Trump targets Greenland and Panama as international students are invited back to campus before the inauguration: Live

President Joe Biden spent Christmas Eve signing 50 bills, including a piece of legislation supported by Paris Hilton and another designating the bald eagle as the US national bird.

Gustaf Kilander breaks them down:

A video from hopeful Republican political figure Valentina Gomez shows her firing a gun into the back of the head of a dummy tied to a chair with a black bag over his head.

“It’s so simple, public executions for any illegal who rapes or kills an American. They don’t deserve deportation, they deserve to be terminated,” she says.

The much-derided video has been condemned for glorifying “the type of vigilantism that has led to deadly consequences in our nation and feeds the anti-immigrant lie,” according to the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights group.

“LULAC condemns violent crime in our nation and extends its deepest sympathies to its victims and their loved ones,” the group’s president Roman Palomares said in a statement.

“But we believe in the Christian principles of justice, not retribution. The use of public executions as a hook for a politically motivated message fuels blind hatred. This kind of language is meant to appeal to an extreme base of individuals who believe the lie that all immigrants are here to harm others.”

More on the backlash for Gomez’s latest stunt:

Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the heads of the Trump administration’s incoming Department of Government Efficiency, blamed a series of 1990s TV sitcoms for what he saw as a decline in American dynamism in science and technology, leading to, that tech companies hired more skilled foreign-born and first-generation workers over their mentally lazy American counterparts.

His comments follow broader tensions within the Trump coalition, which include both far-right anti-immigration views and a growing embrace of the tech industry, whose workforce is highly diverse and includes many immigrants and first-generation Americans.

The independent‘s Josh Marcus reports:

Trump’s inauguration fund is expected to raise more than $150 million, breaking the previous inauguration record of $107 million set during the president-elect’s first inauguration.

Trump acolyte and self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer threatens to ask MAGA to “stay home” during the next midterm elections amid an escalating feud with “tech bros” Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign-born workers .

Embattled former New York City mayor and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani will face a contempt hearing Jan. 3 in connection with his court-ordered turnover of his property to a pair of election workers he slandered.

In a series of court hearings on Christmas Eve, Giuliani asked a judge to reject their demands for sanctions.

The latest on Giuliani’s legal troubles:

Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared a variety of messages over the holiday season, ranging from the more traditional photo in front of a Christmas tree to a plea to join her in prayer this Sunday “to end abortion in America.”

Her holiday photo in front of the Christmas tree came hot on the heels of a meme she shared titled “the amount of people eligible for mass deportation.”

More Christmas messages from Trumpworld, per The independent‘s Rhian Lubin:

It is unlikely that Donald Trump will be able to realize his campaign promise that all remaining Bitcoins will be made in the United States, according to observers familiar with the industry.

The independent‘s Josh Marcus explains:

The first-ever federal legislation to criminalize pornographic deepfakes was attached to a broader bipartisan government funding bill with support from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Elon Musk’s X platform was even involved in lobbying efforts to support the legislation, including other measures related to child safety.

It was almost guaranteed to pass Congress.

But Musk’s pressure campaign against the government funding bill prompted Republicans to remove that language from the measure entirely. Efforts to revive the spending bill did not include it.

The race to lead the Democratic Party in the wake of Kamala Harris’ election defeat widened Thursday when author and two-time candidate Marianne Williamson announced she was seeking the role.

The independent‘s John Bowden has more: