Good morning! Today is February 4, 2025, I just had my morning coffee (thank you to the paid subscribers who help fund my coffee addiction), and here is all the news you may have missed from today. Do you like this content?
If so, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today to support my work and for some exclusive perks (including paid-subscriber only lives and articles coming soon)! Click the button below:
Let me know your thoughts on this format! Here is a bullet point list of all the stories I covered today:
China has slapped retaliatory tariffs on the United States, imposing 15% tariffs on several United States exports and launching anti-monopoly investigations into Google, Nvidia, and Intel.
The future of TikTok is in doubt as Donald Trump is now floating the possibility of purchasing TikTok through a new sovereign wealth fund announced.
The President of El Salvador has offered to house United States violent criminals in El Salvadorian prison facilities.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump have kept workers at USAID home for a second day in a row as they look to dismantle USAID and the Department of Education.
Today is a pivotal day for the future of the FBI as employees are nearing a 12 PM deadline to provide the Justice Department with the names and information of all employees who worked on January 6th cases.
One other thing, if you want to see a transcript, just click the transcript button and you should be able to read what I say in the video. Here are the goods that will be impacted by tariffs:
China
Electronics: A large number of electronics, including smartphones, laptops, and televisions will see their prices raised.
Furniture: China currently exports a significant amount furniture and furniture parts to the United States.
Clothing and Textiles: A large portion of the apparel and textile products in the U.S. are imported from China.
Toys: Tariffs will lead to higher prices for toys in America.
See you at 5:30 for my evening news update!
Aaron
WHERE THE F@CK IS OUR CONGRESS?!?! Can no one see the coup that’s taking place?!?! Trump is single handedly dismantling our economy and federal departments ILLEGALLY!! We were NOT KIDDING about project 2025! This is happening!!! We have to wake up!!!!!!
They are back in session today. He did this knowing they were not in session.
And they will be tied up with confirmation hearings.
Have you seen the latest about dismantling the Dept of Education? He’s planning on releasing drafts. Where are the lawsuits?!?!?!
Congress INaction speaks volumes— The US will be unrecognizable as a democracy and that’s what they want — they’ll retain power
You’re not wrong! Trump told everyone that this would be the last election. It would not surprise me one bit if we no longer have the systems that we do today.
Exactly! People were telling me that he never said that!! I insisted that he did all up to and through the election period.
As long as the fascist autocratic plutocracy billionaire oligarchs of the GOP are in charge the Democrats can not do much of anything. The republicans are the ones in charge of the three executive branches. Unfortunately. So, it is up to us to vote all these asshole criminals out in 2026, provided that they don't gerrymander the 2026 election like they did in 2024.
You assume we get to have an election. It has been proven that voting can’t be the only arsenal at our disposal. Very few politicians have any integrity and they have gone at great extent to put their personal interests before ours. Oligarchs have been taken down before and we can do it again. We all just have to get out of comfort zone.
I doubt you will be having elections. Elon will stop paying Democrats wages and stop all money going to Blue States, then they will imprison all Judges, journalists, Politicians, Celebrities, anyone who speaks against the Regime or was involved in tRumps Jan 6 and his prosecutions.
That is 200% true! Tim Walz playbook comment is still playing in my mind, along with Ice Cube!✌️
He is copying Hitler, he will be more like a King and you won't have a President, no future elections will occur.
The sovereign fund is so he won’t need congressional approval for spending. He wants zero guardrails
Also I think the 2025 plan was more than to take over the treasury Butt to invest it in something like bitcoin coin(?)they want to make money off it. Sec of treasury had interviewed before his came to his current position. The risk was also discussed.
…so sovereign wealth fund equals state owned social media. Great.
Yep exactly my thought.
Exactly
Which leads us to state media… not that we’re far from that already.
I would rather see it dissolved they it be run by thieves
Ooh I love the bullet points if we need to read. Thank you Aaron! I hope today is somewhat calm for you!
tRump has handed Elon the reigns.
In their Pinky and The Brain era
Would love to see more content on substack like your updates on insta! Those of us trying to avoid meta would love to see all the small videos too!
YESSSSSS! Left meta and not going back!
President Elon musk and Trump as the patsy and all Congress can do is make press conferences alarming the American people.
