has become the second-best-selling non-fiction title after Barack Obama's presidential memoir.
It's yet another achievement for the singer, whose globe-trotting tour became the first to gross over $1 billion and helped boost the local economy in various locations where she performed.
Swift self-published the book, which was sold exclusively through Target for $39.99 alongside "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" vinyl and CD. Despite only selling through one retailer, the "Eras" book was the biggest book launch of 2024.
It includes over 500 never-before-seen photos giving readers a unique look at the tour and the singer's music. According to Circana BookScan, which tracks publishing sales, the book sold 814,000 copies after hitting shelves over Black Friday weekend.
This places the book only behind Obama's memoir, "A Promised Land" in debut weekly sales, according to the Associated Press. Part one of Obama's memoir sold 816,000 copies in its first week when was published in November 2020.
However, it's worth noting that the memoir was available at other retailers, unlike Swift's book, which was solely sold through Target.
Circana's data also only accounts for the first two days of Swift's book sales as the tracking week ending on Saturday, after the book's launch on Friday.
By self-publishing under her newly-formed imprint "Taylor Swift Publications," the pop billionaire ensures she receives more of the revenue share. This isn't the first time Swift has taken the reigns on the distribution of her "The Eras Tour" content.
In October 2023, Swift released her concert movie, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," through AMC and Cinemark theaters because her team was "disappointed" by the discussions they had with major Hollywood studios.
The success of her self-published book has not been dampened by fans reporting a number of errors in the copy, including typos and printing issues with some of the photographs. Swifties online were quick to dub the new release as "The Errors Tour" book.
Her most recent business triumph comes alongside Swift being named Spotify's global top artist of 2024 by the streaming giant in its annual Spotify Wrapped feature.
According to the service, fans streamed Swift's music 26.6 billion times in 2024, likely because of "The Eras Tour" and the April release of "The Tortured Poets Department."
As many Democrats are voicing discontent with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to carry out mass deportations in his second term, some commentators are pointing out that former President Barack Obama oversaw millions of deportations, even earning the title "deporter-in-chief."
On a Tuesday episode of the "Faulkner Focus," Fox host Sandra Smith said that although Democrats are "promising pushback against Trump’s deportations plans," "we didn’t hear much about this, former President Obama was dubbed ‘deporter-in-chief,’ that’s because he deported some 5.3 million illegals during his two terms."
"That is more than Trump, so why the resistance this time?" Smith asked.
TOM HOMAN RESPONDS TO DENVER MAYOR: ‘HE’S WILLING TO GO TO JAIL, I'M WILLING TO PUT HIM IN JAIL'
Obama oversaw approximately 5,248,413 returns and removals of illegal migrants during his eight years in office, according to data collected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
From 2009 to 2012, Obama’s DHS carried out approximately 3,175,696 returns and removals in his first term alone.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, carried out approximately 1,795,888 returns and removals during his first term, 1 million less than Obama’s first term.
Under President Biden, returns and removals dipped in the first two years but then started climbing back up. DHS data indicates that there were 700,000 returns and removals of illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2024, which is more than any other year since 2010.
This comes after the Biden administration set the record for the highest number of illegal migrants entering the country in a single year in 2023, with 2,475,669 southwest border encounters. So far, there have been over 7 million southwest land border encounters since Biden took office.
1.4 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN US HAVE BEEN ORDERED DEPORTED, BUT YET TO BE REMOVED: OFFICIAL
TRUMP'S ICE NOMINEE DECISION COULD BE IMMINENT AS DEPORTATION PLAN TAKES SPOTLIGHT
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that there were more deportations under Obama because illegal immigration was higher.
"Why were returns and removals higher under Obama? The short answer is because there was a lot more illegal immigration under Obama and also because interior enforcement was very strong in Obama's first term," she said. "The peak of interior enforcement was the last year of Bush and the first year of Obama. And then under Obama, he's making a decision, and you can track this through certain policies that were issued, to reduce interior enforcement."
However, Vaughan also cautioned against reading too much into the DHS returns and removal numbers without understanding the context. She said that in 2012, the Obama administration started counting removals by Border Patrol the same as interior removals by ICE, further blurring the lines on what is considered a deportation.
She said there was a "certain amount of book-cooking that went on under Obama," because he "wanted to be able to tell people that enforcement was very robust, without having it actually be very robust."
"In the past, removals were typically done from the interior and returns were done by Border Patrol. But under Obama, they changed policies, and they started having the Border Patrol do some removals as a way of imposing more consequences on illegal border crossers," she said. "That spikes Obama's removal numbers. Under Bush, a third of removals were border cases and two-thirds were interior. Under Obama, it became two-thirds were border cases and only one-third were interior. So, these numbers are interesting, but they masked some important policy differences between the administrations."
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. Trump and his "border czar," former-acting ICE Director Tom Homan, have vowed to use any means necessary, including declaring a national emergency and using military resources to remove illegal migrants from the country. They have said they will start with those deemed a risk to public safety.