You know it!
If the US buys Tiktok, I'm out. Done with this administration and the crumbly government.
I'm trying to find a nice place that has an English speaking segment, warmish climate, and affordable. Without a long plane flight to get there.
Goodness gracious, USA. South Korea reacted swiftly to their coup. When are you going to take action?
Those MAGA folks refuse to admit they were wrong. They know they were duped, but refuse to admit their hero is a fool. Stupidity has no lower limit.
I truly want to believe the MAGA supporters are waking up to the fact they were conned. Do you feel that’s happening? (I’m hoping you’ll give me something to hold on to here.) 🙏🏻
US citizens either don't know about it, are scared to do anything about it, or are trying to not have martial law declared. There are lawsuits against it though
And how long will that take?
Hey--where is the CIA?
have to stop speculating about what may happen and focus on what already has today (i.e. trade war with China vs. Tik Tok...USAID vs. Dept. of Education.
the budget of USAID is roughly 40 Billion, according to the Washington Post. This is less than 1% of the National Budget. It's 1% of the most wealthy taking food off the table of 1% of the most impoverished. Republicans reversing Robin Hood's motto...robbing from the poorest and giving to the richestest
Whose pocket will the 40 billion go into? They’re not “cutting costs “ for us - they’re seeing how much money they can abscond with when they’re ready
I agree focusing on current happenings is important but the those things are done. Then we’re playing catch up, trying to undo what’s been done. The speculated events are usually accurate and gives a heads up on what’s next and hopefully a way to address it before it enacted.
Omg in Sweden? Wtf? That's only supposed to happen in America.
I was shocked to hear about Sweden!! That's supposed to be one of the safest countries. Absolutely heartbreaking news
Seems to be a 35 year old man that walked in to the school and have shot 5 people as we know of right now. The presumed suspect is now in hospital and they are investigating it all.
Holy wow....thats unprecedented for them.
More than 10 killed in a school for adults. This is the latest news from the police.
This is the worst attack in Sweden history.
I’ve come to rely on your morning and evening news rundowns. I try to listen over my morning coffee and I truly appreciate your level tone, which still clearly portrays the seriousness and often terrifying things which are happening. Thank you for continuing to do this work and I hope that with ongoing subscriptions you are able to cover these entire next four years.
Impeach President Musk!
So basically TT is more important to save than our country. makes sense
TikTok needs to be gone after the stunt they pulled on the American people 😡👺They have kissed the ring and drank the kool aide and it’s not the same! They suppress democratic post! All the independents journalists I follow don’t show up on my FY page anymore 😡😡👺👺
I feel like I should delete all of my social media.
Or use it sparingly and with intention to use it only to keep getting information, not to share more than you need to. That's what I'm trying to do. Because we could easily isolate ourselves -- and I'm not sure that's a good idea either. (Uggh, it's all so confusing and frustrating! This did NOT need to happen if... only if... President Harris was in office. 😞)
I’ve heard they are rewriting code at the treasury? What does that mean for us?? What could be the point of rewriting the code?
Coding gives them a sneaky, usually unnoticed back door to build lists or reports on specific trigger words; like the ones given to CDC, reports of Americans who are LGB(TQIA) or anything related to immigration.
After these traitors are gone, they're going to have to do a thorough scrub of ALL federal technology to make sure nothing is left of their code.
Thank you Aaron for your report. Have a calm good day.😊👍
Doesn't China own their social media platform too? Don't we hate China? 🙃 what is going ooooooooonnnnn
Thanks for all you do!
Wow. If this doesn't make people's skin crawl I don't think anything can. From the sovereign fund to hunting down FBI personal to state run social media...... Do you need to make a billboard? Like, what is it going to take to stop Musk & Trump before it's too late? Soon all the tools to save your democratic system will have been dismantled and replaced.
The muskrat is diabolical. He's exacting revenge on all the regulations that were imposed upon him by these U.S. government departments by stripping them away. Also, he's got access to all other companies that may be a competition to him. The orange agent of chaos gave him free reign because he, too, wants to exact revenge on the prosecutors that prosecuted him, rightfully so. And the FBI agents who were part of the investigation. These two are both malignant narcissistic psychopaths sadists who are out to destroy people's lives because they think in their fucked up mind that they've been wronged. It's bad enough that we have to deal with one megalomaniac with dementia but to have to deal with another one who doesn't have dementia is extremely dangerous. The Democrats should form a plan with liberal law abiding justices throughout the country and with pro democracy law enforcement to see what can be done to deal with this musk RAT problem that we currently have. I do hope that if he's arrested. ( at this point I highly doubt it). The orange turd will pardon him. 🤬🤬🤬😤😤😤
Will NOT pardon him. But let's not delude ourselves. These two are in bed together. 🤬🤬🤬
TikTok owned by Trump…that would do it for me.
And isn’t it nice Congress is just sitting and letting all this frap happen?!!
I don't think they care too much about the legality of things,
Y do ur videos always chime at 1 minute?
Good morning and thank you, Aaron.
It’s an interesting way of wording Trumps “ sovereign wealth fund“ as him making headways, how would the government owning TikTok an asset to us? Putting money in a fund with billionaires will never benefit the 99%.
So we on tik tok will at least get to have Doug’s Winter Party on February 15th. Starts at 4 and goes till the police arrive. Bring a smile.
There is NO WAY I and many others would use TikTok if it is owned by US
Senate and House Democrats need to rally against Trump now. They need to do whatever is legally necessary to stop this idiot and his cronies from destroying our country entirely.
Where’s congress? Excuse,excuse, excuse for more inaction on Musk & Trump’s world wide fascist attack on American & democracy.
TikTok owned by our government?? Nah.
Have the MAGAs figured out yet that the China tariffs will increase the prices on their Dear Leader's red hats and T-shirts? We all know they're not Made in America.
We told everybody this would happen, but nobody listened! Sometimes you just wanna sit back and watch the whole thing burn.
I'm thinking more and more lately that it's now up to the people to take back our Country and Rights
@aaronparnas please check this out from AOC...She figured out why Elon is grabbing all the money!!!!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DForuR_R7AA/?igsh=MnJ1a2FtMnh3c2Zx
Aaron, www.aaronparnas.com is taking people to this
He has the sovereign wealth fund buy TikTok = State run propaganda media that they control just like North Korea.
China also has filed a Law suit against tRumps tariffs as they are in breach of the World Trade Organisations policies.
Aaron - please please please take care. You sounds a little under the weather. Viruses and pollen are so strong right now, stay healthy.
Trump is an abusive human. He makes its a point to hold things above us & others who don’t align with him. It’s giving , if you do what I want, I will let you keep….we are living in a nightmare!
If they are a risk to our youth & community I totally support removing violent criminals,regardless of citizenship. Leave everyone else alone & I stand for everyone regardless of their “status” on paper! Trump & Musk should be included as they are both a danger to our present & future! To see the level of support & agency to remove NON VIOLENT ppl from our country is wild. All I can think is where was this energy for the known pedo’s, the ppl who manuf,sell & consume child vids, traffickers, rapists etc. we can find “undoc” ppl & remove them by the 1,000’s again NOT ALL VIOLENT NOR CRIMINALS. I’m not talking about traffic citations! Yet we continue to let out predators on our streets to prey, they have teams investigating the sale of minors via vid or irl & yet they do very lil action! It sickens me that so many are cheering on these mass deportations. Yet barely say a word when it comes the ones who are absolute TRASH bc they are “citizens” in fact I can guarantee Trump & Musk personally know a great deal of them! As we have learned over the years many of the worst predators move in these high class groups. Who else can afford to buy humans? But no one wants that convo! We are so backwards 🥺😔
You are doing great work. GW Law represent!
Please don't use that annoying bell in your audio. It is way too loud.
I m so happy for all farmers who vote for him
Stop the insanity!!!
Hi Aaron! Thank you SO MUCH! For what you do!! Can you share info on the “iron dome defense”?
WHY WOULD THE FBI HAND OVER INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR PEOPLE TO THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO DESTROY THEM???
Thank you for doing this Aaron! 🥰
Where is Congress? And how can Musk get so much power in U.S government?
As if they would take any revenue away from our for profit prisons systems here by sending criminals to El Savador 🤣🤣
TT won’t let me like your latest video
I like the format - for some reason as a paid subscriber - I am not getting notified of any of the updates.
Great reporting, @aaronparnas.bsky.social Reposted!
I hope TikTok is gone forever
TikTok in the sovereign wealth fund will control your news. This is not a good thing! If Trump loves the idea… it’s not good for the American people
Wow! So now immigrants are going to El Salvador’s prisons which are awful! That is not right!!!!!
TikTok is old news I hope it goes away. Something needs to is created not controlled by Maga.
Read the NYT article Don’t Believe Him. We can’t trust everything Trump says. He’s trying to flood the media.
You can't trust ANYTHING tRump says. They actually said that the Mexican cartel control our ( Canadian) lands and that Canada has let dangerous cartel criminals into the US. Such absolute nonsense as an official statement from the Whitehouse to justify tariffs. It's Putin-esq. Say whatever you want the story to be and repeat it because the reality is half the US is already indoctrinated. They don't need everyone to believe them, just enough. They already have Fox and the comatose GOP.
Take the most money you can on your income by changing withholding!
Aaron, go to Aaronparnas.com, it’s a Trump and Vance page
In a way, I think this is a good thing -- they are so aware of and probably afraid of this 25 year old genius that they bought his domain name. It's a bummer for Aaron, but the silver lining is still good?
They're pulling a page out of the one dudes playbook. He's a writer for South Park that takes domains for the worst of the right and creates sites that redirect them, often to charities or sites related to what that person hates. Looks like a copycat that just isn't as good as his. They have zero fresh ideas. 😅
Til Tok = state run media
I feel like we are living in an alternate reality. I wish we had more push back and a validation that the data for the election was manipulated. Musk needs to be deported and 45 incarcerated!
I've gotten off TikTok. It looks like I won't be going back either.
Does anyone else feel like the first “violent criminals” to be exported will be anti-government protesters?
Also, has anyone else noticed that as they’ve been cleansing websites of any DEI language they have silently removed the American flag with a nine star confederate flag??? I didn’t believe it until I checked it out myself.
Congress and Trump keep saying a reason to dismantle the department of education is because states should have the right to decide their own curriculum. Newsflash!! States already are in control of their own curriculum. It’s called “propaganda” to convince us there agenda is best.
Anybody noticed that the retaliatory strikes against Orangina's shock and awe tariffs are aimed at red states? Precision strikes! I voted X and work in the Y industry in Z state! ✌️🤣👏
Human trafficking deportion
Aaron, I so appreciate your dedication to the American people. You need to get some rest sir!
Why hasn’t Musk been arrested? He’s obviously doing illegal work. What? Is this not domestic terrorism? Definitely more serious and impactful the unaliving of the CEO
Aaron...you are doing such an EXCELLENT job, that you've gotten under their skin! GO to aaronparnas.com
Love the transcript! I can copy and paste those easily to inform others Aaron, great job. You have been such a great source of info. Appreciate you. The entire country is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and this is what Trump his merry band of morons are aiming to do... create mass panic, protests and chaos in this country and then enact martial law. My GenZ son was tachycardic last night... could not get his heart rate down. We need to consume this crap in nibbles and be smart about reacting.
Such impeachable BS to release the criminals & then go after law enforcement for going after those same criminals. This is not going to age well. The 🍊🤡 and his racist, sexist cronies will eventually pay for what they are doing. Hopefully eventually some of the red hat wearing uninformed will grow a brain cell and realize he never was going to lower prices. When they lose their healthcare, social security & human rights in general (plus so many other things), they will learn the definition of FAFO.
WITAF?!?
I can't get any of your videos to play continuesly on here!
Love this design Aaron, it’s A LOT easier to read, understand, stay focused and refer back to if needed. It provides great detail without having to restart to get it as a dyslexic guy and 10yr frontal lobe stroke survivor. Thank you.
Trump wants a “sovereign wealth fund” filled with our siphoned off tax money for the billionaires candy jar. Saying he’ll use it for TikTok is a lie.
Them going after officials who worked on the Jan 6 case is dictatorship and reprehensible
45 f’d up!
I am so grateful for you and will support you financially when I can. Thank you.
We all knew it was so Trump could make money from it. It’s all about the Benjamins with him!
Thank you Aaron! Hope you feel better soon!